The Ballad of Guiteau

Spectacle and swagger on the scaffold

On June 30, 1882, Charles J. Guiteau danced his way to the gallows.

This is no metaphor: Guiteau literally danced, reciting verses as he went, turning his own execution into a performance. The condemned man had insisted his shoes be polished, meticulously arranged his hair, and spent his final hours perfecting his death poem, which he had hoped—in vain—w…