Political Assassinations and Attempts in US History: The Lasting Effects of Gun Violence Against American Political Leaders

Corporate attorney Martinez provides breadth rather than depth in this superficial study of 25 attacks (most of them fatal) on American political figures. Martinez divides the attackers into five types: those with a political agenda, those seeking public recognition, those willing to accept payment to kill, those who are mentally ill, and those with unknown or mixed motives. He concedes that using these distinctions is a “potentially perilous exercise” and that “a discerning reader can take issue” with his placing individuals in certain categories; he notes that Samuel Byck, who attempted to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House in 1974, could plausibly fit into three of them. He is also inconsistent, stating on one page that the “weight of the evidence” suggests that James Earl Ray acted alone in killing Martin Luther King Jr., and on the next that Ray may have been paid to kill King. Oddly, he includes a section on the 1900 murder of a Kentucky mayor, William Goebel, whose killer was never identified, making any classification as to motive completely speculative. Ronald L. Feinman’s Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama provides more useful insights into this subject. (Nov.)