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GEORGE WASHINGTON
In 1776 during the Revolutionary War, a plot was uncovered
to kidnap and murder General George Washington. The conspiracy
involved the mayor and governor of New York as well as his personal
bodyguard, Thomas Hickey. The latter was found guilty of treason
and publicly hanged on June 28 in view of nearly 20,000 spectators.
Washington remarked that the execution should set an example
of how mutinous officers are rewarded.
ANDREW JACKSON
The first assassination attempt of a president occurred in
1835 when Richard Lawrence, 32, approached Andrew Jackson on
a Washington street corner and aimed a derringer at point blank
range. The gun miss-fired, but much to the shock of the president,
Lawrence produced another derringer and attempted the assassination
again. The second gun also miss-fired. Lawrence was later declared
insane and died in an institution.
Following the attempt on Jackson, Vice President Martin Van
Buren regularly carried two pistols while presiding in the Senate.
Some one hundred years later the Smithsonian Institute acquired
the derringers and tested the weapons in an attempt to find the
cause of the miss-firings. Both guns discharged on the first
try. The odds of both derringers miss-firing in 1835 were calculated
at one in 125,000.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln traveled by train to the capital for the inaugural
ceremonies in 1861. A guard assigned to the president-elect,
Charles Pinkerton, uncovered a plot to kill Lincoln when the
train arrived at the Calvert Street Station in Baltimore. He
convinced Lincoln to leave the train early and continue to Washington
by horseback; thus no incident occurred at the Station. Pinkerton
later formed the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
President Lincoln was riding horseback on a deserted road
when a man jumped from behind a tree and fired a shot at him
but missed. Lincoln dismissed the incident as a prank or mistake.
He wasn't so sure on another occasion when he returned to the
White House from a walk and upon removing his stove top hat discovered
a bullet hole through the top.
MARY TODD LINCOLN
Many threats were made against President Lincoln during the
Civil War, but another target of slanderous comments and ill
feelings was First Lady Mary Todd. She was unjustifiably labeled
a traitor by some because she had relatives fighting on the side
of the South in the War. Once when returning to the White House
after a visit to a friend's farm, Mrs. Lincoln suffered minor
head injuries when a wagon wheel dislodge on her horse and buggy
causing it to overturn. It was later surmised that the wheel
had been tampered with.
ANDREW JOHNSON
Those involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in
1865 confessed to a plot that allegedly involved the killing
of Vice President Andrew Johnson. The assailant given the task
never followed through with the plan.
TEDDY ROOSEVELT
In 1902 President Teddy Roosevelt was receiving guests in
the White House Red Room when a stranger approached and asked
if he were the president. The man appeared nervous and somewhat
suspicious which prompted Roosevelt to summon security guards.
They noticed a bulge in the intruder's back pocket, later revealed
as a pistol. The man was arrested and taken to jail. The following
day Roosevelt issued a thirty-day suspension for all guards on
duty that night.
Roosevelt was the only former president to suffer an assassination
attempt. In 1912 John Shrank shot Roosevelt in Milwaukee just
after he was introduced at the podium for a speech as the Bull
Moose Party candidate for president The bullet was slowed by
his speech that was still folded in his breast pocket behind
his glass case. The former President only suffered a surface
wound and insisted on finishing his speech before going to the
hospital. Shrank was committed to the Northern State Hospital
for the insane in Oshkosh, WI and died in 1943.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT
In 1933 President-elect Franklin Roosevelt was about to speak
at a rally in Miami when shots rang out. Mayor Cermak of Chicago
who was on stage with FDR, was killed and five bystanders were
wounded. Roosevelt was uninjured. Giuseppe Zangara, 32, was found
guilty of murder and attempted assassination the same year, and
electrocuted shortly thereafter.
HARRY TRUMAN
During the three-year renovation to the White House, the
Truman's lived at Blair House, across the street from the Mansion.
On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican Nationalists attempted
to shoot their way into the home resulting in the death of two
secret servicemen. One of the assassins, Griselio Torresola was
killed. His accomplice, Oscar Collazo, was taken into custody
and sentenced to death in 1951.
Truman commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. In
1979 President Jimmy Carter granted Collazo a full pardon.
GERALD FORD
Two assassination attempts were made on the life of Gerald
Ford, both in September 1975. Lynette Fromme, 27, attempted to
shoot the president in Sacramento on September 5, with a .45
caliber hand gun. Alert secret servicemen wrestled the weapon
from her before she could fire a shot.
On September 22, Sara Jane Moore, 45, a civil rights activist,
fired a .38 caliber revolver at Ford, but a bystander diverted
the shot at the last second. Both women are currently in prison
serving life sentences.
RONALD REAGAN
John W. Hinckley, Jr., 25, shot Ronald Reagan outside a Washington
Hotel on March 30, 1981. The bullet struck the president in the
chest, narrowly missing his heart. Reagan survived. Hinckley
is currently serving a life sentence.
GEORGE BUSH
President Clinton ordered an aerial strike of selected targets
in Iraq after learning of a plot by Saddam Hussein to kill his
predecessor, George Bush.
BILL CLINTON
Francisco Durran fired shots at the White House October 29,
1994 from the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue. He was found guilty
of attempted assassination of the president and sentenced to
life imprisonment.
GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL
The Secret Service and the FBI investigate threats against
the life of the President of the United States. The exact number
of incidents are not disclosed to the public, but unofficially
they average as many as one a month. The investigations also
include hate mail, or verbal threats. Any death wish, even in
jest is a felony, and always prosecuted to the fullest extent
of the law.
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