Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia formed DC Board of Commissioners, established by Congress to govern the entire District. That year as well, Thomas P. Morgan was named to replace Richards, who had resigned, as Major and Superintendent. Although a police fund had been established during the MPD's first year to assist those officers injured in the line of duty, Morgan would add to this by establishing a retirement fund for older officers who could no longer perform their duties. On July 2, 1881, the MPD took part in investigating the assassination of President James A. Garfield. The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, approached Garfield at the
Edward Charles Spitzka Hospital. He was a professor of nervous and mental diseases and of medical jurisprudence at the New York Post-Graduate Medical College from 1882 to 1887. In 1890, Spitzka served as President of the American Neurological Society. In 1883/1884, he served as President of the New York Neurological Society. Spitzka was the attending physician at the execution of William Kemmler in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890, the first execution using the new electric chair. In 1881, Spitzka was an expert witness at the trial of Charles J. Guiteau, who was accused of the assassination of United States President