The perils of being a US President

When you think of dangerous jobs, you might think of cobalt mining in the Congo, electrical powerline workers, roofers, or construction workers. Naturally, being President of the US doesn’t spring to mind, but historically, holding this lofty position is more dangerous than you might think.

The history of attempts on the lives of Presidents is a long one. The first of these efforts was the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson in 1835. Unfortunately for the would-be assassin, both his guns misfired due to a heavy moisture content in the air, and President Jackson subsequently beat the attacker with his cane.

In 1865, one of the most high-profile Presidential murders took place when Abraham Lincoln was shot dead, but the plot was actually more extensive than it would first seem. The original plan was for Confederate sympathisers and spies to kill the three highest-ranking figures in the Union, in an effort to re-ignite the American Civil War. However, only Lincoln died, passing away within 12 hours of being shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth.

Interestingly, there was an attempt on Lincoln’s life nine months before Wilkes Booth killed him – the bullet went clean through Lincoln’s iconic stovepipe hat, which he was wearing as he rode to his summer cottage one evening.

The second Presidential assassination occurred when James Garfield was shot in a train station in 1881. He endured an agonising four months before eventually succumbing to his wounds.

Next on this unfortunate list is William McKinley, and again, the attempt was not immediately fatal. McKinley was shot twice while meeting members of the public just six months into his second term in office. He passed away a week later – doctors were unable to find one of the bullets that entered him – and eye witness reports say at the time of the shooting, he managed to persuade enraged bystanders not to kill his attacker.

Probably the other highest-profile assassination was of course that of John F Kennedy. Unlike his predecessors, Kennedy died almost instantly, but the tragic event has spawned a raft of movies, books, and more, investigating the possibility of involvement of actors such as the Communist government, the CIA, and the Mafia.

There has been a range of other attempts on the lives of US Presidents. Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest while on the campaign trail in 1912 just as he was about to deliver a speech. Convinced that the wound was not fatal, Roosevelt went ahead and delivered an 84-minute speech before allowing the doctors to provide medical care.

Fast forward to 1981, when six shots were fired at Ronald Reagan as he pressed the flesh outside a hotel in Washington. One bullet bounced off the side of a car, injuring Reagan’s lung and causing severe internal bleeding. Reagan almost died on the way to the hospital, but his doctors came to the rescue, stabilising him and extracting the offending bullet. This gunman was not the most accurate and three other people were injured in the shooting. Reagan was back at his desk in the White House two weeks later.

There is a significant gender disparity when it comes to trying to murder Presidents – the only two women known to try to kill a President were involved in two unrelated attacks in California in 1975. Both attempts were on the life of Gerald Ford, and the first would-be killer was a member of the infamous ‘Manson Family’. Her efforts were stifled when a bystander tackled her before she could fire a shot. The second woman was restrained after getting one shot off at Ford, injuring a passer-by in the process.

On the topic of outliers, the only Presidential assassination attempt that didn’t involve a gun was in 2005, when George W Bush was making a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia (also the only murder attempt to happen outside the US). The attacker threw a grenade on stage and whilst the pin had been removed, the handkerchief he used to conceal the grenade was so tightly wrapped around it that the lever did not detach. Try getting that through airport security these days.

All-in-all, not the safest job in the world.