List of Assassinations in the United States

[MicaelS]

I have to give credit to leveymg's post that gave me the idea for this thread. He stated:

The difference is, many on the Right are heavily armed, and have already assassinated people

So after going to Wikipedia I found this List of assassinated people scroll down to the United States. If you examine the history of political violence in the US, Progressives have been on the losing end almost every time, going all the way back to Abraham Lincoln. Now anyone who thinks the the hard core Right shies away from killing those they view as their political "enemies", well this list should disabuse you of that idea very quickly.

Many of people on the Right speak of "The Second American Revolution". What they mean by that is the Second American Civil War where they get to kill lots of "Liberuls", and purge the US of their "enemies" once and for all. People like that are called Eliminationists.

Eliminationism is the belief that one's political opponents are not just wrongheaded, misinformed or even acting in bad faith but that they are a cancer on the body politic that must be excised — either by separation from the public at large, through censorship or by outright extermination — in order to protect the purity of the nation.

The 1996 history book Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust because of a unique and virulent "eliminationist antisemitism" in the German identity, which had developed in the preceding centuries.

As one Conservative I spoke to said:

It'll be just like the Russian Revolution, except it'll be to the Right, and instead of 20,000,000 dead Russians, we'll have 20 or 40 or 100 million dead American Liberals."

Joseph Smith, Jr., (1844), Mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois and presidential candidate and LDS church leader.
Charles Bent, (1847), Governor of the New Mexico Territory
James Strang, (1856), Michigan State Representative
Abraham Lincoln, (1865 April 14), President of the United States
John P. Slough, (1867), Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court
Thomas Hindman, (1868), Confederate General
James Hinds, (1868), U.S. Congressman killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan
Edward Dexter Holbrook, (1870), Congressional Delegate from the Idaho Territory
James Garfield, (1881 July 2), President of the United States
John M. Clayton, (1889), Congressman from Arkansas
David Hennessy, (1890), Police Chief of New Orleans
Carter Harrison, Sr., (1893), Mayor of Chicago
William Goebel, (1900), Governor of Kentucky
William McKinley, (1901 September 6), President of the United States
Frank Steunenberg, (1905), former governor of Idaho
Don Mellett, (1926), newspaper editor and campaigner against organized crime
Anton Cermak, (1933 February 15), mayor of Chicago
Huey P. Long, (1935), Louisiana senator and former governor
Walter Liggett, (1935), Minnesota newspaper editor
Carlo Tresca, (1943), anarchist organizer
Albert Patterson, (1954), Alabama Attorney General
Curtis Chillingworth, (1955), a Florida judge
Medgar Evers, (1963 June 12), U.S. civil rights activist
John F. Kennedy, (1963 November 22), President of the United States
Malcolm X, (1965 February 21), black Muslim leader, killed in a Manhattan banquet room as he began a sp eech
George Lincoln Rockwell, (1967), founder of the American Nazi Party
Martin Luther King, Jr., (1968 April 4), U.S. civil rights activist
Robert F. Kennedy, (1968 June 5), U.S. Senator, Candidate for Democratic nomination for President 1968, bro ther of assassinated President John F. Kennedy
Fred Hampton, (1969), Deputy Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party
Dan Mitrione, (1970), FBI agent and torture expert, killed by the guerrilla movement Tupamaros
Marcus Foster, (1973), School District Superintendent in Oakland CA, killed by members of the Symbiones e Li beration Army
Don Bolles, (1976), Investigative reporter for Arizona Republic, killed in car bomb, Max Dunlap and Jam es R obison convicted, alleged Mafia ties
Orlando Letelier, (1976), Chilean ambassador to the United States under the administration of Salvador Alle nde
George Moscone, (1978), Mayor of San Francisco
Harvey Milk, (1978), gay rights activist, San Francisco City Supervisor
Leo Ryan, (1978), Congressman from California, killed as part of the Jonestown Massacre
John H. Wood, Jr., (1979), first US federal judge killed in the twentieth century
Russell G. Lloyd, Sr., (1980), Mayor of Evansville, Indiana
Allard K. Lowenstein, (1980), former Congressman from New York
John Lennon, (1980), British musician, founder of the Beatles.
Alan Berg, (1984), radio talk-show host, killed by Neo-nazis
Henry Liu, (1984), Taiwanese-American writer, allegedly killed by Kuomintang agents
Alex Odeh, (1985), Arab anti-discrimination group leader, killed when bomb exploded in his Santa Ana, C alif ornia office
Alejandro González Malavé, (1986), famous undercover policeman, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Ioan P. Culianu, (1991), Romanian historian of religion, culture, and ideas, professor at the Universit y of Chicago, assassinated there in Swift Hall, apparently for his political writings
Tommy Burks, (1998), Tennessee State Senator
Derwin Brown, (2000) Sheriff-elect of DeKalb County
James E. Davis, (2003) New York City Councilman assassinated by Othniel Askew, a political rival in the Cou ncil chambers in City Hall
Dimebag Darrell, (2004), Pantera guitarist.
Chauncey Bailey, (2007), Oakland Tribune journalist
Bill Gwatney, (2008), Chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party
George Tiller, (2009), doctor

[arbusto_baboso]

1. Correction to that list....

Joseph Smith was NOT assassinated. He was killed in a gunfight. He shot back. He wss not a martyr by any stretch of the imagination, and he had raised a "militia" in Nauvoo that was almost the size of the entire US Army at the time. The non-mormon populace of Illinois and Missouri rightly feared him.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Nah, I think that works.

He "fired back" but it was a lynch mob with the intent of killing him.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Assassination typically implies a poltical motive.

A number of people on that list are celebrities killed by deranged fans. Dimebag Darrell, John Lennon, for example. It might as well include Selena and whatshername from the 80s sitcom.

I don't think the list is particularly useful for drawing conclusions.

[alfredo]

8. Lennon's assassin was a member of The Children Of God.

It was there that he probably got the idea of killing Lennon. They were very upset over his song "Imagine." One of their chants or sayings was "Imagine John Lennon dead."

[slackmaster]

9. Mark David Chapman was delusional, perhaps psychotic

The murder of John Lennon was not a political assassination.

Unrec thread for narcissistic tinfoil-hat persecution complex.

[madinmaryland]

26. "narcissistic tinfoil-hat persecution complex"

:rofl:

The phrases that one learns on DU!!

:rofl:

[alfredo]

28. Still psychotic people can be influenced by peers.

[KamaAina]

11. I had no idea that Chapman was a fundie!!

Interesting, ain't it, how that angle of the story was completely whitewashed? :tinfoilhat:

[alfredo]

29. COG is a right wing cult. They were known for kidnapping

children of ex followers.

[pokerfan]

19. He also grew to loath the "We're more popular than Jesus now" claim

He was a church camp counselor and played guitar, leading the children in "Imagine no John Lennon...."

[alfredo]

40. The group he was associated with were scumbags. I remember

how they would gang up on people. A girl I knew dropped out of the COG because they tried to make abandon her child because it was conceived in sin.

[Shell Beau]

33. His fascination with Lennon went far beyond that.

[Sebastian Doyle]

38. Oh, it goes way deeper than that.

Chapman was a "missionary" for World Vision International, long suspected of being a CIA front agency. By coincidence (or perhaps not) the guy who was running World Vision at the time was one John Hinkley Sr.

Look at the similarities between Lennon's murder and the attempt on Reagan just months later. I'd bet both shooters were brainwashed at the same time.

[WHAT]

15. I think of it as taking out the competition...

a la Tanya Harding. Anyway, that part of people that has a visceral distaste for targeted assassination might be coming from that perspective. My thoughts might be disjointed on this, but I've been thinking about it. When you have a small group of people unable to compete on a level playing field, and that group maintains ascendancy by lowering standards they are, in effect, weakening the larger group in order to maintain a favoured position of the smaller group.

Position must be of more importance in such a perspective than life enjoyment. Imagine Scully landing that plane, wasn't that beautiful? or Largent catching a football? In a system of second-raters touted as the best and maintained by corporate media, human achievement outside the group would be seen as a threat.

By its nature, such a system lacks quality and niggling skepticism will bloom into aversion.

Democracy might appeal by its very nature because of this group dynamic that allows individual exceptionalism for group enjoyment...quality that doesn't work without the level playing field that democracy engenders.??

I know other people have thought about this because I've never had a lone idea...but, it's like nobody talks about it.

just thinking on this whole assassination thing...be it physical, mental, emotional. cultural, etc...

[Last_Stand]

4. Luckily, History Has Proven...

...that any time a desperate and ignorant population is whipped up into a hateful frenzy against a scapegoat, cooler heads always prevail and everyone learns how to get along with one another in peace.

[onehandle]

5. They certainly are armed. Teabaggers have made their intent known at Obama events.

They are armed. They're getting more armed all the time as pandering Republicans and Blue Dogs eliminate sensible gun laws.

[Retrograde]

6. Leo Ryan was technically not murdered in the US

although you could make a case that many of the people involved in his death in Guyana were Americans. One of his aides, Jackie Speier, who was wounded at the time was elected to his old seat in 2008.

Your list omits a number of failed assassination attempts: T. Roosevelt, Nixon, Reagan, the storming of Blair House in 1950 in an attempt to kill Truman, the attack on Charles Sumner in the Senate - violence has been common in American politics, and I'd find it hard to put all of the victims in the "progressive" category. Maybe it seems that way because the right seems to be more successful at it?

[slackmaster]

10. You forgot the attempt on Gerald Ford. Liberal wannabe assasins can't shoot straight.

Maybe they need more range time.

[RZM]

17. Attempts don't seem to be on here

There's some interesting ones though. FDR, Ford, Reagan, George Wallace, Larry Flynt etc.

[Subdivisions]

7. I'm a Liberal. And I WILL defend myself. n/t

[ThomCat]

12. Dr. Barnett Slepian is missing from this list

Assassinated by Operation Rescue in 1998 by gunshot in his home in Buffalo.

He was a doctor who performed abortions and Ob/Gyn services to women, and the first one they assassinated.

:(

[indepat]

13. TN State Senator Tommy Burks' political opponent (R-Looney) was convicted

of his murder. :D

[geardaddy]

14. You forgot Paul Wellstone...

...

[RZM]

16. Also Rabbi Meir Kahane

Assassinated in NYC in 1990 by an Egyptian-born American.

[gorfle]

18. This is why...

This is why it is imperative that all Americans understand their right to keep and bear arms, and exercise it!

[AngryAmish]

20. Forgot Tupac and Biggie

[RZM]

22. I believe Chris Rock addressed this very issue

Claiming that they weren't 'assassinated' but instead 'got shot.'

[kudzu22]

25. Rock was right

I love Tupac & Biggie but school will be open on their birthday

[proteus_lives]

23. Gang stuff.

Not political.

[RZM]

21. Also . . .

It should be mentioned that Goldhagen's argument has been called into question by a number of prominent historians of Germany, Nazism, the Holocaust, etc. Of course, historians argue constantly, but the list of his detractors includes some very impressive scholars. I think that any serious attempt to apply his argument to American conservatism would be greeted with derision from historians of the American right (many of whom are themselves on the left).

[leveymg]

30. IMHO Goldenhagen's thesis is flawed, but some of it holds up better than the rest

The his 1995 book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners," Goldhagen argues that the Germans were fundamentally different from other national groups, especially in regard to the virulence and violence of their anti-Semitism. He argues Germans are culturally and historically anti-Semitic and that a widely and deeply felt Judenfrage (or "Jewish Problem") was an already established fact in German society before the rise of Nazism. Additionally, he argues that all Germans may not have agreed with Nazi policy in many regards, but most were thoroughly Nazified when it came to the Jews. This part of Goldhagen's view I have the greatest difficulty with, as I am also aware of the long and bloody history of anti-Semitic pogroms in Poland and Russia, as well as the enormous magnitude of the racialist and religious hatreds that drove the Crusades, the enslavement of Africa, and the extermination of aboriginal peoples in the New World.

The second section of the book articulates the rise of eliminationist anti-Semitism. Goldhagen focuses in on how this had been a growing phenomenon and was already a problem right after the end of World War I. His next topic is the treatment and abuse of Jews under Nazi power. I tend to disagree with him here as well, as anti-Semitism was a growing problem at the time in some strata of American, British, as well as German society. Much of this was a conservative reaction to Bolshevism that was associated in the minds of many (accurately or not) with Jews.

Next in the book is a section on perpetrators and especially Police Battalion 101. The Police Battalion was active in the mass murder of Jews in the conquered territory in the East. Goldhagen illustrates this, his most integral piece of evidence, by explaining in very graphic detail how the murders happened. He also mentions several key facts about the Police Battalion. First, the men of the police battalion were not forced to kill. Instead, they were given a way out by their commander. Second, very few of them took this option. Third, these men were not any specially indoctrinated bunch of Nazis, but rather drafted men not capable of serving in the regular forces. Here is the strongest part of Goldhagen's book, as racialist mass murder in wartime by ordinary men is a nearly universal plague, as many who remember Vietnam, Korea or WW II will attest to.

Finally, Goldhagen demonstrates how emblematic the death camp was to German society under Nazi rule. It his opinion that cultural traditions, Christianity, and the supposed prevalence of Jewish population as being un-German all contributed to the Holocaust. Personally, I do not agree that the Holocaust was historically unique in its magnitude (it's been estimated by anthropologists that the mortality rate among the 50-100 million aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas was 95% during the 350 years after the first arrival of Europeans. Tens of millions of Africans also died during capture, transportation, and forced labor in Colonial America and the Caribbean. The exterminationist religious and racial elements are also not unique, if one reads the accounts of the Spanish Clerics in the early colonial period. Genocide is certainly still with us in recent times, as the mass slaughter of ethnic Hutus and Tutsis demonstrates. Every genocide is a sin and a blight on the human race, and all murders are evil.

[proteus_lives]

24. Dimebag Darrell?

Really? What was political about that?

[no_hypocrisy]

27. Attempted murder: Charles Sumner by the hand of Preston Brooks.

http://us-civil-war.suite101.com/article.cfm/brooks_canes_sumner

[Green_Lantern]

31. a number of those listed weren't progressive but conservative

James Strang was a fundie Mormon

William McKinley
Hindman was a Confederate General
Rockwell was a Nazi
Mitrione trained CIA in torture
John H Wood was a Republican judge

Left-wing radicals have killed conservatives and right-wingers have killed progressives..

[troubledamerican]

32. List of assassinations: Weimar Republic (only "Leftists" were assassinated by Right-Wing)

1/15/19: Rosa Luxemburg (b. 3/5/70)

1/15/19: Karl Liebknecht (b. 8/13/71)

2/21/19: Kurt Eisner (b. 5/14/67)

3/10/19: Karl Jogiches (b. 7/17/67)

11/7/19: Hugo Haase (b. 9/29/63)

3/21/20: Alexander Futran (b. 7/26/77 in Odessa)

5/?/20: Hans Paasche (b. 1881)

6/9/21: Karl Gareis (b. 11/14/1889)

8/26/21: Mathias Erzberger (b. 9/20/75)

6/24/22: Walther Rathenau (b. 9/26/67)

[Ishoutandscream2]

34. Cass Elliot, assassinated by ham sandwich

:silly: :hide:

[sendero]

35. Uh no..

... assassinated by coronary artery disease.

[Ishoutandscream2]

37. "Lettuce leaves are brown..."

:hi:

[stranger81]

36. Anna Mae Aquash? George Jackson? Mary Alice Willey? [n/t]

[winyanstaz]

39. You forgot all the dead microbiologists......

and all the bodies piled up that were either Clinton or Bush enemies.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

41. Add common sense to the list!

[slackmaster]

42. Malcolm X was assassinated by a member of a black separatist hate group

I wouldn't call that a conservative or right-wing organization.

[Imagevision]

45. Malcolm dies as the FBI observes...

[Imagevision]

46. Somehow I believe Obama has his concerns, he just seems different now then when he was campaigning..

[Morning Dew]

43. James Hatfield. n/m

[Codeine]

44. Dimebag? How the hell was THAT an assassination?

Seriously, some dickhead shot him over the imagined theft of a song.