Politician assassinations

From Kennedy to Trump: dangerous candidacies

Donald Trump (center) was not the only victim of an assassination attempt - numerous US presidents before him were too.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/AP, AFP, AFP/picturedesk.com)

Five US presidents have been assassinated during their time in office, and four of the last six have been assassinated. But even those running for the highest political office in the United States live dangerously. Not just since the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump. 

"If you go into politics", 51% of Americans resigned in an opinion poll, "you have to expect to be killed one day." There are too many armed psychopaths in the USA. This analysis by a US magazine dates back to 1972 - and is still valid today.

In a wheelchair after the assassination
Shortly before this, the governor of the US state of Alabama and then candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, George Wallace, was shot and seriously injured by Arthur Bremer during a campaign event. He remained paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of the attack. The assassination was apparently not politically motivated, but due to Bremer's desire to become famous.

George C. Wallace remained paralyzed after the assassination during a campaign event.

(Bild: AFP/AFP / picturedesk.com)

Two Kennedy brothers shot dead
Just four years earlier, US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, brother of US President John F. Kennedy, who was also assassinated in 1963, was shot and critically injured by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Bishara Sirhan following a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy died the next day. Kennedy's pro-Israel statements are believed to be the motive for the attack.

Robert F. Kennedy

(Bild: AP)

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Long list of assassinations
The first in this list, however, was not necessarily known for his presidential candidacy. 

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, who was a presidential candidate at the time, was killed by a crowd in a prison in Carthage, Illinois, while on remand. The reason for his arrest and probably also for his murder was his attack on the freedom of the press when, in his capacity as mayor of Nauvoo, he had the newspaper "Nauvoo Expositor", which had reported critically on him and the Mormon movement he had founded in its first and only issue, closed down. This made him the first US presidential candidate to be assassinated during the election campaign.

Assassinations of US presidents

Of the 42 people who have served as president, ten have been subject to actual or attempted assassinations. Four of these ten officials - Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy - were killed.

Four of the last six presidents were targeted: Gerald Ford (twice in 1975), Ronald Reagan (in a near-fatal shooting in 1981), Bill Clinton (when the White House was fired upon in 1994) and George W. Bush (when an assailant threw a grenade that failed to explode at him and the president of Georgia at a public meeting in Tbilisi in 2005).

Two others who served as president were attacked, either as president-elect (Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933) or as a presidential candidate (Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, when he sought the presidency after nearly four years out of office).

Two other presidential candidates - Robert F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1968, and George C. Wallace, who was seriously wounded in 1972 - were also victims during the primaries.

In only one of these 15 incidents (the Lincoln assassination) was a widespread conspiracy proven, although such allegations have surfaced on other occasions. Only one other incident involved more than one participant (the 1950 attack on Blair House, the temporary residence of President Harry S. Truman); but no evidence of other conspirators emerged from the subsequent investigation or prosecution.

Of the 15 direct attacks, 11 were committed with handguns, two with automatic weapons, one with a rifle, and one with a grenade. All but two of the attacks (both against Gerald Ford) were carried out by men.

All but one of the 15 attacks occurred in the United States.

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The assassination attempt on Teddy Roosevelt is also well known. He was President of the USA from 1901 to 1909 and then retired from politics. In 1912, "The Bull Moose", as Roosevelt was known, wanted to return to the White House. That was quite possible at the time. The first US President George Washington had advised his successors not to stay in office for more than two terms. It was not until 1951 that the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limited the term of office of the President to two terms.

Theodore Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in 1912.

(Bild: US Library of Congress)

On October 14, 1912, Roosevelt was shot during a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While greeting the public outside the Gilpatrick Hotel, bartender John Schrank shot him at close range. Schrank's 32-caliber bullet was aimed directly at Roosevelt's heart.

The bullet did not fatally injure Roosevelt, however, because the shot was muffled by a spectacle case and a folded manuscript.

The manuscript, tucked into the breast pocket of Roosevelt's heavy coat, contained Roosevelt's speech for the evening. Schrank was immediately detained. The motive he gave was that "any man seeking a third term should be shot."

Roosevelt suffered only a flesh wound and gave his speech - while the bullet was still lodged in his body. After a few words, the former "Rough Rider" took the torn and bloodstained manuscript out of his breast pocket and declared: "You see, it takes more than a bullet to kill a bull moose." Roosevelt spoke for an hour and then left for the hospital. He was defeated in the election by Woodrow Wilson.