A year ago today the world heard with shock and disbelief the startling news that President Ronald Reagan has been shot in the chest by a would-be assassin.
Luckily, the President made an unbelievably-quick recovery. You’ll remember that four other presidents in American history – Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield. William McKinley and John F. Kennedy – weren’t that fortunate. All were assassination victims.
But the disgraceful record of tragic violence against presidents and presidential aspirants doesn’t end there… not by any means.
Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the fallen president, was assassinated by a gunman in California in 1968 when he, himself, was campaigning for the president.
George Wallace, a presidential candidate, was partially paralyzed by a gunman’s bullet in 1972 in Maryland.
And, as recounted by elder statesman Jennings Randolph, Democratic tutor from West Virginia in a statement in Congress, six other attacks have been made on the lives of presidents or presidential candidates in the history of the Republic;
President Andrew Jackson in 1835, Presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 (before he took office as the 32nd President), President Harry Truman in 1950, and President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 (two attempts).
Lincoln, the 16th president, was shot April 14, 1865 and died early the next morning – less than six weeks into his second term and immediately after the Civil War victory that preserved the Union.
Attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor of sorts who harbored hatred for the North. In leaping from the box to the stage, Booth caught his foot in a flag and fell. Despite a broken leg he escaped on horseback and hid for 12 days. Soldiers found him in a barn and he was shot and killed.
Garfield, the 20th President, had been in the White House only four months when he was shot July 2, 1881 in a Washington railway station. His attacker was Charles Guiteau who had tried without success to land a government job.
The bullet lodged near Garfield’s spine. Doctors couldn’t locate it in those pre-X-ray days. The president suffered great pain for more than two months before he died Sept. 19.
McKinley, the 25th president was only months into his second term when he was shot Sept. 6, 1901, during a public reception at the PanAmerican exposition in Buffalo. N.Y. An anarchist Leon Czologoxz, approached in the guest line and shot McKinley with a gun concealed in a bandage. The President died Sept. 14.
Kennedy you will recall, was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963 – 34 months into his presidency – during a Texas political trip while riding in an open auto at Dallas.
Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald the same day and charged him with the murder. Two days later, at the police station, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub. In 1964 the Warren Commission concluded Oswald was the assassin.
The attempt on Reagan’s life was made as the president emerged from the Washington Hilton Hotel after a speech. John W. Hinckley Jr., 25, of Evergreen, Colo., was charged with the crime and awaits trial.
Reagan walked into the hospital on his own power, though the bullet had entered his body under the left arm, missing the heart. In a way, this shooting was reminiscent of the attack on Theodore Roosevelt.
“Teddy,” who earlier had completed McKinley’s second term and served one of his own by election, was the unsuccessful nominee of the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party in the three-party election of 1912.
Roosevelt was shot Oct. 14 prior to a Milwaukee speech by saloon keeper John Schrank. An eyeglasses case in his pocket deflected the bullet and probably saved his life. Even with a gullet in his chest, “Teddy” insisted on making the speech before going to the hospital. Schrank was admitted to a mental hospital.
All of the assassinations and attempts have been senseless – tragic examples of violence and lawlessness not in keeping with the American way of law and order.