Throughout history there have been many failed assassination attempts. In this country we tend to think of failed U.S. presidential assassination attempts first so I thought I would discuss those. One of my favorite stories is of a man named Richard Lawrence who probably wished he never would’ve tried to kill Andrew Jackson. Lawrence had two flintlock pistols, aimed them at Andrew Jackson and they both misfired. Jackson was not a man to take this lightly and severely beat Lawrence with his cane. After the trial Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity and died in a mental institution. There is no doubt about it, Andrew Jackson was one tough guy.

William Howard Taft had heard rumors there was going to be an attempt on his life during a planned Summit with the Mexican President. This was going to be the first time an American president crossed over the border into Mexico. Apparently Taft took the threat of assassination very seriously. The meeting was really one of money, because the Mexican President was running to be reelected and capitalists in the United States had invested billions of dollars in Mexico and they wanted it protected. Taft brought the Texas Rangers, US troops, US Secret Service agents, FBI agents and even two hundred and fifty private security guards led by the famous scout Frederick Russell Burnham. This sounds like a man who wasn’t taking chances. During the meeting Burnham and a Texas Ranger discovered a man hiding a gun in the crowd very near Taft and arrested him.

Teddy Roosevelt was nearly assassinated on October 14, 1912. Roosevelt was running for president three and a half years after he left office. In his pocket was his fifty page speech which he had folded in half along with a metal case to hold his glasses. The would-be assassin had been stalking Roosevelt for weeks. His name was John F. Schrank. Schrank was a saloon keeper from New York. He waited his chance, pulled out his thirty-eight caliber Colt revolver and shot Roosevelt in the chest. The speech and the eyeglass case slowed the bullet down considerably as it hit them. Roosevelt checked his wound and realized he was not mortally wounded, so he gave his speech anyway. Doctors found a bullet lodged between Roosevelt’s ribs and were afraid to remove it as it would’ve caused too much of a risk to his life, so Roosevelt had this bullet in his body until the day he died.

Herbert Hoover was also the target for an assassin, only the plot to kill him was a little more complicated. Hoover had decided as President-elect to embark on a ten nation goodwill tour of central and South America. A group of Argentinian anarchists led by Severino Di Giovanni decided they were going to blow up the train that Hoover was on as it crossed the Argentinian central plane. Luckily for Hoover the bomber was arrested before he could plant any bombs. When Hoover was asked about the plot and if he was worried, he took a copy of a newspaper that had a headline about the plot and ripped off the front page saying it was better his wife never saw this.

The next Roosevelt to be the target of assassins was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt had been elected president, but was not inaugurated yet. Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt, but as with all presidents Roosevelt was surrounded by other people and the shots missed him, but they did kill the mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak. Five other people were also wounded. After trial Zangara was found guilty and executed. Many thought at the time the real target was Cermak, because he ordered the shooting of Frank Nitti. It was believed by some the shooting had actually been ordered by Al Capone from his prison cell. According to the Soviet government they claimed to have discovered a plot in 1943 to kill Roosevelt which was fostered by the Germans.

The next president who was the victim of an assassination plot was Harry S. Truman. In 1947 pending the independence of Israel, the Zionist Stern Gang had sent a number of letter bombs addressed to the president and high-ranking staff at the White House. The United States government had been alerted by the British government who had gone through the same thing. It is said the incident was never publicized, but a story about the incident appeared in the biography of Margaret Truman, the president’s daughter. Another attempt on Truman’s life occurred in 1950. Two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists named Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to kill Truman at the Blair House. The Blair House was where Truman was living while the White House was being renovated. A White House policeman was mortally wounded, but he had killed one of the attackers with a shot to the head. Another White House policeman was also wounded but survived. Truman was not harmed. Later he commuted Collazo’s death sentence after he was convicted in a federal trial and instead was given life in prison. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter again commuted Collazo’s sentence to time served.

In 1972 a man named Arthur Bremer armed himself and went to an event which featured Richard Nixon. His intention was to kill Nixon. When he got to the event he felt he couldn’t carry out his plot, because there was too much security. A few weeks later he decided to change his target to the governor of Alabama, George Wallace who he shot and paralyzed for life. He intentionally wounded three other people. Another would-be assassin decided to kill Nixon in 1974, his name was Samuel Byck. He had decided the best way to accomplish his task was by crashing a commercial airliner into the White House. He hijacked the plane after killing a police officer who told him the plane could not take off because the wheel blocks were still in place. Apparently he did not like to hear this, because he then shot both pilots. He was shot by an officer through the planes window and survived long enough to commit suicide.

The next assassin’s target was Gerald Ford. In 1975 Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme a follower of Charles Manson decided to shoot Ford while he was on the grounds of the California State Capitol. She drew her gun when he reached to shake her hand. She had forgotten to put a bullet in the firing chamber so when she pulled the trigger nothing happened. Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf quickly got to her and after trial she received life in prison. A mere seventeen days later another attempt was made on Ford, when a woman named Sarah Jane Moore fired a revolver at Ford. A bystander grabbed Moore’s arm and the shot missed Ford. The bullet hit a taxi driver. She was also sentenced to life in prison. It seems women didn’t like Gerald Ford very much.

Jimmy Carter was also the target in two assassination attempts. One by Raymond Lee Harvey and the second by John Hinckley Junior. Harvey was a drifter and he was arrested by the Secret Service, because he was carrying a starter pistol with blank rounds when Carter was going to give a speech in 1979. Harvey had a lot to say about practicing to kill Carter and having associates, but he was later found to have a mental illness and ultimately let go. Hinckley was all set to shoot Carter, but lost his nerve at the last second.

In 1981 Ronald Reagan was returning to his presidential limousine at the Washington Hilton Hotel when he and three other men were shot and wounded by the same John Hinckley Junior who attempted to shoot Carter. Reagan suffered a broken rib, a punctured lung and serious internal bleeding was in the hospital for two weeks. Hinckley claimed he was doing this to impress the actress Jody Forster. He was found to be mentally ill and confined to a mental institution.

So much has been said about the Kennedy assination I decided we all know about it already so I skipped it.

There have been many other stories about planned plots against presidents and even stories about shots being fired at the White House. Some of the plots were said to take place in foreign countries during presidential visits and others were being planned here.