The Magrath Library of Legal Medicine
The truth and the removal is Charles Guiteau’s autobiographical defense of his assassination of James A. Garfield and an account of his own trial, written while he was in prison and awaiting execution. This is Guiteau’s own copy, and it was recently digitized as part of the Medical Heritage Library project, and can be found here.
Guiteau said, “My book, The truth and the removal … will enable a competent historian to write my life & work accurately. My theological views will probably attract more permanent attention than anything else connected with my life.” Charles Guiteau presented this volume along with some of his manuscript poems to William Watkin Hicks the night before his execution. Hicks recorded, “In doing so, he expressed gratitude to me for kindness shown to him, and begged me to declare to the world that he was sane to the last…. And then smilingly but with moist eyes said, ‘I am sorry to part from you, faithful friend, and wish you were going along’!”
