# Did Jefferson shoot a traitor on the White House lawn?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601 "2001-09-04T01:21:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Edward\_J\_Cunningham\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e79b87/32.png) [@Edward\_J\_Cunningham\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_J_Cunningham_1)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601/1 "2001-09-04T01:21:52Z")

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I just saw the movie _Swordfish_ at a drive-in theatre last night. I enjoyed the movie, although it wasn’t good enough to get me to see it a second time. In one interesting scene, John Travolta’s character says that Thomas Jefferson once shot a traitor on the White House lawn. Is this true, or is it an urban legend? Sounds crazy, but then again for many years hardly anyone believed the stories about Jefferson and Sally Hemmings…

Eddie

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601/2 "2001-09-04T01:55:44Z")

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Go [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=74588)

The answer–no. It’s an UL.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601/3 "2001-09-04T01:57:42Z")

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It’s complete nonsense.

At least the writers thought enough to let the old dude object to the statement before Travolta blew his brains out. 🙂

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601/4 "2001-09-04T05:38:31Z")

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Thomas Jefferson likely never shot anyone in his life. He didn’t serve in the military and he got a lot of flak when he was governor of Virginia during the Revolution for fleeing Richmond when Cornwallis was approaching.

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**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:** [September 4, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jefferson-shoot-a-traitor-on-the-white-house-lawn/79601/5 "2001-09-04T15:42:47Z")

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I wonder whether this legend might be a kind of bizarre conflation of a couple of facts about Andrew Jackson:

1. In 1835 Jackson survived an assassination attempt by the deranged Richard Lawrence as he was exiting a funeral at the Capitol. Lawrence pointed a pistol at Jackson, but it misfired. The 67-year old Jackson immediatley attacked Lawrence with his cane. Lawrence attempted to shoot again, but his second gun also misfired.

2. In 1806 Jackson killed Charles Dickenson in a duel over an insult to Jackson’s wife, even though Dickenson got the first shot and wounded Jackson in the chest.