Attempted presidential assassinations you might not know about

What happened on July 13, 2024 pulled open a scab on a very ugly side of American history, one going back over 189 years. It was the morning of Jan. 30, 1835 when President Andrew Jackson was targeted, of all places, in the U.S. Capitol Building.

The President was attending a funeral for a South Carolina congressman when a very disturbed man named Richard Lawrence approached the President. Lawrence was a house painter who decided on a whim that he was going to kill Jackson, uttering the words to a co-worker “I’ll be damned if I don’t do it.”

Lawrence let Jackson pass him, then fired a pistol at point-blank range, which misfired. Lawrence came prepared, however, and pulled a second gun. It too misfired!

At this point, Jackson was aware of the attempt on his life. What did he do, run for cover? No! He went over to Lawrence and started beating him nearly to death with his cane when Davy Crockett, a representative from Tennessee who is a household name today, pulled the President off. Lawrence was put on trial and was prosecuted by another household name: Francis Scott Key.

Throughout the trial, Lawrence went on wild rants and was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity. He ever be free again as he went from institution to institution until his death in 1861.

Iowa’s own Herbert Hoover also faced a serious threat even before taking office.

Hoover, fresh off his 1928 landslide victory over Democratic New York Al Smith, went to South America to try and cool tensions in Latin America. Awaiting him in Chile was an anarchist from Italy by the name of Serverino Di Giovanni.

Giovanni was incensed with anti-American sentiment. In 1927, a year prior, two of his friends and fellow anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were executed in Massachusetts for a brutal murder. Giovanni’s plan was to put a bomb on Hoover’s train. It might have been successful had law enforcement not intercepted the would-be bomber, Giovanni accomplice Alejandro Scarfo, who confessed to the plot. Hoover was most worried about his wife’s reaction and even ripped the front page of the paper so she wouldn’t see the story. Giovanni would be executed for other terrorist acts in 1931.

Unbeknown to anyone, Hoover was also being stalked by an unemployed bricklayer who was also from Italy, ironically. Giuseppe Zangara had an extreme hatred for capitalism. He said “I get even with capitalists by kill (sic) the President.” He also, however, had severe stomach issues.

Weather issues — and his health — prevented Zangara from going through with his plan to kill Hoover. Later, however, President-Elect Franklin Roosevelt would make an impromptu visit to Miami, where Zangara lived, and he promptly set his sights on FDR.

Zangara fired 5 shots at the President-Elect on Feb. 13, 1933. One of the bullets hit Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who reportedly later said “I’m glad it’s me instead you” to FDR before succumbing to his wounds several weeks later. Zanagra was executed by the state of Florida just 33 days after the attack. His last words were, “Go ahead. Push the button.”

Tom Babbage first became a presidential history enthusiast in 1992 as a third-grader at Indian Creek Elementary School in the Linn-Mar district. He now resides in Casa Grande, AZ