Assassinations and attacks – Blood-stained US history

Washington— Prior to Saturday’s apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, there have been several incidents of political violence against US presidents, past presidents, and major party presidential candidates.

An examination of some of the assassinations and attempted assassinations that have happened since the nation’s inception in 1776:

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president.

Lincoln was the first president assassinated, by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the farce “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington.

Lincoln was brought to a house across the street from the theater for medical care after being shot in the back of the head. He died the following morning. His support for Black rights has been considered as a motive for his murder.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years before his assassination, during the Civil War, which was fought over slavery.

Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln.

Booth was shot and executed on April 26, 1865, after being discovered hiding in a barn in Bowling Green, Virginia.

James Garfield, the 20th president.

Garfield became the second president to be assassinated, six months after assuming office. On July 2, 1881, he was strolling through a railroad station in Washington, hoping to take a train to New England when Charles Guiteau shot him.

Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone inventor, attempted unsuccessfully to locate the bullet stuck in Garfield’s chest with a device he created specifically for the president. The fatally wounded president languished in the White House for several weeks before dying in September after being transferred to the New Jersey coast. He had been in office for six months.

Garfield was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur.

Guiteau was found guilty and hanged in June 1882.

William McKinley, the 25th president.

On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot after giving a speech in Buffalo, New York. He was shaking hands with folks passing through a reception line when a guy shot him twice in the chest from point blank range. Doctors expected McKinley to recover, but gangrene developed around the bullet wounds.

McKinley died on September 14, 1901, six months after beginning his second term.

He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

Leon F. Czolgosz, 28, an unemployed Detroit resident, confesses to the shooting. Czolgosz was found guilty at trial and executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president.

Roosevelt, the president-elect at the moment, had just finished delivering a speech in Miami from the back of an open automobile when bullets went out.

Roosevelt was uninjured in the February 1933 shooting that killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.

Guiseppe Zangara was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to death.


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Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President

In November 1950, Truman was staying at Blair House, located across the street from the White House, when two shooters stormed in.

Truman was not hurt, but a White House police officer and one of the assailants were killed in the exchange of gunfire. Two additional White House cops were injured.

Oscar Callazo was apprehended and sentenced to death. In 1952, President Truman commuted the sentence to life in prison. President Jimmy Carter released him from prison in 1979.

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president

In November 1963, while visiting Dallas with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Kennedy was fatally shot by a concealed assassin with a high-powered rifle. Shots broke out as the president’s motorcade passed past Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died shortly thereafter.

He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was sworn in in a conference room on Air Force One. He is the only president who took the oath of office on an airplane.

Hours after the assassination, authorities caught Lee Harvey Oswald after discovering a sniper’s position in the Texas Scohool Bok Depository.

Two days later, while Oswald was being brought from police headquarters to the county jail, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby rushed forward and fatally shot him.

Gerald Ford, the 38th President.

Ford was the target of two assassination attempts in a matter of weeks in 1975, although he was not injured in either.


In the first attempt, Ford was on his way to a meeting with California’s governor in Sacramento when Charles Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme pushed through a crowd, pulled out a semi-automatic weapon, and pointed it at Ford. The gun was not discharged.

Fromme was sentenced to prison and freed in 2009.

Seventeen days later, Sara Jane Moore confronted Ford outside a hotel in San Francisco. Moore fired a single shot and missed. A bystander grabbed her arm when the second gun was fired.

Moore was sentenced to prison and released in 2007.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President
Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington, D.C. and headed to his motorcade when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr., who was in the audience.

Reagan had recovered from the March 1981 shooting. Three other individuals were shot, including his press secretary, James Brady, who suffered partial paralysis as a result.

Hinckley was arrested and committed to a mental hospital after a jury ruled him not guilty by reason of insanity for killing Reagan. In 2022, Hinckley was released from court supervision after a judge found he was “no longer a danger to himself or others.”

George W. Bush, the 43rd president.

In 2005, Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when he was targeted with a hand grenade.

Both soldiers were shielded by a bulletproof barrier when the grenade, wrapped in cloth, landed around 100 feet away. The grenade did not explode, and no one was injured.

Vladimir Arutyunian was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Theodore Roosevelt, presidential candidate.

The former president was assassinated in Milwaukee in 1912 while campaigning for reelection to the White House.

Roosevelt had previously spent two terms as president and was now running as a third-party candidate.

Roosevelt’s pocket included folded papers and a metal glasses case, which appeared to cushion the bullet’s impact and kept him from being gravely injured.

John Schrank was arrested, and he spent the rest of his life in mental facilities.

Robert F. Kennedy, presidential candidate.

Kennedy was pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination when he was assassinated at a Los Angeles hotel, just moments after making his victory speech for winning the 1968 California primary.

Kennedy was a senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was slain five years before.

Five other persons were injured in the shooting.

Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and condemned to death. That sentence was commuted to life in jail, where Sirhan remains after his most recent appeal for parole was denied last year.

George C. Wallace, presidential candidate.

Wallace was running for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot during a campaign rally in Maryland in 1972, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Wallace, the governor of Alabama, was notorious for his segregationist ideals, which he eventually abandoned.

Arthur Bremer was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2007.