Talk:List of assassinated American politicians

message: Is listed here as being poisoned, but his page says "There were two attempts on McFadden's life, a failed shooting and an apparent poisoning that made him "violently ill" after attending a political banquet in Washington. [6][7] He died in 1936 on a visit to New York City" Which implies to me that he wasn't assasinated by poisoning. Shall I remove him?Billsmith453 (talk) 14:43, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Louis Mc Fadden

message: I turned off the edit function for individual sections because the pictures were pushing all of the edit links down to the bottom all bunched up on one line, at least in Firefox.  The __NOEDITSECTION__ tag can be removed once there is enough content in each section to allow the pictures room to breathe.--Old Hoss 19:43, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: added <nowiki>__NOEDITSECTION__</nowiki>

message: Wouldn't it be better to have (president) or whatever after each of their names?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by SpookyMulder (talk • contribs) 14:25, August 25, 2007 (UTC) 
: Yes, this should indicate the office held by each.  A table format would be nice, as well. Unschool (talk) 22:54, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Okay, well I've changed the format to at table.  I've picked a sortable table, of course, but that bears explaining a couple of things.  I've listed the names in Family Name, Given Name order, so as to faciliate the alphabetical sorting that some might want to do.  For much the same reason I've placed the year of death, but not the date:  so that one can easily place them in chronological order.  I'm certainly open to any criticism, but I think that this makes the information much easier to access than the old format.  Unschool (talk) 03:48, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  Oh, one other thing.  Normally in an article we do not keep wikilinking a word each time it is repeated, we just do it the first time.  I have chosen to handle this differently.  Why?  Because, once the table gets resorted, what was once the first incidence of the word "Congressman" may now be somewhere else in the table. Unschool (talk) 03:50, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: who are they all

message: Joseph Smiths should be taken off; he's a religious figure, not a politician?
:Agree that he should be taken off the list, as it doesn't appear to be an assassination, but rather the killing of a rival gang member. Cheers. Duke53 | Talk 19:38, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Changes

message: Martin Luther King was certainly a political leader, no?  He wasn't an elected official, obviously, but it that the only criteria?  Malcolm X should probably be there too...  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.127.51.82 (talk) 03:44, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think civil rights leaders fall into the category of 'politician'. Politically active, certainly, but not politicians. Their inclusion would change the subject of the list. Lilitou (talk) 18:10, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

text: In September 1967 about 2000 people met in Chicago as the National Conference for a New Politics and considered forming a third party with MLK as their presidential candidate. In fact, the effort did not go forward, but MLK probably would have run if it had--he addressed the meeting. Dblobaum (talk) 22:32, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: MLK

message: Why is Rockwell in this list? How does he meet the criteria? He was the leader of a small fringe group, was never elected or appointed to any political post. Dblobaum (talk) 22:25, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: George Lincoln Rockwell?

message: Would diplomat count as an appointed position? Many US diplomats have been assassinated over the years. Mikebar (talk) 10:02, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  diplomats are not politicians, as per the title of the article.  Kransky (talk) 10:08, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Diplomats

message: Shouldn't this list include the officials who were victims of Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton's shooting in Kirkwood, MO on February 7th?
*Kenneth Yost, Public Works Director
*Michael H.T. Lynch, City Council Member
*Connie Karr, City Council Member
24.196.90.38 (talk) 05:47, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Recent events

message: Paul Wellstone? Wut? Dirtysocks (talk) 02:33, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. Unschool (talk) 14:12, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Alexander Hamilton]]?

message: The chart would be easier to put into context if it were in chronological order.  TripOnMyShip (talk) 17:34, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: By happy cicumstance, this is a sortable table.  You can place it in chronological order(or reversible chronological order) by clicking on the funny looking bow-tie symbol at the top of the "Year Killed" column.  Likewise you can sort by the name of the assassin, in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order, by clicking that column, etc. Unschool (talk) 14:09, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Organizagtion

message: This page would be more useful if there was an additional column that listed the reported reason(s) or motive(s) of the assasin(s).  Patterns might be discerned that could indicate why assasinations occur.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yoda2000 (talk • contribs) 18:53, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Personally, I do not know enough about the attack on Governor Bent to speak either way.  But in general I would note that even if the killers were acting as a mob, if their objective was, in fact, to kill the Governor specifically, then it would still seem to me to be an assassination. Unschool (talk) 14:05, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Reported Reasons/Motives

message: Unless the article is about politicians violently killed by others, being killed by Indians and "New Mexican rebels" shouldn't qualify as an assassination. DOR (HK) (talk) 07:00, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Personally, I do not know enough about the attack on Governor Bent to speak either way.  But in general I would note that even if the killers were acting as a mob, if their objective was, in fact, to kill the Governor specifically, then it would still seem to me to be an assassination. Unschool (talk) 14:05, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Charles Bent

message: This list should be in order by year. 96.229.193.68 (talk) 06:43, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: You're in luck!  It's a sortable list, which means that, by clicking on the little "bow-tie" in the Year column, it will reorder the list so that they are in order by year.  You can even reverse it, so that it goes from the most recent to the most long ago, or vice versa. Unschool (talk) 19:06, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I see. Thank. 96.229.193.68 (talk) 19:39, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Year

message: The article says that he was killed by an unknown member of the KKK but his page says he was killed by George Clark, Secretary of the Democratic Committee of Monroe County. Mikenlesley (talk) 06:48, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Good call, Mike.  I checked out the source at James M. Hinds.  Looked good to me, so I changed it here.  Thanks. Unschool (talk) 13:10, 19 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: James M Hinds

message: Do we have RS that says John Roll was assassinated, as opposed to just murdered? F (talk) 23:17, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: NYTimes  is saying "Giffords was clearly the intended target". F (talk) 23:27, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Was Anton Cermak the target? Abductive (reasoning) 16:48, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

text: Is there a clear distinction? Some dictionary definitions Assination#cite_note-0 are more explicit about the reasons. Others dictionaries are more vague - Concise Oxford English Dictionary: "murder (a political or religious leader)."--Enos733 (talk) 05:45, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

text: I thought that too, but we do list John H. Wood, Jr. and the article says that he was assassinated, not just murdered. hbdragon88 (talk) 01:41, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

text: I'm going to remove all Federal Judges from the list as they belong on the page listed above.--Found5dollar (talk) 01:29, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  John Roll 

message: Would the page be enhanced if notable attempts were mentioned?  
Examples:
George Wallace--
Four term Alabama governor, four time presidential candidate, at the center of the segregation storm, etc.   He was shot FIVE TIMES and paralyzed for life, confined to a wheelchair.
Ronald Reagan--
A sitting president was shot to the ground. The bullet was one inch from his heart.
The title of this page is "List of assassinated American politicians".  These two examples meet the "American politician" criteria.  As for the "assassinated" criteria-- the bloody violence was real, the intent was real.  Morbidity in those circumstances is a matter of chance, and mere chance hardly seems a significant enough reason to be listed - or not listed - on Wikipedia.
So I'm wondering about a second list under the main one, but on the same page, for "attempts".
Just a thought. :)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.235.210.83 (talk) 20:13, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  notable attempts? 

message: Hey I am going to change the term disputed on the assasination page, I know his decendadnts claim he did not do it. But it is certainly less disputed by the public in general as to the assassin was than say JFK. I am just putting this here for comment if someone comes to change it back to "disputed"50.80.150.100 (talk) 02:33, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Weiss assasination of Kingfish

message: There is a fine reference for this assassination in The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, by Michael Newton  Trobster (talk) 01:50, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thomas Carmichael Hindman, Jr., Arkansas 

message: Is this really an assasination?  His article claims he was beaten to death by his insane son.  It doesn't seem to be politically motivated. 76.87.9.203 (talk) 22:35, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cornelius S. Hamilton 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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message: I've spent several hours working to find what information there is on assassinated Florida State Senator Elisha G. Johnson. Having written that article I thought he belonged here. But there's not a single newspaper article that I can cite as source. So I left it with a reference to the article on him. I hope nobody has a problem with that. It was apparently swept under the rug, deliberately non-publicized at the time. deisenbe (talk) 16:38, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Elisha Johnson, Alexander Hamilton 

message: Merriam-Webster defines the word 'assassinate' as "to murder (a usually prominent person) by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons." Many of the politicians included in this list were either not targeted, not killed in a sudden or secret attack, or were not killed for political reasons. A killing does not need to meet all of these criteria to be an assassination, but it has to be distinct from a murder or an unintended death.
Edward Dickinson Baker's death during the Battle of Ball's Bluff should be removed as he was not targeted, he merely died during the course of battle.
Larry McDonald's death as a result of KAL 007 being shot down when it entered Soviet air space does not appear to have been targeted.
Henry Denhardt, after murdering his fiancée, was killed by his fiancée's brothers. This was not about politics; he was just murdered.
Duels tended to result from political disagreements, but they were not sudden or secret; both parties had to agree to take part and set out a time and place. For this reason, Alexander Hamilton, Spencer Darwin Pettis, Jonathan Cilley, and David Colbreth Broderick should be removed.
As I am new, please let me know if there are things I should do differently in the future.
Thank you,
Endnotes (talk) 16:37, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I’m with you all the way (and grateful) until you get to duels. I think they qualify as assassinations. deisenbe (talk) 18:37, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

text: Thank you for your input. I can easily see how duels could be considered assassinations and would support having them kept in. Endnotes (talk) 01:55, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have restored the most famous duel, Hamilton-Burr. Not the other 3 yet. In doing so I stumbled across :Category:American politicians killed in duels, and they all should be included. On me mental list of things “to do”, unless someone else does. Many duels were secret as far as the public was concerned (to prevent interference). Hamilton-Burr was. deisenbe (talk) 05:04, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I have a hard time seeing Hamilton-Burr as an assassination.  So I guess the wikipedia way is to ask to see a reference from an acceptable source who calls it that.  Failing that, I am inclined to remove it. Carptrash (talk) 05:17, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  Would you explain just why you have a problem with Hamilton-Burr? By the definition given above (to murder (a usually prominent person) by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons) I thihk it qualifies. It was secret, though not from Hamilton. That’s why they chose Weehawken. Hamilton was prominent. It took place for political, not personal reasons. Do you think “murder” is the problem? Sudden is harder to defend, but the definition says “sudden or secret”. The key point for me is that it was political. Are you saying it was a political murder, but not a political assassination? What’s the difference? Or is that it wasn’t a secret from Hamilton?deisenbe (talk) 09:26, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: How can you say that this was a "sudden or secret attack?" Both men went out to do this act.  Nothing sudden about it.  It was planned in advance and while it was carried out secretly, it was no secret to the principles. Or others involved. Carptrash (talk) 17:38, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

text: After looking through their pages, I've changed "Linda Collins-Smith" to "Linda Collins" and commented out her entry as well as Denhardt's, Tison's, and Arndt's. Blippy1998 (talk) 09:38, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  re-added them in April 2023, believing them to be "removed without explanation". I have just removed some commenting-out code that was accidentally left behind after those edits. – Fayenatic London 09:45, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: woops my bad SusImposter49 (talk) 19:02, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  How Assassination Is Defined: Removing Several of Those Listed 

message: Please have a look at this May 25, 2018, article and add your opinion on whether some version of “disputed”, “conspiracy theories,” or the views of his two children cited should be mentioned. I think it would do more good than harm to mention them. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/05/26/who-killed-bobby-kennedy-his-son-rfk-jr-doesnt-believe-it-was-sirhan-sirhan/?utm_term=.301b24cc9518
deisenbe (talk) 12:40, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Robert Kennedy 

message: and see whether he would fit in. He is described as the alcalde of Taos Pueblo. Carptrash (talk) 04:19, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Would someone check [[Tomás Romero (revolutionary)|Tomás Romero]] 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
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Participate in the deletion discussion at the . —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:39, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion 

message: Someone might want to write up Hawaii state senator Larry Kuriyama, who was assassinated in 1970. I realize that the page only lists figures who have their own Wikipedia page, but Senator Kuriyama's killing shook Hawaii police, prosecutors, organized criminals, and the public to one degree or another for years and would be worthy of an article.72.253.184.202 (talk) 09:40, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Larry Kuriyama 

message: AJ Rosier, WHH Tison, and Henry Denhart all appear to be politicians that were murdered for apolitical reasons and therefore not assassinated. Should they be removed? Mr-Knowledge-Guy (talk) 02:17, 30 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: An assassination does not need to be political. This is a list of politicians who were assassinated, not necessarily assassinated in line of duty. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 04:50, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

text: Btw, the only member of the US Congress who had died up to 1983 in line of duty was Leo Ryan. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 04:55, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed several entries back in 2021; they were people killed by spouses or relatives (motive was personal animus, not the victims status as a politician), and a 9/11 victim (wasn't personally targeted). The three mentioned weren't in the list at the time. Denhart should definitely go; there's a clear motive that doesn't have anything to do with his being a politician. Rosier should probably go. There isn't enough information in the Tison article to determine a motive. Plantdrew (talk) 17:28, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Where does it say in this page that the assassination needs to be political? I encourage you to read the lead of the article assassination. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 20:04, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Assassinations don't need to be political (John Lennon comes to mind), but not every murdered politician should be considered assassinated. 9/11 victims weren't individually personally targeted; they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact that one of them happened to be a politician doesn't make his death an assassination. Plantdrew (talk) 22:46, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: "The fact that one of them happened to be a politician doesn't make his death an assassination." Yes, probably. I have removed myself in the past some pages from categories of assassinated politicians. But you state, " there's a clear motive that doesn't have anything to do with his being a politician". Which is not a requirement for the term "assassination". Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 01:57, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: For consistency's sake, shouldn't Rosier be taken off? His article repeatedly describes his murder not his assassination Mr-Knowledge-Guy (talk) 05:56, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks like you have a point. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 23:45, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Murders, not Assassinations