Charles Guiteau: The Man Who Killed President James Garfield

Charles Guiteau is the man who killed President James Garfield. Many believe that this man had to have some type of mental disorder, though we cannot be sure if he did or did not have a mental disorder and if so, what it was we can infer from our known knowledge about mental disorders that Charles Guiteau may have been suffering from. After watching the video over at Guiteau I personally think that Guiteau was schizophrenic. One of the biggest reasons why I think Guiteau has schizophrenia is because of his auditory hallucinations. Many people who have schizophrenia are known to have voices talking to them telling them to kill themselves or other people, or to do other things they aren’t comfortable with. In Charles' case, he said that God told him to murder President Garfield. He said he heard voices telling him to do so and that

Charles felt like he was a messenger from God. He was the one to “Save his Party” from Garfield. He also said he never had any hard feelings for Garfield, he was just doing what he was told. Which shows this wasn’t a hate crime, but more he was mentally unstable and listened to the voices telling him to do what he shouldn’t. Another reason that I think Charles was schizophrenic is because many schizophrenic people have a really hard time building relationships and are very isolated. Charles Guiteau was known as an outsider and stayed with himself a lot. He wasn’t good at building relationships and had a history of failed relationships. He also was known to have difficulty maintaining stable employment, which also lines up with people who have schizophrenia. Knowing that Charles was very bad at building and keeping relationships and also very bad at keeping a steady job gives more reason as to why I believe he is schizophrenic. Another symptom that Guiteau displays is disorganized behavior. Schizophrenia can lead to disorganized thinking and