Hunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 1: FDR

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2019

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In American history, four U.S. Presidents have been murdered at the hands of an assassin. In each case the assassinations changed the course of American history.

But most historians have overlooked or downplayed the many threats modern presidents have faced, and survived. In this podcast series we will be looking at the largely forgotten—or never-before revealed attempts to slay America’s leaders.

Such incidents include:

How an armed, would-be assassin stalked President Roosevelt and spent ten days waiting across the street from the White House for his chance to shoot him
How the Secret Service foiled a plot by a Cuban immigrant who told coworkers he was going to shoot LBJ from a window overlooking the president’s motorcade route
How a deranged man broke into Reagan’s California home and attempted to strangle the former president before he was subdued by Secret Service agents.
In early 1992 a mentally deranged man stalking Bush turned up at the wrong presidential venue for his planned assassination attempt
The relationships presidents held with their protectors and the effect it had on the Secret Service’s mission

In the first episode of this series, we will look at assassination attempts against Franklin Roosevelt. He received thousands of threats on his life during his four presidential terms. The danger only increased in the World War 2 years, with his protection detail fearing an Axis assassin would take him out. There were several near-misses, with a would-be killer's bullet coming with in two feet of his head, or a torpedo nearly sinking his ship while going to the Yalta Conference to meet Churchill and Stalin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	During Bill Clinton's first seven years in office, the Secret Service made arrangements for
0:05.6	2500 appearances in more than 800 cities in the United States in abroad
0:10.8	as well as 450 appearance. Welcome to the history of the Unplugged Apartment area. The unscripted show that this was unsung heroes.
0:18.9	With busts historical lives and rediscovered the forgotten stories that changed our world.
0:25.6	The secret host research squad was cracking a list of several thousand Americans who were considered presidential threats.
0:33.7	More than 400 were on the watch list of dangerous individuals.
0:37.9	Several hundred weapons were detected each year. Almost all of them carried lawfully by people who had
0:43.4	state permits. Those who were discovered to be carrying weapons illegally were usually taken
0:48.6	to police headquarters and charged with a misdemeanor. There were a number of incidents that the media
0:54.6	characterized as threats against the president but were unconnected to any assassination attempt.
1:01.4	But one incident stands out. In the early morning of September 12, 1994,
1:07.9	a SESTA 150L airplane crashed onto the south wall onto the White House,
1:13.0	killing the pilot 38-year-old Frank Eugene quarter but injuring no one else.
1:19.4	The plane came to a halt against the south wall of the White House, causing minimal damage.
1:25.3	President Clinton and his family were not home at the time.
1:28.8	The Clintons were spending the night across Pennsylvania Avenue at Blair House,
1:32.7	while White House workers repaired faulty ductwork. There was no evidence quarter
1:38.1	who had been drinking a smoking crack cocaine at the time of the plane,
1:42.2	ever intended to kill Clinton or had been angry with his policies.
1:46.4	Rather, according to informed associates, he simply wanted to die crashing his plane into the White House.
1:52.3	The border may have failed in his task of threatening the president,
1:56.5	but he certainly received the media attention that he sought.
	...

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