A history of US presidents who have been assassinated
From Lincoln to Kennedy, there have been only a handful of successful presidential assassinations in US history
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The President of the United States has the most elite security protection apparatus in the world. Over the course of 46 presidencies, 4 presidents have been assassinated while in office.
Presidential assassinations, both successful and unsuccessful, were usually politically motivated; however, some assassins were mentally ill or acted without a known purpose. Almost every presidential assassin were captured after their attempt and executed or imprisoned.
Who are the 4 assassinated presidents?
Abraham Lincoln
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On April 20, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln became the first U.S. president assassinated in the history of the country. Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while watching a play Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. days after the end of the Civil War.
After being shot, Lincoln was rushed to doctors at a nearby residence where he remained in a coma for eight hours before passing away the next morning.
HOW LINCOLN, DOUGLASS EMERGED TO REUNIFY AMERICA IN 'THE PRESIDENT AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTER'
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Booth was a confederate sympathizer enraged by the South's capitulation to the Union along with Lincoln's intention to give black Americans the right to vote and abolish slavery. Two weeks after Lincoln's assassination, Booth was cornered by Union troops at a Virginia farm where he was shot dead
James Garfield
Less than four months after taking office, President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau at a railroad station in Washington DC on July 2, 1881. Garfield was hit twice, once in the back and another bullet enter through his back. Three months later, after improper medical examinations, Garfield died from the injuries he sustained during the assassination attempt on September 19, 1881.
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His assassin, Guiteau, was found and sentenced to death by hanging. The trial found that he was mentally unwell and wanted to kill the president for not appointing as the Ambassador to France.
William McKinley
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot twice by polis anarchist Leon Czolgosz while attending musical event in Buffalo, New York. The first bullet failed to cause any injury, but the second shot enter his stomach. McKinley died 8 days later on September 14, 1901, due to the gangrene that had developed around his wound.
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JFK'S GRANDSON RACKS UP TWO GRADUATE DEGREES FROM HARVARD
Czolgosz was captured at the shooting and taken into custody. Weeks later he was found guilty and sentenced to death by the electric chair.
John F. Kennedy
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President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, in his presidential motorcade while riding alongside his wife, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie. Former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald Kennedy fired upon Kennedy's vehicle from a sixth floor building where struck the president in the back and head.
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Kennedy was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead 30 minutes after the assassination took place. Oswald was captured and arrested for murder but was himself assassinated on November 24, 1963, by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. A clear motivation for Kennedy's assassination or Oswald's murder has never been conclusively determined.