Question - Number of Presidents Who Were Assassinated All four of them were killed by shooting. Interestingly enough, they were also all victims of Tecumseh's Curse . Learn More: US Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts By Martin Kelly Updated July 25, 2016. In the history of the US presidency, four presidents have actually died from assassination. Another six were the subject of assassination attempts. Following is a description of each assassination and attempt that has occurred since the founding of the nation. Assassinations Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln was shot in the head while watching a play on April 14, 1865. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth escaped and was later shot and killed. Conspirators who helped plan Lincoln's assassination were found guilty and hung. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865. James Garfield - Charles J. Guiteau, a mentally disturbed government office seeker, shot Garfield on July 2 , 1881. The president did not die until September 19th of blood poisoning. This was related more to the manner in which the physicians attended to the president than to the wounds themselves.

Guiteau was convicted of murder and hanged on June 30, 1882. William McKinley - McKinley was shot two times by anarchist Leon Czolgosz while the president was visiting the Pan-American Exhibit in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States He died on September 14, 1901. Czolgosz stated that he shot McKinley because he was an enemy of working people. He was convicted of the murder and electrocuted on October 29, 1901. John F. Kennedy - On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was mortally wounded while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. His apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald , was killed by Jack Ruby before standing trial. The Warren Commission was called to investigate Kennedy's death and found that Oswald had acted alone to kill Kennedy. Many argued, however, that there was more than one gunman, a theory upheld by a 1979 House Committee investigation . The FBI and a 1982 study disagreed.

Speculation continues to this day. Assassination Attempts Andrew Jackson - On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson was attending a funeral for Congressman Warren Davis. Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot him with two different derringers, each of which misfired. Jackson was incensed and attacked Lawrence with his walking stick. Lawrence was tried for the attempted assassination but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. Theodore Roosevelt - An assassination attempt was actually not made on Roosevelt's life while he was in the office of president. Instead, it occurred after he had left office and decided to run for another term against William Howard Taft . While campaigning on October 14, 1912, he was shot in the chest by John Schrank, a mentally disturbed New York saloon keeper. Luckily, Roosevelt had a speech and his spectacle case in his pocket that slowed down the .38 caliber bullet. The bullet was never removed but allowed to heal over. Roosevelt continued with his speech before seeing a doctor.

Franklin Roosevelt - After giving a speech in Miami on February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara shot six shots into the crowd. None hit Roosevelt though the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was shot in the stomach. Zangara blamed wealthy capitalists for his plights and those of other working people. He was convicted of attempted murder and then after Cermak's death due to the shooting he was retried for murder. He was executed by electric chair in March, 1933. Harry Truman - On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationals attempted to kill President Truman to bring attention to the case for Puerto Rican independence. The President and his family were staying at the Blair House across from the White House and the two attempted assassins, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, tried to shoot their way into the house. Torresola killed one and wounded another policeman while Collazo wounded one policeman. Torresola died in the gunfight. Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death which Truman commuted to life in prison. President Jimmy Carter freed Collazo from prison in 1979.

Gerald Ford - Ford escaped two assassination attempts, both by women. First on September 5, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson , pointed a gun at him but did not fire. She was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president and sentenced to life in prison. The second attempt on Ford's life occurred on September 22, 1975 when Sara Jane Moore fired one shot that was deflected by a bystander. Moore was trying to prove herself to some radical friends with the assassination of the president. She was convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison. Ronald Reagan - On March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot in the lung by John Hin c kley , Jr. Hinckley hoped that by assassinating the president, he would earn enough notoriety to impress Jodie Foster. He also shot Press Secretary James Brady along with an officer and a security agent. He was arrested but found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to life in a mental institution.

One fascinating sidenote to presidential assassinations and deaths in office is Tecumseh's Curse whereby presidents starting with William Henry Harrison who were elected in a year ending with a zero were assassinated or died while in office. The curse ended with Ronald Reagan . Read this article to learn more about the history of the curse. U.S. presidential assassinations and attempts - Timelines - Los Angeles Times U.S. presidential assassinations and attempts By Los Angeles Times Staff Jan. 22, 2012 8:49 a.m. From Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama, a look at presidential assassinations and failed attempts. January 30, 1835 Andrew Jackson (Handout) Richard Lawrence’s two bullets aimed at President Jackson misfired in Washington on Jan. 30, 1835. Lawrence was apprehended and later deemed insane and institutionalized. April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln (Associated Press) President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending an evening performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. He died the next day. July 2, 1881 James A.

Garfield (Library of Congress) President Garfield was only four months into his term when lawyer Charles J. Guiteau shot him. Garfield died on Sept. 19, 1881. Guiteau was tried and found guilty. He was hanged on June 30, 1882. September 6, 1901 William McKinley (Library of Congress) The 25th president, William McKinley, was visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., when he was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley died on Sept. 14, 1901. Czolgosz was sentenced to death and electrocuted on Oct. 29, 1901. After McKinley’s death, the Secret Service officially took responsibility for protecting U.S. presidents. October 13, 1912 Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt in 1915. (Associated Press) President Roosevelt was shot at while about to give a speech in Milwaukee.

During his speech, Roosevelt said, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” He survived the attack, and the bullet remained in his body until his death in 1919. The shooter, John F. Schrank, was found insane. February 15, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Associated Press) Though he had not been sworn into office yet, Roosevelt was shot at five times while at a speaking engagement in Miami. Bricklayer Giuseppe Zangara fired the shots wildly, wounding four and killing Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Zangara was found guilty of murder and executed on March 20, 1933. November 1, 1950 Harry S. Truman (Associated Press) Two supporters of Puerto Rican independence, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, targeted President Truman when he was staying at a house in Washington while the White House was undergoing renovation. The violent attempt resulted in the death of a White House police officer and Torresola. Collazo was sentenced to life in prison. Truman was unharmed.

November 22, 1963 Richard Nixon (YouTube) Samuel Byck, an unemployed former tire salesman, tried to hijack a plane out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport to crash it into the White House, but his plans were foiled. He shot the pilot and co-pilot and eventually shot himself. Sean Penn starred in a dramatization of the events in the 2004 film “The Assassination of Richard Nixon.” September 5, 1975 Gerald Ford (AFP) President Ford survived two assassination attempts in the same month. On Sept. 5, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, fired a pistol at the president in a crowd in Sacramento, but Ford was unharmed. On Sept. 22, Sara Jane Moore pulled a revolver on Ford in San Francisco. Both were sentenced to life in prison. May 5, 1979 Jimmy Carter (Associated Press) President Carter was about to give a speech in Los Angeles when Secret Service agents detained Raymond Lee Harvey, who authorities said had a starter pistol with blank rounds in his pockets. March 30, 1981 Ronald Reagan John Hinckley Jr.

shot and wounded President Reagan and three others outside a hotel in Washington. Hinckley said his motivation was to show his feelings for actress Jodie Foster. He was found insane and committed to a mental hospital. He is seeking more time outside the facility. George H.W. Bush (Associated Press) President George H.W. Bush was not in office when 16 men plotted to kill him with a car bomb while he was at a speaking engagement at Kuwait University. Kuwaiti officials found the bomb and arrested the would-be assassins. November 1996 Bill Clinton President Clinton escaped a bombing attempt in November 1996 while visiting the Philippines for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The Secret Service was able to divert his motorcade. It was later revealed that terrorist Osama bin Laden was behind the plot. February 7, 2001 George W. Bush (AFP) Robert Pickett, an accountant from Evanston, Ind., shot at the White House when the president was inside. President Bush was unharmed. A Secret Service officer shot Pickett, who was later sentenced to three years in prison.

November 11, 2011 Barack Obama Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was arrested and charged with the attempted assassination of President Obama near the National Mall. Obama was not at the White House at the time. The Idaho man, still detained, said he believed Obama was “the devil” and had to be “taken care of.” List of U.S. Presidents Who Died In Office U.S. Presidents Who Died In Office Since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, and the inauguration of our first president in 1789, only 43 men have served as President of the United States , and Barack Obama became the newest president when he was sworn in on January 20, 2009. Obama is considered the 44th president, even though 43 have served. One president served twice in non-consecutive terms, and is therefore counted twice. Of those 43 presidents, eight have died while serving as president. Four of natural causes, and four through assassination. Below is list of those eight presidents who died in office.

William Henry Harrison -The 9th President, who died in 1841 of pneumonia and pleurisy. Zachary Taylor --The 12th President, who died in 1850 of bilious fever, typhoid fever, and cholera morbus, following a heat stroke. Abraham Lincoln--The 16th President, was assassinated in1865. Lincoln was the first of four presidents to be assassinated. James Garfield--The 20th President, who was assassinated in1881. William McKinley--The 25th President, who was assassinated 1901. Warren G. Harding --The 29th President, who died in1923 of a suspected heart attack Franklin Delano Roosevelt --The 32nd President, who died in 1945, of a cerebral hemorrhage John F. Kennedy -The 35th President, who was assassinated in1963. Which presidents were assassinated? | Reference.com Which presidents were assassinated? A: Quick Answer As of 2014, four U.S.

presidents have been successfully assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. A further six presidents have faced failed assassination attempts, including Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Full Answer As the ultimate symbol of the American republic, nearly every president has faced some form of threat against his life. The United States Secret Service was tasked with the protection of the president following the 1901 murder of McKinley. Since that time, six attempts have been made, but only one has succeeded - the Dallas shooting of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Presidential Assassinations Presidential Assassinations, Attempts, and Security Measures Presidential Assassinations Kennedy was struck by gunshots while riding in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. He was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas shortly after the shooting. Information and Resources about the Four Presidential Assassinations Abraham Lincoln U.S. Capitol Washington, DC A man attempted to fire two guns at Jackson at close range, however, the guns did not discharge a bullet and Jackson was unharmed.

333 West Kilbourne Avenue Milwaukee, Wisconsin After leaving the hotel and before heading to a campaign speech, a man fired on former President and current Presidential candidate Roosevelt and the bullet lodged in his chest. The bullet was slowed by the papers from Roosevelt's speech and his glasses case. He was not seriously injured and insisted on delivering his lengthly speech as planned. Only after the speech did he go to the hospital for examination. It was decided that the bullet remain in Roosevelt's body. 301 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, Florida A man fired shots at the car from which President-Elect Roosevelt had just given a speech. Roosevelt was not hit, but the bullets hit others, including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak who died from his wounds. 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC Two gunmen unsuccessfully attempted to obtain entry to Blair House, where Truman was staying as the White House was being renovated. A gun battle with the Secret Service and other guards commenced and one gunman was killed and the other wounded. Truman was unharmed, but one White House police officer was killed. 1315 10th Street Sacramento, California A woman attempted to fire a gun at Ford as he was approaching the California Capitol.

A Secret Service agent noticed and prevented her from firing the weapon. 335 Powell Street San Francisco, California Upon leaving the St. Francis Hotel a woman fired a gun at Ford. All the shots missed and Ford was unharmed. 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, DC Upon leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel, Reagan was shot by a gunman. He was rushed to George Washington University Hospital where he underwent surgery to remove the bullet. Reagan made a full recovery and returned to the White House on April 11, 1981. This does not purport to be a complete list of every plot or attempt against the life of a U.S. President, but only those where an act was carried out and the President was in the immediate vicinity of the perpetrator. Additional Information about Presidential Assassination Attempts and Security Measures 10 Forgotten Attempted Assassinations Of US Presidents - Listverse 10 Forgotten Attempted Assassinations Of US Presidents Jake Vigliotti March 27, 2014 You know all about the successful assassinations of US presidents. In fact, you probably know too much about the conspiracy and conjecture surrounding John F. Kennedy’s demise.

You may even know about some attempted assassinations, but there have been many more credible attempts to claim the lives of the “leaders of the Free World” than you ever imagined. 10John F. Kennedy Was Almost Shot Weeks Before His Assassination As we recently told you over at KnowledgeNuts , Richard Pavlick attempted to blow up President-elect John F. Kennedy in December 1960. Kennedy was lucky that Pavlick had a change of heart at the last second, but that was just the first attempt on his life. There were two other viable attempts before that fateful Dallas afternoon, and both took place, amazingly, in the same city on the same afternoon. President Kennedy scheduled a trip to Chicago on November 2, 1963. The Windy City stop had a two-fold purpose—to hold a political meeting with the influential Mayor Richard Daley and watch the Army-Navy football game at Soldier Field. According to former Secret Serviceman Abraham Bolden, a group of four Cuban exiles , led by Homer Echevarria, plotted to assassinate Kennedy in Chicago.

Echevarria and his team planned to fire automatic weapons at the Kennedy motorcade as it maneuvered around a turn at Jackson Street from what was then the Northwest Expressway. (It has since been renamed the Kennedy Expressway.) A local landlady reported to police on October 31 that four men in one of her rooms had automatic weapons. Surveillance trailed the men, and after a poor driving decision by a Secret Service agent, their cover was blown. Two of the four men were detained, but a search of the boarding room revealed no weapons, so the two were released—and never seen again. With that crisis averted, the Secret Service immediately found another on their hands. At that very same intersection, a paranoid former Marine named Thomas Vallee was planning his own attempt . Vallee was a member of the far-right John Birch Society and had very strong negative opinions about Kennedy. Acting on a tip, the Secret Service observed that Vallee had high-powered weapons and 2,500 rounds of ammo at his hotel room.

On November 2, the same day as Kennedy’s scheduled appearance, police trailed Vallee as he headed toward the spot where Kennedy would make the slow turn on Jackson, and they pulled Vallee over when he failed to signal at a turn. A knife on the front seat and 750 rounds of ammo in the trunk were enough to detain Vallee. Kennedy never made the trip to Chicago. That same day in Vietnam, President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated , and Kennedy canceled his appearance. Conspiracy buffs find it convenient that it was the assassination in Vietnam, not the threat in Chicago, that terminated the trip. As if Kennedy conspiracy aficionados need more ammo, there is a school of thought that Vallee was a patsy framed by the four Cubans. The information that led to their discovery came from an informer, and the only information about him is his name: “Lee.” At least one person close to the plot is a believer: Vallee’s sister, Mary Vallee-Portillo. She thinks that Vallee, who died in 1988 , was “set up” for the JFK assassination attempt in Chicago.

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, Vallee was a Marine, and he was stationed at the same U-2 base in Japan at the same time as the Dallas shooter. Of course, that’s all just a coincidence—probably. 9Harry Truman Received A Letter Bomb In a well-publicized attack , a pair of Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman in 1950, but another set of nationalists attempted to end Truman’s presidency in his first term. In 1947, Zionist militants were in open battle with British troops. The most menacing of the militant groups was the Stern Group , whose activities looked exactly like those of today’s terrorists. At the time, it appeared that prospects for a future state of Israel—the long-held dream of a Jewish homeland—were bleak. The Stern Group would stop at nothing to achieve their goal. President Truman was quite sympathetic to the Israeli cause, but that didn’t deter the Stern Group from attacking him in the form of a letter. Police were tipped off to the possibility of a letter bomb because of a similar attempt on a British politician.

Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, received a letter that contained an envelope filled with powdered gelignite, a pencil battery, and a detonator. Police determined that the blast resulting from such a combination would be powerful enough to kill a man. Sure enough, the letter Truman received was a similar type of letter bomb. Ironically, the US became the first country to formally recognize Israel in spite of this attack. 8Osama bin Laden Almost Got Bill Clinton Osama bin Laden didn’t become a household name until September 11, 2001, but prior to that, he was known in government circles as a major troublemaker. Terrorists had previously attacked the World Trade Center on President Bill Clinton’s watch in 1993, so the presidential detail was on heightened alert when abroad. Bin Laden wasn’t in on that attack, but he had other plans for Clinton. In 1996, President Clinton was in the Philippines as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Clinton arranged a visit to a local politician, traveling a route that would take him over a bridge. Just prior to the trip, though, a Secret Service agent picked up an odd transmission in his earpiece.

He repeatedly heard the words “bridge” and “wedding” and determined those to be code words for “blow up the bridge when the President is on it.” Clinton’s motorcade was quickly rerouted and no harm fell upon him. The Clinton White House never revealed the assassination attempt, so news outlets didn’t pick up the story until 2009. Al-Qaeda had admitted to assassination attempts on Clinton in the past, but it wasn’t until this story emerged that it was revealed how perilously close they came to success. Even when the Clinton Administration attacked Afghanistan in an attempt to eliminate bin Laden in 1998, they never mentioned the 1996 assassination attempt as a motivation. 7Hoover’s Term Almost Ended Before It Began Herbert Hoover isn’t recalled fondly as a president. He had the misfortune of holding office during the 1929 stock market crash, and everything he tried to do to contain the damage only made it worse. But as a candidate, he was very popular, winning quite handily over Al Smith. Hoover decided to parlay that popularity into a trip abroad prior to taking his oath of office.

In December 1928, President-elect Hoover traveled to Central and South America to promote his plan for a trade partnership with the region. While in Argentina, a known anarchist named Manuel Scarzo was detained after a search of his home found guns, bombs, and—most incriminating—a rail map with Hoover’s path highlighted in red. Scarzo allegedly got the train route from Hoover’s own itinerary , which had been leaked. No one is sure how close Hoover came to death. Clearly, given the details the anarchist possessed, it could have ended poorly for the president-elect. Hoover downplayed the incident, including tearing the newspaper article about it out of his newspaper so his wife wouldn’t see it and become upset. 6George W. Bush Almost Caught A Grenade In Georgia Let’s face it—George W. Bush wasn’t an extremely popular president. A 2006 movie revolved around a fanciful fictional assassination of the president in Chicago, but Bush actually did have a very close encounter in the Eurasian country of Georgia. In 2005, Bush was giving a speech in a crowded square in Tiblisi, Georgia. Suddenly, an object wrapped in a handkerchief came flying through the air.

The threat wasn’t immediately known, but it turned out to be a live grenade . Initial reports downplayed the incident, but the grenade landed less than 30 meters (100 ft) from the president and was very capable of harming him. Had the handkerchief not been so tightly wound around the grenade, it likely would have detonated. Vladimer Arutiniani admitted to throwing the grenade and was arrested. He received a life sentence for his attempt. Arutiniani explained that he aimed high to launch shrapnel over the bulletproof glass protecting Bush as he spoke, and had the grenade gone off, it’s likely he would have been successful. 5Lincoln’s Hat Was Shot Months Before He Was Everyone knows the ultimate fate of Abraham Lincoln, but he came very close to meeting his demise a bit earlier. President Lincoln and his family stayed at the Soldiers’ Home during the summer months to avoid the blistering heat at the White House. It was only about 6 kilometers (4 mi) away, and Lincoln often made the trip on horseback alone.

One night in August 1864, just under a year before his assassination, Lincoln was traveling alone to the Soldiers’ Home at around 11:00 PM when a shot rang out . Private John W. Nichols, who was stationed at the Soldier’s Home, rushed to the aid of the president, whom he found sans hat. Lincoln explained that the horse jerked upon hearing the gunshot, and his hat went flying. When Nichols found the hat, he noticed it now featured a brand-new bullet hole. The President had narrowly missed being shot in the head. Lincoln requested the matter be kept quiet, and it was—Nichols didn’t tell his story until 1867. Many have speculated that Lincoln’s famous hat spoiled the assassin’s aim and saved his life. The death of Lincoln even that much earlier would have had devastating consequences for America. Hannibal Hamlin would have become president, and a lame duck one at that. Hamlin was already off the Union ticket for vice president, having been replaced by Andrew Johnson. Hamlin would have faced strong opposition, because at the time, the Radical Democracy Party—an offshoot of the Republicans—and their nominee, John Fremont, had not yet dropped from the race.

Despite what Steven Spielberg told us in his movie Lincoln, the Radical Democracy Party were more strongly opposed to slavery than Lincoln, which led to their formation. Had the assassin aimed a bit lower in 1864, the election in November would likely have pitted Hamlin against Fremont and McClellan (the Democratic nominee), with Johnson perhaps running on the Union ticket. America in 1864 would have been a mess. 4Reagan’s Would-Be Assassin Targeted Jimmy Carter John Hinckley Jr. was clearly insane. In a bizarre bid for the heart of actress Jodie Foster , Hinckley infamously shot Ronald Reagan early in his first term, but what is glossed over is that Hinckley didn’t really care which president he killed—he just wanted a president. Hinckley’s plans were pretty out there. One plan was to hijack an airplane, fly it to the White House, and live there with Foster . He came to his senses, such as they were, and settled for a presidential assassination.

Hinckley began stalking Jimmy Carter when he was on the campaign trail, and he actually came very close to Carter—within 2 meters (6 ft) during a stop in Dayton, Ohio on October 2, 1980, roughly one month before the election. Hinckley is widely reported to have not carried a gun that day, but he was detained later that month in Nashville, Tennessee with three handguns in his carry-on luggage. Carter was in Nashville at the time of his arrest. With no criminal record, he paid a small fine and journeyed on to Dallas, Texas. It was there that he purchased the gun that shot Reagan. Did Hinckley really not have a gun with him in Dayton? Or did he just change his mind? Hinckley has never clarified that, but what is clear is that he was within spitting distance of a president and the president survived. 3Barack Obama, Ricin, And The Elvis Impersonator The day after the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon , a suspicious package arrived at the US Capitol mail offices.

The day after that, on April 17, 2013, a similar letter addressed to President Barack Obama was intercepted at the White House mail facility. Both contained ricin. The story that follows is so unbelievable that it just has to be true. The two letters—and another that was addressed to Mississippi judge Sadie Holland—all had the same message: “No one wanted to listen to me before. There are still ‘Missing Pieces.’ Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die. This must stop. To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance. I am KC and I approve this message.” A quick Internet search revealed that Elvis impersonator Kevin Curtis used similar phrasing in a one-sided online war against his former employer, North Mississippi Medical Center. After seven hours of questioning, however, the Secret Service began to doubt Curtis was the ricin maker. When asked about the powerful toxin, Curtis replied , “I don’t like rice. I don’t really eat rice. If y’all look in my house, you won’t find any rice.” When asked if he had any enemies, he named Everett Dutschke.

Indeed, Dutschke hated Curtis so much that he had tried to frame the man for killing the president of the United States. Curtis and Dutschke harbored a deep hatred for each other. Curtis said the feud stemmed from Dutschke’s refusal to run an item in his online newspaper, while Dutschke claims that Curtis cyberstalked him after his crushing Mississippi State House election loss. The two battled for six years online and through mutual friends. Dutschke was vainglorious, bragging incessantly about his Mensa membership. He thought he could outsmart anyone. Dutschke mailed the three letters, having included the judge because she was the mother of his political opponent in his failed legislature bid, and framed his bitter rival. He initially pleaded not guilty, but he changed his mind later and entered a guilty plea . His Mensa membership turned out to be less helpful than he might have thought, at least when it came to chemistry: Judge Holland opened her letter and inhaled some of the ricin, but Dutschke had mixed the ricin so poorly that it wasn’t strong enough to kill the 80-year-old judge.

2George Wallace’s Would-Be Assassin Targeted Richard Nixon The better-known attempt on the life of Richard Nixon was by Samuel Byck. He attempted to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House, a plot that eventually formed the basis of a movie starring Sean Penn. Arthur Bremer, on the other hand, is best recalled for his attempted assassination of presidential hopeful George Wallace in 1972. His initial target was a bigger fish, though—the sitting president. Bremer kept a poorly written journal of his thoughts, where he revealed that his number one target was President Nixon. Nixon was a more desirable target to the loner, who greatly desired to become infamous. Wallace was much more accessible, though, so Bremer decided he would be his fallback target if he failed to access Nixon. On April 3, 1972, Bremer put his master plan into action. First, he rented a car to drive to Ottawa, Canada, where he intended to hire a prostitute and lose his virginity. While in Ottawa, he planned to assassinate Nixon, who was there speaking to Canadians.

His plan failed spectacularly—he didn’t lose his virginity, and he didn’t even get close to Nixon, who was constantly surrounded by security guards. In fact, the closest he came to shooting anyone was himself in his hotel room when the gun accidentally discharged. Ten days later, he switched his target to Wallace. After noting the vast difference between the security details on his two intended targets, Bremer followed Wallace around the country briefly before pulling the trigger in May 1972 in Maryland. Wallace survived the attack but was left paralyzed. All Bremer wanted was media attention, yet his assassination attempt on Wallace is merely a footnote to history, and his Nixon escapades are virtually unknown. If you’re breathing a sigh of relief that a guy that warped is safely behind bars, we have bad news—he was freed in 2007. As of 2012, he was living in western Maryland and remains on parole until 2025. 1James Buchanan Was Poisoned On His Inauguration Day James Buchanan is recalled for being a bachelor president, the guy before Lincoln, and a hopeless failure.

His election was seen at the time as a means of keeping the Union intact, as he was a Northerner with Southern leanings. That was enough to persuade some people that America would be better off if he didn’t serve. His inauguration was March 4, 1857. Buchanan and most of his party were staying at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., which was one of the finest hotels in the country at the time. On the evening of March 3, hundreds of patrons became sick . Buchanan was one of the lucky ones and recovered fairly quickly. Not quite so lucky were two sitting member of the US House of Representatives, John G. Montgomery and John Quitman, who ended up dead. Over 30 people died from dysentery related to the National Hotel incident. The prevailing modern viewpoint is that the primitive sewer system led to the illness, but not everyone is convinced that it wasn’t a plot to take out President Buchanan. There is evidence that the disease was already spreading in the hotel prior to Buchanan’s arrival, but it certainly spiked when he showed up.

The hotel was infamous as a hangout for Southern sympathizers, and even John Wilkes Booth stayed there in 1864 while plotting his Lincoln assassination. The poisoning plot was no conspiracy theory—outlets as respectable as The New York Times called it “the most gigantic and startling crime of the age,” while future Secretary of State William Seward insisted that physicians called it a poisoning . Was it poor plumbing or poison? It’s impossible to say, but people at the time certainly thought the latter. It’s worth noting that, had Buchanan died, Vice President and strong Southern supporter John C. Breckinridge would have become president. Breckinridge, interestingly, wasn’t staying at the National Hotel that night. Jake wrote a trivia ebook filled with the same kind of crazy stuff you just read in this list. You can follow him on Twitter for more useless facts. More Great Lists Presidential 20-Year Death Curse : snopes.com Claim: A death curse threatens U.S. presidents elected in years evenly divisible by twenty. LEGEND Origins: With two exceptions, since 1840, U.S. Presidents who have been elected in years ending in zero have been killed or have died of natural causes while in office.

And one exception literally came within an inch of death. It's hard to know what to make of such a sequence, but folks have certainly tried over the years. Such a string of presidential mortality is deemed too improbable to have occurred naturally, giving rise to rumors about a fatal Indian curse among those unwilling to recognize that chaos sometimes takes the form of coincidence. Randomness is disquieting; Indian curses are, in comparison, the lesser of the evils because they at least support the illusion that there is order in our universe. In this odd way, belief in predestined fatalities is comforting. 1840 ... William Henry Harrison 1960 ... John F. Kennedy William Henry Harrison, who was elected in 1840, died of pneumonia at the age of 68, exactly one month after his inauguration. Abraham Lincoln, first elected in 1860, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth just after embarking on his second term in office in 1865. James A. Garfield won the 1880 election. He was shot in the back in a Washington railroad station waiting room in July 1881 and died of his wounds in September 1881.

William McKinley was re-elected in 1900. In September 1901, after giving a speech at an exposition in Buffalo, he was shot while shaking hands with wellwishers. McKinley died of his wounds a little more than a week later. Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920, expired of a stroke or heart attack in 1923. It was long rumored his wife had poisoned him. Franklin D. Roosevelt, re-elected in 1940 for a third term, suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died just after having started an unprecedented fourth term in 1945. John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 but managed to cheat the Grim Reaper by a matter of an inch, the distance by which would-be assassin John Hinckley's bullet missed his heart in 1981. Maybe Reagan also broke the "every 20 years" curse. Or maybe it's just sleeping.

Those who look to make sense of eerie coincidences have come up with an explanation to account for this string of deaths: an ancient Indian curse, supposedly administered by Tecumseh himself after suffering defeat at the hands in William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. (Tecumseh died in the 1813 Battle of the Thames, again fighting troops led by Harrison.) According to lore, the famed Indian chief cursed the Great White Fathers. No explanation is given for why the chief's curse would only affect one presidency in five, but one cannot, after all, expect the fanciful to cover everything. Another version attributes the curse to Tenskwatawa (also known as "The Prophet"), a Shawnee medicine man who was half-brother to Tecumseh. The hex was supposedly his revenge for the death of his half-sibling. "Harrison will die I tell you," the Prophet reportedly said. "And after him, every Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter will die. And when each one dies, let everyone remember the death of my people." Stirring words indeed, but there's no reason to suppose they were actually uttered.

No record of either Tecumseh or Tenskwatawa laying a whammy on American presidents has yet surfaced — it's all undocumented folktale at this point and is as likely just someone's imaginative backstory to the inexplicable as it is anything else. Folks have been taking note of this string of presidential deaths for quite some time — it's not a new snippet of spooky information recently dropped into the lap of the American people. A Ripley's Believe It or Not book published in 1934 noted the coincidental twenty-year pattern of presidential deaths between 1840 and 1920, with question marks in place of a name for the upcoming 1940 entry indicating the presumption of a continuing pattern. The pattern did, of course, hold true again when Franklin Roosevelt, who had been re-elected in 1940, filled in that blank by dying in office in 1945.

As to what to make of the "curse," it's interesting to note that since 1840, only one President other than those supposedly felled by this ill-wishing has died in office: Zachary Taylor, who was elected in 1848 and died in 1850 of a stomach ailment. (Taylor's body was exhumed in 1991 to investigate a theory that he had been poisoned with arsenic, but the results were negative). Also interesting is the notion that the curse is a prescient one, as two presidents who won elections in years ending in '0' — Lincoln and Roosevelt — did not die until after beginning subsequent terms in office. Apparently the curse foresaw re-election for both of them. The key to all this presidential demising possibly lies more within the realm of the stars than the rumored words of a dead Indian chief. Or at least so the astrologers would have us believe. According to Mark Dodich, an astrologer who has attempted to analyze the Curse of Tecumseh, the reason behind this force is one of "cosmic coincidence," not Native American hexing.

Dodich claims the curse's effects overlap with the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, whose orbits have lined up every twenty years. One of the two 20-year pattern's failures — President Ronald Reagan — is explained by the sign the alignment of these two planets occurred under. Alignments under the earth signs (Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo) have led to dead presidents, but Reagan's term occurred under an air sign, accounting for his survival. According to Dodich, year 2000's Jupiter-Saturn twinning once again occurred under the earth sign of Taurus, a phenomenon he says won't happen again for another 600 years. It thus marks the end of a deadly cycle, but if Dodich was right about this curse thing, it would have sound the death knell for another president first. However, George W. Bush, the president elected in the supposed "curse" year of 2000, finished out two terms in good health. Barbara "Reagan: air force won" Mikkelson Last updated: 24 April 2014 Sources:

Question: American Presidents assassinated in office?
Answer: 4