Just 2 Seconds (83 page)

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Authors: Gavin de Becker,Thomas A. Taylor,Jeff Marquart

1395.
Date: October 14, 1912
Target: Former President Theodore Roosevelt
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Details: John Schrank followed Roosevelt for 2,000 miles through eight states in 24 days of campaigning, waiting for an opportunity to kill him. Roosevelt walked out of his hotel, got into his open car, and turned to wave at the crowd. Schrank fired his .38 Colt revolver from six feet away. Roosevelt was struck in the right chest, suffering only a broken fourth rib and a minor wound. A metal case for carrying reading glasses and a folded 50-page speech slowed the bullet substantially, such that Roosevelt was able to complete his speech. He told the audience, "It takes more than one bullet to stop a bull moose!" After the speech, he was taken to the hospital for treatment. He carried the bullet in his chest until he died seven years later, of natural causes. Schrank was tried and spent the rest of his life in prison.

1396.
Date: February 15, 1933
Target: President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt
Location: Miami, Florida
Details: Giuseppe Zangara read in the newspaper that Roosevelt would visit Bayfront Park. He was waiting among a crowd of 10,000 people in the bleachers when Roosevelt's motorcade pulled up and stopped. Roosevelt made a short speech from his open car, and then Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak came down from the stage to visit with Roosevelt. Zangara fired five shots from a .32 revolver at a distance of 25 feet. Five people were hit: Three bystanders collapsed with head wounds, a woman was struck in the stomach, and Cermak was hit in the right side, striking his lung. Though Roosevelt was not injured, Cermak died from his wounds three weeks after the attack.

1397.
Date: November 1, 1950
Target: President Harry Truman
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Truman was staying at Blair House while the White House was being restored. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola were intent on bringing attention to the issue of Puerto Rican independence. Collazo approached the Blair House from the east armed with a Walther P-38 pistol, and Torresola approached from the west armed with a Luger pistol. They attempted to rush the front door and had agreed to shoot anyone who got in their way. In the ensuing gun battle, one White House policeman was killed, as was Torresola. Collazo was wounded and captured. Twenty-seven shots were fired in less than three minutes. Collazo was sentenced to death, but Truman later commuted it to life in prison. He was later freed when President Carter commuted that sentence.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)

1398.
Date: December 11, 1960
Target: President-elect John F. Kennedy
Location: Palm Beach, Florida
Details: Kennedy was staying at his father's home in Florida, following his election victory. He emerged from the house to go to mass, accompanied by his wife, daughter, and several nieces and nephews. Across the street, Richard Pavlick sat in his car and watched Kennedy prepare to leave. On the seat next to Pavlick were many sticks of dynamite wired to a knife switch. He planned to ram Kennedy's car and throw the switch, killing Kennedy and himself in the process. Seeing the children with the President-elect, he decided to kill Kennedy another day and left. Pavlick had visited the compound to observe security prior to this aborted attempt. Later, he visited a church the Presidentelect frequented, to learn about its interior. Police were tipped off to Pavlick by a postmaster who had received alarming letters from him. Four days after the aborted attempt at Kennedy's home, Pavlick was arrested without incident. They found with him the sticks of dynamite, and a letter, written in the past tense, explaining why he had killed Kennedy.

1399.
Date: November 22, 1963
Target: President John F. Kennedy
Location: Dallas, Texas
Details: Kennedy was riding in an open car through the streets of Dallas to attend political meetings. Three rounds from a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5mm rifle were fired at Kennedy's car as it passed the Texas School Book Depository, where Oswald worked. According to the Warren Commission investigation, the first round missed, the second round struck Kennedy in the back, passed through him, then struck Texas Governor John Connally in the back, passed through his chest, through his wrist, coming to rest in his thigh, and the third round struck Kennedy in the head, causing a massive, fatal wound. Kennedy died on the scene but was rushed to Parkland Hospital, where he was declared dead. Oswald reportedly fled the Book Depository and later allegedly murdered a policeman before being arrested. The shots fired from the Texas School Book Depository covered a distance of 263 feet, the farthest distance from which anyone has harmed a U.S. President. Controversy has continued for four decades about the number of shots fired, the origin of shots, and the number of assailants.

1400.
Date: February 22, 1974
Target: President Richard Nixon
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Details: Samuel Byck shot his way onto a Delta jet at the Baltimore-Washington Airport. He intended to hijack the plane, force the pilots to take off, and then crash the plane into the White House to kill Nixon. He killed a security guard and the crew, before police shot and wounded him. He then killed himself. He was armed with a .22 revolver and a gasoline bomb in a briefcase.

1401.
Date: September 5, 1975
Target: President Gerald Ford
Location: Sacramento, California
Details: Ford was walking through a park from his hotel to the state capitol building, during an official visit. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme stood among a large group of well-wishers along the route. As Ford neared her, she pulled a Colt .45 pistol out and aimed it at Ford. Secret Service Agent Larry Buendorf grabbed the gun and disarmed her, while other agents surrounded the president and rushed him into the capitol building.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)

1402.
Date: September 22, 1975
Target: President Gerald Ford
Location: San Francisco, California
Details: Ford returned to California for an official visit. Sara Jane Moore stood among the 3,000 spectators to get a glimpse of him. As he emerged from the St. Francis Hotel, Moore pulled out a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver and fired one shot, which narrowly missed Ford, ricocheted and struck a taxi driver in the crowd. Moore was grabbed by other spectators and disarmed, and was unable to fire more rounds. Ford was shoved into his limousine and taken to the airport. Moore was released from prison in 2007.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

1403.
Date: March 30, 1981
Target: President Ronald Reagan
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Reagan was attending a function at the Washington Hilton Hotel. As he emerged from the building and walked toward his limousine, John W. Hinckley Jr. opened fire with a Rohm RG-14 .22 revolver, firing six shots in 1.8 seconds from fifteen feet away. Reagan was wounded in the left side by a bullet, which bounced off the side of his armored limousine. Security personnel overpowered Hinckley. Rapid Secret Service response saved him from greater injury, and immediate transportation to the hospital after the shooting saved him from death. During the attack, a Secret Service agent was wounded in the abdomen, a police officer was struck in the neck, and Reagan's press aide was struck in the forehead. All survived. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental hospital. Hinckley had also stalked President Carter at a political rally the previous year, and had considered killing himself at the scene of John Lennon's murder. (
3-STARS: Protector action during the attack favorably influenced safety/survival
)

1404.
Date: October 29, 1994
Target: President Bill Clinton
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Francisco Duran pulled a Norinco SKS-style rifle from under his trench coat and fired 27 rounds at the White House. When he tried to reload, two bystanders tackled and held him until officers arrived. Police found a map in his car with the words "kill the Prez" written on it, as well as a Mossberg shotgun. On August 23, Duran had called Senator Ben Campbell's office in Colorado and threatened to "go to Washington and take someone out."
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

1405.
Date: May 10, 2005
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Details: While Bush delivered a pro-democracy speech to a crowd of at least 150,000 people in Freedom Square, an RGD-5 fragmentation hand grenade was tossed to within 60 feet of the podium, but failed to explode. It was not discovered until later. In the hours after the incident, Georgia officials insisted the device was an inert, Soviet-era training grenade that posed no threat to Bush or his audience. The White House later acknowledged that security protocols broke down at the event when throngs of people proceeded through barricades and became part of the audience without passing through metal detectors. According to the FBI, the grenade was thrown by an unknown assailant and was wrapped in a dark-colored handkerchief and bounced off a woman's head. Vladimir Arutyunian was arrested after he killed a policeman in a shoot-out and was himself shot three times. He confessed to throwing the grenade and said he would try to kill Bush again if he got the chance. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

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