Top 10 Assassination Attempts

10. Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson would become the first (and only US President) to personally beat the crap out of their would-be assassin. On January 30, 1835, President Jackson was attending the funeral of a South Carolina Representative when Richard Lawrence made his move. Lawrence fired two pistols at Jackson both misfired then the President charged at the man and began to beat him with his cane. It took several aides to restrain the 67-year-old Commander in Chief while Davey Crockett apprehended Lawrence.

Richard Lawrence was later declared not guilty by insanity and spent the rest of his life in the Government Hospital for the Insane. John Hinckley Jr would be housed here under it’s present name St. Elizabeths Hospital. (See #9)


9. Ronald Reagan

Upon watching the movie Taxi Driver approximately 15 times a man named John Hinckley Jr. became enamored with actress Jodie Foster. After several “rejections” on Foster’s part, Hinckley decided to kill the President of the United States. On March 30, 1981 Hinckley traveled to the Washington Hilton Hotel where Reagan was speaking that day. After Reagan had finished his speech and was about to drive away in his limousine six shots were fired.

One hit Press Secretary James Brady, another struck Washington DC officer Thomas Delahaney, and another hit Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. Two others hit the limousine and one ricocheted off the door of the limo traveling under Reagan’s left armpit. Many didn’t realize that the President had indeed been shot as he was shoved into the limo and driven away.

While his intended victim was rushed to the hospital Hinckley asked the police if the Academy Awards would be canceled that night, they were postponed until the next night. Reagan asked his surgeon if he was a republican, ironically Dr Joesph Giordano was a liberal democrat but proclaimed “we are all Republicans today.”

James Brady sustained the most damage from the attack, the bullet had hit his head and he was permanently disabled from the shot. The Brady Bill is named after him that carried a variety of gun control laws. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect the insanity defense was severely scrutinized and rewritten. As of December 2007 Hinckley has never regretted shooting the president claiming it “the greatest love offering in the history of the world.”


8. Adolf Hitler

The attempts on Hilter’s life are many and the July 20th Plot of 1944 is probably the most famous of attempts on Hitler’s life, it was also probably the closest to achieving its goal. The one chosen to attack Hitler was Claus von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was in command of the German Reserve Army; he had close personal access to Hitler and he often advised him militarily along with other top Nazi’s

On July 20th, Stauffenberg entered the conference room in Rastenburg, Germany. He planted the device at 12:10 hours and excused himself from the room. The bomb went off at 12:40 hours and Adolf Hitler escaped from the attack with only minor injuries. Stauffenberg fled to Rangsdorff Airport while the rest of the coconspirators were in panic. At 19:00 hours that night he and several others were captured. They were flown to Bendlerblock, Germany’s military headquarters and found guilty of high treason. Claus von Stauffenberg was shot at 1:00 hours on July 21, 1944. Some several hundred others were found guilty in mock trials over the next few months.

This story has been made into several films the newest of which is called Valkyire. It caused controversy in Germany over using Tom Cruise, a Scientologist in the lead role of a national hero. Bryan Singer of X-Men and The Usual Suspects fame is directing it.


7. V.I. Lenin

On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan fired three shots at Vladimir Lenin after he finished a speech in a Moscow factory and was getting into his car. One bullet hit his shoulder and another entered his jaw, the third passed through his coat. The shots rendered him unconscious. Lenin was rushed to his Kremlin apartment and when he regained consciousness he refused to go to the hospital paranoid that he would be finished off there.

Kaplan was captured by the Cheka (the predecessor to the KGB) and issued this statement:

My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot at Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it.

When Kaplan refused to give up any other co-conspirators she was executed on September 3, 1918. Lenin carried the bullet in his neck until the day he died.


6. Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine announced his bid to run for President on the Independent ticket in 2004 against incumbent Viktor Yanukovych. In early September of 2004 Yushchenko was flown to Vienna, Austria and was diagnosed with “acute pancreatitis” due to “a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products.” He was also plagued with jaundice and bloated pockmarks; after seeing his visage on television Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer contacted the Vienna hospital and told them to test for Dioxin. It was concluded that Yushchenko’s condition was indeed from “high concentrations of Dioxin,” with concentration measures about 1,000 times normal in the human body.

Some toxicologists claim that he had to have been poisoned at least 3-14 days before his admission. Yushchenko claims that he was poisoned at a dinner with the head of the Security Service of Ukraine that had occurred the night before his admission. Given the high levels of Dioxin in his blood work other toxicologists agree that this may have been the initial contact.