US Assassinations: The Security Failures
The news that the Secret Service is under investigation by the Dept. of Homeland Security for lapses in security before, during and after the attempt on former President Trump’s life should not necessarily come as a surprise to those with knowledge of presidential assassinations. We should all breath a sigh of relief that the bullet missed its target knowing as we do much of the population is heavily armed, though tragically one man has been killed and two are in serious condition.
More interesting are the questionable security measures in place to protect Presidents with the Secret Service only gaining oversight of presidential protection in 1902. Presidential hopefuls had to wait for a Secret Service detail until 1968 after Senator Robert F Kennedy was murdered by Sirhan Sirhan.
President Garfield just after he was shot in the back
Going back to the first and perhaps most tragic American assassination, that of Abraham Lincoln, his assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a successful actor, described as having ‘natural genius’. Booth’s anger at Lincoln’s policy of widening the voting franchise to include emancipated slaves seems to have been the last straw. At the infamous theatre shooting Lincoln’s security, like Trump’s, had a lapse as his bodyguard, John Frederick Parker, took advantage of the intermission to rehydrate at a nearby saloon, and so was not present when Booth slipped in to the President’s box. Unsurprisingly Parker was charged with neglect of duty, but surprisingly the charge was dismissed and he returned to work at the White House.
President James Garfield was shot in July 1881, only 16 years after the Lincoln assassination. He died 11 weeks later. The assassin’s motivation this time is one we can probably all identify with: anger at not getting a job. Charles J. Giteau was under the impression he had helped Garfield get elected in November the previous year, and so resorted to desperate, and frankly embarrassing attempts to gain the ambassadorship to Austro-Hungary and France. That sense of entitlement boiled over to violence at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station and he fired two cowardly rounds into Garfield’s back. We cannot blame his security detail this time since, in a decision that certainly raises eyebrows now, neither Congress nor Presidents saw the need to employ them.
That decision would be reversed only once the third US President was killed, 20 years later, again to gunshot wounds. William McKinley was in great spirits having defeated his Democrat opponent comfortably and been elected for a second term in 1900. He was at the World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York on September 6th 1901. McKinley seems to have been a marvellous fellow, a Union veteran and very keen to meet his people – apparently he could shake hands with 50 a minute – just over 1 second per person. Unfortunately one of those people was an armed and disgruntled anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. Despite the lack of Secret Service involvement, there was a police presence, but as with all assassinations, errors were made. Many of the policemen got in the way of those more attuned to close protection, and Czolgosz fired twice into McKinley’s abdomen once he had shaken the hand of the President. Similar to Garfield, McKinley died of infection, but the legacy for future presidents was Secret Service responsibility – passed by Congress in 1906.
Now to the big one, November 1963 and the assassination of John F Kennedy. I have no wish to go down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole having done this for our Film Club Podcast on the 60th anniversary last year, but it is worth looking at the security. Inevitably whenever a successful assassination is achieved, there is a failure somewhere along the line. For a president who had received a huge amount of criticism for his perceived weakness over communism thanks to the Bay of Pigs disaster and the Cuban Missile Crisis, for him to have driven through the streets of Dallas in an open top limousine which was driving at around 10mph would seem questionable. Indeed Governor Connally’s wife Nellie alluded to hostility in Dallas in the last conversation Kennedy had:
“Mr. President, they can’t make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love and appreciate you, can they?”
Kennedy’s response, “No, they sure can’t.”
Those were the last words he spoke and we all know what happened next. Or do we?
During the US House Select Committee on Assassinations, the CIA, FBI and Secret Service were criticised. The CIA and FBI for not having shared information – this type of criticism would be repeated to the nth degree in the 9/11 Commission when the CIA withheld crucial intelligence. The Secret Service later undertook reforms and out went vehicles of the kind Kennedy travelled in, snipers were employed and the budget increased. In 1963 the Secret Service received $5.5million, by 2025 it will be $3.2billion.
For many the lasting image of the Trump shooting is that of his defiance, blood smeared across his cheek with the Star-Spangled Banner and blue skies behind. For me it is of one Secret Service agent pathetically trying to holster her sidearm, looking confused, bewildered and lost as the former President was driven, slowly, away.
Oliver Webb-Carter is the Editor of Aspects of History.
