10 Infamous Assassination Attempts

10 Infamous Assassination Attempts

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at 10 Infamous Assassination Attempts.

For this list, we’ll be examining the most notorious attempts on the lives of public figures throughout history.

What other infamous failed hit jobs did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.

Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin was a Siberian mystic who became an influential figure in the Russian Empire after seemingly healing the heir to the throne, Alexei Nikolaevich, of hemophilia. Rasputin gained the trust of Empress Alexandra, but his practices proved divisive among the rest of the Russian court and earned him quite a lot of enemies. In July of 1914, 33-year-old townswoman Khioniya Guseva made an attempt on Rasputin’s life just outside his home in Pokrovskoye. Guseva charged at the mystic with a dagger, seriously wounding him in the process. She was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and held in an asylum. Two years later, another assassination attempt on Rasputin’s life would prove successful.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In November 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election to become the 32nd President of the United States. A few weeks before his inauguration, Roosevelt was delivering a speech at the Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida when he was shot at by Giuseppe Zangara. Zangara, an unemployed bricklayer fired six shots at the then President-elect, but failed to hit his target. It is believed that a woman named Lillian Cross grabbed Zangara’s arm after he fired the first shot, preventing him from killing Roosevelt. Instead, he hit five other people, including Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who later died of his injuries. After the death of Cermak, Zangara was found guilty of first-degree murder and executed by electric chair.

Vladimir Lenin

As the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Lenin played a vital role in the 1917 October Revolution that saw him become the first head of Soviet Russia. In 1918, Fanny Kaplan, a disgruntled Socialist Revolutionary who saw Lenin as a “traitor to the revolution,” made an attempt to assassinate him. After the Head of State gave a speech at a factory in Moscow, Kaplan fired three close range shots at him. Although Lenin survived the attack, he was badly wounded by the bullets and is said to have never fully recovered from his injuries. Kaplan was swiftly arrested and took full responsibility for the incident. She was executed a few days later.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was the leader of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. Three years into his reign, John Paul II’s life nearly came to an abrupt end at the St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. On May 13th 1981, while entering the square to address an audience, the pope was shot at by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca. Ağca fired four times, with two of the bullets hitting John Paul II in his torso and left index finger. Luckily, the bullets missed the pope’s vital organs and he survived after an emergency surgery. Ağca was apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he was pardoned in 2000, at the Pope’s request.

Charles de Gaulle

Throughout his life, French President Charles de Gaulle is believed to have survived around 30 assassination attempts. Arguably the most infamous of all was the 1962 plot led by French Air Force lieutenant-colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry. Bastien-Thiry was apparently motivated by his disapproval of de Gaulle’s decision to grant Algeria its independence. On August 22nd 1962, the Air Force officer led a group of three shooters to rain down bullets on de Gaulle’s motorcade. Miraculously, the President, his wife and his entourage escaped unhurt. De Gaulle is said to have mocked them by saying that they shot like pigs. For spearheading the assassination plot, Bastien-Thiry was put to death by firing squad.

Malala Yousafzai

Born to an education activist, Malala Yousafzai became an advocate for girls’ right to education from a young age. She remained outspoken against the Pakistani Taliban’s decree against girls attending school. In retaliation, Yousafzai was targeted by a Taliban gunman who shot her while she was on a bus going home from school on October 9th 2012. She was left in a critical state, but was able to fully recover after receiving life-saving surgery in Pakistan and the UK. The attack received global attention and condemnation from world leaders. Despite the temporary setback, Yousafzai continued her activism, garnering even more prominence than before. In 2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the world’s youngest Nobel laureate.

Theodore Roosevelt

The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt remained in office from 1901-1909. In 1912, Roosevelt made a third bid for the presidency, this time under his newly founded Progressive Party. On October 14th, while at a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt by a former saloonkeeper named John Flammang Schrank. Schrank shot the ex-president in the chest, but it failed to hit any vital organs as it was slowed down by an eyeglass case and a 50-page folded document in his pocket. Roosevelt went on to deliver a roaring 90-minute speech before he was eventually taken to the hospital. The bullet remained lodged in his chest until his death in 1919.

Fidel Castro

It has been said that Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was the target of no less than 634 assassination attempts throughout his life. While that may or may not be an exaggerated figure, some of those plots, orchestrated by the CIA no less, range from elaborate to downright comical. The attempts include, but are not limited to, exploding cigars, poisoned pens, booby-trapped sea shells, a contaminated scuba diving suit, and just about every other James Bond contraption you can think of. At one point, the CIA even enlisted the help of the mafia to get rid of Castro. All of these attempts were unsuccessful, and Castro remained a prominent figure in Cuban politics, even after his retirement in 2008.

Ronald Reagan

A few months after his landslide victory against incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan very nearly lost his life. The newly elected President was shot by John Hinckley Jr. while leaving the Washington Hilton hotel on March 30th 1981. Motivated by a desire to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster, Hinckley fired six shots, only managing to hit him once. Nonetheless, Reagan was seriously wounded, suffering a broken rib, collapsed lung and internal bleeding. He was rushed to the hospital, and eventually recovered after receiving emergency surgery. One of the other victims of the attack was then-press secretary James Brady, who suffered significant brain damage that left him with permanent disabilities.

Adolf Hitler

Given the despicable acts he orchestrated, it’s no surprise that there were multiple plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The most infamous being the 20 July plot. About a year before World War II would come to an end, a group of German resistance officers, led by Claus von Stauffenberg, plotted to assassinate Hitler using explosives. On July 20th 1944, Stauffenberg placed a briefcase with the explosives in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with some military officers. However, before it could detonate, the briefcase was moved further away from the dictator, sparing him of any serious injuries. Hitler’s grip on power tightened afterwards, and he ordered the execution of almost 5,000 people, including many involved in the failed plot.