The
attempted assassination of President elect Donald Trump was shocking as it is
not the first attempt on the life of an American leader. In fact there have
been at least 41 attempts on the life of a President, ex-President or President
elect since the time of George Washington.
The attack is
not even the first to be broadcast. Before him we have the attempt on Ronald
Reagan’s life in 1980, the assassination of President Kennedy and going way
back to 1933 an attempt on the life of the then future President, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt which can be seen online in grainy footage.
The parallels
with President Kennedy in 1963 are uncanny. Both were in open top cars that
were moving slowly and in Roosevelt’s case stopped for over a minute. Huge
crowds also existed that were in close proximity to both men and lots of easy
various vantage points were on offer for a potential assassin to choose from.
The origins
of the 1933 attack go back to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Prior to it an
Italian immigrant, Guiseppe Zangara had moved to live in America. During the
prosperous 1920s he had done well financially but when the economy tanked he
ended up bitter, in part because he was in constant stomach pain. Fed up he
decided the solution was to kill all leaders as he blamed them for his problems.
Originally he wanted to shot President Hoover but when he found out from a
local newspaper that Roosevelt would be in the local area at Miami’s Bayfront
Park he changed his mind and chose Roosevelt as his target. He then bought a
cheap $8 dollar gun from his savings and decided to meet Roosevelt at the park.
On the 15th
of February 1933 Roosevelt decided to deliver a short evening speech on top of a
Buick car for only 1 minute in front of a large crowd of about 25,000 at around
9:40pm in Bayfront Park. Straight after his Secret Service detail, George
Brodnax ordered the car to move on however Roosevelt had other ideas and overruled
that decision as he wanted to chat with a few people nearby so the car stayed
motionless for a little longer.
This was a
fateful decision. Guiseppe Zangara was only 5 ft tall and in the huge crowds of
taller people he struggled to get in a position from where he thought he could
shoot at Roosevelt even though he was around 20-25ft away from the future
President. He realised he could not get closer, Roosevelt’s pause gave him the
time to stand on a metal folding chair to see and aim better.
Once in
position to proceeded to aim over the shoulder of a woman, Lillian Cross who
was also standing on the chair and started to fire at the President elect. 5
fateful shots rang out in a matter of a few seconds all aimed at Roosevelt. Whilst
Zangara tried to shoot Lilian saw what was happening and tried to wrestle with
him and force his aim upwards. She was 5ft 4 and a little heavier than Zangara
and the struggle was intense. Another citizen, Tom Arnold also helped out and
with some help from some Legionaires Zangara was subdued.
The problem
was that Zangara still managed to fire his bullets. Various people were hit,
including Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak who was hit on his right side. Another
4 other people also got hit. Remarkably Roosevelt was not one of them.
A popular
myth grew up that Cermak allegedly told Roosevelt "I'm glad it was me and
not you, Mr. President". These are the words now inscribed on a plaque in
Bayfront Park in Miami. The truth however is likely different. Chicago newsman
Len O'Connor claimed that this legend was made up by Chicago aldermen
"Paddy" Bauler and Charlie Weber. This has some plausibility as he
know that relations between Cermak and Roosevelt were strained because Cermak had
fought his nomination at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
With Zangara now
restrained the crowd quickly turned hostile. However showing remarkable
composure Roosevelt is supposed to have told the crowd not to attack the
assailant as justice would deal with him.
He also insisted
on helping Cermak and made sure the Buick went 12 block along to the Jackson
Memorial Hospital so that Cermak could be attended to. Roosevelt stayed with
him for four hours. At this point his condition seemed stable so he left. Alas
19 days later Cermak died in part due to complications from his pre-existing
colitus.
Up to this
point in Franklin’s public history he was still an untested figure in many
people’s eyes. That day he showed a lot of character and leadership that was
looked upon favourably thereafter by the public.
There were four
individuals injured on February 15. All recovered from their wounds. Mabel Gill
was shot in the abdomen and required a laparotomy for her wounds. She was
discharged from the hospital on the 23rd March 1933. 57 year old William Sinnott, a former New York
police officer, and 22-year-old Russell Caldwell both recovered from bullet
injuries to the head whilst Margaret Kruis, a 23-year- old dancer, had a minor
injury to her hand.
As for Zangara
he was charged and sentenced to 80 years, 20 years for each person injured.
Once Cermak died he was sentenced to execution and died on the 20th
March 1933. On the day of his execution Zangara was upset there were no
cameramen present for his execution. “Lousy capitalists – no picture –
capitalists, no one here take my picture – all capitalists lousy bunch of
crooks,” he supposedly said. His final words to the executioner were “Push the
button.”
The question
arises as to why did he do it? According to Zangara he said "I don’t hate
Mr. Roosevelt personally, I hate all officials and anyone who is rich". Doctors
performed an autopsy on Zangara afterwards and concluded that the acute pain he
experienced throughout his life was due to adhesions on his gallbladder.
Throughout his life, Zangara’s intense pain had been misdiagnosed and
mistreated as appendicitis. This then leaves one with the unanswerable question
that if he had been diagnosed correctly and healed would he have been so bitter
as to want to murder Franklin Delano Roosevelt and might Cernak have not been
shot at?