The Stranger-Than-Fiction True Story Behind Netflix’s New Star-Studded Historical Miniseries
Netflix's Death by Lightning dramatizes the shocking real events surrounding the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield. Well before the concept of a “parasocial relationship” became common in therapy and celebrity culture, Charles Guiteau was already living it — a failed lawyer, aspiring preacher, and self-proclaimed political influencer who believed he was responsible for putting Garfield into office.
When the White House ignored his handwritten letters demanding an ambassadorship to Paris, Guiteau’s admiration turned dangerously extreme. 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 possibly the nation.
If this sounds like the plot of a compelling prestige miniseries about obsession, ego, and an untreated illness, that’s exactly the point. Netflix’s Death by Lightning revives this bizarre story of delusion and democracy gone awry, presenting America’s strangest presidential assassination as a darkly humorous character study.
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, known for Game of Thrones, have partnered with Mike Makowsky of Bad Education to explore how one man’s desperate craving for recognition collided with a deeply flawed political system.
“Guiteau took his fandom to its logical, horrifying extreme,”
“Netflix’s Death by Lightning resurrects this real-life fever dream of delusion and democracy gone off the rails.”
This miniseries reveals not just a historical crime, but a timeless story of obsession, validation, and political decay.
Author’s summary: Netflix’s Death by Lightning uncovers the eerie true story behind President Garfield’s assassination, highlighting one man’s delusional quest for power amid a crumbling political landscape.