Charles Guiteau is one of the more obscure Presidential assassins, but his story is interesting. He deluded himself into thinking he’d been instrumental in Garfield’s election to the Presidency, when all he did was give a few speeches to a few small audiences. Guiteau believed he was owed a prestigious federal job as a reward for his efforts. When no job materialized, he went to DC to petition for one. He was rebuked by the Garfield Administration (rightfully so). Everyone in the Garfield Administration pegged Guiteau as an emotionally unstable and incompetent individual who would fuck up any assignment given. There is some evidence that Guiteau suffered from a personality disorder. Guiteau’s rejection caused him to spiral further into delusions of grandeur, and, convinced of his own greatness and his sense of destiny, drove him to commit a public act of self destruction—he fatally shot Garfield on July 2nd, 1881. Those who delude themselves and think themselves “influential” or believe themselves to be “elites” (without really knowing what goes into being an elite) should learn Guiteau’s story and engage in some self reflection lest they too commit a public act of self destruction.