3-070-713 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Trial of Guiteau at Washington for the murder of President Garfield, 1881. '1. Guiteau conveyed from Jail to the Court-room. 2. Guiteau in his Cell: Sketch by our Artist, with the Autograph of the Prisoner. 3. Entrance to Criminal Court-room. 4. The Crowd waiting for Guiteau to leave the Court-room. 5. The Prisoner leaving the Court-room...two attempts have been made by excited fanatics to take [the prisoner's] life...The fury of the lower classes of the populace, whenever Guiteau is brought forth, vents itself in yelling and hooting at him, and in threatening gestures, which the police are scarcely able to restrain...[His] behaviour...has been rude and eccentric, and even insubordinate to the Court, as though he sought...to act up to the plea of insanity, upon which alone his legal defence can be founded. He..frequently declares that, in shooting the President, he merely obeyed a Divine inspiration, and claims to be honoured as a patriot and benefactor of his country...but it is generally considered that Guiteau is only feigning to be insane. The act of shooting General Garfield is not denied; but it is pleaded that his death was caused by mismanagement on the part of the surgeons, who at first said that he would recover from the wound'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.