The dude was crazier than an outhouse rat. (I cleaned that up a bit.) He was probably the only presidential assassin who was legitimately 100% bat-fecal matter nuts. He should have been sent to an asylum. In any event, as he noted in one of his lucid moments; “I only shot him (Garfield). His doctors killed him.”
I don’t appreciate the flippancy of the headline. You’re right: he wasn’t “colorful;” he was instance. My eyes welled up a couple times reading Destiny of the Republic. There’s no telling how grievous the damage to our country the loss of this great and good man was. And he certainly didn’t deserve to die like a miserable dog at the hands of his incompetent treating physician. That guy should have been charged with manslaughter