John Wilkes Booth.
Lee Harvey Oswald.
Charles Guiteau.
Leon Czolgosz.
Their names went down in infamy as the men who killed Presidents.
But other would-be assassins faded into history - because their targets survived.
These are ten failed assassinations that didn’t quite hit their target.
#10.
Canadian Prime MInister’s Close Call
Jean Chretien was the Prime Minister of Canada for ten years, a well-regarded Liberal Party
mainstay.
He didn’t have many enemies - that people knew of.
But one young man from Quebec was developing a disturbing obsession.
Andre Dallaire was a paranoid schizophrenic who had quit his job after stealing from the
grocery store, and soon disappeared off the map.
When he next surfaced, he arrived at 24 Sussex Drive, the home of the Canadian Prime Minister
- holding a pocket knife - and quickly broke in while Chretien and his wife were sleeping.
They seemed to be sitting ducks - but Dallaire made one miscalculation.
The would-be assassin hadn’t planned out his kill too well.
With only one small weapon, he was surprised when Aline Chretien spotted him, woke her
husband, and locked them both in the bedroom.
She called the police and tried to convince the groggy Prime Minister that she wasn’t
dreaming about the intruder!
Dallaire never tried to break down the door, and was wandering around the house when the
police arrived.
He was found not guilty due to reason of insanity and committed to a mental asylum before being
released to a group home.
The Chretiens were unharmed, but the incident led to many people arguing that Canada’s
PM needed better security.
But this next assassination attempt was much more high-tech.
#9.
Khaled Meshaal’s Bad Earache
Khaled Meshaal had made himself no shortage of enemies by 1997.
The leader of the the Palestinian militant group Hamas, he was seen as an avowed enemy
of Israel and a thorn in the side of Jordan - where he lived since fleeing Israel after
the Six-Day War.
He organized frequent terror attacks against Israel from the safety of Jordan, culminating
in the bombing of a Jerusalem market that killed sixteen.
Israel’s security forces quickly responded - sending Mossad agents into Jordan to assassinate
Meshaal.
Their weapon of choice?
An aerosol poison that they sprayed into his ear.
The only problem?
Getting back out.
The poison worked, and Meshaal quickly became very sick.
It looked like the Mossad operation would be successful - but the agents had been captured
by Meshaal’s bodyguards.
And so began a tense negotiation between Israel and Jordan.
King Hussein of Jordan demanded Israel turn over the antidote, while Israel demanded the
release of their agents.
It took the intervention of US President Bill Clinton to convince Israel’s Prime Minister
to turn over the antidote before the recent peace deal between the two countries fell
apart, and Meshaal lived - only to be expelled from Jordan several years later by Hussein’s
successor.
Almost twenty years earlier, the United States was nearly upended by...a movie fan?
#8.
Ronald Reagan’s Cliffhanger
When Ronald Reagan swept into office in a 1980 landslide, he was already controversial
as one of the most conservative Presidents in modern history.
But his closest call with death didn’t come from a political enemy - it came from a deranged
man named John Hinckley who was obsessed with teen movie star Jodie Foster.
He wanted to be noticed by her, so he decided to become famous in 1981 - by stalking President
Reagan and ambushing him after a speech, shooting him along with his press secretary, a policeman,
and a Secret Service agent.
It was a tragically familiar scenario - but with an unexpected outcome.
It had only been eighteen years since the last Presidential assassination, but medical
science had advanced a lot.
Reagan’s injuries were serious, including a punctured lung and internal bleeding, but
surgeons were able to save his life and he left the hospital two weeks later.
Ultimately, none of the four victims died.
But the controversy over this incident was far from over - Hinckley would later be found
not guilty by reason of insanity, and would spend the next thirty-six years in a mental
hospital before being declared rehabilitated.
But several hundred years earlier, a much larger assassination plot was hatched.
#7.
Of Gunpowder Treason and Plot
It was 1605, and King James I sat on the throne of England - with no small amount of controversy.
The country’s Roman Catholics had been repressed ever since the ascent of the Church of England,
and a militant group sought to overthrow the King and replace him with his nine-year-old
daughter as a Catholic queen.
While the plot was led by Robert Catesby, it would be more associated with one radical
member - the veteran and explosives expert Guy Fawkes.
The target of their plot?
The entire structure of government, by blowing up the House of Lords at the ceremonial opening
of Parliament.
But sometimes, the biggest plot can be undone by a single spanner in the works.
It was October 26th, 1605, when William Parker, the 4th Baron of Monteagle, received an anonymous
letter explaining the entire plot.
Was it a conspirator with second thoughts, or a loyalist who stumbled upon the plot?
It has never been discovered, but when the House of Lords was searched, they found Fawkes
guarding thirty-six barrels of gunpowder - more than enough to obliterate the entire building.
While the conspirators attempted to flee London, several were shot and killed by pursuing officers,
and the others - including the notorious Fawkes - were executed for treason.
And even five hundred years later, the anniversary of the foiling of the plot has become a popular
British festival.
This next assassin was foiled by an unfortunate fact of nature.
#6.
FDR’s Short Shot
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just been elected in a landslide, and many feared he would be
a radical left-wing President.
Rumors abounded of a planned coup by bankers and businessmen, but only one assassination
plot actually emerged - and it was anything but a well-organized plot.
Giuseppe Zangara was a struggling Italian immigrant who suffered from chronic pain and
couldn’t keep a job.
The exact nature of his grudge against Roosevelt is unknown, but seventeen days before the
President Elect’s inauguration, he attended a speech of his in Miami - while carrying
a revolver with intent to kill.
But he needed an accessory - and that would be his undoing.
Zangara was a short man, only five feet tall, and he needed a clear shot at Roosevelt.
So he pulled out an old metal folding chair and stood on top of it to get a clean shot.
As soon as he fired his first shot, bystanders grabbed him and yanked him down.
Zangara fired wildly into the crowd, hitting five people - none of them President-Elect
Roosevelt.
The one fatality?
The Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cernak.
While Zangara hadn’t killed a President, he did kill a prominent politician - and that
was enough to send him to the electric chair after only ten days on death row.
But FDR wasn’t the only Roosevelt to have a close call with death.
#5.
The Longest Speech of Theodore Roosevelt
It was 1912, and former President Theodore Roosevelt was attempting a comeback.
Always controversial, Roosevelt had made many new enemies with his decision to leave the
Republicans and start his own “Bull Moose” party.
But his deadliest enemy wouldn’t be a political enemy - but a former Saloonkeeper named John
Schrank.
Schrank had hallucinated the late President William McKinley in a dream, who supposedly
told him to avenge his assassination - by going after Roosevelt, who ascended to the
Presidency after McKinley’s death.
And so Schrank stalked Roosevelt to the Gilpatrick hotel, where Roosevelt was having dinner before
a speech.
As Roosevelt waved to the crowd, Schrank took aim and fired.
But he underestimated the grit of Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was hit, with the bullet passing through his eyeglass case and lodging in his
chest - but not deep enough to penetrate any vital organs.
Bleeding but still conscious, Roosevelt kept the crowd from lynching Schrank, then assured
his bodyguards that he was fine and asked to br driven to his speech.
He spoke for ninety minutes before agreeing to receive medical attention, including the
famous line “Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have
just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose”.
Interviews with Schrank after the assassination attempt indicated that he had delusions of
grandeur, and he was declared to be unfit to stand trial and institutionalized until
his death in 1943.
But one would-be assassin had a much more destructive plan.
#4.
Terror From the Air
Samuel Byck was an unlikely choice for a would-be Presidential assassin.
A former Army veteran who was honorably discharged and a father of four children, he seemed like
a stable man - but after a divorce and financial troubles, he spiraled into depression.
He became obsessed with the Nixon administration and blamed them for his financial woes, even
sending them threatening letters over being denied for a loan.
But the Secret Service considered him harmless and dismissed the case.
He turned out to be anything but harmless in 1974.
Byck planned to assassinate Nixon - but he didn’t want to be just another gunman.
He decided to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House.
He stole a revolver from a friend, built a homemade bomb, and made several audio tapes
full of rambling justifications for his attack.
At the Baltimore/Washington International Airport, he shot and killed a policeman before
boarding a Delta flight to Atlanta.
He would then shoot the pilots when they told him they couldn’t take off yet, and then
ordered a passenger to fly the plane.
Before he could take off, he was surrounded by police.
Police shot and wounded him, and Byck shot himself before they could arrest him.
In the end, one of America’s most ambitious would-be assassins was undone by one simple
problem - it’s not that easy to steal a plane.
But sometimes, a much smaller problem can derail an assassination.
#3.
The Doubly Unlucky Assassin
It was 1835, and the relatively new United States had not seen an assassination attempt.
That was about to change with the ascent of controversial populist Andrew Jackson to the
Presidency.
Richard Lawrence was a simple house painter, but over the years his behavior changed to
become more violent and erratic.
Many speculate that the chemicals in paint might have contributed to his mental illness,
and he became convinced that he was owed money from the US Government.
He blamed Andrew Jackson’s opposition to a national bank - but in reality it was more
likely because he wasn’t actually an English king who died centuries ago, as he believed.
But these delusions grew more severe, and he started stalking Jackson until he planned
to ambush him at a Congressman’s funeral - with two pistols.
But he was about to become famous for a very different reason.
In 1835, Presidential security was rudimentary, and Lawrence was easily able to get close
to Jackson.
He stepped out, aimed his pistol, and fired at the President - and the gun misfired.
He quickly drew his second pistol - only for it to misfire as well.
Old guns were vulnerable to moisture and the weather that day was damp, but Lawrence had
no chance to fix the problem - because President Jackson began beating him with his cane.
The crowd eventually intervened, but it’s not clear whose life they were saving.
At his trial, Lawrence was obviously not well, still insisting he was Richard III, and was
quickly sent to an insane asylum for the rest of his life.
This next assassination attempt was right out of an action movie.
#2.
The Wild Ride of Charles De Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle had a long and storied career in French politics, which was approaching
its last act in the 1960s.
But he made some powerful enemies when he decided to accept Algeria’s declaration
of independence and end its status as a French colony.
The OAS, or Organisation Armee Secrete, was a far-right paramilitary group formed during
the Algerian War, and they saw de Gaulle as a traitor.
They made several attempts on de Gaulle’s life, but it was the third that would become
the most famous.
Led by prominent French veteran and engineer Jean Bastien-Thiery, who served as a lookout,
three shooters armed with machine guns followed de Gaulle’s entourage - and opened fire.
What happened next was one of the craziest escapes from an assassination in history.
The high-powered automatic weapons strafed de Gaulle’s car with bullets, along with
countless nearby shops.
But de Gaulle, his wife, and his entire entourage escaped unharmed - despite fourteen bullet
holes being found in the car.
De Gaulle would credit the tough-as-nails Citroen DS car, but whether it was the car
or just good luck, he would serve several more years as France’s President.
Bastien-Thiery, meanwhile, would go before a military tribunal and ultimately become
the final French convict to face a firing squad.
Many failed assassinations spared a prominent leader - but this final one had the chance
to end a World War.
#1.
The July 20th Plot
It was 1944, and it was becoming clear that Nazi Germany was losing the war.
The German war machine put the blame squarely in one direction - the absolute dictator of
Germany, Adolf Hitler.
Some of his top military men believed Hitler’s crimes against humanity were a disgrace to
the country and they wished to restore the country’s First World War prestige.
The plot had been building when it was joined by Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg,
a wounded veteran and arch-conservative, who would ultimately lead the assassination attempt.
But it was about to go terribly wrong.
The plan had many layers.
First, von Stauffenberg would assassinate Hitler with a planted bomb.
The many members of German military leadership would quickly spread the word that Hitler
was dead and use that opportunity to install a new government led by aristocrats and military
leaders that would be able to win the war.
But after von Stauffenberg planted the bomb, a Colonel accidentally moved it, shielding
Hitler and leading him to only be injured.
The coup failed as soon as word got out that Hitler was alive, the conspirators were arrested,
and almost five thousand were executed including von Stauffenberg - and many political enemies
of Hitler, as the mad dictator’s regime would continue for another ten months.
For more on the most famous assassination of all, check out “Why Did Abraham Lincoln’s
Secret Service Fail?”, or watch “Insane But True Story of a Real Life Assassin”
for a look at what it takes to kill high-profile targets.