Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, politics can get really heated, especially in a presidential
election year. As we've seen this summer. Four presidents have
been assassinated, and there have been nine unsuccessful attempts on
the lives of presidents or candidates, but one president, in fact,
the only one that was never elected to office, had
two attempts on his life within seventeen days, neither successful.
(00:23):
I'm Patty Steele assassination attempts and turning down the heat.
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
Donald Trump narrowly avoided assassination when he was shot during
a campaign rally in Pennsylvania this summer. The bullet went
(00:43):
through his ear but missed his skull by a fraction
of an inch. Why because he had just turned his
head during the speech to look at a chart about
illegal immigration, taking himself out of the bullseye. In US history,
four presidents have been assassinated, including Abraham Lincoln in eighteen
sixty five, James Garfield in eighteen eighty one, William McKinley
(01:08):
in nineteen oh one, and of course John F. Kennedy
in nineteen sixty three, and as far as candidates go,
in nineteen sixty eight, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
was assassinated late at night following his speech in la
But there were at least nine attempted assassinations on the
(01:28):
lives of presidents or candidates in our history, only one
of which left the victim badly wounded. George Wallace, an
old school's Southern Democrat, was running for president when he
was shot during a campaign stop in Maryland in nineteen
seventy two. He was left paralyzed from the waist down
going back once again. There was an earlier attempt on
(01:51):
the life of President Lincoln. After he was elected, but
days before his inauguration, he was headed to Washington along
the Way Way, he made stops to try to reassure
a nation on the brink of civil war. As his
train headed east from Illinois, word came via Alan Pinkerton,
Lincoln's head of security, that a southern organization was planning
(02:15):
an assassination attempt. When the train stopped in Baltimore, Maryland
than a slave state. Pinkerton and his top agent, Kate Warren,
the first female detective in America by the way, went
under cover, and they infiltrated the conspirators to learn their plans.
Pinkerton wanted Lincoln to immediately and of course secretly switch trains,
(02:37):
but true to form, Lincoln first wanted to show up
for a speech in Philadelphia. During this speech, knowing there
was a plot to kill him, he described the principle
of liberty in the Declaration of Independence, and he said,
if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle,
I would rather be assassinated on this spot than under it.
(03:01):
That night, he managed to slip away, foiling the first
attempt on his life. Other presidents who escaped death by
an assassin included Teddy Roosevelt, who was shot while campaigning
for a third term. What saved him folded papers and
a metal glasses case in his pocket blunted the bullet's impact,
(03:22):
and he wasn't really hurt. Then there's Franklin Roosevelt as
President elect. He had just given a speech outdoors in
Miami when shots rang out. Fdr not hurt, but the
mayor of Chicago traveling with him was killed. And Harry
Truman was living at Blair House while the White House
was being redone in late nineteen fifty two, gunmen broke in,
(03:45):
shots were fired, killing one police officer and one attacker,
but Truman was unhurt. Ronald Reagan also shot while in
office by a guy trying to impress actress Jody Foster.
Mister Reagan fully reach covered. Three other people, though, were shot,
including his press secretary James Brady, who was partially paralyzed
(04:07):
as a result and died from his wounds a full
thirty years later. And George W. Bush was at a
rally in Eastern Europe in two thousand and five when
a hand grenade was thrown toward him, but he was
triply protected, first by a bad throw it landed one
hundred feet away, second by a bulletproof barrier, and third
(04:28):
the grenade didn't go off. But Gerald Ford, the only
US president never actually elected to office, survived not one,
but two assassination attempts. The mid seventies were filled with
dramatic political upheaval. Ford had stepped into office after Richard
(04:51):
Nixon was forced to resign due to the Watergate scandal.
As he tried to steady the ship, he faced two
assassination attempts again within seventeen days. First, on September fifth,
nineteen seventy five, he was in California to give a
speech and meet with Governor Jerry Brown. As he walked
out of his hotel, Lurking in the crowd was Lynette's
(05:14):
Squeaky Frome. She was a devoted follower of Charles Manson.
She was dressed in red and armed with a cult
forty five pistol. Squeaky pushed her way through the crowd.
She raised her gun and she pointed directly at Ford,
but luck was on President Ford's side. Turns out she'd
(05:34):
forgotten to put a bullet in the gun's chamber, so
it didn't fire, and the Secret Service wrestled her to
the ground. Manson's followers were devoted and Ford's luck held out.
Just seventeen days later, on September twenty second, nineteen seventy five,
in San Francisco, radical and mentally unstable would be assassin
(05:54):
Sarah Jane Moore, a former FBI informant, approached Ford as
he once again and was leaving his hotel, this time
the Saint Francis in San Francisco. As Ford stepped out
more in a crowd of onlookers, pulled out her pistol.
She took aim, she fired, but her aim was off
much like Trump. The bullet whizzed past Ford's head, though
(06:17):
it did not graze his ear, finally hitting a wall.
What saved him was a Vietnam vet on the scene
who noticed Moore's movements and immediately lunged at her just
as she fired. That deflected her aim, and Secret Service
agents pounced on her. Each one of those attempted assassinations
(06:39):
have led to reforms and how the Secret Service tries
to perfect the job of protecting our leaders at all costs,
but those who want to attack still find a way.
In every one of those cases, they were people not
looked at as imminent threats and so were able to
get alarmingly close to their targets. What motivates individuals to
(07:02):
try to kill some of the most powerful people in America. Well,
despite the differences in their backgrounds and their motives, these
people shared a commentrait a willingness to resort to extreme
violence to support their agenda, and that tells us something
about the need to turn down the heat, both on
(07:22):
the part of the media and in our own conversations
about United States politics. Everybody has an opinion. You might
not like it, but that's okay, because that's as Lincoln
believed what always made democracy work. Hope you like the
(07:45):
Backstory with Patty Steele. I would love it if you
would subscribe or follow for free to get new episodes
delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if you
have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
(08:08):
Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
(08:30):
you didn't know you needed to know.