February 27, 2008

Assassination attempts

Here's a top of the head list of the most important assassinations of political leaders in America since WWII, plus attempts on the life of Presidents and Presidential candidates, with a rough grouping of the assassins in terms of left, right, or apolitical crazy.

Harry Truman - Left -- Puerto Rican terrorists - Left
John F. Kennedy - Left -- Lee Harvey Oswald - Left
Malcolm X - Left -- Nation of Islam hitmen - Left
Martin Luther King - Left -- Conspiracy of white racists and criminals - Right
Robert F. Kennedy - Left -- Sirhan Sirhan - Left
George Wallace - Right -- Arthur Bremer - Apolitical Crazy
Gerald Ford - Right -- Squeaky Fromme -- Left or Crazy?
John Lennon - Left -- What's His Name - Apolitical Crazy
Ronald Reagan - Right -- John Hinckley - Apolitical Crazy

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sirhan's Arab nationalism doesn't fit neatly into a left-right dichotomy. He would probably be happy to vote for you or Pat Buchanan for president if he were a citizen.

Anonymous said...

Steve-O, how does a mind as sharp and skeptical as yours accept the Sirhan and Oswald theories of the Kennedy assassinations?

At least read this article from the Guardian this week outlining the new evidence that Sirhan didn't kill RFK.

We can leave the JFK theories alone for now, but the official explanation for RFK's assassination is beyond suspect, it's simply not possible. Look at the evidence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/22/kennedy.assassination

Anonymous said...

so the assassin has never been from the right? Neat

Anonymous said...

I own an 8-part graphic novel called "The Beatles Experience" (circa 1991), which purports to be an accurate source-based account of the history of the Beatles.

In a foreward, the author begs his readers to let him know if they think that he hasn't been completely accurate or described something without assistance from a reliable source.

For the most part, the comic probably is fairly accurate and source-based, but it enters into the world of Oliver Stone fantasy/speculation when it shows some scenes from 1980 and before in which ex-president Nixon and the elder George Bush (former CIA head and VP elect in December 1980) conspire to use "What's His Name" as an asset with which to liquidate John Lennon.

Just to show that he made every effort to continue to live up to a standard of journalistic integrity, the author has one or two scenes in which Nixon and Bush have horns protruding prominently from their foreheads.

But anyway, I'll bet that George the Elder would have caught hell from his self-indulgent substance-abusing boomer namesake if he'd let it slip that Daddy was killing Beatles on the job.

Anonymous said...

I'd say Squeaky is definitely a leftist. The Manson Family were 1st rate immanentizers of the eschaton, with their "race war ends with us nice white hippy people in charge" philosophy. And the hakenkreuz symbolism just invokes another socialist - albeit one that the polite doubters of the left wish to foist off on the right. Wishing doesn't make it so; racial socialist just tend to like each other.
- avid Voegelin fan

Steve Sailer said...

No, the MLK assassination by James Earl Ray was apparently due to a prison rumor that a white doctor in Missouri would pay good money to have King murdered. Or so I have heard. For some reason, nobody seems very interested in the whole case, compared to the two Kennedy killings, even though there seem to be some loose ends regarding Ray's motivation.

Ron Guhname said...

I can see why blacks are so terrified that one of their own will be assassinated: there are two whole blacks on the list.

Ross said...

Other assassination attempts.

JFK had almost been killed by an assassin back in 1960, Richard Paul Pavlick, a possibly mentally ill 73 year old who hated catholics. At a push you could describe him as right wing on account of him having wanted Nixon to win the election. Interestingly if he gone through with it it would have been the first major car suicide bombing.

Nixon was the subject of the attempt that is depicted in that Sean Penn film, by a mentally ill left winger, Samuel Bick.

Saddam Hussain tried to have George Bush Sr assassinated but you probably can't include Saddam in the list.

Ross said...

Oh and I forgot Francisco Martin Duran who attempted to kill Bill Clinton and is currently serving a 40 year sentence, he could be described as right wing in a David Icke kind of way.

craig said...

There were two attempts on Ford. Sara Jane Moore looks like she qualifies as Left.

The guy who tried to kill Nixon (Samuel Byck) looks like he fits into the crazy loser category. Although his craziness did manifest itself as leftish Nixon-hating.

TGGP said...

It's kind of strange that the Left killers go after Left figures while the Right is shot at by crazies. An actual example of a Right politician killed by a Left assassin is William McKinley by the anarchist Czolzgolz or whatever his name was.

Martin Luther King's family tried to continue the investigation into King's assassination to see if people other than Ray were involved.

A good video found via Volokh on the Kennedy assassination by Vincent Bugliosi author of (among other books) Reclaiming History, here.

Anonymous said...

The leftist outbreak of assassination porn is remarkable, when you consider that the hip left wallowed in fantasies of murdering President Bush.

They made movies about it!

Anonymous said...

For What It's Worth. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola's attempt to kill President Truman is the only one I would call truly political. The others were all more narcissistic schizoids than people with political aims. (Not that they didn't try to wrap themselves in some political cover). There really is very little political violence in America considering.

Anonymous said...

Dr. MLK was killed when he started focusing more on economic justice for people of all colors with the "Poor People's Campaign" and a planned Civil Disobedience march on Washington.

Malcolm X was killed after he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and met men of all races sharing his belief in Islam.

Common thread?

Anonymous said...

Interesting Guardian article about new (or rather newly discovered) evidence in the RFK case. I found a Discovery Channel documentary about this up on Youtube. Try googling Conspiracy Test Video.

Not sure if I buy it, I still blame Onassis. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2949

Anonymous said...

Mark Chapman was definitely a Leftist. It was after he heard about how much money the Dakota Building Apartment was and how much money Lennon had (and the kind of life he lived) that he had to kill the author of "Imagine no possesions".

Granted, he was way crazier then he was political.

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your writings about Barack recently and have noticed the mention of Malcolm X a few times. I'd be curious to your take on him.

Truth said...

"I can see why blacks are so terrified that one of their own will be assassinated: there are two whole blacks on the list."

2 of 9 and 2 of 5 that were actually killed. I'm not good at math, that's higher than our share of the population, right?

"Common thread?"

Excellent point anonymous! Both of these men were killed as soon as they started preaching inclusion rather than separation. This is no good to the globalists as their goal is to keep poor people looking warily at each other rather than up. It is astounding to me that many so called 'educated' whites such as a the ones who post here are blind to this. Once again the smartest thing LBJ ever said:

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, 1960

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...

Steve-O, how does a mind as sharp and skeptical as yours accept the Sirhan and Oswald theories of the Kennedy assassinations?

We can leave the JFK theories alone for now, but the official explanation for RFK's assassination is beyond suspect,....."

And the alternative explanations for JFK's assasination are beyond suspect - they are raving mad.

Look at the "theory" put forth in Oliver Stone's movies - a plot that involved everyone: presidents, generals, nameless texas oil-men (like Larry Hagman in "Nixon"), cashiered gay air-line pilots, and talk-show hosts. Is there anyone that Stone thinks DIDN'T kill Kennedy? His movie, from which most people think they know what happened, was full of lies from beginning to end - many of them the desperate and fevered theories of the creepy Jim Garrison, a corrupt and malicious prosecutor.

The history channel recently had a very good documentary on the JFK assasination, dealing mostly with the physical evidence. It laid to rest most every objection to the obvious and most likely theory of the crime - namely that Oswald did it.

Anonymous said...

It really pisses me off that people still cling to the belief that an immense conspiracy (numbering hundreds or possibly thousands of people) was responsible for Kennedy's assassination. Kennedy was not worthy of such a conspiracy and there was no real motive for it. Only a loser nutjob like Oswald could have bothered.

Anonymous said...

Harry Truman - Puerto Rican nationalists
John F. Kennedy - Lee Harvey Oswald oedipal leftist
Malcolm X - Nation of Islam hitmen black nationalist
Martin Luther King - White Southern nationalist?
Robert F. Kennedy - Sirhan Sirhan Arab nationalist
George Wallace - ?
Gerald Ford - ?
John Lennon - ?
Ronald Reagan - ?

Many other assassins have been very much nationalist of an ethno-racist nature:

Gavrillo Princip, John Wilkes Booth, Yigal Amir.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination

Anonymous said...

The problem for RFK conspiracy fantasists is that they want the public to believe Sirhan didn't fire the fatal shots, but don't really want an investigation to go too deep. Occam's butterknife points to the simpler truth that Bobby was accidentally killed by some gun-packing wanker in his own entourage who was trying to be a hero, rather than the usual elaborate CIA/Mafia/Big Oil conspiracy of thousands...

Anonymous said...

"Malcolm X - Left -- Nation of Islam hitmen - Left"

Um...Outside of being black what makes the Nation of Islam Left?

It is primarily a reactionary, racialist, pseudo-Islamic cult started by a white/Arabian con artist named Master Fard.

The NOI is puritanical in its religious beliefs, such as they are, and have been known to consort with white versions of themselves-the KKK and the American Nazi Party. James Lincoln Rockwell spoke at NOI Saviors' Day celebrations. If he's right, what does that make the NOI politically?

The Assassination of Malcolm X was probably carried out by NOI hitmen. This isn't what alot of people like to hear. They prefer the whole U.S. government conspiracy thing because that narrative is more pleasing to them. It wouldn't be the last time the NOI did something like this. In the early 70s, a hit team was dispatched to the house of a former NOI figure in DC. He wasn't home but friends and relatives were. They were massacred, including at least one child.

Anonymous said...

Let anyone question the government line, aka, official story, aka mainstream press, and immediately the little domes shoot up and shoot off either defending the "official story" or denigrating the whole act of thinking and caring about the truth if that means investigation and critical thinking.
"Occam's butterknife points to the simpler truth that Bobby was accidentally killed by some gun-packing wanker in his own entourage who was trying to be a hero"
Let's use that butterknife to dissect some brains.

Yeah, right. And LHO was a crack marksman who fired three shots in few seconds at a moving target many yards away and hit bulls eye. Yep, we all believe the Official Story alright. I recall a columnist who claimed that JFK was accidently shot by LHO who was REALLY aiming for Gov. Connelly. Yep. Sounds likely.
If you can't keep the thinkers down, keep what they're thinking about in the ridicule/trivial realm.
That JFK was killed by a conglomeration of interests in not even in question by anyone who has cared enough to investigate. Didn't Posner (Case Closed) later admit that he gave the press the conclusion they wanted? Later even this slithery "journalist" admitted he didn't believe his own book.
RFK was also killed by a conglomerate of interests and even the mainstream is admitting it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/22/kennedy.assassination
.

Anonymous said...

*****Occam's butterknife points to the simpler truth that Bobby was accidentally killed by some gun-packing wanker in his own entourage who was trying to be a hero*****

That would be remarkable if it were true -- as there is evidence to suggest that RFK's older brother was killed in the same way.

Mortal Error, Bonar Menninger, St. Martin's Press (1992)

And as SS points out in a later thread, there is also evidence to suggest that Huey Long met a similar end.

Anonymous said...

Did you hear that Arthur Bremmer was released from prison recently? He made some comments that he shot Wallace because he was a segregationist. I think you can count Bremmer as a leftist.

AMac said...

I wanted to add a link to Steven Hunter's book on the Puerto Rican nationalists' try at killing Truman. Google brought up a good synopsis... from by Steve Sailer.

Anonymous said...

If you can convince the lowest leftist he's better than the best rightist, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Or sending people (who signed up to defend their country) to die in wars in Asia dreamed up by Trotskyites. Or embracing socialist racialism (affirmative action) and whispering that the people who oppose you are "national socialists".
- avid Voegelin fan

Anonymous said...

****Let anyone question the government line, aka, official story, aka mainstream press, and immediately the little domes shoot up and shoot off or denigrating the whole act of thinking and caring about the truth if that means investigation and critical thinking.*****


Oh well. Count me down as one of the "little domes".


*****Yeah, right. And LHO was a crack marksman who fired three shots in few seconds at a moving target many yards away and hit bulls eye.*****


He didn't need to be. That wasn't a difficult shot.



***** Yep, we all believe the Official Story alright. I recall a columnist who claimed that JFK was accidently shot by LHO who was REALLY aiming for Gov. Connelly. Yep. Sounds likely.*****


Not extremely likely, but not completely implausible. Oswald once wrote a letter to Connally saying that he would take all means necessary to right the (perceived) injustice of his having been given less than an honorable discharge from the Marines.


***** If you can't keep the thinkers down, keep what they're thinking about in the ridicule/ trivial realm.*****


You have a point there. I'd prefer to keep the "thinkers" down myself.


***** That JFK was killed by a conglomeration of interests in not even in question by anyone who has cared enough to investigate.****


Let's hear three cheers for
"critical thinking".


*****Didn't Posner (Case Closed) later admit that he gave the press the conclusion they wanted?*****


I doubt that he said that.


*****Later even this slithery "journalist" admitted he didn't believe his own book.*****


Oh, come on. What about Bugliosi? Are you concerned that he also doesn't believe his own book?


*****RFK was also killed by a conglomerate of interests*****


Six cheers for "critical thinking". In my opinion, the "conglomerate of interests" that killed RFK included he, himself, and Sirhan.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...

Let anyone question the government line, aka, official story, aka mainstream press, and immediately the little domes shoot up and shoot off either defending the "official story"......"

Yeah, we're all in on it. Why I just today got my pay-check from the CIA/Pentagon/Texas Oil-Man/Estate of LBJ consortium that even now is pulling all the strings (it must be better endowed than the Ford Foundation).

"Yeah, right. And LHO was a crack marksman who fired three shots in few seconds at a moving target many yards away and hit bulls eye."

Actually Oswald was a good shot. He had been rated as a marksman by the USMC, and had been practicing a good deal on local rifle ranges. He even practiced shooting living targets (he tried to kill General Wheeler in his Dallas home). He fired three shots at well defined targets in a slow-moving vehicle with a clear line of fire. Not at all impossible for someone who is good, and has a lucky day.

I've read a good many books, peddling various JFK assasination conspiracies. The Mob did it. The Russians did it. The U.S. Government did it. In the end, they never prove anything, and their theories just dissipate like so much vapor.

It's not that hard to kill a person with a gun. That is, afterall, why they were invented.

But then, being a paid stooge in the employ of sinister forces, like the Illuminati, Naval Intelligence, and Up With People, I would say that. Wouldn't I?

Anonymous said...

My question about conspiracy theories is, who cares? I personally don't care to know what "really" happened on 9/11 or JFK's death or anything like that. If these were halfway competent conspiracies, even the players wouldn't really know whodunit and why.

I do find it funny that we Americans are skeptical of the idea of private people working together for a common end. Also known as a conspiracy. Duh.

Are we really such sheep? Apparently so. But every good animal in the forest knows that the most beautiful phrase in the world is "Not My Problem."

Martin said...

Steve,

Is a crazy man shooting the president to impress a lesbian qualify as a definition of irony?

If nothing else, it might have appealed to Reagan's sense of humour.