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-Czolgosz was born in Alpena, Michigan in 1873 and he was one of eight children of Paul Czolgosz and his wife Mary Nowak. They were Polish immigrants.
-Czolgosz's ancestors probably came from what is now Belarus. His father may have migrated to the U.S. in the 1860s from Astravyets near Vilnius. When he arrived in the United States, he gave his ethnicity as Hungarian and changed the spelling of his surname from Zholhus to Czolgosz.
-The Czolgosz family moved to Detroit when Leon was five. At the age of ten, he left his family's farm in Warrensville Township, Ohio, to work at the American Steel and Wire Company with two of his older brothers. When the workers of his factory went on strike, Leon and his brothers were fired and returned to the family farm. When he was sixteen, he went to work in a glass factory in Natrona, Pennsylvania, returning home two years later.
Trial and Execution
-In 1898, Czolgosz again returned home where he was constantly at odds with his stepmother and with his family's Roman Catholic beliefs. It was later recounted that throughout his life he had never shown any interest in friendship or romantic relationships, and was bullied during his childhood by peers.
- He became a recluse and spent much of his time alone reading socialist and anarchist newspapers. He was impressed after hearing a speech by the political radical Emma Goldman, whom he met for the first time during one of her lectures in Cleveland in 1901. -She later wrote a piece in defense of Czolgosz.
-Czolgosz believed there was a great injustice in American society, an inequality which allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. He concluded that the reason for this was the structure of government itself.
-Then he learned of a European crime which changed his life: On July 29, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy was shot dead by anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci told the press that he had decided to take matters into his own hands for the sake of the common man.
-Guiteau used .442 Webley caliber British Bulldog revolver with wooden grips or one with ivory grips. He bought a good gun so after he shot Garfield the gun would look nice in a museum.
- The store owner let him buy the gun for $15 dollars even though it cost $16.
- He then spent the next couple weeks at target practice due to his little knowledge and inexperience with guns. Also, he spent his time studying and stalking Garfield.
-On August 31, 1901, Czolgosz traveled to Buffalo, New York, the site of the Pan-American Exposition, where he rented a room at Nowak's Hotel on 1078 Broadway.
-On September 6, he went to the Exposition armed with a .32 caliber Iver Johnson "Safety Automatic" revolver he had purchased four days earlier for $4.50.
- Czolgosz approached McKinley's procession, the President had been standing in a receiving line inside of the Temple of Music, greeting the public for ten minutes. At 4:07 pm Czolgosz reached the front of the line. McKinley extended his hand. Czolgosz slapped it aside and shot the President in the abdomen twice at point blank range. The first bullet ricocheted and lodged in McKinley's jacket; the other seriously wounded him. McKinley died eight days later of an infection.
-Members of the crowd immediately attacked Czolgosz, as McKinley slumped backward. The President said, "Go easy on him boys. He could not have known." The crowd chained him before the 4th Brigade, National Guard Signal Corps and then the police intervened.
-He attempted to kill Garfield earlier before getting on a train to Long Branch, NJ, for vacation. Although, since his wife Lucrieta was there and she was very ill, he held back.
- On July 2, 1881, he shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station.
-He got his shoes shined, paced, and even told a cab to be ready to take him to jail later.
- Garfield arrived heading towards Long Beach again and Guiteau shot him twice in the back.
-The second shot pierced the first lumbar vertebra, but missed the spinal cord.
- Guiteau's famous last words were: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. .. Arthur is president now".
-Garfield died on September 19, eleven weeks after getting shot due to infection from unsterile medical care, blood poisoning, and bone fragmentation.
-He was born in Freeport, Illinois. The home of the second Lincoln Douglas debate of 185.8
-He is the fourth of six children. His parents are Jane August and Luther Wilson Guiteau.
-He went to Harlem to get into New York University after inheriting $1,000 from his grandfather, but failed the entrance exam. He later attended Ann Arbor High, but dropped out in June 1860.
-He joined the Utopian Religion, a religion striving to be perfect, in Oneida, New York. He was rejected after five years there so he left.
-Guiteau failed at making "The Daily Theocrat" newspaper on Utopian, but failed in Hoboken, NJ.
-He returned to Oneida, and sued John Humphrey Noyes (leader of the community). His father was embarrassed so he told everyone he was insane.
-Guiteau obtained a law license in Chicago, but he was once again a failure.
- He published a book on theology called The Truth which was almost entirely plagiarized from the work of John Humphrey Noyes.
- In December 1877, he gave a lecture at the Congregational Church in Washington.
-On June 11, 1880, Guiteau was a passenger on the SS Stonington when it collided with the SS Narragansett at night in heavy fog. The Narragansett burned to the waterline and sank, with many deaths. The incident left Guiteau believing that he had been spared for a higher purpose.
-He wrote a speech in support of Ulysses S. Grant called "Grant vs. Hancock," which he revised to "Garfield vs. Hancock" after Garfield won the Republican nomination in the 1880 presidential campaign. The speech was delivered twice, but Guiteau believed himself to be largely responsible for Garfield's victory. He insisted he should be awarded an Ambassadorship for his vital assistance, first asking for Vienna, then deciding that he would rather be posted in Paris. His personal requests to Garfield and to cabinet members were continually rejected; on May 14, 1881, he was finally told personally never to return by Secretary of State James G. Blaine.
-He was formally indicted on October 14, 1881, for the charge of murder, which was previously attempted murder after his arrest. Guiteau pleaded not guilty to the charge. The trial began on November 14, 1881, in Washington, D.C. The presiding judge in the case was Walter Smith Cox.
-He was found guilty on January 25, 1882.
- After the verdict was read, Guiteau yelled at the jury "You are all low, consummate jackasses!"
- Guiteau appealed his conviction, but his appeal was rejected, and he was hung on June 30, 1882, in the District of Columbia, just two days before the first anniversary of the shooting.
- Of the four presidential assassins, Guiteau lived longer than any after his victim's death (nine months). While being led to his execution, Guiteau was said to have continued to smile and wave at spectators and reporters, happy to be at the center of attention to the very end. He notoriously danced his way to the gallows and on the scaffold as a last request, he recited a poem he had written during his incarceration which he called I am Going to the Lordy.
-On September 13, the day before McKinley succumbed to his wounds, Czolgosz was transferred from the police headquarters, since the headquarters were undergoing repairs, to the Erie County Women's Penitentiary. On September 16, he was taken to the Erie County Jail where he was arraigned before County Judge Emery. After the arraignment, he was transferred to Auburn State Prison.
-A grand jury indicted Czolgosz on September 16, with one count of first-degree murder. Throughout his incarceration, Czolgosz spoke freely with his guards, but refused every interaction with Robert C. Titus and Loran L. Lewis, the prominent judges-turned-attorneys assigned to defend him, and with the expert psychiatrist sent to test his sanity.
-A prison guard later came forward claiming that Czolgosz confided in him that because he claimed himself to be an anarchist, he would not talk with any people he viewed as related to authority which included his lawyers or any presiding trial judge.
-Czolgosz was convicted on September 24, 1901, after the jury deliberated for only one hour. On September 26, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Czolgosz was said to have continued to remain silent and had shown no emotion upon both his conviction and death sentence. When he was asked by Judge White if he wanted to make any open court statement, Czolgosz shook his head meaning ‘no'. Upon returning to Auburn Prison, Czolgosz asked the warden if this meant he would be transferred to Sing Sing to be electrocuted, and he seemed surprised to learn that Auburn had its own electric chair.
-Czolgosz was electrocuted by three jolts, each of 1800 volts, in Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901, just forty-five days after his victim's death.
His last words were: "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime." As the prison guards strapped him into the chair, however, he did say through clenched teeth, "I am only sorry I could not get to see my father."