Off the Editor’s Desk 9-25-24

Assassinations of our presidents!

With the second attempt on former President Donald Trump last week I wondered how many other leaders of our country have been the targets of an assailant.

If you are as old as I am, you can remember where you were and what you where doing back in 1963 when President Kennedy was shot and killed. 

I went to Wikipedia, (The Free Encyclopedia) for the following information about attempts and plots against our leaders.

“On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson was the first president to experience an assassination attempt when Richard Lawrence twice tried to shoot him in the East Portico of the Capitol after Jackson left a funeral held in the House of Representatives Chamber. The attempt failed when both of Lawrence’s pistols misfired.

“Four sitting presidents have been killed: Abraham Lincoln, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth; James A. Garfield, 1881, by Charles J. Guiteau; William McKinley, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, and John F. Kennedy, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.

“Ronald Reagan, 1981, by John Hinckley, Jr., is the only sitting U.S. President to have been injured in an assassination attempt while in office and survive. Theodore Roosevelt, 1912, by John Schrank; and Donald Trump, 2024, by Thomas Matthew Crooks, are the only two former presidents to be injured in an assassination attempt.”

“John Hinckley Jr., fired six shots using a .22 caliber revolver toward Reagan and three others. Reagan was seriously wounded by a bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding. Beside Reagan, press secretary James Brady. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. All three survived, but Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled and died in 2014 with his death considered a homicide as it was ultimately caused by this injury.”

“Hinckley was immediately arrested, and later said he had wanted to kill Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster. He was deemed mentally ill and confined to an institution. He was released from institution psychiatric care in 2016, 35 years after the incident and 12 years after Reagan’s death from pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer’s disease.”

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, became president in 1901 following the assassination of William McKinley. He served out that term and was re-elected, but in 1912 he ran for a third term on the Progressive Party. During the campaign, he traveled through this area by train stopping in Glenwood City on October 11th. By October 14 he was in Milwaukee and was shot just before he was to give a speech. “The 50-page text of his campaign speech, folded over twice in Roosevelt’s breast pocket, and a metal glasses case slowed the bullet, saving his life. Roosevelt assured the crowd he was all right and spoke for 84-minutes before completing his speech and accepting medical attention,” this according to Wikipedia.

Roosevelt ultimately lost his bid for re-election to the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson. The two assassination attempts on President Gerald Ford in September 1975 are the only two known cases of women attempting to assassinate an American President.

On a local note, a wedding ceremony took place at the Glenwood City Fire Station Saturday afternoon uniting two local firefighters. Congratulations to Bill & Kristin (Hurtgen) Koosmann. The Department’s 1919 Ford Model T carried the bride-to-be to the fire station for the ceremony.

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton