Note 1 — Chapter XIII · SHOT DOWN.

The great error, as subsequently developed in the diagnosis of the President’s case, seems clearly to have arisen from the fact, that although the relative position of the assassin and his victim were definitely ascertained and could be precisely marked on the floor of the dépôt, yet the axial position of the President’s body seems never to have been considered! It seems to have been taken for granted that because the wound was in the back, therefore the assassin must have stood behind the President when he fired. So, in one sense, he undoubtedly did, but in another he did not. The murderer’s position was five feet away and rather to the right side of the Chief Magistrate, and Guiteau should therefore be said to have stood at an acute side-angle and a little in the rear of his victim. This being the real position of the President and his assailant, it will readily be seen that the ball, instead of being “deflected,” as has been so many times reiterated, really was very little turned from its course, but plunged straight across the President’s back, going deeper and deeper as it proceeded, until, having fractured the spine in front, it was lodged in the thick tissues to the left of the vertebral column. If the assassin had fired square at the President’s back, and the ball had struck where it did strike, the President would have been a dead man from the start. The axial position of the body was manifestly overlooked in making the diagnosis.