Charles Guiteau (song)

"Charles Guiteau"
"Charles Guiteau"
Song
Written	Unknown
Songwriter(s)	Inez Ella Conner

"Charles Guiteau" (LAWS E11) Roud 444 is a traditional song about the assassination of US President James A. Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau. It is based on another old ballad, "James A. Rogers". The song is told from the point of view of the assassin himself.

For a while, it was believed that Guiteau wrote the song himself, possibly because of the poem "I am Going to the Lordy", which Guiteau actually did write on the day of his execution.

It is not to be confused with another ballad about the assassination, "Mr. Garfield," which was popularized by Johnny Cash. Bascom Lamar Lunsford recorded both songs in 1949 for the Library of Congress. There exists a handwritten document of a folk song "Charles Guiteau's Life" with Inez Conner listed as the author. The page has four stanzas, it is noted on the paper as a gift to "Mr. Charley Grant, Mt. Claire, Nuckolls county, Nebraska. August 2, 1890."

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