Death By Lightning has finally dropped on Netflix but how did assassin Charles Guiteau’s story end?
Hayley Anderson TV Reporter
08:30, 06 Nov 2025
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Death By Lightning.
Death By Lightning has arrived on Netflix, chronicling the extraordinary true events surrounding assassin Charles Guiteau’s fate.
The 1881-set drama explores the remarkable trajectory of James Garfield (portrayed by Michael Shannon), who served as America’s 20th President.
Merely half a year into Garfield’s tenure, unsuccessful solicitor and presidential obsessive Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) discharged two bullets at Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, DC.
As a result, President James Garfield succumbed to his injuries two months afterwards, plunging the nation into grief.
Guiteau maintained it was a “political necessity”, insisting that God had commanded him to assassinate the President for America’s benefit.
Death By Lightning’s James Garfield is played by actor Michael Shannon.(Image: NETFLIX)
What happened to Charles Guiteau?
Guiteau’s trial proceeded with him entering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, asserting that God had instructed him to “remove” Garfield.
However, in January 1882, he was eventually convicted and given a death sentence, which he tried to challenge on multiple occasions.
Guiteau met his end by hanging on June 30, 1882, though before his execution, the killer performed a poem he had composed that very morning titled I Am Going to the Lordy.
Prior to his performance, he announced: “I am now going to read some verses which are intended to indicate my feelings at the moment of leaving this world.
Charles Guiteau was a “great admirer” of President James Garfield before shooting him twice.(Image: NETFLIX)
“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 about 10am.”
He asked to be accompanied by a full orchestra, which was refused.
After his execution, doctors carried out a post-mortem examination on Guiteau’s body, removing his brain to search for evidence of mental illness, though the findings proved inconclusive.
Consequently, Guiteau’s brain was “remanded to storage and promptly forgotten”, according to Netflix.
Death By Lightning is available to stream on Netflix.
