‘Death by Lightning’ Finale Recap: Let Him Have It, Lucretia

When Candice Millard wrote Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President , she came at the story of James Garfield from a fittingly odd angle given his relative obscurity among American presidents. Millard recalls reading a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, who had invented the telephone but dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to developing a metal detector of sorts, called an “induction balance,” for the purpose of locating the bullet lodged in Garfield’s body. Millard writes that while it took her three years to complete the book, “it took only a few days of research to realize what Bell must have known — that President Garfield was not only a tragic figure, but one of the most extraordinary men ever elected President of the United S