Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Death by Lightning’ begins with the discovery of a jar containing a brain. The name on the jar is of Charles Guiteau, leading the man who finds it to wonder who Guiteau was. The story then jumps to the late 1800s, around the time James Garfield unexpectedly rose through the ranks and became the country’s president. The question of the brain doesn’t come back until the final episode, when Charles Guiteau is executed for assassinating Garfield. Interestingly, the detail about his preserved brain is borrowed from real life. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Charles Guiteau’s Brain was Preserved to Understand the Mind of a Criminal
The need to understand a criminal mind has existed for a very long time, and the nature of Charles Guiteau’s actions places him in a category where the desire to get to the root of his behavior was particularly prominent. The question of why he killed President Garfield was a major piece of understanding his puzzling actions, which is why perhaps when the opportunity to study his brain was brought forth, doctors and scientists leapt at the chance. Reportedly, when Guiteau was serving time, he bonded with a local minister who sympathised with him. To ensure that he got a proper burial following his execution, Guiteau willed his body to the minister. To prevent his grave from being robbed, which wasn’t unheard of, especially in the case of notorious figures like him, a sub-cellar in the Army jail was chosen to bury his body secretly.
Several measures were taken to ensure that the grave remained intact. Reportedly, it was “cemented into its resting place, and the stone flags covered it so that it was profoundly hidden.” Still, with suspicious figures lurking about and the constant fear of a guard or some other official digging it up to sell, it was eventually decided to get rid of the temptation. According to reports, his exhumed remains were sent to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland, where they were boiled in a chemical solution, leaving only his skeleton behind. But before this, his brain and his spleen, which were noted to be enlarged, were removed and preserved elsewhere. Parts of his brain are reportedly stored at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. The writer and creator of the Netflix series, Mike Makowsky, revealed that as part of his research, he visited a military base in Maryland, where he had the opportunity to see the brain in person, which required him to obtain special government permission.
At the time, a study of Guiteau’s brain revealed that he may have had syphilis, which is known to have impacted a person’s mental stability. The doctors believed that this could be the reason why he acted as he did, including the senseless murder of President Garfield. Reportedly, “the dura mater that surrounded his brain was thicker than normal; that is sometimes a characteristic of neurosyphilis,” in addition to damaged blood vessels. In a way, this served as a confirmation that Guiteau may have been mentally ill. However, these conceptions have been challenged by modern doctors, who believe that the study’s findings were inconclusive, citing the fact that the knowledge and resources at the time were limited and not up to the mark to give a definitive outcome. It is believed that he may have had schizophrenia, along with grandiose narcissism. However, these conclusions remain largely conjectural, and the mystery of how Guiteau’s brain functioned and what was truly going on in his mind remains unresolved.
Read More: Did Lucretia Garfield Really Meet Charles Guiteau?
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