[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Ah, the Garfield Assassination is also fascinating.

He was the only other President to die before his 50th birthday. He was 49.
Garfield, like Kennedy was shot twice; once grazed in the shoulder, and once in the back, where the bullet lodged and eventually killed him from infection.

Unlike Kennedy, Garfield lingered for 80 days before dying. Modern medicine could have easily saved him. Medicine in 1881 could not.

Robert Todd Linclon, Abe Lincoln's son, was standing next to Garfield when he was shot.

The man who shot Garfield, Charles Guiteau, was a Republican extremist, and wanted Chester Arthur, the VP at the time, to be President.

Garfield was only president for four months when he was shot. JFK had been President for almost three years.

Medical malpractice had a lot to do with Garfield's eventual lapse and death from infection. He body was full of pus from the original wound, and from the doctors unsuccessfully trying to dig out the bullet. Still, the attending doctors sent the Senate a bill for $85,000 for their services after Garfield died. The Senate paid them $10,000.

Guiteau was a nutcase who insisted Garfield should have appointed him to be the ambassador to France among other things.