Richard Lawrence, carrying 2
derringer pistols fires at the
President. Both shots misfire.
Jackson goes after Lawrence with
his cane.
He gave the several reasons for the
shooting:
1. He had recently lost his job
painting houses and somehow
blamed Jackson.
2. He claimed that with the
President dead “money would be
more plenty”—a reference to
Jackson’s struggle with the Bank of
the United States—and that he
“could not rise until the President
fell.”
3. Finally, he informed his
interrogators that he was actually a
deposed English King—Richard III,
specifically, dead since 1485—and
that Jackson was merely his clerk.
He was deemed insane,
institutionalized, and never
punished for his assassination
attempt.
January 30, 1835
Video clip
February 23, 1861
The Baltimore Plot was an
alleged conspiracy to assassinate
President-elect Abraham Lincoln
en route to his inauguration.
(Cypriano Ferrandini)
Allan Pinkerton, played a key role
by managing Lincoln's security
throughout the journey.
Later, while Lincoln was out
riding, a shot fired from the
bushes caused his horse to bolt,
and he lost his hat; when
soldiers retrieved the hat, they
found a bullet hole in it.
The incident was hushed up, but
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
increased the heavy guard that
accompanied the president.
Allan Pinkerton
October 14, 1912
T.R. readied to leave for the
Milwaukee Auditorium to give
a campaign speech.
John Schrank fired his .38
revolver from close range,
hitting Roosevelt in the chest.
The tenacious Roosevelt
insisted, however, on
continuing on to his speech
anyway.
"It takes more than that to kill
a Bull Moose!"
Click for video
February 15, 1933
Guiseppe Zangara attempted to
assassinate Franklin Delano
Roosevelt while the then
President-elect was giving a
speech in Miami, Florida.
As Roosevelt finished a short
speech , Zangara fired five
rounds from 25 feet.
One bullet struck Chicago's
Mayor Anton Cermak who was
shaking hands with Roosevelt at
the time. Four others were
wounded.
Zangara received the death
penalty when Cermak died.
Click for video
November 1, 1950
Oscar Collazo and
Griselio Torresola
decided to assassinate
President Truman with
the intention of bringing
world attention to the
independence cause of
Puerto Rico.
Violent gun battle ended
with the deaths of
Officer Coffelt and
assassin Torresola.
Blair House
White House Policeman
Leslie W. Coffelt
Video clip
December 11, 1960
While vacationing in Palm Beach,
Florida, President-elect John F.
Kennedy's life was threatened by
Richard Paul Pavlick, a 73-yearold former postal worker.
Pavlick's plan was to serve as a
suicide bomber by crashing his
dynamite-laden 1950 Buick into
Kennedy's vehicle.
Pavlick was arrested by the
Secret Service after he was
stopped for a driving violation,
with the dynamite still in his car.
Pavlick spent the next six years
in both federal prison and
mental institutions before being
released in December 1966.
February 22, 1974
At Baltimore-Washington
International Airport, Byck, pulling
a .38-caliber revolver, shoots an
airport security guard in the back.
Leaping over the security check
point and boarding a DC-9 Delta
Airlines Flight 523 destined for
Atlanta. He storms the planes
cockpit and shoots the copilot and
then the pilot.
Byck became frustrated, he
grabbed a nearby passenger and
shouted at her to 'fly the plane.'
A policeman who heard the shots
in the airport runs to the plane in
pursuit. He sees Byck through the
plane’s window and shoots several
times, mortally wounding Byck.
Samuel Byck
Operation Pandora's Box
As authorities moved in, he put the
revolver to his head and pulled the
trigger. Under his body was found a
briefcase gasoline bomb
Video clip
September 5, 1975
In Northern California, Lynette
“Squeaky” Fromme, a follower
of Charles Manson, drew a
Colt M1911 .45 caliber pistol
on Ford when he reached to
shake her hand in a crowd.
There were four cartridges in
the pistol's magazine but the
firing chamber was empty.
She was soon restrained by
Secret Service agent Larry
Buendorf.
Fromme was sentenced to life
in prison, but was released
from custody on August 14,
2009, nearly 3 years after
Ford's death.
Fromme being subdued
Video clip
September 22, 1975
In San Francisco, California,
Sara Jane Moore fired a
revolver at Ford from 40
feet away.
A bystander, Oliver Sipple,
grabbed Moore's arm and
the shot missed Ford.
Moore was sentenced to
life in prison. She was later
paroled from a federal
prison on Monday,
December 31, 2007 (370
days after Ford's death)
after serving more than 30
years.
Video clip
May 5, 1979
Just before Carter was to speak
Raymond Lee Harvey was in the
crowd—and he looked so nervous
that he drew the attention of a
Secret Service agent.
As the agent approached him,
Harvey began walking rapidly
away, and was seized. He was
carrying a starter pistol.
Secret Service and FBI agents
investigated and found the man
Harvey knew as Julio, but he gave
his name as Osvaldo EspinozaOrtiz, 21. He admitted being an
illegal alien from Mexico.
They charged Harvey with
conspiring to kill the President and
jailed him on a $50,000 bond.
Charges were later dropped due to
lack of evidence.
March 30, 1981
As Reagan walked out of a hotel toward
his waiting car, John Hinckley emerged
from the crowd of admirers and fired a
Röhm RG-14 .22 cal. blue steel revolver
six times in three seconds.
Video clip
Hinckley, claiming to be inspired by Jodie
Foster in the movie Taxi Driver, missed
the President with all six shots.
1. The first bullet hit White House Press
Secretary James Brady in the head.
2. The second hit District of Columbia
police officer Thomas Delahanty in the
back.
3. The third overshot the president and
hit the window of a building across the
street.
4. The fourth hit Secret Service agent
Timothy McCarthy in the abdomen.
5. The fifth hit the bullet-resistant glass
of the window on the open side door of
the president's limousine.
6. The sixth and final bullet ricocheted
off the side of the limousine and hit the
president in his left underarm, grazing a
rib and lodging in his lung, stopping
nearly an inch from his heart.
“Constitutionally, gentlemen,
you have the president, the vice
president and the secretary of
state . . .” Alexander Haig
April 13, 1993
Sixteen men, said to be in the
employment of Saddam
Hussein, smuggled a car bomb
into Kuwait with the intent of
killing Bush as he spoke at
Kuwait University.
The plot was foiled when
Kuwaiti officials found the
bomb and arrested the
suspected assassins.
The Iraqi Intelligence Service,
particularly Directorate 14, is
thought to be behind the plot
Bush had left office in January
1993.
September 12, 1994
Frank Eugene Corder flew a singleengine Cessna into the White House
lawn, allegedly trying to hit the White
House. The President and First Family
were not home at the time. Corder
was the only casualty.
October 29, 1994
Francisco Martin Duran fired at least
29 shots with a semi-automatic rifle
at the White House from a fence
overlooking the north lawn, thinking
that Clinton was among the men in
dark suits standing there
Clinton was in the White House
Residence watching a football game.
Three tourists, Harry Rakowsky, Ken
Davis and Robert Haines, tackled
Duran before he could injure anyone.
Duran was found to have a suicide
note in his pocket and was sentenced
to 40 years in prison.
Video clip
February 7, 2001
Robert Pickett, standing
outside the perimeter fence,
discharged a number of shots
from a weapon towards the
White House.
Following a stand-off of about
ten minutes, the incident
ended when a Secret Service
officer shot Pickett, resulting
in an injury which required
immediate hospital surgery.
Pickett was found to have
emotional problems and
employment grievances.
A court in July 2001
sentenced Pickett to three
years imprisonment in
connection with the incident.
May 10, 2005
While President George W. Bush
was giving a speech in the
Freedom Square in Tbilisi,
Georgia, Vladimir Arutyunian
threw a live Soviet-made RGD-5
hand grenade towards the
podium where Bush was
standing and where Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili,
the First Lady of the United
States Laura Bush, the First Lady
of Georgia Sandra Roelofs, and
officials were seated.
The grenade was live and had its
pin pulled, but did not explode
because a red tartan
handkerchief wrapped tightly
around the grenade kept the
firing pin from deploying quickly
enough.
Arutyunian was arrested in July
2005, and killed an Interior
Ministry agent while resisting
arrest. He was convicted in
January 2006, and was given a
life sentence.
Bush and Saakashvili
Arutyunian
August 24, 2008
Refers to an alleged plot
by Shawn Robert Adolf,
Tharin Robert Gartrell and
Nathan Dwaine Johnson
to assassinate Barack
Obama, then the 2008
Democratic Party
presidential nominee.
The trio of white
supremacists allegedly
planned to shoot Senator
Obama with a highpowered rifle during the
Democratic National
Convention in Denver,
Colorado.
Booking shots of Tharin Gartrell, Nathan
Johnson and Shawn Adolf . Each served time for
drug and firearms charges.