George E. Goodfellow On July 2, 1881, President James Garfield was shot by assassin Charles J. Guiteau. One bullet was thought later to have possibly lodged near his liver but could not be found. Standard medical practice at the time called for physicians to insert their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe and locate the path of the bullet. Neither the germ theory nor Dr. Joseph Lister's technique for "antisepsis surgery" using dilute carbolic acid, which had been first demonstrated in 1865, much less surgically opening abdominal cavities to repair gunshot wounds, had not yet been accepted as standard practice by prevailing
The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin is a novel written by Brad Meltzer which follows the adventures of archivist Beecher White as he discovers a connection linking the four successful presidential assassins with a modern-day killer who is recreating their crimes. According to WorldCat, the book is in 1887 libraries More than two-dozen would-be assassins have targeted Presidents of the United States. Only four were successful: John Wilkes Booth, Charles J. Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Archivist Beecher White - hero of the #1 New York Times bestseller "The Inner Circle" - uncovers a new assassin in Washington,