‘Most horrific death you could imagine’: the truth behind Netflix’s Death By Lightning

<p>The streamer’s new historical drama looks back on the often forgotten story of US president James Garfield whose progressive political career was cut horribly short</p><p>The descendants of James Garfield, the 20th US president, were proud of his life but rarely spoke of his death. <em>“</em>We knew what had happened, that he was shot in a train station,” says <a href="https://societyofpresidentialdescendants.org/board-of-trustees/james-garfield-iii/">James Garfield III</a>, his great-great-great grandson. “We read about the story in books but, in one way or another, we just glanced over it.”</p><p>That changed in 2011 with the publication of Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, a book by Candice Millard that revived interest in Garfield’s unfinished life. Her work has now inspired a Netflix drama, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jopqrSojQE">Death By Lightning</a>, starring Michael Shannon as the president and Matthew Macfadyen as the drifter who gunned him down.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/10/james-garfield-netflix-death-by-lighting">Continue reading...</a>