Lincoln assassination as my topic. I was fascinated by it. The following year the kennedy assassination took place and kept everyones interest and has continued and ive been interested in it and i have done interviews, you know, as far as various groups and lectures and two years ago Roman Littlefield loaned to me an email we see and do lectures on the subject and he said would you loo ick to write a book . Here i am semiretired, a lot less work to do and more time thinking why not . I said okay. They sought me out and i was pleased to say yes. Brian you start with Andrew Jackson. What is that story . Professor feinman Andrew Jackson is the first president we know of that has any problems with assassination threats. There were three such cases. There was the case of a young man who punched him in the nose in 1833, which is pretty minor but a first example of assault. Then we have the father of later lincoln assassination John Wilkes Booth who writes a threatening letter to jackson in 1835 and his handwriting has been authenticated by the tennessee history project that it is definitely julius booth himself a well known actor and this is three years before John Wilkes Booth is born so it makes you wonder if it is genetic or just coincidence that the father and son both have the same thing in their mind. John wilkes booth followed through and of course julius just wrote a threatening letter. Brian as you know there were a lot of duels in those days and Andrew Jackson had been involved in one. How many times brian i think it was about six times he was involved in a gun battle. Jackson was a very meteoric figure. A person who made people furious. His time in office was the most contentious it has been since the founding of the republic. I think thats what made the cause in his second term with his stand on the National Bank and earlier stand on the nullification crisis that we would have the situation of a people threatening his life. Written on it was paper. Then there was Richard Lawrence who came to the u. S. Capitol after a funeral for a congressman. Jackson was there and actually went ahead and had two pistols on him and he asexual assaults jackson with one pistol fired, misfires unbelievable. Second pistol misfired. Then jackson stepped on him and kicked him down. He actually helped subdue his own potential assassin. Summarize as you do in the introduction the amount of assassination attempts and threats over the years. 16 president s have faced assassination threats though none directly eyeball to eyeball since Ronald Reagan. But 16 president s. Also three president ial candidates. I talk about huey long who in 1935 was assassinated. I talk about Robert Kennedy in and who was assassinated George Wallace shot and paralyzed for life in 197 it. I cover candidates as well as president s. It is a long list, 16 plus three. It could have included Andrew Johnson who was supposed to be assassinated when lincoln was but the person who was supposed to do it chickened out so as a result johnson was not harmed. Brian can you sum up what kind of person does it . Definitely Mental Illness is a key factor. I would not say it is true with John Wilkes Booth. I think it was purely politics about the civil war. He was a confederate sympathizer who was furious at the war ending so that i think is not Mental Illness but most had Mental Illness. Some of them also joined Mental Illness with some had economic issues, struggling to survive a difficult world. Some had religious as well. Was ld say Sirhan Sirhan part of that. Mental illness is the one that ally draws people together except John Wilkes Booth. James garfield. I would argue James Garfield is the biggest loss one might say that how could you say that when we have lifpk and kennedy . Well, lincoln made quite a record for himself. Of course it was a loss. John f. Kennedy accomplished quite a bit in a thousand case. Garfield, who was a brilliant man, very intellectual, very talented, only had four months when he was shot and mortally wounded and suffered 79 days with medical malpractice i guess i would call it. They didnt know what to do. Medicine was not very advanced then. I often say, a hundred years later Ronald Reagan was saved in 1981 because of the times. Had it been 1881 he would have been gone. I think garfield could have been and is believed by many experts to have been possibly could have been the best president since lifpblg, until Teddy Roosevelt. But of course he only lasted two and a half months after four months so he had the second shortest term in the presidency after William Henry harrison who died of pneumonia after one month in 1841. You say of course he was killed. R shot here in town. By a man who was he and what happened to him after all this . He was a man who was definitely a lunatic. He was a very unstable person. But the story about him is interesting because he claims he made Campaign Speeches for garfield in 1880 which he might have before some audiences. You like to be up on soap boxes as we say. Garfield felt in his crazy mind that what he should get is an ambassadorship either to austria, hungry, or france even though he was not of any renown. He went to the white house a few times and met with president garfield and secretary of state james g. Blain and came in with information and i guess you would say they humored him. They spoke to him, were nice to him. He left some information. We said well be back to you be you they did nothing about it because he was not qualified for the kind of position he was pplying for. There was no secret Service Protection yet. It was created in 1865 to deal with counterfeit currency but not otherwise. Was on lifpblgs desk to be killed but the point is it wasnt until William Mckinley n 1901 was assassinated, lifpblg 1865, garfield 1881 and William Mckinley in 1901 that finally the secret service became the agency that would be responsible for the president. Back in 1881 the story goes there wh two White House Police officers. So they would check when people came to see garfield . No. They were not there to check people going into the building but to keep people off the lawn. Imagine that. Crazy. What happened . He ended up going on trial. He acted very crazy in his trial, dancing and singing. He put on a performance that he was mentally ill which i think he was. But there was not a feeling this Mental Illness should prevent him from being executed and after the trial and appeal he was executed in june, 1882. Recently we were in buffalo at the Buffalo History Museum talking to melissa brown. Lets run a little bit of this nd you can fill in the blanks. Leon was the assassin that shot president mckinley, around age 25 or 26 at the time. He was deemed to be, certainly this plays out in the newspaper, an anarchist with sympathies toward emma goldman. He had a myriad of issues going on not least of which were his politics but when you read the newspaper and the coverage that plays out in the time period, you know, it is very hard to get a true impression of who this man was. What were the circumstances that showed us doctor he was an anarchist. Even though emma never said to him, and he did meet emma goldman, did not say to kill anybody but the fact is he was a person who had this idea because he believed in anarchism that his mission was to kill the president of the United States. Somehow would get away with it, you know, escape. Then go to Great Britain and kill the king of england and escape and go to vatican city and execute be the assassinate the pope. The whole idea someone wong he could get away with this is just really unbelievable when you think about it. How long did mckinley live . He lasted eight days. He also had not the best medical contention. Xrays had not been invented yet at the time of garfield and mckinley. The bullet was not renoffed in removed in either case. The fact is that he suffered eight days. It didnt seem like he was going to die so Vice PresidentTheodore Roosevelt was up in new york at the Adirondack Mountains hunting because he figured mckinley was going to be fine. And a had to be found certain number of hours went by before they could find him to tell him the president is dead and you are now the president. It was a little panicky for a while. Where is Teddy Roosevelt . You claim in your book Teddy Roosevelt wouldnt have been elected president had he not been his president when he was Vice President had been assassinated . You think he wouldnt have made it on his own . He was a replacement Vice President. This is something people dont realize. One of the real forgotten people is Garret Hobart who was Vice President under mckinley in the first term and was very close to mckinley, very close. His wife was close to both the first lady and mckinley. But he died of Heart Disease in 1899. There was no provision to replace the Vice President so there was none. If mckinley had been killed before the second term the secretary of state would have been next who was john hay who was quite famous. And the point is that t. R. Was selected bite second term and it was just coincidence in 1901 after six months, he is president but it could have been president hobart if hobart had not gotten in office. So t. R. Goes on to be president , gets elected in 190 h and chooses not to run in 1908. William howard taft is elected. We have some video from something called the art of mannelness from u tube. Its done a little bit in animation. Lets watch this and again youll tell us the rest of the story. Sure. While campaigning for a third term of the presidency in 1912 authored thoord exited a hotel in milwaukee and took a seat in an open air car. As the crowd gathered around the vehicle roosevelt stood up to wave at them. At that point a local saloon keeper lunged through the well wishers and shot t. R. From a distance of seven feet. The bone was slowed by a copy of a speech he would give later and an eye glasses case, app lost in his chest. As the would be assassin was subdued roosevelt assessed the damage. When he reached under his shirt to feel the wound, his hand came out bloodied. Pleas he there were go immediately to the hospital but he refused and wanted to give his speech to 10,000 people waiting to hear him speak. Once he arrived and though the left half of his body was turning black roosevelt mounted the stage unaided, unbuttoned his shirt to show the audience and declared i have just been shot but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose. The impact of all that on Theodore Roosevelt . I know he didnt win. What about on his person . I think it undermined his health. Of course he was a daring guy. He was always a bit of a carrick. He decided to go into the amazon river basin with his son in 1914 and got malaria there and nearly died. The amazon river expedition. When you think about it he was always wanting to prove that he was strong and mannel since the time he was a kid when he was bullied and had asthma and decided to build up his body and be sports active. Even in his 1950s he was still wanting to do things like the amazon river expedition. He was a gutsy, courageous guy and a real colorful person just about the most colorful president we ever had i think. The man that shot him, what happened to him . He was adjudge the mentally ill and put into an institution. Not executed. I dont know why they did that. He stayed there until his death 1943 and had no visitors at all in this report. He was really in isolation but he said at the end of his life, he made the statement that he had tried to kill a, bull moose. Did you say in your book they didnt take the bullet out . The bullet was never taken out. Why not . They just, i dont know. They just did not. It seems hard to believe because by that time they had xrays. They knew where it was but seemed to feel it might cause more damage if they removed it than leaving it because it was not apparently affecting him. I think it probably did undermine his General Health and then he went off to the amazon river basin in brazil and that i think was really a crazy thing to do when you look back on it. Back in those days after the did finished his speech, he go back on the campaign trail after he went to the doctor no. He rested about 10 days and the other candidates suspended their campaigns for those 10 days but then he went back. Yes. And if i may, i wanted to point out something we dont much know t. R. Was also at least in theory threatened when he was president in 1903. I uncovered this and im not aware of anybody else knowing it that i know of. A man came to his home in oyster bay, long island when t. R. Was home, wanted to see him one evening. And the secret service wasnt there to protect him because it was 1903. 1901 the secret Service Began protection. He said i want to see the president. He was asked if he had an appointment. No. Its 8 00 at night. Sorry. He leaves. He comes back about an hour later. Asks again. Sir, we told you, you dont have an appointment. Its too late. He leaves. Comes back at 11 00. A third time. Now theyre getting suspicious so they investigate him. You know, they take him to the barn nearby and discover he has a body armor on him. The theory is t. R. Could have been hurt if he had actually agreed to meet this stranger and he went to a Mental Institution where he stayed the rest of his life in kingsport, new york. One thing i noticed is you are talking about the assassination and the early president s. They were tried and convicted and sent to prison or i dont know how many of them died after lawrence was put in a Mental Institution from jacksons time. Now, how quickly did they do the executions . Today it takes forever to get even a trial. In the case of jaugous it was very quick. In the case of gouteau it was seven or eight months after garfields death. If you want to talk about the quickest execution it is that of the man who tried to kill franklin d. Roosevelt. Five weeks after he tried to do it. And he had killed in chicago. He was executed by the state of florida, very quick, five weeks. You say five people were wounded in miami. What is the whole story . Zengara was an y tail yap immigrant who had come to this country and was struggling and having trouble making a living. We now know he even thought of, maybe didnt take action, shooting president hoover because of the depression times. But on february 15, 1933, president elect franklin d. Roosevelt is in miami, florida at Bay Front Park at a Democratic Party gathering. There are thousands of people there to meet and greet him. He is in the crowd, a short little guy only about five feet tall. He gets up on a chair and aims s weapon at f. D. R. And unfortunately he mortally wounds mayor cermak of chicago who is there. And mayor cermak is famous for his statement bet mere than you to f. D. R. As he is on the way to the hospital. I think that is very patriotic to say that when youre being shot. Better me than you. But because of franklin d. Roosevelt being the president elect. Had he been killed, john garner one of the 15 might have beens, Vice President elect, former speaker of the house, would have been president. Most likely the new deal would never have occurred. We have video of an interview with zangara in 1933. Its only 30 seconds. Lets see what he looks like. Sure. No, sir. You like mr. Roosevelt as a man . I like him as would you shoot me . Youre not president. You wont shoot me . Why wouldnt i shoot you. If we let you go would you kill now . Yeah. If you let me go. How soon afterwards was he executed . Five weeks. How come . Why did it go so fast . The state of florida first put him on trial for assault on mayor cermak. Mayor cermak lasted about two weeks but after his death they changed it to murder and they convicted him extremely quickly and the appeal was very quick. Almost too quick. And he was executed. So his is the quickest execution even more than zogo with mckinley. What is usually the weapon of choice for these assassins . Well, it is always a gun. Often its a weapon such as the type that was used in the 19th century. Im not an expevert on the type of guns so at the moment i cant think of the exact names. I do remember he had a 38 and a 22. Im not an expert either. How often was it a pistol versus a rifle . It was much more often a pistol. Here we are. Yes. Huey long of course is especially interesting character, governor, and every man a king. You know, the king fish as he was known. Un, he was controversial and some people thought he was a fascist. He had his own private fort. The fact is huey long also was seen by some as socialistic although socialist party leader Norman Thomas said he was some people thought he had the potential of being Adolph Hittler type. He scared a lot of people but had a lot of followers. He had a radio show. And he became a real burr in the side of the u. S. Senate