Martinez J. Michael - Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History

Praise for Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History

J. Michael Martinezs new book about political assassins is a must read and is a book which I heartedly recommend. His book adds a crucial historical dimension to our understanding of the motives which have driven assassins and would-be assassins in US history.

Mel Ayton, author of Hunting The President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts - From FDR to Obama

In J. Michael Martinezs new book Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History, he does a brilliant job of putting US presidential assassinations and attempts under a microscope for an insightful and sobering view of US history.

Greg Stebben, author of White House Confidential

In this study of American political assassinations, J. Michael Martinez not only takes us through what happened in the past, but also delves into the minds and motivations of the assassins to help as we look into the future. Can we learn from the patterns and predict the next assassination? Maybe, maybe not, but this fascinating book provides a deeper understanding into the warning signs which, unfortunately, may be all too plentiful in todays political climate.

Mike Farris, author of A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow

Original and evocative, this book examines within the historical context the nature of assassinations perpetrated against twenty-five American political figures. Grappling with this perplexing issue, Martinez probes the jagged edge of human psychology. He offers a provocative explanation of the underlying motives behind political assassinations, assigning them to five categories. This theoretical construct combines the complexity and the contingence of violence in America.

Orville Vernon Burton, professor, Clemson University and author The Age of Lincoln

In Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History , Martinez thoughtfully examines political assassinations in America to understand not just the historically important question of what happened, but, perhaps more importantly, the intriguing one of why individuals resorted to violence against prominent political figures. In quest of their motivations, Martinez distributes the twenty-five assassins he has identified into five categories that range from rational beings to crazy ones to others. Why political assassinations seem to be increasing since the nineteenth century is an obvious matter of great concern to lovers of liberty in a republic solidly based on the rule of lawand most especially so in times when partisan political discourse is coarser, participants more passionate, and self-governed individuals seemingly rarer.

William D. Richardson, distinguished professor emeritus, University of South Dakota, and author of Democracy, Bureaucracy, and Character: Founding Thought

In Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History , J. Michael Martinez provides an incisive description and analysis of a problem that has plagued nations and communities. Based on twenty-five instances of violence against elected officials and public figures in the United States, the book contributes new insight to long-standing issue.

Jeffrey L. Brudney, PhD, Betty and Dan Cameron family distinguished professor of innovation in the nonprofit sector, University of North Carolina Wilmington

The USA is a uniquely and hugely violent place as this book demonstrates. This is so because it was birthed in genocide against Native Americans and in the enslavement of black Africans. Assassination, which is a political murder, has been used against government figures and by the government itself. The killing of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy altered world history in as much as he set his course against the Cold War. Likewise, the murder of Malcolm X set back the struggle for black freedom. The USA has been at war almost continually since I was born in 1942. As the leader of the student nonviolent coordinating committee, H. Rap Brown, famously observed: violence is as American as apple pie.

Attorney Michael Steven Smith, co-host, Law and Disorder Radio and author of The Assassination of Che Guevara

Copyright 2017 by J. Michael Martinez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Carrel Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Cover photos courtesy of the Library of Congress

Print ISBN: 978-1-63144-070-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63144-071-7

Printed in the United States of America

This book is for Arya Rayne Carter, a beautiful grandchild, from papa

Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death.

William Shakespeare, King Richard III , Act V, Scene 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Abraham Lincoln, 1865

John Wilkes Booth

Booth shoots Lincoln

The military commission

Hanging the Lincoln conspirators

William McKinley

Emma Goldman

Leon Czolgosz shoots William McKinley

Leon Czolgosz behind bars

Frank Steunenberg

Harry Orchard

Charles Moyer; William Big Bill Haywood; and George Pettibone

Clarence Darrow

Harry Truman

Oscar Collazo

Griselio Torresola

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy campaigning, 1968

Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded

Sirhan Sirhan mug shot

John F. Kennedy, 1961

JFK in the Dallas motorcade

Lee Harvey Oswald poses with his rifle

Lyndon Johnson takes the oath of office

Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald

Richard M. Nixon

Samuel Byck

Gerald Ford

Lynette Squeaky Fromme

Sara Jane Moore

Ronald Reagan

Reagan moments before the shooting

John Hinckley mug shot

Anton Cermak

Giuseppe Zangara

FDR and Herbert Hoover

George Wallace

Arthur Bremer

Charles V. Harrelson.158

John H. Wood, Jr

Andrew Jackson

Richard Lawrence shoots Andrew Jackson

Charles J. Guiteau

Guiteau shoots Garfield

Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper shows Garfield being comforted by his family

James A. Garfield

Carter Harrison, Sr

Patrick Eugene Joseph Prendergast

Theodore Roosevelt

Painting of the attempted assassination of TR

John Schrank

Theodore Roosevelt returns to Oyster Bay, NY

Allard K. Lowenstein

Dennis Sweeney

Gabrielle Giffords

Jared Lee Loughner

Joseph Smith

Martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram Smith in Carthage Jail, June 27th, 1844

William Goebel

Huey P. Long

The Shooting of Huey P. LongImage of a 1939 John McCrady painting

Dr. Carl Austin Weiss

Elijah Muhammad

Malcolm X

Malcolm Xs body