Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2025

Key takeaways:

The new Netflix series Death by Lightning reveals that Alexander Graham Bell invented an early metal detector to try and save the life of President James A. Garfield.

When Garfield was shot, doctors tried to find the bullet lodged in him, but their own missteps may have ultimately killed the president.

The arrogance of the publicity-hungry doctor attending Garfield, as well as a metal box spring, ultimately foiled Bell’s attempts to save the president’s life.

When President James A. Garfield was shot by deranged office seeker Charles Guiteau in 1881, he didn’t have to die. One of the world’s most famous inventors, Alexander Graham Bell , built a device that could have saved the 20th president—but hubris and human error got in the wa

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