By Darlene Superville and Christina A. Cassidy, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Before Saturday obvious attempted murder of former President Donald Trump, there have been quite a few cases of political violence against US presidents, former presidents and presidential candidates of the key parties.
A take a look at a few of the assassinations and assassination attempts which have taken place because the founding of the state in 1776:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth President
Lincoln was the primary president to be assassinated. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, as he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended a special performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford's Theater in Washington.
Lincoln was taken to a house across the road from the theater for medical treatment after being shot behind the top. He died the following morning. His advocacy for black rights was cited because the motive for his killing.
Two years before the assassination, in the course of the Civil War fought over slavery, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to slaves inside the Confederacy.
Lincoln's successor was Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Booth was shot on April 26, 1865, after being found hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia.
JAMES GARFIELD, the twentieth President
Garfield was the second president to be assassinated, six months after taking office. On July 2, 1881, he was walking through a Washington train station to catch a train to New England when he was shot by Charles Guiteau.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the phone, tried unsuccessfully to search out the bullet in Garfield's chest using a tool he had specially designed for the president. The fatally wounded president lay within the White House for several weeks, but died in September after being taken to the New Jersey shore. He had been in office for six months.
Garfield's successor was Vice President Chester Arthur.
Guiteau was found guilty and executed in June 1882.
WILLIAM McKINLEY, the twenty fifth President
McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, after delivering a speech in Buffalo, New York. He was shaking hands with people walking through a reception line when a person fired two shots into his chest at point blank range. Doctors expected McKinley to get well, but gangrene began to form across the gunshot wounds.
McKinley died on September 14, 1901, six months into his second term.
His successor was Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Leon F. Czolgosz, an unemployed 28-year-old Detroit resident, admitted to the shooting. Czolgosz was found guilty at trial and executed in the electrical chair on October 29, 1901.
JOHN F. KENNEDY, the thirty fifth President
Kennedy was fatally shot by a hidden assassin armed with a high-powered rifle while visiting Dallas with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in November 1963. Shots rang out because the president's motorcade rolled through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
Kennedy was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died soon after.
He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took the oath of office in a conference room on board Air Force One. He is the one president to have taken the oath of office on an airplane.
Just a few hours after the assassination, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald after discovering a sniper post in a close-by constructing, the Texas School Book Depository.
Two days later, Oswald was being taken from police headquarters to the county jail when Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby rushed in and shot Oswald.
GERALD FORD, the thirty eighth President
In 1975, Ford was the victim of two assassination attempts inside a couple of weeks, but he was not injured in either incident.
On the primary attempt, Ford was on his solution to a gathering with the Governor of California in Sacramento when Charles Manson disciple Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme pushed through a crowd on the street, pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and pointed it at Ford. The weapon didn’t fire.
Fromme was sentenced to prison and released in 2009.
Seventeen days later, one other woman, Sara Jane Moore, confronted Ford outside a San Francisco hotel. Moore fired one shot and missed. A passerby grabbed her arm as a second shot was attempted.
Moore was sent to prison and released in 2007.
RONALD REAGAN, the fortieth President
Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington, DC and walking to his motorcade when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr., who was in the group.
Reagan recovered from the shooting in March 1981. Three other people were shot, including his press secretary James Brady, who was left partially paralyzed in consequence.
Hinckley was arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital after a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity of shooting Reagan. In 2022, Hinckley was released from court supervision after a judge determined he was “no longer a danger to himself or others.”
GEORGE W. BUSH, the forty third President
In 2005, Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when a hand grenade was thrown at him.
Both men were behind a bulletproof barrier when the cloth-wrapped grenade hit about 30 meters away. The grenade didn’t explode and nobody was injured.
Vladimir Arutyunian was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, presidential candidate
Kennedy was running for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel, moments after delivering his victory speech within the 1968 California primaries.
Kennedy was a U.S. Senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated five years earlier.
Five other people were injured within the shooting.
Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for premeditated murder. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, where Sirhan stays today after his most up-to-date request for release was denied last yr.
GEORGE C. WALLACE, presidential candidate
Wallace was searching for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot during a campaign rally in Maryland in 1972. The incident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Wallace, the governor of Alabama, was known for his segregationist views, which he later abandoned.
Arthur Bremer was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2007.
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com