The Ann Arbor dropout who joined a cult and killed a sitting US President
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan — the United States’ high-five to the world — has always been deeply important to American politics.
In the grand scheme of things, there has been a Michigander who has shaped and impacted the presidency more than any other. Even more than the Michigander who literally became a president.
Right out of the gates, I want to warn you that Guiteau’s life — while strange — is actually quite sad. Not sad enough to condone the assassination of President James. A Garfield, but still very sad.
His name is Charles J. Guiteau.
A lot will be left out — Guiteau’s marriage, his parents, the continual string of skipping out on bills at hotels and inns across the country, being committed and escaping an asylum, and other events — and parts will be summarized and lacking detail, but this super-condensed version will still be long.
Guiteau was born in Illinois in 1841. When his grandfather died, he inherited $1,000 and moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan, where he promptly failed the entrance exam.
He enrolled at Ann Arbor High School (since renamed Pioneer High School) to better prepare himself for the U-M entrance exam, but dropped out before graduating.
After leaving Ann Arbor schools, Guiteau joined the Oneida Community, a religious sect in New York that had complex marriages and shared sexual experiences where older women became sexual mentors to young adolescent boys since there was little chance of impregnation between the two.
Despite his five years in the community, he was never involved in the activities and was nicknamed “Charles Git-out.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2025/07/02/the-ann-arbor-dropout-who-joined-a-cult-and-killed-a-sitting-us-president/.
