Assassinations and assassination attempts on U.S. Presidents

1. Dead President
Society
Assassinations and Attempts in U.S. History
By Maria Harrah

2. Andrew Jackson #7
• Years as President – 1829 - 1837
• Assassin – Richard Lawrence
• How and Why? – attempted to
shoot him with 2 different guns
with no success. He was insane
• Successor? – Van Buren

3. Abraham Lincoln #16
• Years as President - 1861-1865
• Assassin - John Wilkes Booth
• How and Why? - Shot in head at
theater: Booth was a
Confederate sympathizer
• Successor? – Andrew Johnson

4. James Garfield # 20
• Years as President – 1881-1881
• Assassin – Charles Guiteau
• How and Why? – Guiteau felt he
was entitled to a job in the
President’s office
• Successor? – Chester A. Arthur

5. William McKinley #25
• Years as President – 1897-1901
• Assassin – Leon Czolgosz
• How and Why? – Two shots to the
chest. Czolgosz was leaning towards
socialism and anarchism and thought
he was stopping a corrupt govt.
• Successor? – Theodore Roosevelt

6. Theodore Roosevelt #26
• Years as President – 1901-1909
• Assassin – John Flammang Schrank
• How and Why? – shot in chest from
seven ft. away because Schrank
thought William McKinley’s ghost
told him to do it.
• Successor? Taft

7. Franklin Roosevelt #32
• Years as President – 1933-1945
• Assassin – Giuseppe “Joe” Zangara
• How and Why? – just days before
inauguration, Zangara took 5 shots,
injuring 5 bystanders, but missing his
target. Zangara was unemployed and
was was fighting capitalism.
• Successor? - Truman

8. Harry Truman #33
• Years as President – 1945-1953
• 1947 Assassin – Stern gang
• How and Why? – mail bomb, Zionist
terrorism
• 1950 Assassin –Grisello Torresola and
Oscar Collazo
• How and Why? Gunfire, for Puerto
Rican independence
• Successor? - Eisenhower

9. John Kennedy #35
• Years as President – 1961-1963
• Assassin- Lee Harvey Oswald
• How and Why?- shot in a
parade, though the reason has
never been determined. There
are, however, many theories
• Successor? – Lyndon B. Johnson

10. Gerald Ford #38
• Years as President – 1974-1977
• Assassin – Sara Jane Moore, and Lynette
“Squeaky” Fromme
• How and Why? Fromme wanted to stop
environmental pollution, so she tried to
shoot him, but had not chambered a
round. Moore tried to shoot him when
someone knocked the gun out of her hand.
She thought the country needed to change
and a violent revolution was the only
answer.
• Successor? Carter

11. Fun Facts!
Only two female assassins in U.S history attempted to kill Presidents-
Both were towards Ford, and both were within days of each other.
Sara Jane Moore was from Charleston, WV.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was part of the Manson cult.

12. Ronald Reagan # 40
• Years as President – 1981-1989
• Assassin – John Hinkley Jr.
• How and Why? He was shot by a rifle
in a failed attempt to impress Jodie
Foster
• Successor? Bush