When two privileged boys from a wealthy Chicago suburb confessed to a brutal murder, the story made national headlines. Explore photos of the investigation and trial.
President James Garfield was only four months into his presidency when he was shot by Charles Guiteau, who claimed that God had instructed him to kill the president.
The U.S. President has not always had a protective detail. Only after the murder of President McKinley in 1901 did Congress assign the task of presidental protection to the Secret Service.
In 1880, James Garfield traveled to Republican party headquarters in New York, a trip which culminated in an address to 50,000 people gathered in Madison Square Park.
When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, it was seen as an anomly. As such, there were no new safeguards put in place to protect the president from would-be assassins.
