What do you know about Bill Jones, the man who shot Charles Guiteau in 1881 after he'd shot Pres. Garfield?

During Guiteau's imprisonment, he was the subject of two assassination attempts. Bill Jones, usually described as "a drunken farmer," took a shot at Guiteau from horseback while Guiteau was being transported in a prison wagon with barred openings. Jones's shot actually went through Guiteau's coat, but did not strike his body. Jones apparently believed he had killed Guiteau and fled Washington for nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he was taken into custody. I don't know the disposition of his case.

Garfield, like all murdered presidents, was lionized after he was shot, and the public was thirsty for Guiiteau's blood. This was particularly true because Guiteau kept a high profile after his arrest, shouting and cursing in court, writing letters and articles, and generally acting the egomaniac that he was.

Jones pretty much faded into obscurity after his one brush with fame, but for a short time he was well-known and styled as "Bill Jones, the Avenger." He apparently was in the news again in October, 1908, when he shot and killed a Detroit man in the suburbs of Washington. I have no knowledge of the outcome of criminal charges (if any) in that incident, either.

" William Jones and Catharine Bates Jones, who owned Bates Farm in NE DC. She was almost twice his age and in her will (which I have) she left money to William D. Jones, whom she said she adopted and even gave him her last name of Jones . Her maiden name was Bates. Her husband, Bill "The Avenger" gained notoriety for attempting to assassinate the killer of President Garfield in downtown DC. I have the article from the POST and the New York Times. He was always known as "The Avenger" from that incident. He actually did kill someone (also in the newspaper) for trying to steal his horse on their farm. He was pretty much a loser and alcoholic. Catharine, many times, filed for divorce from him, but never pulled thru with it.....she bailed him out of jail on numerous occasions. I have a newspaper photo of him. Oh, and Bates Road is still a road in NE DC near Fort Totten. She was the wealthy one and he was a gigolo sort of guy. When she was 72, he was 48." - Information from my husband's second cousin. Research done by a genealogist that she hired.

Wow - what a fun question. I never heard the assassin's name. So they had NRA morons even before the NRA!

I know Garfield tried to expand Presidential authority and (Horrors!) appointed some Black guys to government posts. So he earned the hatred of the TeaBaggs of long ago.

So perhaps Bill Jones was one of those fat, Nazi TeaBaggs with a picture of Garfield with a Hitler mustache.

If "Bill Jones, the man who shot Charles Guiteau" existed, history has completely erased him.