assassination of James A. Garfield
E391696
The assassination of James A. Garfield was the 1881 shooting of the 20th U.S. president, which led to his death and highlighted serious flaws in medical treatment and the patronage-based political system of the era.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| assassination of James A. Garfield canonical | 2 |
| murder of James A. Garfield | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3808644 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: assassination of James A. Garfield Context triple: [Charles J. Guiteau, perpetratorOf, assassination of James A. Garfield]
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A.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln was the 1865 killing of the 16th U.S. president by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., an event that shocked the nation and profoundly shaped the aftermath of the Civil War.
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B.
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy was the 1963 killing of the 35th U.S. president in Dallas, Texas, an event that shocked the world and has since been the subject of extensive investigation and controversy.
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C.
assassination of Spencer Perceval
The assassination of Spencer Perceval was the 1812 shooting of the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons, the only successful assassination of a UK prime minister in history.
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D.
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was an 1886 labor protest and bombing in Chicago that became a pivotal moment in the history of workers’ rights and the labor movement in the United States.
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E.
Charles J. Guiteau
Charles J. Guiteau was an American lawyer and disgruntled office seeker best known for assassinating U.S. President James A. Garfield in 1881.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: assassination of James A. Garfield Target entity description: The assassination of James A. Garfield was the 1881 shooting of the 20th U.S. president, which led to his death and highlighted serious flaws in medical treatment and the patronage-based political system of the era.
-
A.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln was the 1865 killing of the 16th U.S. president by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., an event that shocked the nation and profoundly shaped the aftermath of the Civil War.
-
B.
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy was the 1963 killing of the 35th U.S. president in Dallas, Texas, an event that shocked the world and has since been the subject of extensive investigation and controversy.
-
C.
assassination of Spencer Perceval
The assassination of Spencer Perceval was the 1812 shooting of the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons, the only successful assassination of a UK prime minister in history.
-
D.
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was an 1886 labor protest and bombing in Chicago that became a pivotal moment in the history of workers’ rights and the labor movement in the United States.
-
E.
Charles J. Guiteau
Charles J. Guiteau was an American lawyer and disgruntled office seeker best known for assassinating U.S. President James A. Garfield in 1881.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
assassination
ⓘ
historical event ⓘ political crime ⓘ |
| assailant | Charles J. Guiteau ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | infection and complications from bullet wounds ⓘ |
| consequence |
increased public support for civil service reform
ⓘ
passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| date | 1881-07-02 ⓘ |
| deathDateOfVictim | 1881-09-19 ⓘ |
| fatalOutcome | death of James A. Garfield ⓘ |
| followedBy |
murder of William McKinley
ⓘ
surface form:
assassination of William McKinley
|
| highlighted |
problems with the patronage-based political system
ⓘ
serious flaws in contemporary medical treatment ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
catalyst for modernization of American civil service
ⓘ
example of 19th-century medical malpractice issues ⓘ |
| legalOutcomeForPerpetrator | trial and conviction of Charles J. Guiteau ⓘ |
| location |
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station
ⓘ
Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive national press coverage in the United States ⓘ |
| medicalResponse |
lack of antiseptic procedures
ⓘ
multiple probing attempts to locate bullet ⓘ |
| method | shooting ⓘ |
| motive |
disgruntled office seeker
ⓘ
patronage dispute ⓘ |
| numberOfShotsFired | 2 ⓘ |
| partOf | history of presidential assassinations in the United States ⓘ |
| perpetrator | Charles J. Guiteau ⓘ |
| perpetratorExecutionDate | 1882-06-30 ⓘ |
| perpetratorExecutionMethod | hanging ⓘ |
| perpetratorSentence | death penalty ⓘ |
| precededBy | assassination of Abraham Lincoln ⓘ |
| presidencyInterrupted | James A. Garfield presidency ⓘ |
| relatedLegislation | Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act ⓘ |
| relatedPoliticalIssue |
civil service reform
ⓘ
spoils system ⓘ |
| successor | Chester A. Arthur ⓘ |
| target | James A. Garfield ⓘ |
| targetOffice | 20th president of the United States ⓘ |
| timeBetweenShootingAndDeath | about 79 days ⓘ |
| victimBirthName |
James A. Garfield
ⓘ
surface form:
James Abram Garfield
|
| victimPoliticalParty | Republican Party ⓘ |
| victimPosition | President of the United States ⓘ |
| victimTermEndDueToAssassination | 1881-09-19 ⓘ |
| victimTermStart | 1881-03-04 ⓘ |
| weapon | .44 caliber British Bulldog revolver ⓘ |
| year | 1881 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: assassination of James A. Garfield Description of subject: The assassination of James A. Garfield was the 1881 shooting of the 20th U.S. president, which led to his death and highlighted serious flaws in medical treatment and the patronage-based political system of the era.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
murder of James A. Garfield
subject surface form:
Charles J. Guiteau