When President James A. Garfield was shot at a Washington, D.C., train station in July 1881 — just four months into his presidency — no one could have predicted that his death would take months to unfold, or that it would inspire one of Netflix’s most thrilling historical dramas.
The new four-episode miniseries Death by Lightning, now streaming, stars Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen as his assassin, Charles Guiteau, a failed lawyer who believed God himself had chosen him for greatness. Created by Mike Makowsky and produced by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the series brings to life one of America’s strangest and most tragic political stories — one that mixed delusion, ambition and botched medicine.
Spoiler warning: The following explores real historical events depicted in Death by Lightning.
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In Death by Lightning, the drama begins at the 1880 Republican National Convention, where Garfield — then a congressman from Ohio — delivered a rousing speech meant to support another candidate. Instead, it was so inspiring that delegates nominated him on the 36th ballot.
Once in office, Garfield pushed for civil service reform and worked to clean up the political patronage system. But his presidency was cut short when Guiteau, an unhinged political hanger-on who had been rejected for a government post, shot him on July 2, 1881.
Netflix’s retelling balances sweeping political tension with deeply human performances. Nick Offerman (who gained about 20 pounds for the role) plays Vice President Chester A. Arthur, who suddenly found himself thrust into the presidency when Garfield succumbed to his wounds. The cast also includes Betty Gilpin as Lucretia Garfield, Bradley Whitford as James Blaine, and Shea Whigham as Roscoe Conkling.
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Charles Guiteau’s Delusional Path to Murder
The real Charles J. Guiteau wasn’t a trained assassin. According to Smithsonian Magazine, he was a drifter — once a law clerk, preacher and failed commune member — who saw himself as a divinely chosen political operator. After distributing copies of a rambling pro-Garfield speech he believed had won the election, he began demanding a diplomatic appointment in Europe.
When the administration ignored him, Guiteau’s obsession turned dangerous. Convinced that God commanded him to “remove” Garfield for the good of the nation, he purchased an ivory-handled .44 British Bulldog revolver because he thought it looked “museum-quality," according to UVA's Miller Center. On that July morning, he approached the president at the Baltimore & Potomac train station and fired twice, shouting, “Now Chester Arthur will be president! The Republic is saved!”
Guiteau’s later testimony and writings revealed a chilling blend of religious mania and self-importance. During his trial, he insisted, “The doctors killed Garfield; I just shot him.” He was found guilty and hanged for his crimes on June 30, 1882.
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Though the bullets themselves didn’t kill Garfield, primitive medical care did. His attending physician, Dr. Willard Bliss, repeatedly probed the wound with unsterilized instruments—rejecting new antiseptic techniques already proven effective in Europe.
According to historians and author Candice Millard, whose book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President inspired the Netflix series, the president likely would have survived if not for infection and blood poisoning. He lingered for 80 painful days before dying on September 19, 1881, at just 49 years of age.
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Garfield's Legacy
Haunted by the assassination and the fact that Guiteau invoked his name, President Chester Arthur ultimately championed Garfield’s cause. In 1883, he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which replaced the old “spoils system” — a network where government jobs were handed out as political rewards — with a new merit-based process.
That same system had been what men like Charles Guiteau depended on: he believed that because he’d supported Garfield’s campaign, he was owed a plum diplomatic post. When the new reform movement shut that patronage pipeline down, it left him angry and delusional, and that is why he shot President Garfield.
More than 140 years later, Death by Lightning brings the Garfield assassination back into focus, revealing how a delusional office seeker — and a chain of preventable mistakes — altered American history.
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