While assassinations and high-profile murders are typically defined by gunshot wounds, witness accounts and the tin-foil hat brigade salivating over classified documents, there's a whole lot more than the official report. For instance, did you know that Sharon Tate predicted her death a year before the Manson Murders? Or that John Lennon was only the first of several targets Mark David Chapman considered sniping?
From Angelina Jolie's encounter with a hitman to FDR's near-death experience, her are 20 fascinating facts about famous assassinations.
1
“U.S. President John Kennedy survived 4 assassination attempts before he was killed in Dallas, Tx on 22 November 1963.”
2
“Charlie Chaplin was one of the planned assassination targets during a May 15, 1932 coup attempt by Japanese naval officers. While the prime minister was killed at home, Chaplin survived as he was at a sumo event with the prime minister's son.”
3
“A Chinese Emperor [King Zheng Of Qin] escaped an assassination attempt by running in circles around a pilar.”
4
“Of the 5 known assassination attempts on Queen Elizabeth II, the one that came closest to succeeding was attempted by a 17-year-old New Zealander, who shot at her with a .22 calibre rifle, but missed so badly that nobody even realised shots were fired.”
5
“There were 121 witnesses to the JFK assassination, and 51 of them believed shots came from the grassy knoll. A further study examined 64 witnesses, with over half putting gunshots from the knoll.”
6
“There were 32 failed assassination attempts on Hitler ranging from gun fire to food poisoning.”
7
“The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was part of a wider conspiracy that also involved the assassination of Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Seward was stabbed in his home but survived, while Johnson’s assassin lost his nerve and never made the attempt.”
8
“Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon, also considered killing other famous figures prior to killing Lennon: David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, and Johnny Carson were on the list.”
9
“The person that attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford [Lynette Alice ‘Squeaky’ Fromme] in 1975 is not only still alive, but has been out of prison for 16 years.”
10
“Angelina Jolie once tried to hire a hitman to kill her, because she felt that a murder would be easier on her family than her committing suicide. The would-be-hitman talked her out of it by asking her to wait a month.”
11
“After John Lennon was murdered, at least three Beatles fans took their own lives out of grief, and Yoko Ono felt that she had make an appeal asking mourners not to give into despair”
12
“[The] last surviving witness to the Abraham Lincoln assassination lived long enough to be interviewed about it on television.”
13
“Archduke Ferdinand survived an initial assassination attempt on the day he was killed when a grenade bounced off his convertible. He escaped unharmed, but later wanted to visit the wounded and that is when his car stalled next to one of the assassins, who happened to be nearby.”
14
“An attempted assassination of Bob Marley occurred on Dec. 3, 1976, when seven armed men raided his house two days before a concert to quell violence. His wife was shot in the head in her car in the driveway. The gunmen shot Marley in the chest and arm. Astonishingly, there were no fatalities.”
15
“Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church, aka Mormon Church, was assassinated in 1844 in Illinois by a mob. He was running for president at the time and is the first presidential candidate in US History to be assassinated”
16
“In an attempt to assassinate Hitler, a [German] officer hid two time bombs in his jacket and led Hitler on a tour of a museum. Hitler raced through the museum and left before the bombs exploded, so the officer had to rush to the bathroom where he defused the bombs ’at the last second.’”
17
“A year before the Manson murders, Sharon Tate gave an interview in which she described a nightmare she had where a man entered her home, [restrained] her and Jay Sebring, and killed them.”
18
“The Babushka Lady is an unidentified woman present during the 1963 assassination of JFK, who appeared to be taking photos as other witnesses took cover. Her identity, along with her photos, remain unknown.”
19
“John Wilkes Booth father, Junius Brutus Booth, wrote many letters in fits of drunken anger and madness to President Andrew Jackson threatening assassination.”
20
“FDR survived an assassination attempt 3 weeks before taking office. After a speech in Miami, six shots were fired at FDR from 16 feet away. FDR wasn't hit because a woman in the crowd grabbed the shooter as he fired. She briefly lost hearing in one ear and her cheek was ‘smudged with gunpowder.’”
