The Stranger-Than-Fiction True Story Behind Netflix’s New Historical Miniseries
Netflix's Death by Lightning dramatizes the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield, drawing from unsettling real events. Before "parasocial relationships" became common in discussions about celebrity culture, Charles Guiteau—a failed lawyer and self-styled political influencer—believed he was directly responsible for Garfield's election.
When the White House ignored his handwritten demands for a Paris ambassadorship, Guiteau's admiration turned deadly. In the summer of 1881, he confronted Garfield at a Washington, D.C. train station and shot him in the back, convinced he was saving the Republican Party and perhaps the nation.
"He cornered Garfield in a Washington, D.C. train station and shot him in the back, convinced he’d just saved the Republican Party… maybe even the nation."
If this sounds like the plot of a dark, binge-worthy miniseries about obsession and ego, it’s no coincidence. Death by Lightning revives this surreal story of delusion and political chaos, transforming the strangest presidential assassination into a darkly humorous character study.
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, famously behind Game of Thrones, collaborated with Mike Makowsky of Bad Education to depict how one man's desperate quest for recognition clashed with a deeply flawed political system.
"Explor[ing] how a single man’s warped need for validation and a cushy government gig collided with a political system already rotting from within."
Guiteau's story is a powerful reminder of how unchecked ambition and personal grievance can have devastating consequences on democracy.
Author's summary: Netflix’s Death by Lightning reveals how Charles Guiteau’s dangerous obsession and a corrupt political system culminated in one of America’s most bizarre presidential assassinations.
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