# Assassination attempts besides the President **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639 "2015-07-19T21:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/1 "2015-07-19T21:06:41Z")
We all know the sad facts that four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated, with many more plots foiled at some stage of planning. But how many assassination attempts have been made against other officials? The only ones I could think of were Governors George Wallace and Frank Steunenberg (an Idaho governor killed in 1905). Have there been any shooting or major plots to kill congressman, vice presidents, cabinet members, or federal judges? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/2 "2015-07-19T21:18:24Z")
Wikipedia provides one of its usual weird lists, [List of people who survived assassination attempts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_survived_assassination_attempts#1931_.E2.80.94_1940). It’s a worldwide list, but includes many American figures. That’s parallel to its [List of assassinations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinations#The_Americas), which gives successful tries. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/3 "2015-07-19T22:10:41Z")
Do you consider the fairly recent (2011) shooting of Congressman Giffords ([2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting)) to be an “assassination attempt”? Or does that require a more organized, i.e. sane, attacker? ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/4 "2015-07-19T22:20:01Z")
You counted the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but it should be noted that Booth’s original conspiracy intended to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward as well. The man assigned to kill Johnson lost his nerve and did not make the attempt, and the man assigned to kill Seward attacked him with a knife after his gun jammed, but Seward was not mortally wounded (in part thanks to the metal splint affixed to his injured jaw). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/5 "2015-07-19T22:30:33Z")
Harvey Milk was only a district supervisor but his assassination became famous. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/6 "2015-07-19T22:33:45Z")
Robert Kennedy was assassinated while running for president. He was a senator at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/7 "2015-07-19T22:46:53Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > The only ones I could think of were Governors George Wallace and Frank Steunenberg (an Idaho governor killed in 1905). You remembered George Wallace and forgot about Robert Kennedy? Louisiana Senator Huey Long (1935). The Lincoln assasination was supposed to include Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. (Seward was badly wounded but survived.) (On preview, I see Kennedy and Seward were already noted.) ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/8 "2015-07-19T22:59:17Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Have there been any shooting or major plots to kill congressman, vice presidents, cabinet members, or federal judges? Sure. Judge John Wood was assassinated by actor Woody Harrelson’s father (a contract killing), and Judge John Roll was killed during the attempted assassination of Giffords that is mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/9 "2015-07-19T23:01:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Do you consider the fairly recent (2011) shooting of Congressman Giffords ([2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting)) to be an “assassination attempt”? Or does that require a more organized, i.e. sane, attacker? Yes; after all Charles Guiteau and John Hinkley didn’t exactly have it all together. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/10 "2015-07-19T23:03:33Z")
Oh, and Vice-President Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton famously made an appointment to attempt to assassinate each other. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/11 "2015-07-20T01:02:06Z")
[Leo Ryan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ryan) was a US Congressman, shot and killed by the People’s Temple, shortly before their mass suicide/murder. Also, someone already mentioned Harvey Milk, but did not mention [Mayor George Moscone,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscone%E2%80%93Milk_assassinations) who was assassinated at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/12 "2015-07-20T02:35:14Z")
Mayor [Anton Cermak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Cermak) of Chicago was killed in what is usually regarded as an assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, but according to some theories Cermak was actually the intended target. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/13 "2015-07-20T04:41:19Z")
Larry Flynt, editor of Hustler. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/14 "2015-07-20T09:35:01Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Larry Flynt, editor of Hustler. If we’re going to extend the OP’s question to include important people besides elected or appointed government officials ( Larry Flynt? :dubious: ), the list would include Martin Luther King Jr. of course. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/15 "2015-07-20T09:41:15Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If we’re going to extend the OP’s question to include important people besides elected or appointed government officials ( Larry Flynt? :dubious: ), the list would include Martin Luther King Jr. of course. And Malcolm X. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/16 "2015-07-20T12:53:19Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Mayor [Anton Cermak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Cermak) of Chicago was killed in what is usually regarded as an assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, but according to some theories Cermak was actually the intended target. Hijack: That’s some swift justice! Cermak’s assassin was executed days after Cermak’s death (a month after the shooting). ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/17 "2015-07-20T13:03:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Harvey Milk was only a district supervisor but his assassination became famous. So famous that people have nearly forgotten that his killer, Dan White, also assassinated the then-mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/18 "2015-07-20T14:58:22Z")
Seven months before Lee Harvey Oswald murdered President Kennedy, he attempted to murder retired General Edwin Walker > **[Edwin Walker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Walker#Assassination_attempt)** > > Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was a United States Army major general who served in World War II and the Korean War. He became known for his staunch conservative political opinions and was criticized by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for promoting personal political views while in uniform.\[citation needed\] Walker resigned his commission during 1959, but Eisenhower refused to accept his resignation and gave Walker a new command of the 24th Infantry Division in ... ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/19 "2015-07-20T15:05:50Z")
October 1912 former President and current Bull Moose party candidate Theodore Roosevelt was shot by John Flamming Schrank. The put hit his eyeglass case and a folded 50 page speech. Roosevelt knew he wasn’t seriously wounded and gave a 90 minute speech. Schrank was determined as insane and spent 29 years in a mental hospital before dying. Roosevelt carried the bullet in his chest the rest of his life. > **[Theodore Roosevelt | Assassination attempt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#Assassination_attempt)** > > On October 14, 1912, while arriving at a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot from seven feet away in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel by a delusional saloonkeeper named John Flammang Schrank, who believed that the ghost of assassinated president William McKinley had directed him to kill Roosevelt. The bullet lodged in his chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a 50-page-thick single-folded copy of the speech titled "Progressive Cause Grea As an exp... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639/20 "2015-07-20T15:50:10Z")
> [@JWT\_Kottekoe](#): > > [Leo Ryan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ryan) was a US Congressman, shot and killed by the People’s Temple, shortly before their mass suicide/murder. Also, someone already mentioned Harvey Milk, but did not mention [Mayor George Moscone,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscone%E2%80%93Milk_assassinations) who was assassinated at the same time. > [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > So famous that people have nearly forgotten that his killer, Dan White, also assassinated the then-mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone. So forgettable was Mayor Moscone that folks forgot about him again in the 12 hours between posts #11 & #17 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassination-attempts-besides-the-president/725639.md?page=2)