A look at shootings in US political history

By Rob Nikolewski on January 10, 2011
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The shooting in Tucson this past Saturday left six dead, including a federal judge, and 13 injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Amid all the talk surrounding the tragedy, I wanted to get a statistic on the number of times members of the three branches of federal government – the executive, legislative and judicial — have been involved in shooting incidents.

As far as I could tell, there is no comprehensive list so I started compiling one myself. I count 22 incidents total, with two instances — oddly enough — where the elected official was the assailant. Strange but true, see Nos. 1 and 7 below.

Here is the list of members of the Presidency, the Congress or the federal judiciary who have been involved in shooting incidents in US history:

1. July 11, 1804

  • Victim: Alexander Hamilton, former US Treasury Secretary, shot and killed
  • Assailant: Aaron Burr, Vice President of the US
  • Location: Weehawken, NJ
  • Details and motive: Duel, caused by an slur Hamilton allegedly made against Burr. Historians still debate the exact circumstances that led Burr to challenge Hamilton to the duel.

2. Jan. 30, 1835

  • Victim: Andrew Jackson, President, escaped injury
  • Assailant: Richard Lawrence, unemployed house painter
  • Location: Washington DC, outside Capitol Building
  • Details and motive: When Jackson was leaving the Capitol out of the East Portico after attending the funeral of South Carolina Rep. Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed and deranged housepainter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Lawrence was then restrained, with legend saying Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane. Others present, including David Crockett, restrained and disarmed Lawrence, who was later deemed insane, institutionalized, and never imprisoned for his assassination attempt.

3. April 14, 1865

  • Victims: Abraham Lincoln, President, died from gunshot wound to the head;

William Seward, Secretary of State, recovered from stab wounds to face and neck.

  • Assailants: John Wilkes Booth, actor; Lewis Powell, former Confederate soldier
  • Location: Washington, DC
  • Details, motive: Booth and Powell were part of a plot, designed by supporters of the Confederacy, to assassinate President Lincoln, Secretary of State Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Powell’s attempt to kill Seward was partially thwarted when his gun jammed during an altercation in Seward’s house; conspirator George Atzerodt was assigned to kill Vice President Johnson but Atzerodt lost his nerve and never carried out his assassination attempt.

4. July 2, 1881

  • Victim: James Garfield, President, died from complications to bullet wound in his back
  • Assailant: Charles Guiteau, lawyer
  • Location: Washington DC, railroad station
  • Motive and details: Mentally unbalanced, Guiteau lobbied the Garfield administration for an ambassadorship. After being rejected, he stalked and shot Garfield. Guiteau was tried and convicted; executed by hanging on June 30, 1882. Garfield was shot twice; one bullet grazed Garfield’s arm while the other lodged into his back. Garfield died more than two months later from complications due to infection from the wound in his back.

5. January 29, 1889

Victim: John M. Clayton, US Representative-elect, Arkansas, died from a single gunshot wound

Assailant: Unknown

Location: Plumerville, AR

Details: According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, Clayton was involved in a disputed election for the US House of Representatives in the state’s Second Congressional District. The election day count had Clayton down by 846 votes and he traveled to Plumerville, AR to investigate and contest the election result. While sitting near a window at a boardinghouse, Clayton was killed instantly by an assasin’s bullet. Election officials later declared Clayton the winner of the contested race but the seat remained vacant and his assassin was never found.

6. Sept. 6, 1901

Victim: William McKinley, President, shot twice; one bullet grazed McKinley’s shoulder while the other entered his stomach; he died eight days later

Assailant: Leon Czolgosz , anarchist

Location: Buffalo, NY

Details and motive: Born in Michigan, Czolgosz believed American society was deeply rooted in inequality. Reportedly inspired by the assassination of Italian King Umberto I by a European anarchist, Czolgosz shot McKinley with a .32 caliber revolver while the President was in a receiving line at the Pan-American Exposition. Tried and convicted after one hour of deliberation, Czolgosz was electrocuted at Auburn Prison in upstate New York. His last words were, “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people — the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.”

7. March 27, 1908

Victims: Thomas McCreary, streetcar passenger; Thomas Lumby, streetcar passenger

Assailant: Rep. James T. Heflin (D-Alabama)

Location: Washington DC

Details and motive: There are differing accounts to this story but in each telling, Rep. Heflin fired a revolver during a dispute on DC streetcar. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Heflin had introduced a bill calling for segregated seating on Washington streetcars. As the bill was being debated, Heflin was riding in a streetcar when he tried to forcibly remove an African-American man who was sitting with whites. During the scuffle, Heflin drew a revolver and shot wildly. A bullet hit a white tourist from New York City in the hip. Heflin was indicted but after agreeing to pay for the injured man’s hospital expenses, charges were dropped. A New York Times article from the date of the incident makes no mention of an African-American man sitting among white riders. Instead, it reports that while on a streetcar, Heflin scolded an African-American man — Lewis Lumby — for being drunk. An argument ensued, Heflin tried to throw the man off the streetcar and then produced a revolver and shot twice — hitting a tourist Thomas McCreary in the foot and Lumby just above his right ear. The bullet did not penetrate the skull but the Times article described Lumby as “badly wounded and unconscious.”

8. October 13, 1912

Victim: Theodore Roosevelt, former President, shot once in chest, recovered

Assailant: John F. Schrank, saloonkeeper Milwaukee, WI

Details and motive: Three and a half years after his Presidency, Roosevelt was seeking a return to the White House, running as a member of the Progressive Party. Schrank shot Roosevelt once with a .38 caliber revolver but the bullet was slowed by a 50-page speech folded twice in Roosevelt’s breast pocket and by a metal glasses case. Schrank said he was motivated by William McKinley’s ghost (Roosevelt became President upon McKinley’s assassination in 1901). Schrank was determined to be legally insane and was institutionalized until his death in 1943.

9. Feb. 13, 1933

Victims: Franklin Roosevelt, President-elect, escaped injury

Anton Cermak after being shot

Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, shot in the lung; died 18 days later of perotinitis

Mabel Gill, bystander shot and injured

Assailant: Guiseppe Zangara, bricklayer

Location: Miami, FL

Details and motive: It is generally accepted that Zangara intended to kill Roosevelt, who was just 19 days shy of inauguration. FDR was giving a speech from the back of an open car when Zangara opened fire with a .32 caliber pistol. The first shot missed Roosevelt and when bystanders turned on Zangara, he fired four wild shots in succession. Five people were hit during the incident, including Mayor Cermak. Zangara was born in Italy, came to the US in 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1929. Zangara has been described as mentally deluded and upon his arrest and subsequent imprisonment he made many anti-capitalist declarations. Pleading guilty of murder, Zangara was electrocuted in Raiford, FL on March 10, 1933, less than a month after the shootings.

10. Sept. 8, 1935

Victim: Sen. Huey Long (D-Louisiana), shot once in abdomen, died two days later

Assailant: Dr. Carl Weiss

Location: Baton Rouge, LA; Statehouse

Details and motive: A political enemy of Long, Weiss approached the senator as he walked through the Statehouse during a special session of the Louisiana legislature and fired one shot into Long’s abdomen. Long’s security detail returned fire, raining 61 shots at Weiss, leaving his body sprawled on the statehouse floor. As for Long, emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding failed and the “Kingfish” died two days later. Weiss’s son is still alive and claims his father did not fire the fatal shot; rather, that Weiss merely had a physical altercation with Long and the senator’s security detail responded by firing a hail of bullets at Weiss, accidentally hitting Long in the process.

11. November 1, 1950Victims: Harry Truman, President, escaped injury;

Leslie Coffelt, White House police officer, shot and killed;

Donald Birdzell, Capital police officer, shot twice, recovered;

Joseph Downs, White House police officer, shot three times, recovered

Assailants: Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican nationalists

Location: Washington DC, Blair House

Details and motive: The assailants sought to assassinate Truman in an effort to bring world attention to the cause of Puerto Rican national independence. At the time, the White House was being renovated and Truman was living at Blair House. At about 2:15 p.m., Collazo and Torresola approached Blair House from two different directions. While White House police officer Coffelt was manning his guard shack, Torresola approached and shot the officer three times at close range. Torresola then shot White House plain clothes officer Joseph Downs three times, striking him in the hip, neck and back. But Downs managed to crawl through the Blair House basement door and slammed it behind him, blocking Torresola out of the building. Meanwhile, Collazo was involved in a shootout with three police officers that Torresola now joined. During the fray, Coffelt staggered from his guard shack, shot and killed Torresola while Collazo was incapacitated by a shot to his chest from another officer. The gunfight awoke President Truman, who was taking an afternoon nap. Truman opened his bedroom window and looked outside at one point. Coffelt died later that afternoon from his wounds. Collazo was sentenced to death but Truman commuted the sentence to life in prison. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence to time served and Collazo returned to Puerto Rico, where he died in 1994. Puerto Rican leaders and civic groups expressed remorse and condolences to Coffelt’s widow, who visited the island and responded with a speech saying she did not harbor any anger against the people of Puerto Rico.

12. March 1, 1954Victims: Rep. Alvin M. Bently (R-Michigan), shot in chest, recovered;

Rep. Clifford Davis (D-Tennessee), shot in leg, recovered;

Rep. Ben F. Jensen (R-Iowa), shot in back, recovered;

Rep. George Hyde Fallon (D-Maryland), wounded, recovered;

Rep. Kenneth A. Roberts (D-Alabama), wounded, recovered

Assailants: Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, Irving Flores Rodriguez

Location: Washington DC, floor of the House of Representatives

Details and motive: The assailants were Puerto Rican nationalists who unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and began shooting automatic pistols from the gallery at the 240 Representatives of the 83rd Congress, who were on the floor debating an immigration bill. All the attackers were given minimum sentences of 70 years in prison, after their death sentences were commuted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Figueroa Cordero was released in 1978. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter freed the remaining assailants.

13. Nov. 22, 1963

Victims: John F. Kennedy, President, shot once in the neck and once in the head, died;

John Connally, Governor of Texas, shot once in chest, wrist and thigh, recovered;

J.D. Tippit, Dallas police officer, shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in separate incident about 40 minutes later

Assailant: Lee Harvey Oswald

Location: Dallas, TX

Details and motive: Before getting shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, Oswald claimed he did not shoot President Kennedy. Oswald had a history of involvement in left-wing causes, including support of Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the Soviet Union. Oswald lived in the USSR for more than two years and met his wife there. Oswald is also suspected of trying to assassinate retired US Major Gen. Edwin Walker, a right-wing activist, in March of 1963 in Dallas.

14. June 5, 1968

Victims: Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-New York), shot three times, once in the head and twice in the right armpit, died the next day

William Weisel, ABC News journalist, shot once in abdomen, recovered;

Paul Schrade, United Auto Workers Union regional director, shot once in head, two inches above hairline, recovered;

Elizabeth Evans, Democratic Party activist, bullet grazed her forehead;

Ira Goldstein, Continental News Service, struck in the left hip, recovered;

Irwin Stroll, Kennedy campaign volunteer, shot once in the left leg, recovered

Assailant: Sirhan Sirhan

Location: Los Angeles, the Ambassador Hotel

Details and motive: A 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan said he felt betrayed by Kennedy’s support for Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

15. Sept. 5, 1975

Victim: Gerald Ford, President, escaped injury

Assailant: Lynette Fromme

Location: Sacramento, CA

Details and motive: While Ford was shaking hands with well-wishers on the California state capitol grounds, Fromme pulled the trigger on a .45 caliber pistol. There were four cartridges in the gun’s magazine but the firing chamber was empty. Fromme — a follower of Charles Manson — was subdued by a Secret Service agent. Fromme was sentenced to life in prison but was released in August of 2009. Fromme’s motive is not clear: There have been reports she wanted to draw attention to helping win a new trial for Manson; during her trial she often interrupted the proceedings with environmental screeds.

16. Sept. 22, 1975

Victims: Gerald Ford, President, escaped injury

John Ludwig, taxi driver, wounded by shot intended for Ford, recovered

Assailant: Sara Jane Moore

Location: San Francisco, CA

Details and motive: Just 17 days after the Fromme assassination attempt, Ford was leaving the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco when Moore fired from across the street with a .38 caliber revolver. A bystander lunged at Moore as she squeezed the trigger and the bullet missed the President but hit a taxi driver nearby, who survived the injury. Moore was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled on Dec. 31, 2007. In an interview with KGO-TV after her release, Moore expressed regret for trying to kill President Ford but said at the time her left-wing radicalism had overtaken her: “The government had delcared war on the left. Nixon’s appointment of Ford as Vice President and his resignation making Ford president seemed to be a continuing assault on America,” she said. The man who lunged at Moore was later identified as a gay man and former member of the Marine Corps.

17. Nov. 18, 1978

Rep. Leo Ryan

Victims: Rep. Leo Ryan (D-California), three journalists and one Jonestown defector shot and killed, nine injured

Assailants: Gunmen with the People’s Temple

Location: Kaituma, Guyana

Details and motive: Rep. Ryan flew to Guyana to investigate the People’s Temple, a quasi-religious organization that was originally headquartered in San Francisco, which made up part of Ryan’s congressional district. The group’s leader, Jim Jones, viewed his community in the South American country of Guyana as a “socialist paradise” but there were allegations of abuse and Ryan went to investigate. On the airstrip awaiting flights back to the US, gunmen opened fire, killing Ryan, three journalists and one defector from the commune. Nine others were also injured. Peoples Temple member Larry Layton was sentenced to life in prision for his part in the murders and other related charges. He was released from custody in April, 2002. On the evening after the attack, Jones and his followers committed mass suicide. All told, 918 people died, including 270 children.

18. May 29, 1979

Victim: John Wood, US District Court Judge, shot and killed outside his townhouse

Assailant: Charles Harrelson

Location: San Antonio, TX

Details and motive: Harrelson was convicted of killing the judge after being hired by drug dealer Jamiel Chagra, who was scheduled to appear before Judge Wood for sentencing on druf trafficking charges. Odd note: Harrelson is the father of actor Woody Harrelson.

19. March 30, 1981

Victims: Ronald Reagan, President, hit on his left underarm by richochet, survived;

James Brady, White House press secretary, shot once in the head; survived but at diminished capacity;

Tim McCarthy, Secret Service agent, shot once in the abdomen, recovered;

Thomas Delahanty, DC police officer, shot once in neck, recovered

Assailant: John Hinckley Jr.

Location: Washington DC, outside the Hilton Washington Hotel

Details and motive: After a speaking engagement, President Reagan was walking towards his limousine when 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots from a .22 caliber revolver. The first bullet hit press secretary James Brady in the head. The second hit DC police officer Thomas Delahanty in the neck. The third hit a window of a building across the street. The fourth hit Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the abdomen. The fifth struck the limousine. The sixth richoted off the limo and hit President Reagan, entering under his left underarm and stopping just one inch from his heart. During his trial, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington DC, where he remains. Hinckley’s apparent motivation was to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obssessed.

20. May 21, 1988

Victim: Richard J. Daronco, US District Court Judge, shot and killed outside his home

Assailant: Charles L. Koster, retired NYC police officer

Location: Pelham, NY

Details and motive: Two days before his death, Judge Daronco ruled against a female plaintiff in a sexual discrimination and sexual harrassment case. The plaintiff’s father, Charles L. Koster, then shot and killed the judge as Daronco was doing yardwork. Koster then committed suicide.

21. October 29, 1994

Victim: Bill Clinton, President, escaped injury

Assailant: Francisco Martin Duran of Colorado

Location: Washington DC, outside the White House

Details and motive: Shortly before 3 p.m. on a Saturday, Francisco Martin Duran pulled a semiautomatic rifle from his trenchcoat and fired through the bars of the fence outside the White House. As he stopped to reload, a tourist tackled Duran. Two other tourists helped subdue Duran until Secret Service agents arrived seconds later. Duran was charged with attempted assassination based in part to testimony that just before Duran started shooting, witnesses pointed to a man walking with a group of people outside the White House and mistakenly identified the man as President Clinton. Duran fired at least 29 shots. No one was hit but 11 rounds struck the facade of the White House. President Clinton was inside at the time watching football on television. While serving in the Army, Duran had been convicted of aggravated assault with a vehicle and was dishonorably discharged. He pled not guilty due to insanity during his trial, claiming he was trying to save the world from an “alien mist.” He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

22. Jan. 8, 2011

Victims: John Roll, US federal judge, shot and killed;

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), shot once in the head, currently in hospital;

Christina Taylor Green, 9-year-old bystander, shot and killed;

Dorothy Morris, 76-year-old retiree, shot twice, killed;

Phyllis Schneck, 79-year-old retiree, shot and killed;

Dorwin Stoddard, 76-year-old bystander, shot once in the head, died;

Gabe Zimmerman, 30-year-old member of Rep. Gifford’s staff, shot and killed

Assailant: Jerod Loughner (alleged)

Location: Tucson, AZ

Details and motive: Sadly, Judge Roll was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rep. Giffords was hosting an event outside a Tucson supermarket and Roll happened to be leaving the store and approached to say hello the the Congresswoman when the assailant opened fire. Roll was one of six people killed. Thirteen others were injured. Giffords was shot once in the head and is currently hospitalized. The gunman’s motive is unclear at this time.

**********

I compiled this list myself so I may have overlooked other incidents. If there are, I’ll update the list but, to emphasize, this is a list of incidents involving shootings only –not other means of violence — involving US presidents, sitting members of Congress and active judges on the federal level.

A couple of odds and ends I came across during the research:

Besides judges Roll and Wood, the only other federal judge assassinated in US history is Robert Smith Vance, a federal judge in Birmingham, AL who was killed (and his wife seriously injured) by a letter bomb in 1989.

In another non-gun related incident, there was a crazy attempt on John Kennedy’s life that involved a man who, in 1960, planned on crashing his 1950 Buick loaded with explosives into JFK’s vehicle. I also did not include George W. Bush’s close call in Tblisi, Georgia when a man threw a live hand grenade at the podium where Bush was speaking.

I did not include governors on the list but it’s interesting to note that George Wallace was the sitting governor of Alabama when he was running for president as a Democrat in 1972 when he was shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer in 1972. Bremer’s motive appeared to be gain notoriety and film director Martin Scorcese seemed to loosely base the character Travis Bickle in the movie Taxi Driver on some of the Bremer’s behavior.

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