Killing the Presidents: Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts

By Nick Vulich

Do you want to know the true story behind the men who killed the presidents?

Killing The Presidentsoffers a brief and fascinating look at the Presidents who lost their lives, the motives and mental states of the assassins, and the reactions of the public to the shootings.

Among the characters you will meet are:

Charles Julius Guiteau, the man who shot James Garfield. He told authorities "I was in my bed … and I was thinking over the political situation, and the idea flashed through my brain that if the President was out of the way everything would go better…" And later, during his trial, he added, "I presume I shall live to be President. Some people think I am as a good man as the President (Chester A. Arthur) now."

John Schrank, the man who shot Theodore Roosevelt, said "In a dream, I saw President McKinley sit up in his coffin pointing at a man in a monk's attire in whom I recognized Theodore Roosevelt. The dead President said—This is my murderer—avenge my death." And, so he shot, and wounded the Bull Moose Candidate.

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, wrote in his diary just a few nights before his death, "I have to great a soul to die like a criminal…"
 

The stories are amazing.

The similarities between each of the assassinations make you sit up and think. Most of the assassins discovered the President's itinerary by reading the newspaper. Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, told authorities, "Eight days ago, while I was in Chicago, I read in a Chicago newspaper of President McKinley's visit to the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. That day I bought a ticket and got here with the determination to do something, but I did not know just what. I thought of shooting the President…"
 

This is the story of the assassinations, told as much as possible in the words of the witnesses, the assassins, and the attempted assassins.

The book is short, just 108 pages, easy to read, and will leave you wanting to investigate, and learn more about this dark area of American history.

Some of the details are quite graphic, such as Surgeon Charles Taft describing how they carried the dying Abraham Lincoln to Petersen House – "blood [was] dripping from the wound, faster and faster" as they walked. And, throughout the night, he held the dying President's head so blood and brain tissue could continue to ooze out and prevent clotting.

Other parts will make you laugh. Giuseppe Zangara, the man who attempted to kill Franklin Roosevelt was so short he had to stand on a folding chair to get a good look at the President-elect, and then he testified he "decided to kill him and make him suffer…since my stomach hurt."
 

Don't wait another minute. Order your copy of this book today, and in less than two hours you will know the true story of the Presidential assassins!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Vulich
• Release date: Apr 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201587383

Book preview

Killing the Presidents

Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts

Copyright 2013 / 2016 by Nicholas L. Vulich

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Premonitions of His Assassination

Plotting of John Wilkes Booth

Booth Sets His Mind on Assassination

The Fateful Day

Killing President Lincoln

Treachery in the Night

Pursuit and Capture of the Conspirators

Fate of the Conspirators

James Garfield

The President’s suffering

Charles J. Guiteau – Assassin

Trial of Charles J. Guiteau

William McKinley

The Assassin’s statement

The suffering President

Trial and execution of Leon Czolgosz

John F. Kennedy

Lee Harvey Oswald

The Warren Commission

Presidential Assassination Attempts

Andrew Jackson

Abraham Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt

Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

,Harry Truman

Gerald Ford

Ronald Reagan

About the Author

Bonus Excerpt

Introduction

Assassination of political leaders is nothing exclusive to America.

Shakespeare made a career out of re-telling stories of political intrigue, assassination, and murder. Think Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Nearly a dozen assassination attempts were made on Queen Victoria during her sixty some year reign. The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand was one of many factors that plunged Europe into World War I.

In America, four presidents have lost their lives to assassin’s bullets. Fifteen presidents, besides these, have been victims of assassination attempts, and two others have conspiracy theories circulating regarding their deaths.

This leaves only twenty-two presidents untouched by the assassin’s shadow.

This book is going to take a look, first at the presidential assassinations, and the circumstances surrounding them, and second, at some of the various assassination attempts upon our leaders.

In most cases, the assassin is clearly defined. In others, like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abound, but the evidence for them is circumstantial at best.

As far back as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, people have looked for larger conspiracies, rather than examining just the facts. In Lincoln’s case, it has been suggested Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton was behind Lincoln’s demise. The reasoning was Stanton did not like Lincoln’s lenient policies towards reconstruction of the South.

Mary Todd Lincoln believed Vice-President Andrew Johnson killed her husband.  Many more villains have been identified, including the Roman Catholic Church, a Confederate bid for revenge, or even a group of international bankers.

But, it doesn’t end there.

In 1980, Author Clara Rising convinced the family of Zachary Taylor to have his body exhumed to search for evidence of foul play. There was none.

Similar theories are told about the death of Warren G. Harding. He died after a week long illness while touring Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The official explanation was he died from a heart attack or stroke. Because Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy, conspiracy theories say she killed him. See The Strange Death of President Harding (1930) by Gaston B. Means.

But, conspiracies are for another tale. This book will tell the facts.

Abraham Lincoln

––––––––

March 3rd, 1865. Abraham Lincoln was on horseback, riding towards Petersburg, Virginia, accompanied by his bodyguard William Crook. They were on their way to meet General Ulysses S. Grant, who had just captured Petersburg.

Crook described the grisly scene as they crossed the battlefield, I can still see one man with a bullet-hole through his forehead and another with both arms shot away. Everywhere around them were strewn dead bodies, and the carnage of war.

The next day, March 4th, Lincoln and Crook started towards Richmond, Virginia with Admiral Porter. Richmond had just fallen, and Porter thought the President should survey the city. Porter felt Lincoln’s appearance there so soon after the fall would help show the South the Government’s confidence in her people.

Crook described Richmond as black with Negroes. Together with Lincoln, and his youngest son Tad, they moved through the streets of Richmond with the Negroes watching in awe. Many of them came up to shake Lincoln’s hand. People stared and watched their every move from behind the safety of their windows. Crook imagined guns being poked through the windows at every turn – pointed at the President.

Lincoln’s Premonitions of His Assassination

On March 14th, Lincoln told his bodyguard, Crook, do you know, I believe there are men who want to take my life? After a short pause, he said, half to himself, And I have no doubt they will do it.

At the time, Crook and Lincoln were walking past a crowd of drunken rowdies on their way to the War Department to meet with Secretary Stanton.

Lincoln’s biographer, and boyhood friend, Ward Lamon Hill, relates a similar story Lincoln told him:

About ten days ago, said he, "I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a