Somehow this is both sad and hilarious.

Charles Giteau

I found some records on the trial of the assassin of President James Garfield. The assassin's name was Charles Giteau and his lawyers tried to get him off on the insanity defense but to no avail. This was the 1880's and poor hygiene is what probably killed Garfield in the end after months of being bed ridden. But I must tell you this Giteau character was off his nut. He actually thought God made him kill Garfield. He was "in the employ of Jesus Christ and Co" as he put it, as "the agent of the Deity". He was part of a millenial sect The Oneida Community which believed that Jesus had returned in the year 70 AD with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Therefore, sin was abolished and men could be morally perfect. Thereby all ties such as marriage were disavowed and the community had "Complex marriage" as it were. However, Giteau was a petty lawyer and scam artist who couldn't fit in with the community and was denied any "favors" from the women. He went on to ask for a consulship from the newly elected cabinet. And when his letters were unanswered he suddenly got "inspired" to remove the president. And he was all ready to go on a lecture tour and then run for president himself when the verdict was handed out. Death by hanging, doh!


Here are the last words of Charles Giteau the assassin of James Garfield from the scaffold:
I am now going to read some verses which are intended to indicate my feelings at the moment of leaving this world. If set to music they may be rendered very effective. The idea is that of a child babbling to his mamma and his papa. I wrote it this morning at about ten o'clock:

I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lordy.
I love the Lordy with all my soul,
Glory hallelujah!
And that is the reason I am going to the Lord,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lord.
I saved my party and my land.
Glory hallelujah!
But they have murdered me for it,
And that is the reason I am going to the Lordy,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lordy!
I wonder what I will do when I get to the Lordy,
I guess that I will weep no more
When I get to the Lordy!
Glory hallelujah!
I wonder what I will see when I get to the Lordy,
I expect to see most glorious things,
Beyond all earthly conception,
When I am with the Lordy!
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am with the Lord.