On December 31, 1881, Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield, wrote a New Year's greeting to his jailer. Charles Julius Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield in the back on July 2, 1881. Guiteau was captured at the Washington, D.C. railway depot, the scene of the assassination. President Garfield died seventy-nine days later. Guiteau's trial was not only a national sensation but, as one of the first insanity pleas, ...