Documentary Review: The Murder of a President: American Experience (James Garfield)

This PBS WGBH documentary tells the story of James Garfield.  This is a look at the life of James Garfield, and more particularly his murder.  Garfield started in poor circumstances.  His father died when he was young.  His mother gave James her life savings and he enrolled in school.  He stayed in school by working for the school, an after a couple years was so bright he was serving as a teacher.   After school he married Lucretia Rudolf.  He served in the Civil War, and in fact while in the war was elected to congress.  He would serve in congress until he was nominated for the presidency.  He had risen in congress, and had been elected to the senate when he was nominated for the presidency.  His nomination  for the presidency by the Republican convention of was not planned.  In fact he was managing the campaign of John Sherman, and gave a speech at the convention in his support.  However he was selected on the 36th ballot as an alternative to the three candidates, Ulyssis S. Grant, Sherman and James G. Blaine.  Both Sherman and Blaine turned their support to Garfield.  Chester A. Arthur was selected as the vice presidential candidate.  He was important as he was from New York and part of the political machine of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling.
In those days the party did the campaigning, and Garfield did not do much campaigning.  He did reach out to Conkling and gained his support.  New York was key to winning the election.  In the general election General Winfield Scott Hancock ran on the Democratic ticket.   The race was close in the popular count, with less than 10,000 votes separated the candidates, however in the electoral college the difference was much greater.  Garfield took key states of New York and Indiana, while Hancock took the South.
In Garfield's early days as president he worked to make appointments.  James G. Blaine was selected for Secretary of State.  On appointment not made was that of a member of Conkling's political machine to the New York Customs House.  This was a very lucrative position at the time, with considerable power due to the government being financed by tariffs.   Conkling would resign from the Senate in protest, but when he wasn't reelected as he thought, much of his power was lost.
Another person who felt he was deserved appointment was Charles J. Guiteau.  He was an individual with had worked on the periphery of the campaign, and had published a speech in favor of Garfield.  However no appointment was coming.  At this point Guiteau felt God told him to kill Garfield, and then another person would become president.  He expected to be a hero.
Knowing that Garfield was to travel by train to visit his ailing wife who was convalescing in New Jersey, he took a gun to the train station and waited.  Garfield was shot twice, in the arm and in the back.  The bullet in his back lodged in his abdomen, and was never removed.  Worries about germs had been studied, but not applied in this case.  Doctor Willard Bliss took control of his treatment.  he would not hear any criticism of his methods.  Garfield improved for a time, but then infection set in.  Even Alexander Graham Bell was called in to locate the bullet with a new metal detector.  Bell detected the bullet was not where presumed, but Bliss would not hear this.  Garfield's wife had returned from New Jersey to be with her husband.  However in the end, they both traveled back to New Jersey, with tracks laid to the door of their home, where the president could die on the sea shore.  He was shot July 2 and passed away September 19, 1881.
Still after the assassination of President Lincoln, Garfield had no  guard.  In  fact not even Garfield felt a guard was needed.
One of Garfield's passions was to assure the rights of the Black population.  He wanted to work to guarantee them the vote, as well as an education.  Arthur would become president, and would stand up to Conkling and not appoint him to the Customs position in New York.

Movie Documentary Review: JFK: The Lost Bullet

JFK: The Lost Bullet, National Geographic, 2013.
This documentary takes a new look at the assassination of John F. Kennedy using the various home movies taken that day, and also talking again with eye witnesses as well as using laser evidence to examine the route of the three shots people heard.  The first shot is the lost bullet. 
They first examine the last two bullets.  Bullet two is often referred to the magic bullet.  Using laser, and getting the car in the exact position of when this shot takes place using the Zapruder film (famous home video of the assassination) they demonstrate that the course was strait through the presidents back, out his neck and then into the Governor's back.  
The issue with bullet three is that the president's head whipped back instead of forward.  There are two conspiracy theories surrounding this shot.   The first, the driver shot him.  Digital enhancement clarifies this.  The driver did turn around and look at the president.  However he has nothing in his hand.  The second, the theory of a shooter on the grassy knoll.  They use other films from a different angle to refute this argument as nothing is seen on the hill.  Also the shot would have been fired form the side, and had to of hit the president in the side of the head, and then possibly hitting Jacklyn Kennedy.  The digital enhancement of the film does show a puff of moisture going forward after the president is struck.  Then his head jerks back in a reverse reaction effect.
Then the lost bullet, or the first bullet.  The contention here is that first, the Zapruder film does not record this bullet; the camera had been turned off for a few seconds to save film.  They say it took  six seconds between the first shot and the other two shots.  This is confirmed by two eye witnesses.  Then when they tried to reenact the scene using the laxer, they discovered a stop light would have obstructed the shot.  Looking back at pictures of the light, there was a mark which could have been the result of the bullet.  The bullet may have ricocheted and been lost in the street.  One woman was injured when she was struck by concrete form the curb. 
This is the conclusion of this film.  This uses high tech lasers to confirm the Warren Report.

Documentary Movie Review: The Hunt for Lincoln's Assassin

"The Hunt for Lincoln's Assassin" is a made-for-TV movie by National Geographic reenacted documentary for the hunt for John Wilkes Booth.  The methods used our interview with historians and authors, including one who wrote the biography of John Wilkes Booth.  It also employs a few pictures, but for the most part it employs historical reenactment with narration.  Booth was not captured until a couple of weeks after the assassination.  He likely would have gotten away, but his ability to travel quickly was hampered by his broken leg which he suffered when he jump from Lincoln's booth to the stage of Ford's theater. They escaped from Washington D.C. into Maryland, before authorities could seal off the city.  Booth's escape then took him to the home of Dr. Mudd, who determined his leg was broken and put it in a splint and also provided crutches.  He traveled with David Herald.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton lead the search for Booth.  He offered 100,000 reward to those helping in his capture.  He also appointed detective Colonel to Lafayette Baker to the lead the pursuit.  Everton Conger lead a party of 25 men who headed the investigation and pursuit. 
This documentary points out the mood of the country as a result of the assassination was one of revenge against southerners.  Many were killed or persecuted in the pursuit, and as well as a result of a general feeling of animosity.
Booth was able to finally make it into Virginia.  This was on their second attempt.  The first attempt the became confused in the fog and ended up landing again in Maryland.
A report in error of Booth and Herald crossing the Potomac, but Conger and his men on the right track.  The report was actually a witness of someone other than Booth crossing the river, but even so, as Booth had in facgt crossed, it put them within three miles of Booth.
Booth and Herald were lead by returning Confederate soldiers to the Garrett farm.   They hid out there for several days, but when federal soldiers went by, and Booth hid in the forest the family determined something as not right.  They insisted they leave, but granted them one for night, insisting the sleep in the tobacco barn.  Conger heard of these soldiers, and was determined to interview on of them, Willie Jett.  Jett was able to guide them to the Garrett farm.  It was in this barn that Conger and his men found Booth.  Booth's traveling companion was allowed to come out and was captured.  Booth refused to leave the barn.  They set fire to his barn, and being able to see Booth in the flames, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot through the cracks between the barn plank, hitting Booth in the neck.  His spinal cord was severed, and he was paralyzed.  The soldiers brought him out of the barn, and he succumbed a couple hours later.  

Biography: Charles J. Guiteau, Presidential Assassin

Charles J. Guiteau is a presidential assassin most Americans do not know much about.  John Wilkes Boothe and Lee Harvey Oswald are names everyone knows, but not Charles Guiteau.  He was always sort of an incompetent man.  The girls didn't really like him, and devised the nick-name for him, Charles Gitout.   After James A Garfield was elected president, Guiteau became convinced in his mind that the president owed him a political appointment and job.  He thought as a foreign ambassador would be nice.  He studied foreign cultures to prepare.  When Garfield ignored his requests, Guiteau had an inspiration.  He felt inspired to remove the president; and he was the person to do it.  He wrote about what he was going to do.  He thought he would be considered a hero.  He put his plan into action.  He entered the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station with a gun concealed in his coat.  The President was expected to arrive any moment.  He went to the restroom, had his shoes shined; and when the president arrived, he put two shots into his back.  President Garfield would not respond to treatment and die two and a half months later. 

Guiteau was tried for his crimes, with the defense of his being insane.  Guiteau said he was only insane in the sense he was doing God’s will, not his own.  He was found guilty and sentenced to hang.  To the end he felt he would be acquitted.  When he wasn’t acquitted he threatened divine retribution.  Maybe he requested this on the other side.