Netflix’s Death by Lightning is a thrilling look into the events leading up to the assassination of President James Garfield (Michael Shannon) by Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen). The series is based on Candice Millard’s 2011 nonfiction book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.
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But how much of what takes place in the series actually happened?
Below, we’ve broken down Death by Lightning‘s most shocking moments and whether or not they’re based in historical fact. From brains in jars to chilling executions, here’s what Death by Lightning gets right about Garfield and Guiteau’s stories (and what’s been dramatized).
Is Charles Guiteau’s brain really in storage?
Matthew Macfadyen in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
Death by Lightning begins with the wild revelation that in 1969, almost a century after Garfield’s death, Guiteau’s brain was in storage at the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. In the show’s final episode, we learn why. During Guiteau’s autopsy, doctors studied his brain in the hopes of finding physiological proof of his mental illness. However, aside from the abnormally thick dura mater membrane around his brain, the doctors found nothing unusual.
Since then, chunks of Guiteau’s brain have found new homes, winding up in the collection of the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Doctors also preserved Guiteau’s enlarged spleen.
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Ironically, while Guiteau’s brain did make it to a museum, the ivory-handled revolver he assassinated Garfield with — chosen specifically for its “museum quality,” as the show’s Guiteau says — isn’t on display anywhere. Once in the Smithsonian collection, it has since been lost.
Was Charles Guiteau part of the Oneida Community?
Matthew Macfadyen in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
He was. Guiteau joined the Oneida Community, a religious sect built on ideas of utopia and free love, in 1860. But he was familiar with Oneida well before that, as his father was close with Oneida founder John Humphrey Noyes. (And yes, this commune is the same Oneida as Oneida Silverware.)
As seen in Death by Lightning, Charles Guiteau didn’t actually get any free love. The women of the community even nicknamed him “Charles Gitout.” Guiteau left Oneida in 1865, because he believed he was “destined to accomplish some very important mission.” At the time, one can only imagine he didn’t mean shooting a future president.
Did Charles Guiteau actually meet James Garfield?
Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
He did. As with the rest of the show, Death by Lightning‘s big meeting between Garfield and Guiteau is highly dramatized, but it’s linked to true historical event. In real life, as in Death by Lightning, Guiteau consistently stopped by the White House in the hopes of gaining some office in Garfield’s administration. He originally wrote to Garfield about becoming a minister to Austria, but later changed his mind in favor of the Paris consulship.
It was during one of these visits that Guiteau met Garfield and pleaded his case for the consulship. Millard describes Guiteau giving Garfield a copy of the stump speech he had delivered during Garfield’s campaign. On it, he wrote “Paris consulship” and connected those words to his own name, just to make sure Garfield got the message.
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Guiteau also encountered Vice President Chester A. Arthur (Nick Offerman) often during his time in New York. While Millard makes no mention of Arthur shoving Guiteau to the ground in Chicago, or of Guiteau meeting Arthur on a drunken night out, she does write that Guiteau would find Arthur at campaign headquarters, out on the street, or even at his house. Arthur never let him inside, but he did let him give one stump speech to a very, very small crowd in New York.
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Did Alexander Graham Bell try to help James Garfield after he was shot?
Michael Shannon in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
Yes! Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s appearance in Death by Lightning‘s final episode isn’t a random historical cameo. It’s fully rooted in fact.
According to the National Park Service, when Bell read news of Doctor Willard Bliss’ (yes, his first name was actually Doctor) attempts to find the bullet within Garfield’s body — attempts that would lead to the infection that eventually killed Garfield — he realized he might be able to help. He could repurpose earlier induction balance work on his telephone into a metal detector.
Bell tested his device on wooden boards and animal carcasses with bullets in them, then on Civil War veterans who still had bullets in their body. When he brought the invention to the White House, Bliss was adamant that Bell only search the right side of Garfield’s chest, where he believed the bullet to be lodged. However, the bullet was actually on the left side of Garfield’s chest. Perhaps Bell would have been able to find it had he not been dealing with Bliss’ incompetence.
How did James Garfield die?
Michael Shannon in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
Like Death by Lightning says in its final episode, Garfield ultimately died of infection and not from his bullet wound. 79 days passed between the shooting and his death, during which doctors probed his back with unwashed hands and unsterilized instruments.
Chiefest of the physicians involved was Bliss. Bliss was aware of British surgeon Joseph Lister’s practice of antisepsis, but he paid no mind to it. In the series, Charles Purvis, surgeon in chief of the Freedmen’s Hospital and the first Black physician to treat a living president, reminds Bliss of Lister’s theories, only to be waved off. Something similar occurred in real life, when Purvis asked Bliss to stop his invasive examinations.
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Ironically, Bliss had once been supportive of Black physicians. The District of Columbia Medical Society expelled him from their ranks after he took a stand against their policy to ban Black doctors, as well as became interested in homeopathy. Garfield lauded him for his efforts. However, six years later, Bliss caved to the Society and apologized in order to return to its ranks.
Did Lucretia Garfield stop the publication of Charles Guiteau’s book?
Betty Gilpin in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
One of the standout scenes from Death by Lightning‘s finale comes when Lucretia “Crete” Garfield (Betty Gilpin) visits Guiteau in jail. In a searing monologue (everybody say, “Thank you, Betty Gilpin!”) she tells Guiteau that he will be a footnote in history, and nowhere near the great leader he thinks he will be. She also promises to block the publication of his book, The Truth.
As great as the scene is, there’s no evidence this happened in real life. Guiteau and Crete did cross paths briefly, though, as Destiny of the Republic mentions that Guiteau approached Crete at a public White House reception and gave her his card. The show moves a version of this meeting to Garfield’s inaugural ball. However, the hampered publication of The Truth does actually have some truth to it.
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As Millard writes in Destiny of the Republic, Guiteau stole most of his ideas for The Truth from Oneida founder Noyes’ 1847 book, The Berean. He tried to get the book published by Boston publishers D. Lothrop & Co. When they refused, Guiteau made 1,000 copies through a printing company, even adding “D. Lothrop & Co.” to the binding to feign legitimacy. The book didn’t sell, and Guiteau never paid the printer.
Did Charles Guiteau stub his toe on the gallows?
Matthew Macfadyen in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
Indeed he did. Guiteau tripped on his way up to the gallows, at which point he told Washington-based minister Reverend Hicks, “I stubbed my toe going to the gallows.”
Death by Lightning follows that piece of history beat for beat, but that’s not all it got right about Guiteau’s final moments.
Did Charles Guiteau sing at his execution?
Matthew Macfadyen in “Death by Lightning.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / Netflix
Death by Lightning‘s execution sequence culminates in Guiteau’s last words, a reading of a poem he penned that very morning titled “Simplicity,” or “I Am Going to the Lordy.”
Millard writes that Guiteau recited his poem in “a falsetto meant to evoke the pleadings of a child.” Death by Lightning carries that sense to the screen, where Macfadyen delivers a singsong rendition of some of “Simplicity.” (The original version is much longer.) Guiteau wanted an orchestra to accompany his last words, but his request was denied.
However, “I Am Going to the Lordy” does live on in musical history as part of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. The song “The Ballad of Guiteau” heavily features Guiteau’s poem. Looks like he got his orchestra after all.
Death by Lightning is now streaming on Netflix.