As countless plastic film , record , and conspiracy theories have narrate , the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln came to spectacular ends when the men were come upon by assassins ’ bullets . Lesser - known are the deaths of James A. Garfield and William McKinley , who suffered the same destiny , though both clung to life for day after .
The twentieth president , Garfield ( pictured above ) was shot in the sleeve and the back on July 2 , 1881 in Washington , DC . His attacker was Charles J. Guiteau , ane’er - do - well lawyerwhose genial unstableness manifested in an obsession with Garfield ; allegedly , he yelled “ This is the minute of your doom ! ” as hedrew his side arm . The prexy had only been in office for four months , and he hold on until September 19 , when he died from “ an contagion and internal haemorrhage . ”
It was worse than that simple statement suggests , according to aSmithsonianarticle charting his long , agonizingly unspeakable demise :
The chairperson was take to the White House . Over the next 24 hours , more than 15 doctors stuffed their unwashed fingerbreadth into his enteral injury , trying to site Guiteau ’s bullet and ultimately causing sepsis . They repeatedly injected him with morphine , causing the president to upchuck ; they next tried champagne , which only made him sicker . Joseph Lister , a British surgeon and groundbreaker of antiseptic operating theater , had been preach since Lincoln ’s death for more infertile procedure and environment , but American doctors ridiculed him . “ for successfully do Mr. Lister ’s Antiseptic Method , ” one physician flout in 1878 , “ it is necessary that we should believe , or work as if we believed , the atmosphere to be loaded with germ . ”
As the weeks passed , Garfield ’s body became engorged with pus . His cheek began to tumefy and had to be drained . Initial repast of steak , eggs and brandy were soon supervene upon by eggs , bouillon , milk , whiskey and opium . He lost nearly 100 pounds as his doctor ’s starved him . Doctors tuck drainage tubes and continue to probe for the bullet train ; at one point , they bring inAlexander Graham Bell , who had fabricate a metal sensor and thought he might be able to locate the type slug by elapse it over the President of the United States ’s venter . All was for cipher .
Guiteau was executed in June 1882 , after a trial in which he defended himself and had the impertinence to insist , “ The Dr. shoot down Garfield , I just shot him . ”
McKinley was the twenty-fifth president , and his end came about thanks to anarchist Leon Czolgosz , whoshot him twice in the chestoutside the “ Temple of Music ” at the Pan - American Exhibition in Buffalo , New York , on Sept. 6 , 1901 . Though the president ab initio seemed to be recuperate from his wound , he succumbed on Sept. 12 , unable to whelm the gangrene that had been festering internally . His death inspiredthe conventional assignment of the Secret Service to protect future presidents , pop with his successor , Theodore Roosevelt .
As for the destiny of his assailant ( who just survived the beating he suffered at the hands of the crowd in the aftermath of the shot , untila faintly conscious McKinley intervened),History.comgives this report :
Czolgosz was convicted and carry out in an electrical chair on October 29 , 1901 . The obstinate killer whale ’s last words were “ I killed the president because he was the enemy of the good people — the crop people . ” His burning was allegedly filmed by Thomas Edison .
McKinley blackwash make by T. Dart Walker
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