Famous

Assassinations
in World History

This page intentionally left blank

Famous
Assassinations
in World History
An Encyclopedia
Volume 1: AP

MICHAEL NEWTON

Copyright 2014 by ABC-CLIO, LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations
in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Newton, Michael, 1951
Famous assassinations in world history : an encyclopedia / Michael Newton.
volumes cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-61069-285-4 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1
(ebook) 1. AssassinationHistoryEncyclopedias. I. Title.
HV6278.N49 2014
364.152'403dc23
2013031554
ISBN: 978-1-61069-285-4
EISBN: 978-1-61069-286-1
18

17

16

15

14

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.

Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.
ABC-CLIO, LLC
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

xv

Introduction

xvii
The Encyclopedia

Volume 1
Abdallah Abderemane, Ahmed (19191989)
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe (19241966)
al-Banna, Sheikh Hasan Ahmed Abdel Rahman Muhammed
(19061949)
Albert I of Habsburg (12551308)
al-Din Shah Qajar, Nasser (18311896)
Alexander I of Serbia (18761903)
Alexander I of Yugoslavia (18881934)
Alexander II of Russia (18181881)
Ali, Muhammad Mansur (19191975)
Amin, Hafizullah (19291979)
Aquino, Benigno Simeon, Jr. (19321983)
Araujo, Manuel Enrique (18651913)
Argaa Ferraro, Luis Mara del Corazn de Jess Dionisio
(19321999)
Assassins Cult (ca. 10921275)
Bahonar, Mohammad-Javad (19331981)
Balbinus (165 CE238 CE)
Balewa, Abubakar Tafawa (19121966)
Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (18991959)
Bautista Gill Garca del Barrio, Juan (18401877)
Becket, Thomas (11181170)
Belzu Humerez, Manuel Isidoro (18081865)
Bearan Ordeana, Jos Miguel (19491978)

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CONTENTS

Bent, Charles (17991847)

Bhutto, Benazir (19532007)
bin Laden, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad (19572011)
Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (19452001)
Bishop, Maurice Rupert (19441983)
Bobrikov, Nikolay Ivanovich (18391904)
Bolles, Don (19281976)
Borgia, Giovanni (14761497)
Borsellino, Paolo (19401992)
Boudiaf, Mohamed (19191992)
Buback, Siegfried (19201977)
Bush, George Walker (1946 )Attempted
Caesar, Gaius Julius (100 BCE44 BCE)
Caligula (12 CE41 CE)
Calinescu, Armand (18931939)
Canalejas y Mndez, Jos (18541912)
Cnovas del Castillo, Antonio (18281897)
Carlos I of Portugal (18631908)
Carranza de la Garza, Venustiano (18591920)
Carrero Blanco, Luis (19041973)
Castillo Armas, Carlos (19141957)
Castro Ruz, Fidel Alejandro (1926 )Attempted
Catargiu, Barbu (18071862)
Cermak, Anton Joseph (18731933)
Chain Murders (Iran) (19791998)
Charles VII of Sweden (11301167)
Chillingworth, Curtis Eugene (18961955)
Chinnici, Rocco (19251983)
Chitunda, Jeremias Kalandula (19421992)
Clinton, William Jefferson (1946 )Attempted
Collins, Michael, Jr. (18901922)
Danilo I, Prince of Montenegro (18261860)
Daoud Khan, Mohammed (19091978)
Delgado Chalbaud Gmez, Carlos (19091950)
Deligiannis, Theodoros (18201905)
Dessalines, Jean-Jacques (17581806)

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CONTENTS

Devi, Phoolan (19632001)

indic, Zoran (19522003)
Doe, Samuel Kanyon (19511990)
Dollfuss, Engelbert (18921934)
Dubs, Adolph (19201979)
Duca, Ion Gheorghe (18791933)
Dudayev, Dzhokhar Musayevich (19441996)
Earp, Morgan Seth (18511882)
Edmund I (922946)
Edward the Martyr (962978)
Eisner, Kurt (18671919)
Elisabeth of Austria (18371898)
Eric V of Denmark (12491286)
Eric XIV of Sweden (15331577)
Erim, Ismail Nihat (19121980)
Evers, Medgar Wiley (19251963)
Ewart-Biggs, Christopher Thomas (19211976)
Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud (19061975)
Faisal II of Iraq (19351958)
Falcn, Ramn Lorenzo (18551909)
Ferreira do Amaral, Joo Maria (18031849)
Ford, Gerald Rudolph, Jr. (19132006)Attempted
Foster, Marcus Albert (19231973)
Franz Ferdinand (18631914)
Gaddafi, Muammar (19422011)
Gandhi, Indira Priyadarshini (19171984)
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (18691948)
Gandhi, Rajiv Ratna (19441991)
Garca y Moreno y Morn de Buitrn, Gabriel Gregorio
Fernando Jos Mara (18211875)
Garfield, James Abram (18311881)
Gaulle, Charles Andr Joseph Marie de (18901970)Attempted
Gaviria Correa, Guillermo (19622003)
Gegeen Khan, Emperor Yingzong of Yuan (13031323)
George I of Greece (18451913)

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CONTENTS

Goebel, William Justus (18561900)

Gonzlez Dubn, Eduardo Epaminondas (19451993)
Goulart, Joo Belchior Marques (19191976)
Guerin, Veronica (19581996)
Guevara, Ernesto Che (19281967)
Guinness, Walter Edward (18801944)
Gunn, David (19461993)
Gustav III of Sweden (17461792)
Habyarimana, Juvnal (19371994)
Hamidaddin, Yahya Muhammad (18691948)
Hammarskjld, Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl (19051961)
Hampton, Fred (19481969)
Hani, Martin Thembisile Chris (19421993)
Harald IV of Norway (ca. 11021136)
Harrison, Carter Henry, Sr. (18251893)
Hennessy, David C., Jr. (18581890)
Henriot, Philippe (18891944)
Henry III of France (15511589)
Henry IV of France (15531610)
Heureaux Lebert, Ulises (18451899)
Heydrich, Reinhard Tristan Eugen (19041942)
Hitler, Adolf (18891945)Attempted
Idiarte Borda, Juan Bautista (18441897)
Ige, James Ajibola Idowu (19302001)
Inejiro Asanuma (18981960)
Jackson, Andrew (17671845)Attempted
Jackson, Wharlest, Sr. (19301967)
James I, King of Scots (13941437)
John Paul II (19202005)Attempted
Kabila, Laurent-Dsir (19392001)
Kadyrov, Akhmad Abdulkhamidovich (19512004)
Kahane, Meir (19321990)
Kapodistrias, Ioannis Antonios (17761831)
Kapuuo, Clemens (19231978)
Karume, Sheikh Abeid Amani (19051972)

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CONTENTS

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (19171963)

Kennedy, Robert Francis (19251968)
Khoyski Isgender oglu, Fatali Khan (18751920)
King, Martin Luther, Jr. (19291968)
Ku Klux Klan (1866 )
Lambrakis, Grigoris (19121963)
Laporte, Pierre (19211970)
Lennon, John Winston (19401980)
Letelier del Solar, Marcos Orlando (19321976)
Lincoln, Abraham (18091865)
Litvinenko, Alexander Valterovich (19622006)
Liu, Henry (19321984)
Long, Huey Pierce, Jr. (18931935)
Lumumba, Patrice mery (19251961)
Luwum, Janani Jakaliya (19221977)
Madero Gonzlez, Francisco Ignacio (18731913)
Maher Pasha, Ahmed (18881945)
Manassara, Ibrahim Bar (19491999)
Malcolm X (19251965)
Marat, Jean-Paul (17431793)
Maskhadov, Aslan Aliyevich (19512005)
McGlinchey, Dominic (19541994)
McKinley, William, Jr. (18431901)
Medici, Giuliano de (14531478)
Mitrione, Daniel Anthony (19201970)
Moawad, Ren (19251989)
Mohammed, Murtala Ramat (19381976)
Mondlane, Eduardo Chivambo (19201969)
Moore, Harry Tyson (19051951)
Moro, Aldo (19161978)
Moscone, George Richard (19291978)
Mosharraf, Khaled (19381975)
Mountbatten, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George
(19001979)
Mussolini, Benito Amilcare Andrea (18831945)

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CONTENTS

Nader Shah Afshar (16881747)

Nadir Shah, Mohammed (18831933)
Narutowicz, Gabriel (18651922)
Ndadaye, Melchior (19531993)
Ngo Dinh Diem (19011963)
Ngouabi, Marien (19381977)
Nicholas II (18681918)
Obama, Barack Hussein, II (1961 )Attempted/Threatened
Obregn Salido, lvaro (18801928)
Olympio, Sylvanus Epiphanio (19021963)
Operation Wrath of God (19721992)
Osman II (16041622)
Ouko, John Robert (19311990)
Palme, Sven Olof Joachim (19271986)
Pardo Leal, Jaime (19411987)
Park Chung-hee (19171979)
Patterson, Albert Leon (18941954)
Paul I of Russia (17541801)
Perceval, Spencer (17621812)
Peter III of Russia (17281762)
Petliura, Symon Vasylyovych (18791926)
Philip of Swabia (11771208)
Philip II of Macedon (359 BCE336 BCE)
Phoenix Program (19651972)
Pizarro Gonzlez, Francisco (14711541)
Pompey the Great (106 BCE48 BCE)
Premadasa, Ranasinghe (19241993)
Prim y Prats, Juan (18141870)

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Volume 2
Qadir, Haji Abdul (19512002)
Qutuz, Saif ad-Din (?1260)
Rabin, Yitzhak (19221995)
Radama II (18291863)
Rahman, Ziaur (19361981)
Rasputin, Grigori Yefimovich (18691916)

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CONTENTS

Rathenau, Walther (18671922)

Ratsimandrava, Richard (19311975)
Razmara, Sepahbod Haj Ali (19011951)
Reagan, Ronald Wilson (19112004)Attempted
Reina Barrios, Jos Mara (18541898)
Remeliik, Haruo Ignacio (19331985)
Remn Cantera, Jos Antonio (19081955)
Ritavuori, Heikki (18801922)
Rockwell, George Lincoln (19181967)
Rhm, Ernst Julius Gnther (18871934)
Romero y Galdmez, scar Arnulfo (19171980)
Roosevelt, Theodore (18581919)Attempted
Ryan, Leo Joseph, Jr. (19251978)
Rzayev Gurbanoglu, Rail (19452009)
S Carneiro, Francisco Manuel Lumbrales de (19341980)
Sadat, Anwar El (19181981)
Sadulayev, Abdul-Halim Abu-Salamovich (19662006)
Salim, Ezzedine (19432004)
Snchez Cerro, Luis Miguel (18891933)
Sandino, Augusto Nicols Caldern (18951934)
Sankara, Thomas Isidore Nol (19491987)
Sargsyan, Vazgen (19591999)
Schneider Chereau, Ren (19131970)
Seleucus I (350s BCE281 BCE)
September, Dulcie Evonne (19351988)
Shaka kaSenzangakhona (1781/871828)
Sharples, Richard Christopher (19161973)
Shermarke, Abdirashid Ali (19191969)
Shevket Pasha, Mahmud (18561913)
Smith, Joseph, Jr. (18051844)
Sogdianus (?423 BCE)
Somoza Debayle, Anastasio (19251980)
Somoza Garca, Anastasio (18961956)
Stamboliyski, Aleksandar (18791923)
Stambolov, Stefan Nikolov (18541895)

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CONTENTS

Steunenberg, Frank (18611905)

Stewart, James, Earl of Moray (15311570)
Strang, James Jesse (18131856)
Sverker I (?1156)
Takahashi Korekiyo (18541936)
Taraki, Nur Muhammad (19171979)
Taseer, Salmaan (19442011)
Tisza de Borosjeno et Szeged, Istvn (18611918)
Tjibaou, Jean-Marie (19361989)
Tolbert, William Richard, Jr. (19131980)
Tombalbaye, Franois (19181975)
Trotsky, Leon (18791940)
Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas (18911961)
Truman, Harry S. (18841972)Attempted
Umar ibn Al-Khattab (586/590644)
Umberto I (18441900)
Uwilingiyimana, Agathe (19531994)
Valko, Ernest (19532010)
Vance, Robert Smith (19311989)
Verwoerd, Hendrik Frensch (19011966)
Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom
(18191901)Attempted
Vieira, Joo Nino Bernardo (19392009)
Villa, Francisco Pancho (18781923)
Villarroel Lpez, Gualberto (19081946)
Vom Rath, Ernst Eduard (19091938)
Wallace, George Corley, Jr. (19191998)Attempted
Welch, Richard Skeffington (19291975)
Wenceslaus I (907935)
William I, Prince of Orange (15331584)
William II of England (10561100)
Wood, John Howland, Jr. (19161979)
Xerxes I of Persia (519 BCE465 BCE)
Yuldashev, Tohir Abduhalilovich (19672009)
Zapata Salazar, Emiliano (18791919)

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CONTENTS

Zhang Zuolin (18751928)

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Zorig, Sanjaasuren (19621998)

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Primary Documents
1. Assassination of Pompey the Great (48 BCE)
Plutarchs Description of the Murder of Pompey in Egypt

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2. Assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BCE)

Letter of Brutus to Cicero on Caesars Assassination (43 BCE)

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3. Assassination of the Roman Emperor Caligula (41 CE)

Suetoniuss Account of the Murder

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4. Death of William II, King of England (1100)

Description of Williams Death by Chronicler Peter of Blois

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5. Murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket (1170)

The Eyewitness Account of Edward Grim

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6. Assassination of Albert I of Habsburg (1308)

Act V, Scene 2 of the Play Wilhelm Tell
by Friedrich Schiller (1804)

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7. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865)Official

Messages and Correspondence Relating to the
Shooting of President Lincoln (April 15, 1865)

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8. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865)

General Court-Martial Orders No. 356 for
Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators

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9. Assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia (1881)

Prince Peter Kropotkins Account of the Murder

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10. Assassination of James A. Garfield (1881)

Address of Vice President Chester A. Arthur
upon Assuming the Presidency

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11. Assassination of Morgan Earp (1882)

Tombstone Epitaph Account of the Murder

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12. Assassination of William McKinley (1901)

Newspaper Accounts of the Shooting and
Death of the President

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13. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914)

Austrian Official Report on the Assassination

700

14. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914)

Excerpts from American Newspaper Accounts of the
Murder of the Archduke and His Wife

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15. Assassination of Emiliano Zapata (1919)

Three Accounts of the Ambush
16. Assassination of Senator Huey P. Long (1935)
Senator Longs Share the Wealth Program (1934)
17. Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem (1963)
State Department Cables Concerning the Coup That
Overthrew President Diem of South Vietnam
18. Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963)Excerpts
from the Warren Commission Report (1964)
19. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
Excerpts from the Department of Justice Report on
Allegations of Conspiracy in the Death of Dr. King (2000)
20. Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (1968)Edward M.
Kennedys Eulogy for His Brother Robert F. Kennedy
21. Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (1968)Excerpts from
the Report of Special Counsel Thomas F. Kranz on His
Reinvestigation of the Murder of Robert Kennedy (1977)
22. Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan (1981)
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993)
23. Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995)
Last Speech of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin

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Appendix: World Timeline of Assassinations

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Selected Bibliography

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Index

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Preface

Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia aims to fill a gap in

scholarship concerning political murder, as practiced worldwide, throughout
recorded history. It is intended to serve both a general audience and the more
specific needs of professional, scholarly researchers active in the study of criminology, terrorism, and related fields. At the time of writing, no comparable
source was available in print.
The work in hand defines assassination as the murder of a prominent public figure: heads of state and other government officials, religious leaders,
spokespersons for political parties and social movements, journalists active in
molding public opinion, and so on. Professional criminals slain during internecine gang wars are excluded, regardless of their national or global notoriety,
on grounds that their murders accomplish nothing but installment of a new
boss or godfather for a particular syndicate. Likewise, celebrities killed by
obsessive stalkers are ignored, with one exception, since their deaths have no
impact on society at large beyond the transient grief of fans. The lone exception, musician John Lennon, is included here because of his sociopolitical
activities in later life, and the persistent claims of government conspiracy behind his death.
The encyclopedias two volumes include 266 main entries, arranged alphabetically, selected on the basis of their prominence in history and impact on
events of their respective eras. Four entries chart the histories of specific organizations involved in multiple assassinations spanning centuries, and the
remainder describe specific assassinations (or attempted assassinations) occurring between 465 BCE and 2012. Entries describing a particular assassination
include details of the event, a brief biography of the victim(s), and the aftermath of each slaying, including its political and societal impact, plus pertinent
depictions in popular culture. Entries are cross-referenced as necessary. To facilitate additional research, each entry includes suggested sources for further
reading, and a selected bibliography of general works on assassination is also
included.
As supplements to the main entries, 54 shorter sidebar articles enhance the
text with information on groups, movements, persons, or events related to
a particular assassination or to assassinations in general. These sidebars help
to place specific murders in context, further illuminate the motives and the

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P R E FA C E

backgrounds of participants, and describe events that sprang from violence directed against public figures.
The section of entries is followed by a selection of 23 primary documents.
Arranged chronologically, these documents comprise accounts of assassinations
and reports of investigations, as well as speeches and statutes that preceded or
resulted from the murders. The documents included range from Plutarchs description of the murder of Pompey the Great in Egypt in 48 BCE, through the
last speech of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, delivered moments before
his murder in 1995.
Finally, to ensure complete coverage of the subject, an appendix provides a
timeline of other prominent assassinations omitted from the main text entries
due to space constraints. That list includes 486 cases, spanning the globe and
the years from 748 BCE to 2012. In that timeline, continents and their countries
are arranged alphabetically, with assassinations and attempts for each specific
country listed chronologically. A detailed subject index will help users find important figures, events, and ideas in the main entries.
Every effort has been made to present timely, complete, and accurate information throughout Famous Assassinations in World History. That said, available
sourcesparticularly those concerned with ancient crimes and modern, controversial casesfrequently provide conflicting dates, names, and descriptions
of events. In each case, I have chosen what appears to be the best and most
substantive information currently available. Readers wishing to suggest corrections for perceived inaccuracies, or to offer further data on the cases here
described, may contact the author through ABC-CLIO, or directly through his
Web site at www.michaelnewton.homestead.com.

Introduction

Assassination may be viewed as the ultimate expression of protestagainst

a government regime or its opponents, a religious or sociopolitical movement, even against an idea deemed hateful by the assassin. Whether the act is
committed by a disaffected individual, a gang of conspirators, or an official
government agency, whether its result is mourned or cheered by millions, an
assassinationsimple murder elevated to a noteworthy event by the selection of its victimshas the potential to change history.
We often hear it said that violence accomplishes nothing. Sociologists may
quarrel with historians over that hoary adage, parsing the impact of mayhem
ranging from petty street crimes to acts of terrorism and genocide, but with
regard to assassination, the record is indisputable: selective murders have
changed history, for good or ill, and sometimes on an epic scale.
A few examples should suffice.
Abraham Lincolns assassination in 1865 doomed any hope of peaceful reconciliation between the victorious North and defeated South after Americas
Civil War, plunging the former Confederacy into the decade of turmoil and terrorism knownat least in the minds of white supremacists affected by the loss
of their former slavesas Radical Reconstruction.
Archduke Franz Ferdinands slaying in 1914 triggered the global tragedy
of World War Iperhaps inevitable, in the climate of the times, but waiting
for a trigger incident to light the fuse. That four-year struggle claimed at least
9,407,136 lives on three continents, and while publicly billed as the War to
End All War, World War I in fact set the stage for an even more devastating
conflict, beginning only 20 years later.
The mass execution of Russias royal family in 1918 climaxed one of the
worlds great revolutions, setting the stage for seven decades of hot and cold
war between Moscow and the reputed free world. The final death toll for that
worldwide war of shadows, police actions, and counterrevolutions may only
be vaguely estimated, but it certainly ran into millions.
The murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 prompted many
African American leaders to abandon nonviolent protest against racial inequity, igniting ghetto fires from coast to coast and hastening the rise of militant
groups fixed on a dead-end collision course with hostile authorities. The slaying of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, one month after King, clearly contributed to

xviii

INTRODUCTION

the outcome of that years presidential election, an outcome leading inexorably

to U.S. military escalation, then defeat, in Southeast Asia, climaxed by the national shame of Watergate.
Speculation and debate persist, surrounding other assassinations and bungled attempts. Few deny that killing Adolf Hitler in 1944 might have saved
lives in the hundreds of thousands, at least. Recorded statements from President John F. Kennedy ( JFK) suggest that, had he lived beyond November 22,
1963, the long nightmare of Vietnam may not have devoured 58,000 U.S.
lives. What might have transpired, had would-be assassins been successful in
their attempts on the lives of Presidents Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, George W.
Bush, or Barack Obama?
Selection of main entries for Famous Assassinations in World History was, admittedly, subjective. Why does the murder of American Nazi Party founder
George Lincoln Rockwell rate inclusion, while antiapartheid activist Stephen
Biko is relegated to the concluding appendix/timeline? Such choices were determined by multiple factors.
First, no comprehensive, detailed accounting of every known assassination
or attempt throughout history could ever be contained within the covers of
one volumeor, in this case, two. Decisions based on word count and economy determine the final scope of every published reference work.
Second, some entries were selected (or omitted) based on the authors personal interest, and/or preexisting coverage in other published works. Although
hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been published describing
the JFK assassination, for instance, its exclusion here would have been a grievous oversight. In Rockwells case, mentioned earlier, although he was primarily
a nuisance on the fringes of society, largely forgotten and ignored by readers
born since 1967, he remains a central touchstone for the far-right, neo-Nazi/
white nationalist movement (with 29 competing factions active in 44 states
during 2012).
The United States most famous assassinations, aside from those of President Lincoln and Malcolm X, stand officially solved with assignment of blame
to lone gunmen. Nonetheless, conspiracy theories persist in those cases, with
proffered evidence ranging from persuasive to the bizarre. Even in the cases of
Lincoln and Malcolm X, where multiple plotters were tried and convicted,
broader conspiracy claims suggest the involvement of powerful, shadowy forces.
Some researchers still blame the Roman Catholic Church, or its Society of Jesus,
for Lincolns murder in 1865. A century later, citing statements from Malcolm X
and government files released under the Freedom of Information Act, other students point accusing fingers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central
Intelligence Agency, or rogue agents of both acting in collaboration.
Famous Assassinations in World History explores those conspiracy claims, with
the evidence presented to support them, while permitting readers to determine

INTRODUCTION

whether they have any credence. In cases where facts are disputed, witnesses
contradicted, or evidence has vanished, further detailed information may be
found within the sources suggested for further readingand, in turn, through
their bibliographies. Although the author has opinions in most cases, they are
not presented here. Critics of the official verdictsand their detractors, in
turnare permitted to speak for themselves.
There can be no last word on assassinations, as long as discontent and violence persist on Earth. If anything, our world appears to be a more chaotic, violent place today than during many eras of the past. Between 2006 and 2012,
Mexicos drug war claimed at least 54,927 lives, with another 10,000 victims
disappeared; some estimates of the seven-year death toll top 99,000. Narcoterrorism in Central America is equally lethal: Honduras, El Salvador, Belize,
Guatemala, and Panama all had higher per-capita murder rates than Mexico in
2010. La Violencia (The Violence) engulfed Colombia in 1946, resulting in
300,000 homicides by 1958. Today, that nations plague of narcoterrorism produced 13,520 murders in 2011hailed by Colombias National Police as the
lowest violent death toll since 1984. Reports from Iraq, Afghanistan, and parts
of Africa are equally dismal.
Famous Assassinations in World History presents a chronicle of malice and
mistakes, in hope that something may be learned, at least, from the mistakes.
Whether those lessons are absorbed depends in equal part on public leaders,
law enforcement, and an educated populace.

xix

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A
ABDALLAH ABDEREMANE, AHMED
(19191989)
On November 26, 1989, armed rebellion erupted in Moroni, capital of the
Comoros, an island chain located in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African mainland. The coups leader, Said Mohamed Djohar, was
the half-brother of former president Ali Soilih Mtsashiwa, chafing under the
rule of his siblings successor, President Ahmed Abdallah Abderemane. Rebels
captured President Abdallah during the first day of fighting, and executed him
on orders from Djohar.
Born on the island of Anjouan on June 12, 1919, when Comoros was still
a French colony, Abdallah entered politics in the 1940s, served as president
of the general council from 1949 to 1953, and assumed chairmanship of
the Chamber of Deputies in 1970. Two years later, leading his own political
partythe Comoros Democratic Union (UDC)Abdallah was elected chief
minister of Comoros and held that post until the islands achieved independence on July 6, 1975. Voters chose him as their new nations first president,
but he lasted less than a month, deposed by Said Mohamed Jaffar on August 3.
Jaffar, in turn, was overthrown by revolutionary socialist Ali Soilih Mtsashiwa
in January 1976.
Soilih sought to make Comoros a self-sufficient nation, melding Maoist
principles with certain progressive Islamic philosophies, a goal that brought
him into conflict with traditional Muslim society. He abandoned classic grand
marriage (Anda) and funerary rituals, banned veiling of women, discouraged young Comorians from studying history, and encouraged them to take
a greater role in government. To that end, Soilih young Moissy militia units
patterned on Chinas Red Guards, legalized cannabis, and proposed lowering
the voting age to 14. Moissy units raided rural pockets of resistance and killed
its conservative elders.
Soilihs reforms spurred hostile reactions in France, whose government
cut off financial and technical aid to Comoros. In Paris, Ahmed Abdallah
hired French mercenary Bob Denard to organize a team of 50 soldiers to depose Soilih. Their coup succeeded on May 13, 1978, installing former interior
minister Said Atthoumani as Chairman of the Politico-Military Directorate.
Ten days later, Abdallah and ally Mohamed Ahmed succeeded Atthoumani

AGUIYI-IRONSI, JOHNSON THOM AS UMUNNAK WE

as cochairmen. Abdallahs men executed Soilih on May 29, and Abdallah removed Ahmed to become sole chairman on October 3. Three weeks later he
assumed office as president of a newly proclaimed Islamic Federal Republic of
the Comoros.
Abdallah ruled Comoros for the remainder of his life, disbanding the UDC
in 1982 and replacing it with the Comorian Union for Progress as the nations
only legal party. Discord between Abdallah and Bob Denart inspired Supreme
Court judge Said Djohar to lead an uprising against Abdallah. On the day after
Abdallahs murder, Djohar assumed leadership of a new provisional government and became chief director of the African International Bank.
Ironically, Denarts mercenaries returned to depose Djohar in September 1995.
French authorities held him in Runion until January 1996, then permitted his
return to Comoros, where he briefly resumed his presidency. Rival Mohamed
Taki Abdoulkarim defeated Djohar in March 1996, whereupon Djohar retired
from public life.
Further Reading
Bratton, Michael, and Nicholas van de Walle. Democratic Experiments in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Ottenheimer, Martin, and Harriet Ottenheimer. Historical Dictionary of the Comoro Islands. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1994.
Schraeder, Peter. African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth, 2004.
Seddon, Peter. A Political and Economic Dictionary of Africa. London: Routledge, 2005.

A G U IY I-IRONSI, J OH NSON THOMAS

UMUNNAKWE (19241966)
Nigerias first military head of state established his junta by violence in January 1966 and left office the same way, 194 days later. While touring the nation
he ruled, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi stopped at Ibadan, capital of
Nigerias Western Region1, to spend the night of July 28 with military governor
Adekunle Fajuyi at Government House. Fajuyi alerted Aguiyi-Ironsi to rumors
of mutiny within the army, but Aguiyi-Ironsi was unable to reach army chief
of staff Yakubu Gowon. In the predawn hours of July 29, soldiers led by Captain Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma invaded Government House, subsequently
executing Aguiyi-Ironsi and Fajuyi in the nearby forest, whereupon Yakubu
Gowon assumed command of the country.
Born at Umuahia, Nigeria, on March 3, 1924, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi joined
the army at age 18 and trained with Englands Royal Army Ordnance Corps before securing promotion to lieutenant in June 1949. He served as aide-de-camp
to Governor-General John Macpherson and led Nigerian troops on a four-year
peacekeeping mission during the 1960s Congo Crisis. In February 1965, he

AL-BANNA, SHEIKH HASAN AHMED ABDEL RAHMAN MUHAMMED

replaced British major general Welby-Everard as commander of the Nigerian

army. On January 14, 1966, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu staged a
military coup against Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewas civilian government, but Aguiyi-Ironsi eluded would-be assassins and arrested Major
Nzeogwu in Lagos, emerging as Nigerias leader when acting president Nwafor
Orizu ceded power to the army.
While Aguiyi-Ironsi emerged from the turmoil in charge, his reluctance to
court-martial and execute coup leaders from his own Igbo tribe sparked opposition against him. Aguiyi-Ironsi sought to defuse the situation by granting
patronage appointments to members of other ethnic groups, and then made
matters worse with a series of decrees consolidating power in his hands. Decree no. 1 suspended most provisions of Nigerias constitution, while leaving
certain basic liberties intact. Decree no. 2 restricted freedom of the press, while
decree no. 34 abolished Nigerias federal system in favor of military rule, closing many of the countrys embassies abroad. Decree no. 44 made it a crime to
display or pass on pictorial representation, sing songs, or play instruments
the words of which are likely to provoke any section of the country. With
Igbo leaders in charge, other ethnic groups viewed Aguiyi-Ironsis regime as
repressive.
Captain Danjuma, a member of the rival Jukun ethno-linguistic group,
led the countercoup of July 1966, installing Yakubu Gowon as head of state,
thereby earning promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1967, to colonel in 1971,
to brigadier in 1975, and to army chief of staff in 1976. He retired to run a
commercial shipping line in 1979, and founded South Atlantic Petroleum Limited in 1995. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsis son was appointed to serve as Nigerias
defense minister on August 30, 2006, forty years after his fathers assassination.
Further Reading
Barrett, Lindsay. Danjuma, the Making of a General. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension,
1979.
Ezrow, Natasha, and Erica Frantz. Dictators and Dictatorships: Understanding Authoritarian Regimes and Their Leaders. London: Continuum International Publishing, 2011.
Kapuscinski, Ryszard. The Shadow of the Sun. New York: Vintage Books, 2001.
Nigerias Former Presidents. Africa 24 Media. http://photography.a24media.com/
index.php/photogallery/prominent-faces/121-nigerias-former-presidents.
Osaghe, Eghosa. The Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1998.

A L - B A N N A , S H E IKH H ASAN AHMED ABDEL

RAHMAN MUHAMMED (19061949)
On the afternoon of February 12, 1949, Sheikh Hasan al-Banna and his brotherin-law, Abdul Karim Mansur, visited the headquarters of the Young Mens

AL-BANNA, SHEIKH HASAN AHMED ABDEL RAHMAN MUHAMMED

Muslim Association in Cairo, Egypt. They were scheduled to meet Zaki Ali
Basha, a spokesman for King Farouk I, and negotiate a resolution of grievances
between the monarchy and al-Bannas rival Muslim Brotherhood. When Basha
failed to appear by 5:00 P.M., al-Banna and Mansur prepared to leave. They
stood outside, waiting for a taxi, when two gunmen approached and opened
fire at close range, fatally wounding both men.
Hasan al-Banna was born in Mahmoudiyah, northwest of Cairo in the Nile
Delta, on October 14, 1906. The son of a local imam (mosque leader) and
teacher of Hanbali (religious law of Sunni Islam), al-Banna was raised in accordance with strict conservative traditions. At age 13 he joined in demonstrations
against British colonial rule, and at 16 was initiated into Sufism, a mystical dimension of Islam defined by its leading scholars as a science whose objective
is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God. In
adulthood al-Banna struggled to earn a living, operating a watch-repair shop
and selling gramophones, while collaborating with fellow Sufis on theological
writings in his spare time. Married and relocated to Cairo in 1924, he found
himself unable to compete financially with manufacturers of cheap timepieces,
and he was increasingly distressed by the lax religious piety in Egypts capital.
Al-Bannas response, in March 1928, was the creation of the Society of Muslim Brothersmore commonly known as the Muslim Brotherhoodlaunched
as a quasi-fascist pan-Islamic political party, defining the Quran as the sole
reference point for . . . ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community . . . and state. The Suez Canal Company funded construction of the
Brotherhoods first mosque, at Ismailia, but al-Banna moved the headquarters
to Cairo four years later. From a membership of 800 in 1936, the Brotherhood
expanded to claim 200,000 by 1938, with branches established in Syria and
Transjordan. Despite recurring challenges to his leadership, al-Banna prevailed
as the movements general guide, steering the Brotherhood toward opposition
against British rule. A public admirer of Adolf Hitler, he nonetheless argued
for constitutional government to preserve in all its forms the freedom of the
individual citizen, to make the rulers accountable for their actions to the people and finally, to delimit the prerogatives of every single authoritative body.
A paramilitary wing carried out selective acts of terrorism, while al-Banna remained ambivalent toward violence.
World War II brought martial law to Egypt in 1941, and al-Banna was twice
imprisoned as a subversive. Brotherhood journals were suppressed, its meetings banned, and any reference to it in newspapers prohibited. Still the movement grew to include 2,000 branches by 1948, with an estimated two million
members. Renewed antigovernment violence in that year prompted a ban on
the Brotherhood in November 1948, with 32 leaders of its secret apparatus
arrested. Al-Bannas February 1949 meeting with Zaki Ali Basha was meant to
resolve that tension, but led to his own death instead.

AL-BANNA, SHEIKH HASAN AHMED ABDEL RAHMAN MUHAMMED

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

Following Sheikh al-Bannas assassination, the Muslim Brotherhood continued its expansion, marked by acts of violence. Members rioted in
Cairo on January 26, 1952, burning some 750 buildings, mostly nightclubs, theatres, hotels, and restaurants patronized by foreigners. Six
months later, the Brotherhood inspired and supported the overthrow of
Egypts monarchy in a military coup led by members of the Free Officers
Movement. Still dissatisfied with the secular state that replaced royal rule,
Brotherhood members plotted unsuccessfully to kill President Gamal
Abdel Nasser in October 1954. Banned as a political party thereafter, suffering cyclical crackdowns from successive governments, the Brotherhood still grew into the Middle Easts most influential Muslim movement,
recognized as the largest political opposition organization in several
Arab states. Banned from operating as a party in Egypt, the Brotherhood
fielded numerous independent candidates in the 2005 parliamentary
campaign, winning 88 seats20 percent of the totaldespite hundreds
of arrests and widespread electoral fraud. Six years later, after the popular
revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood was legalized once more and launched a new political vehicle, the
Freedom and Justice Party. Egypts new presidentMohamed Morsi Isa
El-Ayyat, elected in June 2012is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,
a fact that resonated in that years U.S. presidential elections, when Morsi
proved less than zealous in defending Cairos U.S. embassy against Muslim rioters on the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Two days
after that incident, President Barack Obama told an interviewer, I dont
think that we would consider [Egypt] an ally, but we dont consider them
an enemy. A military coup against President Morsi in July 2013 ostensibly broke the Brotherhoods hold over Egypt, with various senior members of the organization placed under arrest. That, in turn, sparked a rash
of violence by Muslims against Egypts Coptic Christian minority.

Further Reading
Abdelkader, Deina. Islamic Activists: The Anti-Enlightenment Democrats. London: Pluto
Press, 2011.
Ikhwanweb: The Muslim Brotherhoods Official English Web site. http://www.ikhwanweb
.com.
Lia, Brynjar. The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass
Movement. Reading, United Kingdom: Garnet, 1998.

ALBERT I OF HABSBURG

Mitchell, Richard. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. London: Oxford University Press,
1969.
Pargeter, Alison. The Muslim Brotherhood: The Burden of Tradition. London: Saqi Books,
2010.
Pryce-Jones, David. The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs. Chicago: Ivan R.
Dee, 2009.
Rubin, Barry. The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist
Movement. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

ALBERT I OF HABSBURG (12551308)

In the 10th year of his reign as king of the Romans and Duke of Austria, Albert I
of Habsburg faced an uprising in Swabia, one of five stem duchies (tribal domains) of the medieval German kingdom, thrown into chaos with the death
of Hohenstaufen duke Conradin in October 1268. Alberts father, Rudolf von
Habsburg, had attempted to revive the duchy under his control, but had not
prevailed before his death in July 1291. Determined to succeed where his
father had failed, Albert planned a new show of force in spring 1308, but
on May 1 was separated from his attendants at Windisch, while crossing the
Reuss River. Caught unguarded, he was ambushed by a rebel party under an
18-year-old rival, Duke John of
Swabia.
The eldest son of Rudolf I,
born in July 1255, Albert
was groomed for the German
throne but saw that ambition
dashed by objections from
Wenceslaus II, king of Bohemia
and Poland. Rudolfs backup
plan, to install Albert as successor to the murdered King Ladislaus IV of Hungary in July 1290,
also failed when Andrew III of
Hungary claimed that throne.
At Rudolfs death, the Holy
Roman Empires prince-electors
bypassed Albert, seeking to prevent establishment of a hereditary monarchy, and chose
instead Count Adolf of NassauWeilburg as next king of the
Albert I of Habsburg, assassinated by rebels in Romans. Ostensibly retiring to
May 1308. (De Agostini/Getty Images)
the Habsburg realm at Vienna,

AL-DIN SHAH QAJAR, NASSER

Albert continued scheming to obtain the throne, and by 1298 had secured
backing from several princes troubled over Adolfs alliance with Wenceslaus II.
The rival kings clashed at the Battle of Gllheim, on July 2, 1298, where Adolf
was slain. Albert was then elected to the thrown on July 27, and formally
crowned on August 24, though Pope Boniface VIII weakened his authority by
refusing to recognize Alberts election. Subsequent meddling in a quarrel over
succession to the Hungarian throne climaxed with Alberts defeat by Frederick I,
margrave of Meissen, at the Battle of Lucka on May 31, 1307.
Alberts final downfall resulted from a slight to John of Swabia in 1306. As
nephew of Albert, being the son of his younger brother, John suffered humiliation when Albert denied him his inheritance and placed his own son, Rudolf III,
on the Bohemian throne. Mocked thereafter as Duke Lackland, John plotted
Alberts murder with local allies and personally swung the axe that killed Albert on May 1, 1308. While Alberts sons sought vengeance, Duke Johnnow
dubbed John Parricida ( John the Parricide)escaped and vanished from history. Reports of his settlement at an Italian monastery, visited briefly by King
Henry VII of Luxembourg in 1313, remain unconfirmed. John appears briefly
in Friedrich Schillers play William Tell (1804), seeking Tells aid against a mutual enemy, Bailiff Albrecht Gessler. Tell refuses and suggests that John seek
papal absolution from Rome instead.
Further Reading
Berenger, Jean. A History of the Habsburg Empire, 12731700. Harlow, Essex: Longman
Group United Kingdom, 1994.
Holmes, George, ed. The Oxford History of Medieval Europe. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1992.
Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. New York: Penguin, 1997.

AL-DIN SHAH QAJAR, NASSER (18311896)

On April 30, 1896, King Nasser al-DinIrans third-longest serving monarch,
in the 48th year of his reignvisited the Shah Abdol Azm Shrine in Ray. As
he prayed, a gunman approached and shot al-Din at point-blank range with
a rusty antique revolver. The wound proved fatal, though physicians claimed
a thicker coat might have saved al-Dins life from the underpowered bullet.
Before succumbing on May 1, King al-Din reportedly said, I will rule you all
differently if I survive!
The son of Persian king Mohammad Shah Qajar, born on July 16, 1831,
Nasser al-Din assumed his fathers Peacock Throne at age 17, with aid from
his premier-to-be, Amir Kabir. Hailed by some historians as Irans first reformer, Kabir influenced the young shah, but could not sway him from ruling

A L- D I N S H A H Q A JA R , N A S S E R

dictatorially. Encouraged by his

queen mother Malek Jahan Khanom, al-Din demoted Kabir to
a military rank, then ordered
his death in January 1852
based on allegations that Kabir
was a secret ally of Russia.
Relieved of Kabirs restraining influence, al-Din persecuted followers of Bbism and
the offshoot Bah faith as heretics, killing an estimated 2,000
victims in various purges. In
1856, he also sparked a war
with Britain, sending Persian
troops to seize Herat, Afghanistan. The resultant AngloPersian War climaxed with
Persias defeat in April 1857,
whereupon al-Din was forced
to recognize the kingdom of
Nasser al-Din Shaa Qajar, shot while praying at a
Afghanistan. Al-Dins relationshrine in April 1896. (Getty Images)
ship with Britain stabilized in
time for him to visit London in
1873, where Queen Victoria appointed him a knight of the Order of the Garter.
He returned in 1878, for the Royal Navy fleet review, and in 1890 granted British merchant Gerald Talbot a virtual monopoly over Persias tobacco industry
(canceled after Ayatollah Mirza Mohammed Hassan Husseini Shirazi issued a
fatwa banning cultivation, trading, or consumption of tobacco).
Ultimately, Nasser al-Dins attempts to westernize Iran cost him his life. Islamic activist Sayyid Muh.ammad ibn S.afdar Husayn , known as The Afghan,
despite his apparent birth in Iran, was expelled in 1891 on orders from al-Din,
for agitating against the shahs reforms. Although frequently embroiled in bitter arguments even with Muslims who supported him, historians agree that
Husayn reserved his strongest hatred for the Shah. Al-Din, in turn, blamed
Husayn for the fatwa against tobacco, which cost him a small fortune and, on
a personal note, prompted his wives to insist that he stop smoking.
The gunman who killed al-Din, Mirza Reza Kermani, was an ardent follower
of Husayn . Captured at the scene of the attack, Kermani endured months of
interrogation telling jailers, I had a chance to kill him before, but I didnt because the Jews were celebrating their picnic after the eighth day of Passover.
I did not want the Jews to be accused of killing the Shah. Kermanis wife

ALEXANDER I OF SERBIA

divorced him prior to his execution on August 10, 1896, while his son was reduced to being a slave.
Further Reading
Amanat, Abbas. Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy,
18311896. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Axworthy, Michael. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Katouzian, Homa. The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 2010.

ALEXANDER I OF SERBIA (18761903)

On the night of June 1011, 1903, a group of Serbian army officers led by
Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic stormed the royal palace in Belgrade, battling
guards, before they captured and summarily executed King Albert I and his
wife, Queen Draga Main. That May Overthrowso called because it occurred on May 2829 under the obsolete Julian calendar, still used in Serbia
at the timeextinguished the House of Obrenovic that had ruled from
1815 to 1842, and again since 1858, passing Serbias throne to the House of
Karador
devi
c under King Peter I.
Born in Belgrade on August 14, 1876, Alexander I became Serbias king at
age 13, with the surprise abdication of his father, King Milan I. Before retiring to
private life in France, Milan named his queen consort and Alexanders mother,
Natalija Obrenovic,
to serve as regent until Alexanders 18th birthday. Tired of
waiting by April 1893, Alexander staged a coup dtat and proclaimed himself
a qualified adult at age 16. Although many Serbs admired that action, and his
appointment of radical ministers, popular support waned in May 1894, when
Alexander repealed his fathers liberal constitution of 1888, restoring a more
conservative one from 1869. At the same time, Alexander named Milan as commander in chief of the army in 1897.
Relations between father and son soured in August 1900, when Alexander
married Draga Main. Both royal parentsand, apparently, most Serbians at
largeregarded Draga as a fortune-hunting seductress, whose father had died
in a lunatic asylum while her mother descended into alcoholism. After the
wedding, Milan resigned his military post and Alexander exiled his mother to
mute her ongoing objections. Public opinion of Alexander, already damaged,
plummeted further with the announcement that one of Queen Dragas brothers, Lieutenant Nikodije Main, would be heir to Alexanders throne. When
senators opposed to Nikodijes succession aired their criticism in March 1903,
Alexander suspended the constitution for 30 minutesjust long enough to
dismiss his detractors and replace them with compliant newcomers.
In that tense atmosphere, Captain Dimitrijevic and other junior army officers conspired to kill the king and queen. On the night of the coup, Lieutenant

10

A L E X A N D E R I O F Y U G O S L AV I A

Nikodije and his brother, Nikola Main, died defending the palace, their corpses
tossed from a balcony onto a garden manure heap with Alexanders and Dragas. Captain Dimitrijevic, badly wounded, survived and was proclaimed the
savior of the fatherland by Serbias parliament, and appointed professor of
tactics at the nations military academy. Subsequently, as a leader of the secret
society Unification of Death, also called the Black Hand, Dimitrijevic plotted
unsuccessfully to kill Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1911, and played a
leading role in the 1914 assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The House of Karador
devi
c,
established through Dimitrijevics conspiracy,
ruled Serbiaand subsequently, Yugoslaviauntil King Peter II was deposed
and driven into exile in November 1945. Peter died in the United States in
1970, following a failed liver transplant to cure his longstanding cirrhosis.
Further Reading
Gildea, Robert. Barricades and Borders: Europe 18001914. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2003.
Glenny, Misha. The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 18041999. New
York: Penguin, 2001.
Roberts, J. M. The European Empires. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Sulzberger, C. L. The Fall of Eagles. New York: Crown, 1977.

ALEXANDER I OF YUGOSLAVIA (18881934)

On October 9, 1934, King Alexander I arrived in Marseilles, beginning a state
visit to the Third French Republic which he hoped would strengthen French
ties to the Little Ententean alliance of Yugoslavia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia, formed 13 years earlier to block restoration of the Habsburg Empire.
As Alexander drove through Marseilles with French foreign minister Louis Barthou, Bulgarian revolutionary Vlado Chernozemski opened fire with a pistol
concealed in a bouquet of flowers, killing Alexander and his chauffeur. A police
officer fired at Chernozemski and missed, fatally wounding Barthou. Vlado
Chernozemski tried to shoot himself, but was cut down by a mounted policemans sword, then beaten to death by furious spectators.
Born in Montenegro on December 16, 1888, Alexander was the son of King
Peter I of Serbia, who replaced assassinated King Alexander I of Serbia in 1903.
Almost killed by typhus in 1910, Alexander was not first in line for the throne,
but his elder brother, Crown Prince George, was forced to renounce his succession rights after kicking a servant to death in 1909. Emerging as a military hero
of the Balkan Wars of 19121913 and the Serbian Campaign of World War I,
Alexander assumed the throne upon his fathers death, in August 1921. Eleven
months later, he married Princess Maria of Romania, daughter of that nations
King Ferdinand.

A L E X A N D E R I O F Y U G O S L AV I A

Alexanders reign was marked

by alienation between Serbs
and Croatians, exacerbated in
June 1928 when Montenegrin
Serb politician Punia Racic
shot several members of the
Croatian Peasant Party (CPP)
in parliament, fatally wounding
CPP leader Stjepan Radic. Radic
died in August, and escalating
turmoil prompted Alexander to
abolish Yugoslavias constitution on January 6, 1929, establishing one-man rule known as
the January 6th Dictatorship.
Ten months later, he formally
changed the countrys name to
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, reducing its political subdivisions
from 33 oblasts (zones) to 9 banovinas (provinces). At the same
time, he banned use of Serbian
Cyrillic, replacing it with the
Latin alphabet. A new constitution, imposed by fiat in 1931, Alexander I of Yugoslavia, shot by revolutionary
Vlado Chernozemski in 1934. (Getty Images)
transferred all executive power
to Alexander, while granting
him power to appoint half the members of parliaments upper house. Henceforth, legislation could be enacted by one house alone, if the king approved.
Opposition to Alexander was particularly strong in Vardar Macedonia (todays Republic of Macedonia), where the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization (IMRO) agitated for secession from Yugoslavia. Alexanders assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was an IMRO member linked to rebel skirmishes
with Yugoslavian police. Sentenced to die for killing a fellow IMRO member
in 1930, he was pardoned in 1932 and went to Italy, where he trained Croatian Ustae guerrillas at a camp near Borgetoro. Although ostensibly Croatian
nationalists, the Ustae were also fascists sponsored by Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini. During World War II the group ruled part of occupied Yugoslavia
as the Independent State of Croatia, in fact an Axis puppet state, collaborating
in the Holocaust.
Peter II Karador
devi
c followed his father to the throne at age 11, with Alexanders cousin Prince Paul named as regent. In defiance of Peter and his

11

12

ALEX ANDER II OF RUSSIA

antifascist advisors, Paul announced Yugoslavias alliance with Germany and

Italy on March 25, 1941, forming a new tripartite pact. Peter led a coup two
days later, prompting a fascist retaliatory campaign dubbed Operation Punishment. Peter fled and Yugoslavia surrendered on April 17, with its territory
divided between among the victors.
Further Reading
Chaliand, Grard, and Arnaud Blin. The Golden Age of Terrorism. In The History of
Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Graham, Stephen. Alexander of Yugoslavia. North Haven, CT: Shoe String Press, 1972.
Roberts, Allen. The Turning Point: The Assassination of Louis Barthou and King Alexander I
of Yugoslavia. New York: St. Martins Press, 1970.
Singleton, Fred. A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA (18181881)

Each Sunday without fail, Russian tsar Alexander II attended military roll call at
the Mikhailovsky riding academy in St. Petersburg, accompanied by a large entourage. The traditional procession always traveled by the same route from the palace, crossing the Catherine (now
Griboyedov) Canal via Pevchesky Bridge. On March 13,
1881, the street-side audience
to Alexanders ritual included
several members of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya
(Peoples Will), armed with
bombs. Terrorists Nikolai Rysakov and Timofey Mikhaylov
lobbed their charges first, but
both missed the tsars carriage,
killing one Cossack guard and
wounding several more. When
Alexander emerged to aid the
injured men, bomber Ignacy
Hryniewiecki set off another
blast, fatally wounding the tsar
and himself. A fourth would-be
assassin, Ivan Emelyanov, fled
without detonating his device.
The eldest son of Tsar
Tsar Alexander II of Russia, slain in a terrorist
bombing on March 13, 1881. (Getty Images)
Nicholas I, Alexander II was

ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA

born in Moscow on April 29, 1818. He was a liberal by Russian standards

in the 19th century, known during his reign as Alexander the Liberator.
Succeeding to the throne in March 1855, after pneumonia claimed his fathers life, Alexander inherited a kingdom rife with corruption, defeated
and exhausted by the Crimean War. He embarked on a course of reform,
emancipating Russias serfs, including sons of wealthy families in military
conscription, remodeling the judiciary, and establishing a new penal code,
instituting local self-government by elective assemblies for rural districts,
increasing Finlands autonomy from Russia, and fattening the treasury with
$7 million ($200 million today) from the sale of Alaska to the United States.
Still, Alexander was not universally admired. His reforms did not extend
to territories of the former PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, where martial
law suppressed the January Uprising of 18631864, with some 10,000 rebels slain and an equal number exiled to Siberia. Before his murder in 1881,
Alexander survived four assassination attempts. Dmitry Karakozov, a member
of the revolutionary Ishutin Society, tried to shoot Alexander at St. Petersburgs
Summer Garden on April 4, 1866, but was captured and subsequently hanged,
with 10 alleged accomplices imprisoned. On April 20, 1879, revolutionist
Alexander Soloviev fired five shots at the tsar in Palace Square but missed each
time, and was sent to the gallows on May 28. Seven months later, Narodnaya
Volya dynamited the railroad line between Moscow and Livadia, but missed
Alexanders train. A bomb set in the Winter Palace dining room exploded on
February 5, 1880, killing 11 persons and wounding 30, but Alexander was
late for dinner and escaped the blast. In that case, bomber Stepan Khalturin
another Narodnaya Volya memberescaped to participate in other revolutionary acts, but was captured and hanged for the murder of a high-ranking
Odessa police officer in March 1882.
Agents of Russias secret police, the Okhrana, learned of the latest plot
against Alexander in February 1881. They arrested ringleader Andrei Zhelyabov, but under torture he vowed that nothing could save the tsars life.
After the fatal March bombing, authorities jailed five more conspirators.
Bomber Nikolai Rysakov and Timofey Mikhaylov were hanged on April 3,
1881, with Zhelyabov, Sophia Perovskaya, and Nikolai Kibalchich. Gesia
Gelfman died in prison, while fugitive Nikolai Sablin killed himself to avoid
capture.
Tsar Alexander III, a witness to his fathers slaying, soon revoked the various reforms instituted since 1855. He was convinced that Russia could only be
saved by strict adherence to Official Nationality, embodied in strict autocracy and adherence to tenets of the Russian Orthodox Church, including overt
anti-Semitism. Successive pogroms and the May Laws of 1882 and restricting areas of Jewish habitation and fields of occupation, set the stage for future
Russian revolutionary movements.

13

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ALI, MUHAMMAD MANSUR

A curious footnote to Alexanders reign is his appearance in the opening

chapters of Jules Vernes adventure novel Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the
Czar. Regarded by many critics as one of Vernes best books, Michael Strogoff
is a tale of espionage, rather than the more familiar science fiction. Published
while Alexander II was still alive, the story finds him embroiled with a Tatar
rebellion threatening to separate the Russian Far East from tsarist control.
Alexander sends the eponymous hero to aid his (Alexanders) brother, besieged at Irkutsk. Portraying Alexander in a very positive way, Michael Strogoff
was adapted as a play by Verne himself, and decades later into several films
and cartoon series.
Further Reading
Graham, Stephen. A Life of Alexander II: Tsar of Russia. London: Ivor Nicholson &
Watson, 1935.
Moss, Walter. Alexander II and His Times: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of
Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. London: Anthem Press, 2002.
Radzinsky, Edvard. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005.
Van Der Kiste, John. The Romanovs 18181959: Alexander II of Russia and His Family.
St. Albans, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing, 1998.

ALI, MUHAMMAD MANSUR (19191975)

Four years after winning independence through a fierce guerrilla war with Pakistan, the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh was engulfed in fresh turmoil. On
August 15, 1975, conspirators led by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad assassinated
Bangladeshs founder and president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with 19 members of his family in Dhaka. Assuming the presidents office, Ahmad invited
Prime Minister Muhammad Ali to join his new government, with prominent
Rahman loyalists Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, and Abul Hasnat Muhammad Qamaruzzaman. All four refused to comply, whereupon Ahmad abolished the prime ministers office and ordered the quartet imprisoned at Dhaka
Central Jail on August 23. When they still refused to endorse Ahmads regime,
Ali and the rest were shot by soldiers at the jail, on November 3, 1975.
Born in the former Indian province of Bengal, sometime in 1919, Muhammad Ali graduated from Calcuttas Islamia College, then pursued degrees in
economics and law at Aligarh Muslim University, where he joined the Muslim League, rising to serve as its vice president in Pabna district from 1946
to 1950. The leagues primary goalcreation of Pakistan as Muslim state independent from Indiawas achieved in June 1947. Ali served in Pakistans
army, attaining the rank of captain, then retired to practice law in 1951. At
the same time, he left the Muslim League to join an offshoot, East Pakistans
Awami League, which sought Bengali independence from Pakistan. Jailed for
leading antigovernment protests in 1952, Ali won election to the East Pakistan

AMIN, HAFIZULLAH

Legislative Assembly in 1954, serving at various times as the provinces minister of law, food, agriculture, industry, parliamentary affairs, and commerce.
In October 1958, after Field Marshal Ayub Khan staged a military coup and
seized office as Pakistans president, declaring martial law nationwide, Ali was
jailed once more.
Released in 1959, Ali joined Mujibur Rahman Six Point Movement, agitating
for Bengali independence as the state of Bangladesh. With the outbreak of war in
March 1971, Ali went underground to lead the Mujibnagar government in exile,
serving as its minister of finance. Victory brought independence for Bangladesh
in December 1971, and Rahman emerged from prison to serve as the new nations first prime minister in January 1972, retaining Ali as minister of finance. In
January 1975, with Rahmans election to the presidency, Ali filled the prime ministers postan office left vacant following his murder, until June 1979.
On November 6, 1975, three days after Ali and his fellow inmates were murdered at Dhaka Central Jail, President Ahmad was himself deposed in a coup
led by two pro-Mujib military officers, Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf and Colonel Shafaat Jamil. The uprising unseated Rahman but failed to establish the
insurgents as rulers, with Mosharraf himself assassinated and Jamil arrested.
Ahmad survived the coup, succeeded by President Abu Sadat Mohammad
Sayem, but was imprisoned until 1978. On leaving prison, he formed a new
Democratic League and tried to revive his political career, but rallied no significant support. He died in 1996, shortly before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
opened fresh investigations of the 1975 political slayings.
Jail Killing Day is still commemorated in Dhaka each November 3, by
members of the Awami League. Twelve military officers were belatedly convicted for the murders in October 2004 and sentenced to death, eight of them
in absentia. The four in custodySyed Faruque Rahman, Shahriar Rashid
Khan, Mohammad Bazlul Huda, and A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed were executed on January 28, 2010.
Further Reading
Lewis, David. Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2011.
Mitchell, Neil. Democracys Blameless Leaders: From Dresden to Abu Ghraib, How Leaders
Evade Accountability for Abuse, Atrocity, and Killing. New York: New York University
Press, 2012.
Van Schendel, Willem. A History of Bangladesh. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2009.

AMIN, HAFIZULLAH (19291979)

Hafizullah Amin had ruled as Afghanistans chief of state for 104 turbulent
days when Soviet occupation forces moved to unseat him in a plot code

15

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AMIN, HAFIZULL AH

named Operation Storm-333. On December 27, 1979, 170 Soviet soldiers

and 520 members of an allied Muslim battalion stormed the Tajbeg Palace
outside Kabul, defended by members of the Afghan National Army. In the
ensuing battle, Amin was killed and his 11-year-old son died from shrapnel
wounds. Some 200 defenders fell in the fighting, with a like number wounded
and 1,700 arrested. Reports of Soviet losses ranged from an official low of
19 to more than 100, estimated by KGB senior archivist Vasili Mitrokhin
years later.
Born at Paghman, near Kabul, on August 1, 1929, Hafizullah Amin trained
as a teacher at Kabul University, then entered politics in 1965 and was elected
to Afghanistans parliament in 1969. By then, he was associated with Nur Muhammad Taraki, communist founder of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), rising to the partys second-highest post by 1973. That same
year, ex-prime minister Mohammed Daoud Khan deposed King Mohammed
Zahir Shah in a military coup, with PDPA support. Party relations with Khan
soured over the next five years, however, and Amin helped organize the Saur
Revolution of April 1978, which toppled Khans regime and imposed communist rule under Taraki, serving as chairman of the council
of ministers.
Institution of socialist reforms created turmoil in Afghanistan. By March 1979,
uprisings by Muslim mujahideen (strugglers) made travel
unsafe for government officials
in 25 of the countrys 28 provinces. Amin directed the PDPAs
military response, but felt increasing dissatisfaction with
Taraki. After building a virtual cult of personality around
Tarakihailing him as The
Star of the East or The Great
Thinker, Amin found Taraki
believing his own propaganda,
growing arrogant and imperious. On March 27 he ceded
chairmanship of the council to
Afghanistan president Hafizullah Amin, killed Amin, while promoting himby Soviet forces in Operation Storm-333 on self to general secretary of the
December 27, 1979. (Associated Press)
PDPA, a position dominating

AQUINO, BENIGNO SIMEON, JR.

and effectively emasculating Amins. Furious, Amin staged a coup and arrested
Taraki on September 14, 1979, having him smothered with pillows (allegedly
on advice from Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev). On September 16 he replaced
Taraki as Afghanistans ruler.
Amin sought to pacify the mujahideen by dissociating himself from Taraki
and presenting himself as a devout Muslim, blaming Taraki for some 18,000
executions carried out since April 1978. Whereas that effort failed to win him
broad support, Amin also lost ground with the USSR. Never greatly admired
in Moscow, Amin seemed unaware that KGB agents had infiltrated the PDPA,
reporting on his secret meetings with anticommunist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Tataki loyalists exiled in Russia, branded Amin a CIA agent, even
as the murder of U.S. ambassador Adolph Dubs strained Amins relationship
with the United States. In early December 1979, when Amin proposed a summit meeting with Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Brezhnev and
Russias politburo announced their military-intervention plan. Soviet troops
crossed the border on December 24 and assaulted Amins Tajbeg Palace three
days later.
Before sending troops en masse to kill Amin, the Soviets first tried to poison
him (nearly killing a nephew), then sent a sniper to assassinate him (foiled by
tight security measures). A second poisoning attempt allegedly occurred mere
hours before the assault of December 27, causing Amin and several guests to
lose consciousness at a palace banquet celebrating Minister of Public Works
Ghulam Dastagir Panjsheris return from Moscow, but that near miss remains
unconfirmed. Amins successor, Babrak Karmal, promised sweeping democratic reforms but made limited progress before he was deposed, on orders
from Moscow, in November 1986.
Further Reading
Ansary, Tamim. Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan. New
York: Public Affairs, 2012.
Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from
the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
Jones, Seth. In the Graveyard of Empires: Americas War in Afghanistan. New York: W. W.
Norton, 2010.
Male, Beverly. Revolutionary Afghanistan: A Reappraisal. London: Taylor & Francis,
1982.
Rasanayagam, Angelo. Afghanistan: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.

AQUINO, BENIGNO SIMEON, JR.

(19321983)
Opponents of longtime Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos rallied at Manila
International Airport on August 21, 1983, to celebrate the return of former

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AQ U I N O, B E N I G N O S I M E O N , J R .

senator Benigno Aquino Jr. Imprisoned from 1973 until a heart attack threatened his life in 1980, Aquino had been paroled to the United States for medical
treatment and had remained there in self-imposed exile since then. President
Marcos, unrelenting, had dispatched a prison van to collect Aquino and return
him to custody, with 1,000 soldiers to provide security. Despite that wall of
uniforms, supposed Communist Party member Rolando Galman allegedly shot
Aquino in the head as he left the aircraft, killing him instantly. Government
agents then riddled Galman with bullets.
Aquino was born in Concepcion on November 27, 1932, a descendant of
prosperous landowners, grandson of a general in Emilio Aguinaldos revolutionary army. His father served as vice president of Jos Laurels collaborationist government under Japanese occupation in World War II and died in 1947
while awaiting trial for treason. Educated in private schools, Aquino was the
youngest Filipino war correspondent during the Korean War, winning the
Philippine Legion of Honor at age 18 for courage under fire. Entering politics
at 22, he was elected mayor of Concepcion in 1955, as vice governor of Tarlac province in 1960, as governor in 1961, as secretary general of the Liberal
Party in 1966, and as the countrys youngest-ever senator in 1967. A year later,
Aquino launched an outspoken opposition to President Marcos, warning that
Marcos planned to establish a garrison state by militarizing our civilian government offices. Four years later, Marcos proved Aquino right with a declaration of martial law, imposing autocratic rule throughout the Philippines.
The precipitating cause of that announcement was a Liberal Party rally at
Manilas Plaza Miranda on August 21, 1971. Aquino was not present when
two hand grenades exploded in a crowd of 4,000, killing nine persons and
wounding 120. Liberals blamed President Marcos for the bombing, while
Marcos blamed the leftist New Peoples Army. Marcos suspended habeas corpus
and jailed Aquino with dozens of supposed Maoists, along with a bombing
suspect later identified as a sergeant of the Philippine Constabularys firearms and explosive section. Aquino subsequently claimed that the bomber,
once identified as a policeman, was spirited away and disappeared. Marcos
declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and Aquino was one of the
first subversives detained for trial by military commission on trumped-up
charges of murder and gunrunning. In the midst of his protracted trial, in
April 1975, Aquino declared a hunger strike to the death and shriveled to
75 pounds over the course of 40 days, before relenting and accepting nourishment. The court-martial dragged on until November 25, 1977, when Major
General Jose Syjuco convicted Aquino on all charges and sentenced him to
death by firing squad.
More delays ensued, while Marcos granted Aquino permission to participate in the 1978 parliamentary election from his prison cell, and granted him
a television interview on Face the Nation. That appearance rallied liberal support, but the partys candidates were buried in a Marcos landslide marked

AQUINO, BENIGNO SIMEON, JR.

by flagrant fraud. Still theoretically awaiting execution, Aquino suffered a

heart attack in March 1980, followed by another on arrival at Quezon Citys
Philippine Heart Center. Slated for coronary bypass surgery, Aquino refused the
operation out of fear that Marcos would arrange his death. Following a televised appearance on Pat Robertsons 700 Club, Aquino received a surprise
visit from Marcos on May 8, 1980. Marcos granted permission for Aquino
and his family to visit the United States, in return for promises that Aquino
would return when cured, and that he would abstain from criticizing Marcos
in the United States.
Transported to Texas, Aquino recovered quickly from surgery and flew to
Damascus, Syria, five weeks later. Meeting with Muslim leaders, he conceded
plans for a return to Manila, then received a message from President Marcos
extending his medical furlough. Simultaneously, Aquino rescinded his promise to Marcos, declaring that a pact with the devil is no pact at all. Settled in
a Boston suburb, he embarked on anti-Marcos lecture tours for the next three
years, funded by grants from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Finally, in August 1983, Aquino announced plans for a
belated homecoming, telling reporters that the Filipino is worth dying for.
Approaching Manila International, he warned journalists aboard his flight,
You have to be ready with your hand camera because this action can become
very fast. In a matter of 3 or 4 minutes it could be all over, and I may not be
able to talk to you again after this.
Aquinos corpse lay in state for nine days at his home in Quezon City, his
head wounds undisguised in a glass casket, prior to burial with the cardinal
archbishop of Manila presiding. President Marcos created a fact-finding commission to investigate the assassination, but its members resigned after their
appointment was challenged in court. Next, on October 14, Marcos issued
presidential decree no. 1886 establishing a five-member independent board of
inquiry. The panel heard 193 witnesses, reporting to Marcos on October 24,
1984, that Aquinos murder was a military conspiracy, with Rolando Galman
sacrificed as a scapegoat. Twenty-five soldiers and one civilian faced murder
charges, but all were acquitted on December 2, 1985.
After President Marcos was deposed in 1986, a new investigation charged
16 military menincluding one brigadier generalwith Aquinos murder. All
were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. They appealed that verdict, claiming the murder was ordered by Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., a cousin of
former first lady Imelda Marcos. By 2009, all of those convicted were paroled.
The site of Aquinos murder is today called Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and the anniversary of his death is a Filipino national holiday.
Further Reading
Bonner, Raymond. Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American
Policy. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.

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A R AU J O, M A N U E L E N R I Q U E

Burton, Sandra. Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution. New York: Warner Books, 1959.
De Castro, Arturo. Mistrial: A Case Study of the Assassination of Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.
Manila: Current Events Digest, 1986.
Festin Martinez, Manuel. The Grand Collision: Aquino vs. Marcos. Manila: Martinez,
1987.
Hill, Gerald. The True Story and Analysis of the Aquino Assassination. Aylesbury, United
Kingdom: Hilltop, 1984.

ARAUJO, MANUEL ENRIQUE (18651913)

On the night of February 4, 1913, El Salvadors president, Dr. Manuel Araujo,
attended a concert at San Salvador Bolivar Park. During the performance, three
menlater identified as farmers Fabian Graciano, Fermin Perez, and Mulatilo
Virgilioattacked Araujo with machetes, inflicting mortal wounds. He died
on February 9, while his assailants were detained for military trial, swiftly convicted, and executed by firing squad without any significant investigation of
their motives.
The son of a wealthy Basque coffee grower and his Portuguese wife, Manuel
Araujo was born at Alegria, in El Salvadors Usulutn Department, on October 12,
1865. He earned a medical degree from the University of El Salvador in 1891,
then traveled to Europe for specialized surgical training. Upon returning home,
he prospered as a physician and maintained his familys ties with Salvadoran
high society. In 1910, Fernando Figueroathe nations last military ruler, in
a line of dictators dating from 1885gave his support to Araujo in Novembers presidential election. Chosen by the voters without a party affiliation,
Dr. Araujo took office on March 1, 1911.
Although civilian rule had been restored for the time being, Araujo repaid
Figueroas support by granting increased funding to the army and importing
foreign military advisors to train Salvadoran officers. In 1912, he also created
a National Guard to police rural districts, trained by retired members of the
Spanish Civil Guard who doubled as Araujos personal bodyguards. On other
fronts, President Araujo established a ministry of agriculture to expand cultivation of coffee, thus benefiting his relatives and other wealthy growers. Decline
in sales of indigo had left coffee as El Salvadors only significant export since
1880, but production had lagged by comparison to that in Guatemala and
Costa Rica, as preceding government administrations failed to court external
financing and technical assistance.
Dr. Araujos policies sparked opposition in the Salvadoran countryside, despite exemption from military service for coffee plantation workers. Rural villagers had hoped for sweeping economic reforms and the redistribution of
land, but instead saw wealthy growers reap rewards from tax reductions and

ARGAA FERRARO, LUIS MARA DEL CORAZN DE JESS DIONISIO

elimination of export duties. Dissatisfaction was compounded by reports that

some high-ranking members of the government were both corrupt and ineffective. Nonetheless, Araujos regime was regarded as stable until the surprise attack claimed his life in February 1913. Various theories were advanced for his
murder, but none was ever substantiated.
President Carlos Melndez succeeded Araujo, inaugurating a dynasty that
ruled El Salvador in the name of the National Democratic Party until March
1931. Melndez himself served two terms, from February 1913 to August
1914, and again from March 1915 to December 1918. Others in the lineup
included Melendezs brother-in-law, Alfonso Quinez Molina (three terms),
and his brother Jorge Melndez (one term). Po Romero Bosque finished the
lineup, declining to name a handpicked successor in 1930. A distant relative
of Dr. Araujo, Arturo Araujo, won that election as a member of the Labor Party,
but was deposed by a coup dtat in December 1931, after just 11 months
in office. That uprising restored military rule in El Salvador for another halfcentury, until May 1982.
Further Reading
Keen, Benjamin, and Keith Haynes. A History of Latin America, Volume 2: Independence
to Present. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2009.
LaFeber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. New York:
W. W. Norton, 1993.
Langley, Lester, and Thomas Schoonover. The Banana Men: American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 18801930. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
1995.
White, Christopher. The History of El Salvador. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.

ARGAA FERRARO, LUIS MARA DEL

CORAZN DE JESS DIONISIO
(19321999)
Luis Argaa Ferraro, vice president of Paraguay, left his home in Asuncin as
usual on the morning of March 23, 1999. This time, however, he had barely
pulled out of the driveway when several gunmen sprang from hiding, spraying Argaas sport utility vehicle with fire from automatic weapons, killing him
instantly. President Ral Cubas Grau ordered the countrys borders sealed, but
the assassins eluded capture and remain unidentified today. Suspicion that Cubas himself might be responsible prompted Chamber of Deputies to vote his
impeachment on March 24. Facing near-certain conviction in the senate and
removal from office, Cubas resigned four days later and fled to Brazil while
rioting rocked Asuncin.
Luis Argaa Ferraro was born in Asuncin on October 3, 1932. He earned
degrees in law and social sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Asuncin

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A R GA A F E R R A R O, L U I S M A R A D E L C O R A Z N D E J E S S D I O N I S I O

in 1958, and remained as a professor until he entered politics, with his election
to Paraguays Chamber of Deputies. He later served as a judge and as president
of Paraguays Supreme Court from 1983 to 1988, followed by a term as foreign minister (19891990). He lost a presidential bid in 1993, but rebounded
five years later with election as vice president.
Some observers speculated that Argaas murder may have been inspired by
his service as a judge, and later head of Paraguays judicial system, under the
despotic regime of Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, who ruled the nation with an
iron hand from 1954 to 1989, while granting sanctuary to Nazi war criminals,
including Auschwitz Angel of Death Josef Mengele. Critics claimed that Argaa had used his position to abet and whitewash Stroessners reign of terror,
including political murders, torture, and unjust imprisonment amply documented by archives of terror discovered at a police station in the Asuncin
suburb of Lambar on December 22, 1992.
Another theory blamed Argaas death on ex-general Lino Csar Oviedo
Silva, commander of Paraguays army from 1993 until April 1996, when President Juan Carlos Wasmosy forced his resignation. Oviedo had threatened a
coup dtat, then relented when Wasmosy offered him a post as minister of
defensethen reneged on the day of Oviedos scheduled swearing-in ceremony. Embittered, Oviedo ran for president in 1998 and won the ruling Colorado Partys nomination, then was slapped with a 10-year prison term a month
before election day, for his abortive coup attempt in 1996. Running mate Ral
Cubas went on to win the election and liberated Oviedo days after taking office
in August 1998, over protests from opposition leaders and the Paraguayan Supreme Court. Luis Argaa was inaugurated as vice president of Paraguay under
Cubas, on August 15.
Argentina granted asylum to General Oviedo upon his departure from
prison, and refused an extradition request from Paraguays National Congress
following Argaas murder. Oviedo subsequently left for Brazil, where expresident Cubas had settled following his impeachment, then returned to Paraguay voluntarily on June 28, 2004. Arrested on arrival, he was taken to the
military prison at Vias Cu, near Asuncin, to complete his original 10-year
sentence. Authorities paroled him for good behavior on September 6, 2007, and
Paraguays Supreme Court overturned Oviedos conviction on October 30, 2007,
by a vote of eight to one, deciding that no coup dtat was actually attempted
in 1996.
Thus vindicated, Oviedo resumed his campaign for the presidency. In January 2008, he was nominated without opposition by a Colorado Party splinter
group, the National Union of Ethical Citizens. Whereas Oviedos party won
25 congressional seats in Aprils election, Oviedo lost his bid to rival Fernando
Armindo Lugo Mndez, candidate of the Patriotic Alliance for Change. Oviedo
received only 22.8 percent of the popular vote nationwide.

ASSASSINS CULT

Further Reading
Calvert, Peter. A Political and Economic Dictionary of Latin America. London: Europa
Publications, 2004.
Lambert, Peter. Muero con mi patria! Myth, Political Violence, and the Construction
of National Identity in Paraguay. In Political Violence and the Construction of Identity
in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Miranda, Carlos. The Stroessner Era: Authoritarian Rule in Paraguay. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Mora, Frank, and Jerry Cooney. Paraguay and the United States: Distant Allies. Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 2007.

ASSASSINS CULT (CA. 10921275)

Assassination owes its name to a religious sect founded in Persia shortly before
the First Crusade (10961099). Although information on the movements origin is vague and issues chiefly from the pens of hostile authors, its foundation
is traceable to Hassan-i Sabbah, an evangelist of Ismailism (the second-largest
branch of Shia Islam). Various authors writing from the 17th through the
19th century claimed that the cult drew its name from the derogatory Arabic
term Hashishin (users of hashish), first applied to Syrian Ismailis by Fatamid Caliph Al-Amir bi-Ahkami l-Lah in 1122, later corrupted to assassins.
Modern author Edward Burman disagrees, writing that the attribution of the
epithet hashish eaters or hashish takers is a misnomer derived from enemies
of the Ismailis and was never used by Muslim chroniclers or sources. It was
therefore used in a pejorative sense of enemies or disreputable people. This
sense of the term survived into modern times with the common Egyptian usage of the term Hashasheen in the 1930s to mean simply noisy or riotous.
It is unlikely that the austere Hassan-i Sabbah indulged personally in drug
taking. . . . [T]here is no mention of that drug hashish in connection with the
Persian Assassins.
Whatever Sabbahs personal habits or motives for founding the cult may
have been, he found a secure base for the order in 1090, with capture of a
Zaidiyyah Shia mountain fortress at Alamut, 60 miles from present-day Tehran, Iran. Proclaiming himself grand headmaster of the order, Sabbah schooled
his disciples in a pyramidal hierarchy with ranks including greater propagandists, propagandists, companions, and adherentsthe latter also known
as fedayin (the martyrs or men who accept death), who would perform the
task of murder.
The sects first known victim was a Sunni Muslim, Seljuq vizier Nizam alMulk, ambushed and murdered while en route from Isfahan to Baghdad on
October 14, 1092. More slayings followed, carried out during religious or political feuds and as contract killings commissioned by wealthy clients. From
Persia the sect spread to Syria, establishing cells in various cities during the

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A S S A S S I N S C U LT

early 12th century. Grand master Sabbah died at Alamut in 1124, succeeded
by Kiya Buzurg-Ummid, and the sect grew stronger than ever. Its next wellknown victim, in 1125, was Abul-Fad.l Ibn al-Khashshab, the foremost Shia
qadi ( judge) at Aleppo, Syria. A year later, also in Aleppo, a fedayin assassin
killed Emir Porsuki on November 26, 1126.
Later in the 12th century, Assassins seized nine castles in Syrias An-Nusayriyah
Mountains. From one of those, at Masyaf, Old Man of Mountain Rashid ad-Din
Sinan ran his own branch of the order, virtually independent of the grand master
at Alamut. Pledged to kill Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim sultan of Syria and Egypt,
Sinan twice dispatched assassins who failed to complete their assignment. Saladin
laid siege to Masyaf in August 1176, then retired after finding a threatening note
in his tent, pinned to a table with a poisoned dagger. Sinans last major contract
claimed the life of Conrad of Montferrat, elected king of Jerusalem on April 24,
1192, and killed four days later, allegedly on orders from King Richard I of England. Sinan himself died that same year, his successor handpicked by then
grand master Nur al-din Muhammad at Alamut.
Mongol invaders under Hulagu Khan laid siege to Alamut, commanded
at the time by Imam Rukn al-Din Khurshah, on December 15, 1256. Khurshah surrendered his stronghold soon thereafter, and although fedayin warriors
briefly recaptured the fortress in 1275, they were soon routed, the survivors
scattered and vanishing into obscurity. Mamluk Sultan Baibars of Egypt seized
control of the orders Syrian wing in 1273 and used its members as killers for
hire. Moroccan author Ibn Battuta (13041368) claims that remaining Assassins finally resulted to taqiyya, a tactic of religious dissimulation masking their
beliefs in mainstream Muslim society while waitingin vain, it appearsfor a
new leader to awaken them.
It comes as no surprise, perhaps, that the Assassins cult has featured frequently in literature, film, on televisioneven in modern computer and video
games. Friedrich Nietzsche seemed to admire the order when, in 1887, his On
the Genealogy of Morality referred to that invincible Order of Assassins. Vladimir Bartol, by contrast, seemed to take a decidedly negative view in his novel
Alamut (1938), though later critics maintain that he compared the order favorably to antifascist resistance fighters in his native Slovenia. Louis LAmour,
best known for novels set in the American Old West, departed from type with
The Walking Drum (1984), in which 12th-century hero Mathurin Kerbouchard
seeks to rescue his father from the Assassins. Peter Berlings The Children of the
Grail (1996) also examines the Assassins in their historical setting, and other
novelsDan Browns Angels & Demons (2000) and A. W. Hills Nowhere-Land
(2009)imagine the orders survival into modern times. In comics, the Assassins have contended both with ancient warrior Conan the Barbarian and quasisupernatural Wild West gunman Jonah Hex.

ASSASSINS CULT

On the big screen, Assassins have appeared as antagonists in the feature

films Secondhand Lions (2003) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2009),
the latter a Hollywood adaptation of a popular video game launched in 1989.
Other role-playing games featuring the order include Broken Sword, Dungeons &
Dragons, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Final Fantasy, The First Templar, Gothic 3,
Infinity, Knights of the Temple, Legend of the Burning Sands, Medieval II: Total
War, and Vampire: The Masquerade. On television, BBCs Robin of Sherwood featured Assassins in an episode titled The Greatest Enemy, originally aired
on April 13, 1985.
Further Reading
Burman, Edward. The AssassinsHoly Killers of Islam. Wellingborough, United Kingdom: Crucible, 1987.
Lewis, Bernard. The Assassins, a Radical Sect of Islam. London: Oxford University Press,
1967.
Lung, Haha. Assassin! The Deadly Art of the Cult of the Assassins: The Deadly Art of the
Cult of the Assassins. New York: Citadel, 2004.

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B
BAHONAR, MOHAMMAD-JAVAD
(19331981)
On August 30, 1981, a bomb exploded in the Tehran office of Iranian prime
minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. The blast killed Bahonar, as well as
President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and three other members of the Islamic Republican Party. Survivors described the explosion occurring when one victim
opened a briefcase, brought into the office by Massoud Kashmiri, a state security official. Subsequent investigation revealed that Kashmiri was an agent
of the leftist Peoples Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), supported by Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein and blamed for 17,000 Iranian deaths during the IranIraq
War of 19801988.
Bahonar was born in Kerman, Iran, on September 3, 1933. A Muslim cleric
and author of textbooks on Islamic studies, he also engaged in politics and was
jailed in 1963, during protests led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavis White Revolutiona program of supposed reforms
designed primarily to strengthen and legitimize the Pahlavi dynasty. Upon release
from custody, Bahonar abstained from further activism until the Islamic Revolution of 19781979 drove the shah into exile and established Khomeini as Irans de
facto ruler. For his service in the revolution, Bahonar was named to lead the new
governments ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, essentially responsible for
censoring any media disapproved by Muslim leaders in Tehran. From that post, he
also directed a purge of all secular influence from Iranian universities.
The outbreak of war with Iraq, in September 1980, hampered but did not
derail the ultraconservative Iranian Cultural Revolution. Mayhem on the home
front escalated as the MEKfounded by leftist Iranian students in 1965 to
oppose Shah Pahlavishifted focus to attack to attack Khomeinis rigid theocracy and its political organ, the Islamic Republican Party (IRP). Irans first
elected president, Abulhassan Banisadr, took office in February 1980 but was
impeached in June 1981 for bucking clerical authority. One week after his
removal, MEK militants bombed IRP headquarters, killing 70 high-ranking
members. In that tense atmosphere, presidential successor Mohammad-Ali
Rajai chose Mohammad-Javad Bahonar as his running mate. They won the
election with 91 percent of the popular vote, but survived less than four weeks
after taking office on August 4, 1981.

28

BALBINUS

Although the BahonarRajai assassination was solved with identification of

bomber Massoud Kashmiri as an MEK agent, he remained unpunished. Various mujahedin were arrested and executed in reprisal, but Kashmiri apparently slipped through the dragnet. MEK murders of Iranian officials continued
sporadically over the next year, while Iraqi troops occupied Iranian territory,
supported and encouraged by special envoy Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of
U.S. president Ronald Reagan. Following Iraqs withdrawal and Irans ultimate
victory in summer 1982, the MEK moved its headquarters to France, remaining there until l986. Still supported by Saddam Hussein, the group carried out
several high-profile Iranian assassinations in the 1990s and fielded an army
of 6,000 men against U.S. troops in 2003. Formally designated as a terrorist
group in 2006, the MEK suffered numerous arrests and coalition air strikes in
Iraq, as late as 2009.
Further Reading
Abrahamian, Ervand. The Iranian Mojahedin. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1992.
Brownlee, Jason. Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007.
Keddie, Nikki. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
Parsa, Misagh. Social Origins of the Iranian Revolution. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989.
Wright, Robin. The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy. Washington, DC: United
States Institute for Peace, 2010.

BALBINUS (165 CE238 CE)

The year 238 is known in ancient Roman history as the Year of the Six Emperors. Fourth in line and sharing power with Co-Emperor Pupienus Maximus, Balbinusformally known as Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius
Augustusheld office for only three months before both emperors were
slain by mutinous members of the Praetorian Guard on July 29.
A patrician by birth, Balbinus was the son of Caelius Calvinus, who served
as legate to Cappadocia in 184. Author Herodians colorful eight-volume History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus credits Balbinus with governing
seven separate provinces, while also serving as proconsul of Africa and Asia,
but no other evidence supports those claims. Modern historians dismiss those
stories as inventions, while granting Balbinus two terms as consul. The first is
vague, variously dated from 203 and 211; the second, in 213, found Balbinus
serving Emperor Caracalla (himself assassinated in April 217).
Romes Year of the Six Emperors began with rebellion against Maximinus
Thrax, assassinated in April 238, with his son and chief ministers, by soldiers

BALBINUS

Emperor Balbinus of Rome, assassinated by his palace guards in 238 C.E. (Getty Images)

of the Second Parthian Legion. The senate then approached 79-year-old Gordian, regional governor of North Africa, who demurred until his son was accepted as co-emperor. Accordingly, Gordian I and II were named to rule in
tandem, but they reigned for only 36 days. Gordian II died fighting soldiers
loyal to Maximus at the Battle of Carthage, and Gordian I hanged himself
on learning of his sons demise. Next, on April 22, the senate elected elderly
members Balbinus and Pupienus as co-emperors, a decision so unpopular
with Gordian loyalists that they thronged Romes streets, pelting both men
with sticks and stones. As a pacifying measure, senators named Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius Augustus, 13-year-old grandson of Gordian I, to nominally reign as Caesar, thus presumably defusing anger against Balbinus and
Pupienus.

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B A L E WA , A B U B A K A R TA FAWA

That stopgap measure failed to guarantee smooth governance, however. Dissension simmered between Balbinus and Pupienus from the first day of their
joint reign, each emperor fearing assassination by the other. Seeking to crown
their election with military laurels, thereby achieving some legitimacy, they
planned an ambitious dual campaign, Balbinus plotting to subjugate the Carpians (inhabiting the eastern region of present-day Moldavia), and Pupienus
targeted the Parthians (occupying northeastern Iran). Collaborating on logistics failed to heal the rift between the emperors, however. Balbinus and Pupienus were engaged in yet another bitter quarrel on July 29, when disgusted
Praetorian Guards burst in and hacked both men to death.
With Gordian III still too young to rule, control of the empire was ceded to
aristocratic families who directed Romes affairs through the senate. Gordian
married Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of the newly appointed praetorian prefect Timesitheus, who assumed de facto rule of Rome until his death in
243. The following year, Gordian died combating Persian invaders at the Battle
of Misiche. Quickly deified by the senate, he was succeeded by Marcus Julius
Philippus Augustus, also called Philip the Arab.
Further Reading
Frey, Oliver. Complete Chronicle of the Emperors of Rome. Ludlow, United Kingdom:
Thalamus Publishing, 2005.
Grant, Michael. The Roman Emperors: A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome
31 BCAD 476. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1985.
Kerrigan, Michael. Dark History of the Roman Emperors. London: Amber Books, 2012.
Potter, David. Emperors of Rome: Imperial Rome from Julius Caesar to the Last Emperor.
London: Quercus Books, 2008.
Scarre, Chris. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers
of Imperial Rome. London: Thames & Hudson, 1995.

BALEWA, ABUBAKAR TAFAWA (19121966)

Nigerias first and only prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, fell victim to the nations persistent tribal animosities after ruling for five tempestuous years. His death occurred during a military coup on January 15, 1966,
led by junior military officers of Igbo extraction under Major Chukwuma
Kaduna Nzeogwu. Igbos, from southern Nigeria, opposed rule by Hausa
and Falani tribal members from the north. The circumstances of Balewas
death remain unclear, as his corpse was found beside a road near Lagos on
January 24. The rebels also killed Premier Ahmadu Bello of Nigerias Northern Region, Premier Ladoke Akintola of the Western Region, and Finance
Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh. Before Balewas body was discovered, on January 16, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi proclaimed himself Military
Head of State.

B A L E WA , A B U B A K A R TA FAWA

Abubakar Balewa was born

in Bauchi, in December 1912,
the son of a Muslim district
leader, educated at the local
Koranic school and at Katsina
College, where he earned a
teaching certificate. He taught
at Bauchi Middle School until
1944, then went to study for a
year at the University of Londons Institute of Education.
On his return, he served briefly
as a school inspector, then won
election to the Northern House
of Assembly in 1946, progressing to the legislative assembly in 1947. With colleague
Ahmadu Bello, Balewa founded
the Northern Peoples Congress
(NPC) as a vehicle to pursue
rights for residents of north- Nigerian Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
killed by rebel soldiers in 1966. (Bettmann/Corbis)
ern Nigeria, primarily Muslims.
Their chief rivals were the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), representing mostly
Christian Igbos from the south. In 1952, Balewa was elected minister of works,
later serving as minister of transport. In 1957, voters chose him as chief minister, forming a coalition government between the NPC and NCNC, led by
Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Balewa in January
1960, and he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield
four months later.
Britain released Nigeria from colonial rule on October 1, 1960, with
Nnamdi Azikiwe named as president of the First Nigerian Republic, and
Balewa took office as prime minister. From that post, doubling as minister of
foreign affairs, Balewa led protests against the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960,
allied himself with Commonwealth of Nations ministers who sought expulsion of South Africa, participated in negotiations during the Congo crisis of
19601966, and played a leading role in creating the Organization of African
Unity, founded in 1963. Although those efforts saw him dubbed the Golden
Voice of Africa, Balewa lost support from allies in the western region of his
homeland after NPC ally Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was convicted of treason in 1965, for allegedly conspiring with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana to topple Nigerias federal government. During 1965s national elections, Awolowos

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B A N D A R A N A I K E , S O L O M O N W E S T R I D G E W AY D I A S

followers threw their support to the southern NCNC in a campaign marked

by rioting.
That turmoil set the stage for Balewas assassination and the collapse of the
First Nigerian Republic. Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi died in a countercoup six
months after seizing power, accompanied by Muslim massacres of Christian
Igbos living in the north. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, military
governor of the Igbo-dominated southeast, proclaimed his district the independent Republic of Biafra in May 1967, thereby plunging Nigeria into civil war.
Further Reading
Clark, Trevor. A Right Honourable Gentleman: The Life and Times of Alhaji Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa. Zaria, Nigeria: Hudahuda Publishing, 1991.
Falola, Tony, and Ann Genova, Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009.
Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
2000.
Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence.
New York: Public Affairs, 2011.

BANDARANAIKE, SOLOMON WEST

RIDGEWAY DIAS (18991959)
On September 25, 1959, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike kept his
normal schedule of greeting constituents at Tintagel, his private residence
in Colombo, largest city of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). One of the visitors was
Talduwe Somarama, a Sinhalese Buddhist monk allied with Mapitigama Buddharakkitha, chief priest of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara temple and exsupporter of Bandaranaike who had soured on the prime ministers failure
to pursue nationalist reforms. Exempted from the usual pat-down search because of his religious status, Somarama carried a revolver to his meeting with
Bandaranaike, firing it as Bandaranaike knelt to greet him in the traditional
Buddhist style. Aides disarmed Somarama and rushed Bandaranaike to the
nearest hospital, where he died on September 26 after protracted surgery.
A native of Colombo, Ceylon, born on January 8, 1899, Solomon Bandaranaike was the son of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, an Anglican Christian
and chief native interpreter/advisor to the governor of Ceylon under British colonial rule. Educated at the College of St. Thomas the Apostle in Ceylon, then
at Christ Church, Oxford University, Bandaranaike qualified as a barrister in
England before returning home to Colombo and joining the Ceylon National
Congress. He converted to Buddhism shortly thereafter, courting political support from the island nations 70-percent religious majority, and was elected to
the Colombo Municipal Council in 1926, subsequently serving on the State
Council of Ceylon from 1931 to 1947. In 1934, he founded the Sinhala Maha

B A N D A R A N A I K E , S O L O M O N W E S T R I D G E WAY D I A S

Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike of Ceylon, shot by a Buddhist priest in 1959.

(Associated Press)

Sabha organization to promote Sinhalese culture and community interests.

Backing the United National Party (UNP) in 1946, he held ministerial posts
with that group from 1947 to 1951, then broke with the UNP to form a new
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP).
The SFLP initially sought to bridge national ethnic divisions by supporting
official use of both the Sinhala and Tamil languages, but later passed Official
Language Act No. 33 of 1956, popularly called the Sinhala Only Act. September 1958 brought partial reversal of that exclusionist policy, with passage of the
Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act, dubbed Sinhala Only, Tamil Also.
Bandaranaike won election by a landslide in 1956, thanks to SFLP collaboration with the Trotskyite Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of
Sri Lanka, a move that soon alienated prominent supporter Mapitigama Buddharakkitha. Although the SFLP presented itself as a staunch defender of Buddhist principles, the leftward drift in government prompted Buddharakkitha
to plot Bandaranaikes murder, recruiting Talduwe Somarama as the reluctant
triggerman.
In the wake of Bandaranaikes death, Buddharakkitha initially decried the
shooting over Radio Ceylon, but an investigation by officers of Scotland Yard exposed him as the plots ringleader. At trial, prosecutors described Buddharakkitha

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B AU T I S TA G I L L GA R C A D E L B A R R I O, J UA N

as a wealthy businessman and heavy drinker (an offense for Buddhist monks),
who had engaged in a sexual affair with Minister of Health Wimala Wijewardene, the only female member of Bandaranaikes cabinet. Convicted of murder
and sentenced to death in 1961, Buddharakkitha saw his sentence commuted
to life imprisonment on appeal. He died in prison, from a heart attack, in
1967. Talduwe Somarama was hanged on July 7, 1962. A third conspirator,
businessman H. P. Jayawardena, also received a life sentence.
Further Reading
De Alwis, Malathi. Gender, Politics, and the Respectable Lady. In Unmaking the
Nation: The Politics of Identity & History in Modern Sri Lanka. Colombo, Sri Lanka:
Social Scientists Association, 1995.
Manor, James. The Bandaranaike Legend. In The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture,
Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
Manor, James. The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.
Tambiah, Stanley. Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Weiss, Gordon. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers.
New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2012.

BAUTISTA GILL GARCA DEL BARRIO,

JUAN (18401877)
On April 12, 1877, while passing through downtown Villarrica, Paraguay,
President Juan Bautista Gill was ambushed and shot by three gunmen, killed
instantly on impact. The assassins, who escaped and fled to Argentina, were
identified as Nicanor Silvano Godoi, brother of an exiled political opponent,
and two lackeys identified only as Goiburu and Molas.
Bautista was the grandson of Don Juan Miguel Gill, a leader in the revolution against Spanish rule in 1811. Born to wealthy parents in Asuncin on October 28, 1840, he completed his secondary education and medical training
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then returned to Paraguay in 1863. A year later,
when his homeland entered the War of the Triple Alliance against Argentina,
Brazil, and Uruguay, Bautista joined the elite 40th Battalion, then was transferred to the armys military health division. Captured by enemy forces in December 1868, at the Battle of Ita Ybat, he was paroled in January 1869 with
a promise to abstain from further service in the war. Paraguay was defeated in
March 1870, with estimates of total losses ranging from 450,000 to 900,000
dead. Historian William Rubinstein suggests that only 220,000 Paraguayans
survived the war, of whom 28,000 were adult males.
In the wake of that disaster, Bautista entered politics, serving initially as finance minister and chairman of the senate. He was elected president in 1874,

B E C K E T, T H O M A S

taking office on November 25 with cousin Jos Higinio Uriarte y Garca del
Barrio as vice president. Their administration initiated use of paper currency
and substantially increased taxation, while adopting the Argentine Civil Code
in a bid to stabilize Paraguays ravaged economy. Another statute, the Tobacco
Law of April 1875, granted the government a five-year monopoly on tobacco
exports while barring private dealers from the trade. The same law imposed a
three-year government monopoly on trading in salt and soap. Those measures
were predictably unpopular, as was the border treaty signed with Argentina on
February 3, 1876, surrendering Misiones Province and adjacent territory, plus
some islands in the Paran River. Bautistas establishment of a National College
in Asuncin failed to offset criticism of his other policies.
General Germain Serrano, former minister of the interior, led an insurrection against Bautistas regime at Caacup in December 1875, but that uprising collapsed with the death of Serrano and other rebel leaders. Conspiracies
against the president continued, however, with Don Juan Silvano Godoi hatching the plot that finally succeeded in April 1877. Following Bautistas assassination, Silvano spent 18 years in Buenos Aires, finally returning to Paraguay in
1895. Six years later he was appointed general director of the National Library
of Paraguay.
Vice President Higinio Uriarte completed Bautistas four-year term, succeeded by Cndido Pastor Bareiro Caballero, former Paraguayan charg
daffaires in Europe. Under his administration, Paraguay reclaimed some territory from Argentina's Ro de la Plata basin, subsequently named the Presidente
Hayes Department, after U.S. president Rutherford Hayes, who helped negotiate the transition.
Further Reading
Bethell, Leslie. The Cambridge History of Latin America, Vol. 5: c. 18701930. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Lewis, Paul. Political Parties and Generations in Paraguays Liberal Era, 18691940. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Tuohy, John. Biographical Sketches from the Paraguayan War18641870. Charleston,
SC: CreateSpace, 2011.

BECKET, THOMAS (11181170)

On December 29, 1170, four British knightsSir Richard le Breton, Sir Hugh de
Morville, Sir William de Tracy, and Sir Reginald FitzUrsearrived at Canterbury
Cathedral to confront Thomas Becket, archbishop of the diocese. A month earlier,
Becket had excommunicated three rival clerics from York and Salisbury, who had
preempted Canterburys privilege of coronation by crowning Henry the Young as
king of England. The four assassins, acting in accordance with supposed orders
from Henry, first told Becket that he must accompany them to Winchester, to

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B E C K E T, T H O M A S

explain his actions, but Becket

refused. As Becket proceeded to
a vespers ceremony, the knights
retrieved hidden swords and
overtook him on a staircase,
stabbing him to death.
Becket was born to Norman
parents in Cheapside, London,
on the feast day of St. Thomas
the Apostle (December 21)
in 1118. He studied at Merton Priory, in Surrey, and later
in Paris, though he curiously
failed to master Latin. When
Thomas returned from France,
his father used family connections to find him a position
on the staff of Theobald of Bec,
then archbishop of Canterbury.
Archbishop Thomas Becket, slain by royal order in
Theobald sent Becket on misDecember 1170. (Getty Images)
sions to Rome, and compelled
him to learn cannon law before
naming him archdeacon of Canterbury and provost of Beverly in 1154. Impressed with his performance in those posts, King Henry II named Becket Lord
Chancellor in January 1155, assigned to enforce taxation of bishoprics and
landowners. Henry also sent his son to live with Becket as a foster child, their
close bond prompting Henry the Younger to say that Becket showed him more
love in a day than his father had since birth.
Theobald of Bec died in April 1161, after a long illness, and the archbishops
post remained vacant until a royal council of bishops and noblemen elected
Becket on May 23, 1162, and he formally assumed office on June 3. Henry of
Blois, bishop of Winchester, performed Beckets consecration, but later turned
against him as Becket extended his authority over various suffragan (subordinate) bishops of the archbishopric. By October 1863, Becket was embroiled in
a dispute with King Henry concerning jurisdiction of secular courts over clergymen. That prompted Henry to draft the Constitutions of Clarendon, 16 articles to assert secular authority and weaken the English clergys ties to Rome.
Becket agreed in principle but refused to sign the document, whereupon
Henry summoned him to answer charges of malfeasance and contempt for
royal authority in October 1164. Convicted of those charges at Northampton
Castle, Becket fled to France, spending two years under protection from King
Louis VII. Pope Alexander III intervened in 1167, finally negotiating a compromise that permitted Beckets return to Canterbury in early December 1170.

B E C K E T, T H O M A S

Meanwhile, Henry II had decided to crown his son, Henry the Young, as
kinga move that required approval from Canterburys archbishop. Becket
resisted, whereupon the coronation proceeded without him in June 1170,
performed by archbishop of York Roger de Pont Lvque, joined by bishop
of London Gilbert Foliot and bishop of Salisbury Josceline de Bohon. Becket
excommunicated all three in November, whereupon the three fled to Normandy. At that point, Henry uttered his famous rhetorical question, transcribed in various histories as Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest? or
What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my
household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a
low-born cleric? Whatever the precise wording, Beckets assassins interpreted
Henrys words as a royal command and proceeded to kill Becket upon his return to England.
Pope Alexander III canonized Becket on February 21, 1173. Two months later,
French noblemen led a rebellion against Henry II in France (see sidebar), prompting Henry to perform acts of penance at Beckets tomb and at the Church of
St. Dunstans, Canterbury, in July 1174. Beckets killers fled to North Yorkshire
and were excommunicated in March 1171 by Pope Alexander, who further sentenced them to 14 years exile in Jerusalem. They were never charged in England,
nor required to forfeit any of their lands. Thomas Beckets remains were exhumed
in 1220 and transferred to a shrine at Canterbury Cathedrals Trinity Chapel.

REVOLT OF 11731174
Henry the Young mourned Thomas Beckets assassination as the slaying
of his surrogate father. Married by that time to a daughter of French king
Louis VII (also first husband of young Henrys mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine), young Henry was 18 in April 1173, when the Counts of Flanders and
Boulogne rose against his father, invading Normandy. Young Henry joined
in the attack, while William the Lion, king of Scots, launched an offensive
in Northumberland. Henry II defeated those offensives, but the rebellion
continued as the Earl of Leicester raised an army of Flemish mercenaries
and crossed from Normandy to England, joining forces with Hugh Bigod,
1st Earl of Norfolk. That thrust also failed, when it was met by superior
forces under Richard de Luci, chief justiciar of England. Even then, fighting continued until July 1174, when Henry II returned from France and
pacified most opponents with public acts of penance for Beckets slaying.
Henry and his son reconciled in September 1174, but the younger Henry
led a new rebellion in 1183. He died from dysentery in June of that year,
during a campaign against his father and brother Richard, later called The
Lionheart.

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BELZU HUMEREZ, MANUEL ISIDORO

Becket remains a popular figure in modern fiction, appearing in T. S. Eliots

play Murder in the Cathedral (1935); Jean Anouilhs play Becket (1959), filmed
under the same title in 1964; Ken Folletts novel The Pillars of the Earth (1989),
adapted as an eight-part television miniseries in 2010; and Paul Webbs play
Four Nights in Knaresborough (1999). In 2006, BBC History magazine polled
prominent historians for a list of worst Britons throughout the previous millennium, choosing one candidate per century. John G. H. Hudson, professor of
Legal History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, nominated Becket
for the 12th century, calling him hypocritical, greedy, a master of the sound
bite, and the founder of gesture politics. In the final poll, Becket ranked second, trailing unidentified 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Further Reading
Barlow, Frank. Thomas Becket. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Guy, John. Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel. New York: Random House, 2012.
Knowles, David. Thomas Becket. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1971.
Morris, John. The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. Charleston, SC: BiblioLife, 2010.
Staunton, Michael. Thomas Becket and His Biographers. Woodbridge, United Kingdom:
The Boydell Press, 2006.
Urry, William. Thomas Becket. St. Albans, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing, 1999.

BELZU HUMEREZ, MANUEL ISIDORO

(18081865)
Former Bolivian president Manuel Belzu Humerez felt power within his grasp
once again on the morning of March 23, 1865. Though out of office for a decade,
he saw opportunity in Bolivias unsettled political climate, after a military coup
dtat ousted incumbent Jos Mara Ach and drove him into exile on December 28, 1864. The coups leader, General Mariano Melgarejo, had declared himself president, prompting Belzu to raise a private army and march on the seat of
government at La Paz. Now, with battle imminent, he had received an invitation
from Melgarejo to discuss a power-sharing scheme. Upon Belzus arrival at the
presidential palace, Melgarejos soldiers shot him down.
A child of humble mestizo parents, born in La Paz on April 14, 1808,
Manuel Belzu was educated by Franciscan friars, then joined in Bolivias
long-running war for independence from Spain. At age 18 he participated
in the Battle of Zepita, where Peruvian troops under Andrs de Santa Cruz
defeated Spanish royalist forces on August 23, 1823. Belzu subsequently
served as an aide to Peruvian general (and future two-time president)
Agustn Gamarra Messia, but he left Gamarras service when the general invaded Bolivia on May 28, 1828. Employed next as a garrison commander
at Tarija, Belzu improved his status by marrying the daughter of wealthy

BELZU HUMEREZ, MANUEL ISIDORO

Argentinean expatriates residing in that southern district of Bolivia. His

personal acquaintance with the new presidents of Bolivia (Andrs de Santa
Cruz) and Peru (Agustn Gamarra) also enhanced his prospects.
Gamarras dream involved unification of the two countries, achieved after
a fashion in 1836, with creation of the PeruBolivian Confederation, ruled by
Supreme Protector Andrs de Santa Cruz. Internal dissent coupled with opposition from Argentina doomed that tenuous alliance by August 1839, driving Santa Cruz into European exile. Gamarra then invaded Bolivia once more,
and Belzu found himself opposing his former commander, as he was appointed
by President Jos Ballivin to lead Bolivias army. The hostile forces met on November 18, 1841, for the Battle of Ingavi, where Gamarra was slain and his
army repulsed.
Belzus close relationship with President Ballivin soured in 1845, after Ballivin tried to seduce Belzus wife. Belzu fired a shot at Ballivin, and while he
missed, their personal feud blossomed into political conflict. Joining forces
with rebels led by former president Jos Miguel de Velasco Franco, Belzu drove
Ballivin into exile in December 1847. Belzu initially agreed to let Velasco
become president, while serving as his minister of war, but then he doublecrossed his ally and seized power for himself.
Placating his mestizo base with cosmetic reforms and liberal platitudes,
Belzu secured popular election in 1848, while behaving in fact as a traditional
caudilloan authoritarian politicalmilitary leader. Rival warlords and supporters of wealthy presidential hopeful Jos Mara Linares Lizarazu mounted
successive rebellions during Belzus time in office, and he narrowly escaped
assassination at Sucre, in September 1850, by army officer (and future president) Pedro Agustn Morales Hernndez. Belzu ostensibly retired in August
1855, after arranging the election of his son-in-law, General Jorge Crdova.
Jos Linares deposed Crdova by force in October 1857, proclaiming himself president for life, but was himself unseated and banished in 1861 by Jos
Ach. Mariano Melgarejo, in turn, deposed Ach on December 28, 1864, and
thereby set the stage for Belzus final actions, which climaxed with his murder.
President Melgarejos regime was marked by worse incompetence than any
of his predecessors, but he ruled by ruthless force until January 15, 1871,
when he was ousted by General Agustn Morales. Resettled in Lima, Peru,
Melgarejo survived another 11 months, then was murdered by his lovers
brother on November 23.
Further Reading
Alexander, Robert. A History of Organized Labor in Bolivia. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 2005.
Klein, Herbert. Bolivia: The Evolution of a Multi-Ethnic Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

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BEAR AN ORDEANA, JOS MIGUEL

Klein, Herbert. A Concise History of Bolivia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Scheina, Robert. Latin Americas Wars: The Age of the Caudillo, 17911899. Dulles, VA:
Potomac Books, 2003.

BEARAN ORDEANA, JOS MIGUEL

(19491978)
On December 21, 1978, a car bomb killed Basque separatist leader Jos Bearan
Ordeana in Anglet, in the Pyrnes-Atlantiques Department of southwestern
France. A fugitive from justice in his native Spain, Bearan had lived in hiding
both from the authorities and from various right-wing paramilitary opponents.
His murder remains officially unsolved, but media reports suggest involvement
by members of the Spanish government, including an agent of the nations
principal intelligence agency, another from naval intelligence, and a third from
the military chiefs of staff. Suspected participants in the actual bombing include French mercenary Jean-Pierre Cherid, a member of the Organisation de
larme secrte that attempted to kill President Charles de Gaulle; Jos Maria
Boccardo, affiliated with the Triple A (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance);
and Mario Ricci, a member of Italys neo-fascist National Vanguard.
Born at Arrigorriaga, south of Bilbao in northern Spains Basque Country, Bearan was indoctrinated with the principles of Basque nationalism from infancy
and studied Marxism in his youth. In 1968, he joined the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Homeland and Freedom), and eluded capture the following
year, when dictator Francisco Francos secret police arrested most of the ETAs
leaders in Bilbao and Cantabria. In the wake of those raids, Bearan joined in
Operation Botella, freeing several inmates from prison in December 1970. On
September 30, 1971, he led a team that stole 10 million pesetas from the Banco
de Vizcaya. Four months later, on January 19, 1972, he helped kidnap industrialist Lorenzo Zabala Suinaga from Abadio, Biscay, releasing him three days
later with Zabalas promise to improve conditions for his workers. Civil guard
officers missed Bearan in October 1972, while killing several of his friends
at Hasparren, France. The ETA retaliated with Operation Ogre, assassinating
Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco on December 20, 1973.
Hunted by Francos agents and their hired guns, Bearan moved frequently,
spending time in Paris and Madrid, in Biscay, and in smaller towns such as Eibar
and Elgoibar, Spain. After his death, a former Spanish soldier using the pseudonym Leonidas claimed that the explosives used to kill Bearan were obtained
from a U.S. military base in Spain, either at Rota or Torrejn. The explosives
were willingly provided, he said, as a favor to one Pedro el Marino, a far-right
activist who had aided U.S. intelligence agencies in anticommunist actions. Marino was affiliated with the Batalln Vasco Espaol, a terrorist group previously
linked to the murders of ETA officer Juan Lopetegui Carrasco in August 1977,
and that of Yolanda Gonzlez Martn, a member of the Socialist Party of the

BEARAN ORDEANA, JOS MIGUEL

THE ETA (19592011)

Organized to carry out armed action in support of independence for the
Greater Basque Country in the western Pyrenees Mountains, Euskadi Ta
Askatasuna (ETA) has been designated as a terrorist organization by Spain,
France, the European Union, and the United States. Founded on July 31,
1959, ETA held its first assembly in France three years later, adopting a
declaration of principles including creation of underground activist cells,
and the motto Bietan jarrai (Keep up on both), referring to its symbol,
which depicts a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed struggle). The groups first confirmed killing occurred in
June 1968, after a policeman stopped member Txabi Etxebarrieta for a routine traffic violation. Etxebarrietas subsequent killing by officers prompted
ETA to assassinate Melitn Manzanas Gonzlez, a former Nazi Gestapo associate and police chief of San Sebastin, known for brutal treatment of
Basque prisoners. Since 1968, ETA has been blamed for killing 829 persons, wounding thousands more in bombings and shootings, and committing scores of kidnappings. It counters with claims that state violence
claimed at least 474 lives in Basque Country between 1960 and 2010,
and a dirty war waged by paramilitary Antiterrorist Liberation Groups
claimed 27 between 1983 and 1987. During Spains transition to democracy, after 1975, ETA split into rival factions: ETA political-military and
ETA military, both refusing amnesty offers while pursuing guerrilla warfare. Successive ceasefires in 1989, 1996, 1998, and 2006 did not stem the
violence, nor did the incarceration of 800 ETA members, with extrajudicial slayings of various others. A final ceasefire, declared on September 5,
2010, has proved more effective, buttressed on October 20, 2011, by a
declaration that the ETA had undertaken a definitive cessation of its armed
activity. A successor organizationIrrintzi, founded in 2006continues
bombings aimed at entrepreneurs intruding on Basque territory.

Workers, in February 1978. Between Bearns murder and its dissolution in

1981, the Batalln Vasco Espaol killed four other ETA members, six members
of Herri Batasuna (Unity of the People), two members of GRAPO (the First
of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups), one member of Euskadiko Ezkerra
(Basque Country Left), and four victims of unknown political affiliation.
Further Reading
Anderson, Wayne. The ETA: Spains Basque Terrorists. New York: Rosen Publishing, 2003.
Aretxaqa, Begoa. States of Terror. Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies, 2005.

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B E N T, C H A R L E S

Mickolus, Edward, and Susan Simmons. The Terrorist List. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger,
2011.
Woodworth, Paddy. Dirty Wars, Clean Hands: The ETA, the GAL, and Spanish Democracy.
Cork: Cork University Press, 2001.
Zulaika, Joseba. Terrorism: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2009.

BENT, CHARLES (17991847)

On January 19, 1847, Mexicans and Pueblo Indians, who were unhappy with
the U.S. seizure of New Mexico five months earlier, rose in revolt against U.S.
authorities at Don Fernando de Taos (present-day Taos). Mexican activist Jose
Pablo Montoya and Pueblo tribesman Toms Romero led a raiding party to
the home of Governor Charles Bent, where they shot Bent with arrows, then
scalped him in front of his wife and children. Bent survived those wounds,
escaping with his family and several friends, digging through the adobe wall of
their house to another next door. The raiders belatedly noticed Bents escape
and gave chase, finally killing him, but left the other witnesses unharmed.
Elsewhere in Taos, rebels killed and scalped sheriff Stephen Lee, probate Judge
Cornelio Vigil, and circuit attorney J. W. Leal. Two other massacres, at Arroyo
Hondo and Mora on January 20, claimed 15 more American lives.
A West Virginia native, born in Charleston on November 11, 1799, Charles
Bent attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in
the army until 1828, when he joined his younger brother to lead a series of
mercantile wagon trains over the Santa Fe Trail. In 1832, he joined Missouri
trader Ceran St. Vrain to form the Bent & St. Vrain Company, building a series
of fortified trading posts between St. Louis and Taos. In 1835, Bent married
Taos native Maria Ignacia Jaramilla, whose younger sister later married famous
frontier scout Christopher Kit Carson.
Bents commercial empire was well established by April 1846, when war
erupted between Mexico and the United States. Governor Manuel Armijo surrendered New Mexico on August 14, following a week-long siege of Santa Fe
in which no shots were fired. U.S. commander Stephen Watts Kearny named
Bent as first governor of New Mexico Territory, while leaving Colonel Sterling
Price in charge of occupying troops. Predictably, in Bents words, those troops
undertook to act like conquerors. Bent wrote to Prices superior, Colonel
Alexander Doniphan, imploring that he interpose [his] authority to compel the
soldiers to respect the rights of the inhabitants. These outrages are becoming
so frequent that I apprehend serious consequences must result sooner or later
if measures are not taken to prevent them. Doniphans inaction paved the way
for armed revolt in January 1847.
After the massacres of January 1920, Colonel Price led troops to suppress the rebellion, defeating insurgent forces at Santa Cruz on January 24, at

BHUTTO, BENAZIR

Embudo Pass on January 29, and at Taos on February 35, 1847. Rebels repulsed a second force under Captain Israel Hendley at Mora, on January 24, but
were routed by Captain Jesse Morins troops on February 1. Pueblo rebel leader
Toms Romero was captured and jailed at Taos, shot dead in his cell by Private John Fitzgerald on February 8 without the formality of trial. A subsequent
court-martial convicted Jose Montoya and 14 other rebels on charges of murder
and treason against the territorial government. Montoya and five more rebels
were hanged on April 9, 1847, with the remainder executed two weeks later.
Meanwhile, combat between insurgents and occupying troops continued at Red
River Canyon (May 2627), Las Vegas ( July 6), and Cienega Creek ( July 9).
Further Reading
Crutchfield, James. Tragedy at Taos: The Revolt of 1847. Dallas: Republic of Texas Press,
1995.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne, and Simon Ortiz. Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure
in New Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
Durand, John. The Taos Massacres. Elkhorn, WI: Puzzlebox Press, 2004.
Flint, F. Harlan. Hispano Homesteaders, The Last New Mexico Pioneers, 18501910. Santa Fe,
NM: Sunstone Press, 2012.
Sides, Hampton. Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the
American West. New York: Anchor Books, 2006.

BHUTTO, BENAZIR (19532007)

On December 27, 2007, two-time Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto attended a campaign rally for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) at Liaquat National Bagh (park) in Rawalpindi. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan had been
assassinated at the same location 56 years earlier, but Bhutto disregarded death
threats in her preparations for the January 2008 parliamentary elections. Rising
through the sunroof of her bulletproof limousine, she was waving to the crowd
when gunfire and explosions erupted, wounding Bhutto and killing 24 bystanders. Bhuttos driver rushed her to Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she
entered surgery at 5:35 P.M. and was pronounced dead at 6:16 P.M. The cause
of death remained in question until February 2008, when Scotland Yard investigators blamed blunt force trauma to the skull, as a result of the explosions.
Benazir Bhutto seemed destined for politics. The daughter of former prime
minister and PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, born in Karachi on June 21,
1953, she was educated in Karachi until age 16, then studied at Radcliffe College and Harvard University in the United States (19691973), then at Oxford
in England (19731977). A military coup deposed her father in July 1977; he
was hanged on April 4, 1979, on charges of conspiring to kill a rival politicians father. Many Pakistanis thought that charge was fabricated by Zulfikar
Bhuttos successor, military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Benazir Bhutto,

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B H U T T O, B E N A Z I R

her mother, and her younger

brother spent 18 months under
house arrest; Benazir was then
moved to solitary confinement at Sukkur after the PPP
swept local elections in 1981.
Released that December, she
spent another 26 months confined at home before international pressure on General
Zia-ul-Haq forced him to let her
leave the country. In July 1985,
while she resided in London,
her brother was poisoned in
France. That crime remains officially unsolved.
General Zia-ul-Haq died in
a plane crash on August 17,
1988, clearing the way for
Bhuttos election as prime minister. She took office on December 2, leading a coalition of
Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, killed
the centerleft PPP and liberal
in an ambush in 2007. (AFP/Getty Images)
Muttahida Qaumi Movement
that faced constant opposition
from conservative president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. In 1989, Khan and army
chief of staff General Mirza Aslam Beg collaborated on Operation Midnight
Jackal, a covert intelligence campaign to smear Bhutto and the PPP with fabricated charges of corruption. Reporters exposed that plot, which resulted in
several army officers being sent to prison, but President Khan persevered, vetoing each of Bhuttos progressive efforts, finally invoking a rarely used constitutional amendment to dismiss her in December 1990.
For the next three years, Bhutto served as opposition leader in Pakistans
parliament, winning elections to her second term as prime minister, in April
1993. She survived an abortive military coup dtat in 1995, but was dismissed
a second time in November 1996, this time by President Farooq Leghari, on
fresh charges of corruption. Two months before her dismissal, police had killed
Bhuttos younger brother, Murtaza, in Karachi. Fearing for her life, Bhutto
moved to Dubai in in 1998 and lived in self-imposed exile until October 2007,
when military president General Pervez Musharraf dismissed outstanding
criminal charges. Suicide bombers attempted to kill Bhutto at Jinnah International Airport on October 18, but she was unharmed by the devastating blasts

B I N L A D E N , O S A M A B I N M O H A M M E D B I N AWA D

that killed 136 other victims and wounded 450. Two weeks later, on November 3, President Pervez Musharraf declared a nationwide state of emergency,
briefly placing Bhutto under house arrest until public outrage forced her release. Bhutto proceeded with her plan to win a third term as prime minister,
aborted by the suicide attack that claimed her life.
Al-Qaeda field commander Saeed al-Masri claimed responsibility for Bhuttos assassination, whereas the Pakistani government spokesmen named Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud as the attacks planner. Bhuttos family and the
PPP disputed both claims, blaming opponents in the militaryintelligence
community. A U.S. drone aircraft killed Mehsud at the home of his second
wifes father, on August 5, 2009, and another killed al-Masri with his wife and
three children on May 21, 2010. An antiterrorism court in Rawalpindi ordered
ex-president Musharrafs arrest on February 12, 2011, charging him with complicity in Bhuttos assassination, and the Sindh High Court charged him with
treason on March 8, 2011. At the time of this writing, he remains in London,
battling extradition.
Further Reading
Bhatia, Shyam. Goodbye Shahzadi: A Political Biography of Benazir Bhutto. New Delhi:
Lotus Roli Books, 2008.
Bhutto, Fatima. Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughters Memoir. New York: Nation
Books, 2010.
Hughes, Libby. Benazir Bhutto: From Prison to Prime Minister. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2000.
Hussain, Zahid. Frontline Pakistan: The Path to Catastrophe and the Killing of Benazir
Bhutto. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
United Nations Security Council. Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry
into the Facts and Circumstances of the Assassination of Former Pakistani Prime Minister
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: United Nations Publications, 2009.

BIN LADEN, OSAMA BIN MOHAMMED

BIN AWAD (19572011)
On May 2, 2011, members of Seal Team Sixformally designated the United
States Naval Special Warfare Development Groupexecuted Operation Neptune Spear by storming a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The
raiders killed five persons, four men and one woman, while suffering no injuries themselves. Their primary target, fugitive terrorist leader Osama bin
Laden, was identified via DNA testing and other means, before his corpse
was extracted and buried at sea on May 3, to deprive supporters of a physical
rallying point. Followers of bin Laden acknowledged his death on May 6 and
vowed retaliation.
A Saudi native, born to an affluent family in Riyadh on March 10, 1957,
Osama bin Laden married the first of five wives at age 17, ultimately siring

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26 children. By the time of his first marriage, bin Ladens father and a halfbrother were partners with future U.S. president George H. W. Bush in the
Carlyle Group, a U.S.-based global asset management firm. In 1979, bin Laden
received a degree in civil engineering from King Abdulaziz University, then
moved to Pakistan, joining the CIA-assisted mujahideen resistance to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In August 1988, six months before the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden organized al-Qaeda (The Base, in Arabic) to lift the word
of God, to make his religion victorious. In August 1990, following Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, bin Laden offered to defend Saudi Arabia in the event of an
attack. FBI agents raided the New Jersey home of al-Qaeda associate El Sayyid
Nosair two months later, discovering plans to bomb Manhattan skyscrapers.
Nosair subsequently confessed his involvement in the November 7, 1990,
murder of controversial rabbi Meyer Kahane.
Bin Laden, meanwhile, broke with the Saudi government over its U.S.
ties and was banished to Sudan in 1992, and stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994. In 1995, he joined in an abortive plot to kill Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. May 1996 found bin Laden back in Afghanistan,
where he issued a declaration of war against the United States three months
later, declaring that the evils of the Middle East arose from Americas attempt to take over the region and from its support for Israel. Saudi Arabia
had been turned into an American colony. With Taliban support, he effectively seized control of Ariana Afghan Airlines, using it to shuttle terrorists
around the world.
Mayhem ensued, beginning with al-Qaedas bombing of the Gold Mihor
Hotel in Yemen, killing two persons on December 29, 1992. Principals in the
February 1993 World Trade Centers bombing were linked to al-Qaeda, though
the attack was not an official bin Laden project. Bin Laden financed the Luxor
massacre of November 17, 1997, which killed 62 civilians at an Egyptian archaeological site, and coordinated the bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi,
Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 223 persons and wounding more
than 4,000. In October 2000, al-Qaeda suicide bombers struck the destroyer
USS Cole in Aden, killing 17 seamen and injuring 39. Investigation of the 1998
embassy bombings placed bin Laden on the FBIs most wanted list, with a $6
million reward for information leading to his capture (subsequently increased
to $25 million).
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda members executed the worst terrorist
strikes in U.S. history, hijacking four airliners and using them as vehicles for
suicide attacks. Targets included New Yorks World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and the White House, but passengers aboard the plane en route to strike
the presidential residence overpowered their kidnappers, crashing the jet into
a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The days grim toll included 2,996 dead,
with more than 6,000 injured. On the same day, bin Ladens half-brother Shafig

B I N L A D E N , O S A M A B I N M O H A M M E D B I N AWA D

was feted as guest of honor by the Carlyle Group, at Washingtons Ritz-Carlton

Hotel, with ex-president George H. W. Bush in attendance. Eight days later,
President George W. Bush permitted Shafig bin Laden and 12 relatives to leave
the United States for Saudi Arabia, without being questioned by FBI agents.
On September 26, President Bush declared his intent to smoke out bin Laden
at any cost, but he changed his stance on March 13, 2002, telling reporters,
I truly am not that concerned about him.
Bin Laden eluded capture throughout the remainder of Bushs White House
tenure, while al-Qaeda continued its campaign of terror. On October 12,
2002, members bombed a tourist resort on Bali, killing 202 people and
wounding 240. Four truck bombs, detonated in Istanbul on November 15
and 20, 2003, killed 57 and injured 700. The February 27, 2004, bombing
of SuperFerry 14 killed 116 persons in Manila Bay. On March 11, 2004911
days after 9/11bombs aboard a Spanish commuter train killed 191 people
and wounded 1,800. Al-Qaeda hostage-takers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, killed
22 captives and injured 25 more on May 2930, 2004. A suicide bombing at
the Hayatt Amman Hotel killed 60 and wounded hundreds on November 9,
2005. Two bombings in Algiers killed 33 on April 11, 2007. Yet another blast,
at the Danish embassy in Pakistan, killed six on June 2, 2008. Throughout
this period, al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for many bombings in U.S.occupied Afghanistan and Iraq.
Following bin Ladens death, Pakistans Foreign Office categorically denied
reports that the government had sheltered bin Laden or had any foreknowledge of the assault that killed him. Husain Haqqani, Pakistans ambassador to
the United States, promised a full inquiry while admitting that obviously bin
Laden did have a support system; the issue is, was that support system within
the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan?
Federal prosecutors dismissed all outstanding charges against the late terrorist
leader on June 15, 2011.
Further Reading
Bergen, Peter. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin LadenFrom 9/11 to Abbottabad.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2012.
Bowden, Mark. The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden. New York: Atlantic Monthly
Press, 2012.
Furnish, Timothy. Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads, and Osama bin Laden.
Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2005.
Owen, Mark. No Easy Day: The First-hand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin
Laden. New York: Dutton Adult, 2012.
Pfarrer, Chuck. SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin
Laden. New York: St. Martins 2011.
Scheuer, Michael. Osama bin Laden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

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BIRENDRA BIR BIKRAM SHAH DEV

BIRENDRA BIR BIKRAM SHAH DEV

(19452001)
On June 1, 2001, Prince Dipendra, heir presumptive to Nepals throne,
drank heavily during a banquet at the Narayanhity Palace Museum in Kathmandu. Following an incident of drunken misbehavior with a dinner guest,
King Birendra ordered his son out from the room, escorted by his younger
brother Prince Nirajan and a cousin, Prince Paras. An hour later, Dipendra
returned to the dining room with two automatic weapons and sprayed the
room with gunfire, killing his father and mother (Queen Aishwarya), brother
Nirajan and a sister, two uncles, an aunt, and a female cousin of his father.
Four other members of the family were wounded, but survived. Finally,
Dipendra shot himself in the head and fell comatose. Although officially proclaimed Nepals new king, Dipendra died on June 4 without regaining consciousness.
King Birendra was the son of King Mahendra, and was born on December 28, 1945, at the palace where he later died. He succeeded his father at
age 26, when Mahendra died on January 31, 1972. Before ascending to the
throne, he studied at St. Josephs College in Darjeeling, India, at Englands
Eton College, at the University of Tokyo, and at Harvard University. He married a daughter of the aristocratic Rana family, Aishwarya Rajyalaxmi Devi
Rana, in February 1970, in a lavish ceremony costing $9.5 million. Their
union produced three children, none of whom survived the palace massacre
of June 2001.
Birendras reign was marred by controversy and violence, including the 1976
arrest of Nepalese Congress Party leaders who opposed him, student revolts in
1979, nationwide civil disobedience in 1985, and strikes and pro-democracy
riots in 1990. Despite Birendras promulgation of a new constitution in November 1990, political upheavals continued and degenerated into civil war
by February 1996. That conflict, between government forces and the Unified
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), bent on establishing a Federal Republic
of Nepal, would continue, claiming an estimated 12,700 lives, until the signing of a comprehensive peace accord in November 2006.
Following the royal massacre of June 2001, a surviving witnessNepalese
soldier Lal Bahadur Lamteritold the newspaper Naya Patrika that Prince
Dipendra was actually shot before the other victims, by an unidentified gunman wearing a mask that resembled Dipendras face. A two-man investigating
committee, consisting Supreme Court chief justice Keshav Prasad Upadhaya
and House Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, disputed that claim and confirmed
Dipendras guilt. Conspiracy theorists noted that the building where the homicides occurred had been demolished, ruling out forensic recreation of
events.

B I S H O P, M A U R I C E R U P E R T

Speculation persists as to Dipendras motive for the slayings. Drunken

anger over being chastised by his father seemed inadequate, and former king
Gyanendrarecalled from exile in India to serve as regent while Dipendra
lingered in a comainitially blamed the deaths on accidental discharge of
an automatic weapon. Later, speculation arose that Dipendra was angry over
a marriage dispute concerning prospective fiance Devyani Rana, who fled
Nepal after the massacre. Gyanendra succeeded Dipendra for a second term as
king, ending with formal abolition of the monarchy on May 28, 2008.
Further Reading
Gregson, Jonathan. Massacre at the Palace: The Doomed Royal Dynasty of Nepal. New York:
Miramax, 2002.
Hutchins, Francis. Democratizing Monarch: A Memoir of Nepals King Birendra. Gainesville,
FL: Vajra Publications, 2007.
Willesee, Amy, and Mark Whittaker. Love and Death in Kathmandu: A Strange Tale of
Royal Murder. New York: St. Martins Press, 2003.

BISHOP, MAURICE RUPERT (19441983)

On October 19, 1983, Grenadian deputy prime minister Bernard Coard ordered the arrest of his nominal superior, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, with
most of Bishops ministers. Bishop was briefly placed under house arrest,
then released when his supporters marched en masse through the capitals
streets. Bishop made his way to the army headquarters at Fort Rupert (now
Fort George), apparently intending to reclaim his seat. More troops arrived,
directed by Coard, and the resultant fighting claimed numerous lives. Bishop
was captured during the battle and executed with seven others. His body has
never been found.
Born in Aruba on May 29, 1944, Bishop moved to Grenada with his parents
as an infant. After high school he studied at the London School of Economics,
then earned a law degree from the University of London. Bishop remained in
England for three years of private practice, cofounding a legal aid clinic that
assisted West Indians immigrants. He returned to Grenada in 1973 and soon
emerged as leader of the Marxist New Jewel Movement (NJM; Joint Endeavor
for Welfare, Education, and Liberation). He won election to parliament and
worked in opposition to Prime Minister Eric Gairy, whose paramilitary Mongoose Gang retaliated by beating Bishop in November 1973.
A month later, Britain announced that Grenada would be independent
under Gairys leadershipby February 1974. NJM members demonstrated
on January 22, and police fired on the crowd, killing Bishops father. Opposition to Gairy continued, increasing as he sought advice on governance from

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Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and spoke publicly on paranormal subjects, declaring 1978 The Year of the UFO. Bishop and the NJM deposed
Gairy on March 13, 1979, suspending Grenadas constitution and ruling by
decree in the name of a Peoples Revolutionary Government, inviting Cuban
teachers, technicians, and physicians to help improve the countrys standard of living. Even then, the socialist reforms were not enough for hard-line
Marxists in the NJM, who rallied around Bernard Coard to unseat Bishop
in 1983.
Following Bishops execution, General Hudson Austin of the Peoples Revolutionary Army named himself chairman of a military junta. To forestall protests, Austin imposed a four-day total curfew, warning that any person found
away from home without official sanction would be shot on sight. Word soon
reached Washington that Cuban soldiers and construction workers were building a new 10,000-foot landing strip, presumably for use by military aircraft.
On October 23, President Ronald Reagan initiated Operation Urgent Fury,
invading Grenada with 7,300 U.S. troops and 353 supporting forces from various Caribbean nations. At a reported cost of 113 dead and 533 wounded, invaders toppled the juntaand incidentally rescued a number of U.S. medical
students from St. Georges University. The United Nations General Assembly,
by a vote of 108 to 9, condemned the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law.
In the wake of that invasion, Hudson Austin, Bernard Coard, his wife Phyllis, and various others were arrested on charges of murdering Bishop. At trial
in 1986, Austin, Coard, and six others were sentenced to death, but their penalty was later commuted to life imprisonment. In February 2007, Londons Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ordered resentencing of the defendants,
and in June their prison terms were reduced to 30 years. Austin and two others were released on December 18, 2008. Bernard Coard was the last to leave
prison, on September 5, 2009.
Further Reading
Adkin, Mark. Urgent Fury: The Battle for Grenada. Philadelphia: Trans-Atlantic Publications, 1989.
Brizan, George. Grenada: Island of Conflict. New York: Macmillan Caribbean, 1998.
Gilmore, William. The Grenada Intervention: Analysis and Documentation. New York:
Facts on File, 1984.
Marcus, Bruce, and Michael Taber. Maurice Bishop Speaks: The Grenada Revolution and
Its Overthrow 197983. Atlanta: Pathfinder Press, 1983.
Sandford, Gregory, and Richard Vigilante. Grenada: The Untold Story. Toronto: Madison
Books, 1984.
Seaga, Edward. The Grenada Intervention: The Inside Story. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies, 2009.

B O B R I K O V, N I K O L AY I VA N O V I C H

BOBRIKOV, NIKOLAY IVANOVICH

(18391904)
Nikolay Bobrikov, governor general of Finland under Russias tsar Nicholas II,
was immensely unpopular with the subjects he had ruled since August 1898.
Each year brought new decrees imposing Russian rules, language, and customs on the Finns. On June 16, 1904, Finnish nobleman and nationalist Eugen
Schauman accosted Bobrikov at Helsinkis Government Palace. Drawing a revolver, he fired three hand-loaded explosive bullets at Bobrikov, then pumped
two rounds into his own chest. Whereas Schauman died instantly, Bobrikov
nearly escaped. Two of the homemade slugs ricocheted from medals pinned to
his coat, and the third glanced off his belt bucklethen ripped into his stomach. Bobrikov died that night, after surgery failed to repair his wound.
An aristocratic native of St. Petersburg, born on January 27, 1839, Bobrikov
joined the Russian army as an officer in 1858, at age 19. He served in the
Kazan military district upon its creation in August 1864, then as divisional
chief of staff in Veliky Novgorod, where he rose to a colonels rank by 1869.
The following year saw him transferred to St. Petersburg for service with the
tsars Imperial Guard. There, he ingratiated himself with members of the royal
court and was promoted to major general by Alexander III in 1878. Twenty
years later, Nicholas II dispatched him to rule the Grand Duchy of Finland, occupied since March 1809 but still regarded as a potential threat to Russia.
Finlands frtrycksperioderna (years of oppression) began in earnest with the
February Manifesto of 1899, mandating use of Russian currency and stamps,
imposing press censorship, and establishing Russian Orthodoxy as Finlands
state religion. The Language Manifesto of 1900 made Russian the administrative language of Finland, although the grand duchy contained only 8,000
Russians (in a population of 2.7 million). A conscription statute passed in July
1901 subjugated Finnish military force to the Imperial Russian Army. In April
1903, Nicholas granted Bobrikov dictatorial powers, including the authority to
dismiss Finnish government officials and abolish newspapers.
Russia responded to Bobrikovs assassination with more stringent rules and a
purge of Finnish politicians who opposed Russification, but resistance continued
and achieved a de facto reversal of the 1901 conscription law. Russias revolution of
1905 temporarily halted Russification efforts, although the campaign resumed in
1908 and continued until the October Revolution of 1917. Finlands parliament
declared independence on November 15, sparking a civil war between Whites
(middle- and upper-class Finns, with farmers who dominated two-thirds of the
land) and Reds (socialistcommunist urban laborers and landless peasants). The
Whites triumphed in May 1918, with an estimated loss of 37,000 lives.
Eugen Schauman left a letter addressed to Tsar Nicholas, justifying Bobrikovs murder proclaiming that he had acted alone. Russian authorities buried him in an unmarked Helsinki grave, but later exhumed him for burial with

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other family members at Porvoo, as a means of easing political tension. A large

monument marks his grave today, and a plaque at the assassination site reads
Se Pro Patria Dedit: He gave himself for his country. A 2004 television program on Great Finns ranked Schauman 34th among 100 national heroes.
Further Reading
Deriabin, Peter. Watchdogs of Terror: Russian Bodyguards from the Tsars to the Commissars. Westport, CT: Arlington House, 1984.
Kirby, David. A Concise History of Finland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kirby, David. Finland and Russia, 18081920: From Autonomy to Independence. New York:
Macmillan, 1975.

BOLLES, DON (19281976)

On June 2, 1976, reporter Don Bolles left a note on his desk at the Arizona Republic office in Phoenix, declaring his plan to meet an informant for lunch and
return by 1:30 P.M. He drove
to the Hotel Clarendon, but
his informant failed to appear.
Following a two-minute phone
conversation in the hotels lobby, Bolles returned to his car
parked outside. As he started
the car, a bomb exploded underneath the drivers seat. Bystanders rushing to aid Bolles
recalled his final words before
he lapsed into unconsciousness: They finally got me. The
Mafia. Emprise. Find John.
Bolles reached St. Josephs Hospital alive, where surgeons amputated both legs and one arm,
but their efforts were in vain.
He died without regaining consciousness, on June 13.
Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, on July 10, 1928, Don
Bolles was a third-generation
journalist. He graduated from
Wisconsins Beloit College beInvestigative reporter Don Bolles, victim of a 1976 fore joining the U.S. Army and
serving in the Korean War.
underworld car-bombing. (AP Photo)

BOLLES, DON

Back in civilian life, he joined the Associated Press, working in New York,
New Jersey, and Kentucky before Republic editor Eugene Pulliam hired him
in 1962. From sports reporting, Bolles quickly advanced to the investigative
beat, probing Mafia influence on Arizona dog and horse racing, revealing
bribery and kickbacks on the state tax and corporation commissions, exposing
real-estate swindles, and spotlighting a conflict-of-interest scandal involving
state legislators. In 1974, he was honored as Arizona Press Club Newsman of
the Year.
But by the next year, colleagues noted signs of disillusionment and burnout. Bolles requested and received a transfer from the crime beat to city government and the state legislature. It should have been less hazardous, but the
fatal bombing and Bolless final words suggested he was still probing organized
crime. Although the motive for his death remains obscure, early suspicion focused on Kemper Marley, Arizonas godfather of land fraud and a longtime
partner in the liquor trade with John Hensley, father-in-law of Senator John
McCain. Marley was never charged, however, though police did net a clutch
of suspects.
On the day Bolles died, Phoenix detectives arrested John Harvey Adamson, a
racing-dog owner and the informant who stood Bolles up on June 2. On January 15, 1977, Adamson confessed planting a remote-control bomb in Bolless
car, on orders from contractor Max Dunlap, assisted by plumber James Robison.
Adamson agreed to provide evidence on behalf of the state in exchange for a
20-year sentence, providing testimony that convicted Dunlap and Robison of
murder on November 6, 1977. Both men were sentenced to death in January
1978, but marathon appeals ensued. Arizonas Supreme Court ordered a new
trial in February 1980, but Adamson balked at testifying a second time. Murder
charges against both defendants were dismissed in June 1980, and authorities
revoked Adamsons plea bargain and charged him with first-degree murder. Convicted in October 1980 and sentenced to death the following month, Adamson
saw his sentence reduced to life imprisonment on appeal in May 1986 and again
(after its reinstatement) in December 1988.
Meanwhile, prosecutors refiled murder charges against Robison in November 1989, and against Dunlap in December 1990. They were granted
separate trials, with Dunlap convicted in April 1993 (receiving life with no
parole for 25 years), and jurors acquitted Robison in December 1993. On
cross-examination at his trial, Robison admitted asking a fellow inmate to
kill Adamson, a separate crime that earned him five years in federal prison
following a July 1995 guilty plea. John Adamson left prison on August 12,
1996, and entered the federal Witness Protection Program, then emerged
from hiding in the early 21st century. Robison was paroled in 1998, at age 76.
Dunlap died in prison on July 21, 2009. No suspects have been positively
named to date as instigators of the bombing.

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EMPRISE CORPORATION
The company named as such by Don Bolles in his dying remarks was
founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1915. Its creatorsbrothers Charles,
Louis, and Marvin Jacobsoperated concession stands in various sporting
venues and theaters, expanding from the 1920s through the 1950s with
financial support that included interest-free loans from recognized Mafia
bosses in Cleveland and Detroit. Emprise, in return, occasionally granted
loans to mobsters, including Las Vegas godfather Moe Dalitz. Business
flourished under the firms original name, and later as Sportservice. In
1939, the company acquired its first racetrack, reborn in 1980 as Delaware
North Companies Gaming & Entertainment. In 1987, Delaware North acquired Sky Chefs, gaining a foothold in airports nationwide. Six years later,
it won the contract to provide visitor services in Yosemite National Park.
In 1995, the company assumed management of Floridas Kennedy Space
Center Visitor Complex. Delaware North entered the European market in
2006, with a contract for Londons Emirates Stadium, followed by another
for Wembley Stadium in 2007. By 2010, the company owned several casinos and had assumed management of RMS Queen Mary, permanently
docked at Long Beach, California. No link between the firm and the assassination of Don Bolles has been established.

Further Reading
Headly, Lake. Loud and Clear: The Don Bolles Murder Case. New York: Henry Holt,
1990.
Kaiser, Robert Blair. Desert Injustice. n.p. Amazon Digital Services, 2011.
Tallberg, Martin. Don Bolles: An Investigation into His Murder. New York: Popular
Library, 1977.
Wendland, Michael. The Arizona Project: How a Team of Investigative Reporters Got
Revenge on Deadline. Riverside, NJ: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977.

BORGIA, GIOVANNI (14761497)

On June 14, 1497, Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Ganda (in eastern Spain)
dined in Rome with his mother, Vannozza dei Cattanei, and his brother Cesare.
He arrived for dinner with an unidentified masked man, who had been seen with
Giovanni frequently in recent weeks. At the meals conclusion, Giovanni and
Cesare left together, with the masked stranger riding double on Giovannis horse.
They subsequently separated, Giovanni ignoring his brothers warning about the
nocturnal dangers of Rome, riding off with his mysterious companion. When he

B O R G I A , G I O VA N N I

failed to reappear next day, a search began and authorities found a Tiber boatman who had seen a man leading a horse with an apparent body draped across
its saddle. Moments later, after someone said, My lord, there came a splash.
Officers dragged the river and retrieved Borgias body, torn by nine stab wounds,
with 30 gold ducats still in his purse.
Giovanni Borgiaalso known as Juan or Joanwas the son of Pope
Alexander VI. Clerical vows of celibacy notwithstanding, Alexander also
sired Giovannis siblings Cesare, Lucrezia, and Gioffre. Different records cite
his year of birth as 1474 and 1476, with most historians today accepting the
latter date, which makes Cesare the oldest Borgia son and Giovanni the second of four children. In September 1493, Borgia married Maria Enriquez de
Luna, Spanish fiance of his deceased elder half-brother Pier Luigi de Borgia,
1st Duke of Ganda.
In the atmosphere of 15th-century Rome, motives for Borgias murder were
plentiful. Some observers suspected brother Cesare, Duke of Valentinois, noting that Giovannis death cleared the way for Cesare to launch a long-awaited
military career in the Italian War of 14991504. Others suspected that the
murder may have sprung from Giovannis dalliance with Sancha of Aragon,
illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples. Sancha had married the
younger Borgia brother Gioffre in 1494, but still enjoyed romantic liaisons
with Cesare and Giovanni. Further confusing matters, Sanchas brother Alfonso married Lucrezia Borgia in 1498 and was murdered in 1500, allegedly
on orders from Cesare. By that time, as historian Barbara Tuchman observed,
In the bubbling stew of Romes rumors, no depravity appeared beyond the
scope of the Borgias. Even Pope Alexander was not immune from suspicion: humorist Jacopo Sannazaro dubbed him a fisher of men, referring to
Giovannis discovery in the Tiber.
Although no sure verdict is possible in Giovannis slaying, the House of Borgia is indelibly linked to murder. Historian Johann Burchard (ca. 14501506)
wrote of Cesare: One day he went so far as to have the square of St. Peter enclosed by a palisade, into which he ordered some prisonersmen, women and
childrento be brought. He then had them bound, hand and foot, and being
armed and mounted on a fiery charger, commenced a horrible attack upon
them. Some he shot, and others he cut down with his sword, trampling them
under his horses feet. In less than half-an-hour, he wheeled around alone in a
puddle of blood, among the dead bodies of his victims, while his Holiness and
Madam Lucrezia, from a balcony, enjoyed the sight of that horrid scene.
Like other famous assassination victims, Giovanni Borgia survives in popular fiction. His murder is a central feature of Mario Puzos novel The Family
(2001), and is portrayed in various films and television series: the 2010 animated short film Assassins Creed: Ascendance; the French/German series Borgia
(2011); and the second season of Showtimes series The Borgias (2012).

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Further Reading
Cloulas, Ivan. The Borgias. Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, 1989.
Hibbert, Christopher. The Borgias and Their Enemies: 14311519. New York: Mariner
Books, 2009.
Johnson, Marion. The Borgias. New York: Penguin, 2002.
Mallett, Michael. The Borgias: The Rise and Fall of the Most Infamous Family in History.
Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2005.

BORSELLINO, PAOLO (19401992)

On July 19, 1992, anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino prepared for a Sunday
visit to his mother in Palermo, Sicily. Bearing in mind the May 23 murder of his
predecessor, Giovanni Falcone, Borsellino traveled with six heavily armed policemen as his bodyguards. They could not help this day, however, as a powerful
remote-control car bomb exploded along Borsellinos route of travel, demolishing his vehicle and instantly killing all aboard. Slain with Borsellino in the blast
were Officers Agostino Catalano, Walter Cosina, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li
Muli, and Claudio Traina.
Paolo Borsellino was born to middle-class parents in the Kalsa district of Palermo, on January 19, 1940. He earned a law degree with honors from the University of Palermo in 1962, and was admitted to the bar a year later. After practicing
in several Sicilian cities, he returned to Palermo in 1975 and
joined Magistrate Rocco Chinnici in his fight against the Mafia.
By May 1980, when mafiosi
murdered colleague Emanuele Basile in Monreale, Borsellino had convicted six syndicate
members. Thereafter, Borsellino
received round-the-clock protection from the Carabinieri, Italys paramilitary national police.
As a member of Palermos Antimafia Pool, working daily with
Magistrates Chinnici, Giovanni
Falcone, Giuseppe Di Lello, and
Leonardo Guarnotta, Borsellino
conducted extensive research into
the Mafias history and organizaItalian anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino, was killed tional structure, recruiting informants who would break the oath
by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo. (Sygma/Corbis)

B O U D I A F, M O H A M E D

of silence (omert) in exchange for leniency at trial. Mafiosi killed Rocco Chinnici in
July 1983, followed by Palermo chief of police Antonino Cassar in August 1985,
ex-mayor Giuseppe Insalaco in January 1988, Magistrate Rosario Livatino in September 1990, Supreme Court prosecutor Antonio Scopelliti in August 1991, and Salvo
Lima, another ex-mayor, in March 1992. On May 21, 1992, a half-ton car bomb
killed Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three bodyguards on the highway between Palermon International Airport and the citys center.
Borsellino, serving since 1986 as chief prosecutor of Marsala, knew that he
was on the Mafias hit list. In his last interview, taped on the day of Falcones
assassination, Borsellino announced plans to probe links between the Mafia
wealthy Italian businessmen such as future prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Curiously, that interviewtaped by French journalistsdid not air in Italy
until 2000, with 20 minutes cut from its original 50-minute length.
Authorities named Mafia boss Salvatore Tot Riina, alias The Beast, as
the mastermind of the Falcone and Borsellino murders. He remained at large,
in hiding, until Carabinieri officers surprised him at traffic light in Palermo,
on January 15, 1993. Police credited informer Baldassare Di Maggio, Riinas
former chauffeur, with directing them to Riina, a revelation that led to the
murders of several Di Maggio relatives. At his first trial, in October 1993,
Riina was convicted of ordering hits on brothers Pietro and Vincenzo Puccio,
resulting in a life sentence. In 1998, he was convicted of Salvo Limas murder.
Meanwhile, in 1996, Giovanni Bruscanamed as the hit man who planted
the Falcone bombwas captured and turned informer. His testimony added further life terms to Riinas slate, for ordering the murders of Falcone and
Borsellino.
Palermo International Airport was subsequently renamed FalconeBorsellino
Airport, featuring a memorial to the slain magistrates by sculptor Tommaso
Geraci. Borsellinos sister Rita ran for president in the Sicilian regional election
of 2006, but lost to incumbent Salvatore Tot Cuffarowho was convicted of
collaboration with the Mafia in January 2008, receiving a five-year sentence.
Further Reading
Dickie, John. Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Maran, A.G.D. Mafia: Inside the Dark Heart. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.
Seindal, Ren. Mafia: Money and Politics in Sicily 19501997. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 1998.
Stille, Alexander. Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.
New York: Vintage, 1996.

BOUDIAF, MOHAMED (19191992)

On June 29, 1992, Mohamed Boudiafseventh president of Algerialeft
the nations capital for the first time since his January inauguration, to speak

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at the opening of a cultural center in Annaba. As he delivered that televised

address, one of his bodyguards, Lieutenant Lembarek Boumarafi, drew a
pistol and shot Boudiaf in the head at close range, killing him instantly.
Boumarafi escaped in the resulting chaos, but was captured several hours
later, telling police, I killed Boudiaf knowing of his heroic past and that he
was a good man. But he didnt do enough against the mafia. And he opposed
the choice of the people. I belong to no political party but I belong to the
Islamic movement.
Mohamed Boudiaf was born June 23, 1919, in Ouled Madhi, Algeria, to
a former noble family that lost its status under French colonial rule. He suffered from tuberculosis as a child and quit school early, but recovered strength
enough to join the nationalist Algerian Peoples Party (APP) and its covert paramilitary branch, the Special Organization. French authorities failed to arrest
him, but sentenced him in absentia to a 10-year prison term for his guerrilla
activities in Stif Province. Boudiaf subsequently left the APP to join the rival
Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action, surviving an assassination attempt by his former comrades that left him gravely wounded in Algiers.
During the Algerian War of
Independence, Boudiaf emerged
as a leader of the National Liberation Front (NLF). Arrested
after an airline hijacking in October 1956, he was imprisoned
in France and remained in custody for a time after Algeria won
its freedom in 1962. In his absence, former ally Ahmed Ben
Bella gathered military support
and installed himself as Algerias
first president in a one-party system. Operating from Morocco,
Boudiaf founded an opposition
movement, the Party of Socialist Revolution, which opposed
Ben Bellas regime and that of
his successors, Colonels Houari
Boumediene and Chadli Bendjedid. Civil war erupted in December 1991, after the ruling NLF
party canceled elections in the
President Mohamed Boudiaf of Algeria, shot while face of growing strength from
delivering a televised speech. (AFP/Getty Images) the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF),

BUBACK, SIEGFRIED

formed in 1988. In January 1992, Algerias military junta invited Boudiaf to return
from exile, accepting leadership of a new High Council of State, a figurehead
group hastily created to defuse popular opposition.
Boudiaf accepted the post, then surprised his junta sponsors by calling for
substantive reform, with an end to military rule. The civil war continued, and
although Boudiaf was presented as a victim of Muslim violence, his widow and
other observers had doubts. Rumors spread that Boudiaf had tried to open
dialogue between the government and ISF, while launching an investigation
into state corruption. That campaign indicted retired Major General Mustapha
Beloucif for embezzling $6.6 million. The lead investigator in that effort was
murdered several days before Boudiafs assassination.
Authorities clung to their portrayal of Lembarek Boumarafi as a crazed
lone assassin. Convicted of murder and sentenced to death on June 3, 1995,
Boumarafi lost his appeal before Algerias Supreme Court in March 1997.
Thus far, no report of his execution has surfaced. Mohamed Boudiaf is venerated as a martyr in Algeria today, with the countrys largest airport named in
his honor.
Further Reading
Burgat, Francois. Face to Face with Political Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Roberts, Hugh. The Battlefield: Algeria 19882002, Studies in a Broken Polity. London:
Verso, 2003.
Stone, Martin. The Agony of Algeria. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Stora, Benjamin. Algeria, 18302000: A Short History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 2001.
Sueur, James Lee. Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria Since 1959. London: Zed
Books, 2010.

BUBACK, SIEGFRIED (19201977)

On the morning of April 7, 1977, German attorney general Siegfried Buback
left his home in Neureut, bound for the Federal Court of Justice, accompanied
by judicial officer Georg Wurster. While their car was stopped at a traffic light
in Karlsruhe, a motorcycle pulled alongside and its backseat passenger fired
15 bullets from an automatic weapon at close range. Buback and driver Wolfgang Gbel died instantly, and Wurster survived until April 13 at a local hospital. The triple slaying opened the German Autumn campaign of the terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF)also known as the BaaderMeinhof Group (or
Gang), after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
Siegfried Buback was born in Wilsdruff, Saxony, on January 3, 1920. He
studied at the University of Leipzig, and joined the Nazi Party at age 20, supporting Adolf Hitler for the duration of World War II. Held as a prisoner of
war from 1945 to 1947, he joined countless other Third Reich loyalists in

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BUBACK, SIEGFRIED

German attorney general Siegfried Buback, shot by the Red Army Faction. (SVEN SIMON/
dpa/Corbis)

returning to public life after denazification of West Germany. Appointed to

serve as attorney general in 1974, Buback was an ardent prosecutor of the
RAF, founded four years earlier and blamed for five murders, with 42 victims
wounded in bombings, since October 1971. In the five months after his assassination, RAF guerrillas killed seven more persons, while losing one of their
own in a shootout with police at Kerkrade, Holland.
Authorities charged and convicted four RAF membersKnut Folkerts,
Christian Klar, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, and Gnter Sonnenbergfor Bubacks
murder, while admitting that the motorcycles driver and his gunman-passenger
remained at large. In April 2007, paroled RAF survivor Peter-Jrgen Boock
contacted Bubacks son, naming the triggerman as Stefan Wisniewski. Another
RAF member, Verena Becker, confirmed that identification in an interview
with Der Spiegel, prompting Interior Minister Wolfgang Schuble to reopen
the investigation of Bubacks assassination. Further investigation by Der Spiegel
suggested that prosecutors suppressed evidence to protect an RAF informer
in 1977, perhaps resulting in wrongful conviction of alleged participants in
Bubacks murder.

B U S H , G E O R G E WA L K E R

Prior to Boocks revelations, Brigitte Mohnhaupt was paroled on March 25,

2007. Christian Klar, eligible for parole in 2009, requested a pardon from
President Horst Khler, supported by Bubacks son on grounds that information from RAF circles confirmed Klars innocence. Reporters also discovered
that RAF member Verena Becker, sentenced to life on six counts of attempted
murder in December 1977, had turned informer in prison, telling police in
1990 that Knut Folkerts was in Amsterdam when Buback died. Further exculpatory evidence includes the fact that police found the Buback murder weapon
at Verena Beckers home, together with a screwdriver from the murder cycles
tool kit, and that one of her hairs was recovered from a helmet worn during
the attack.
Authorities blamed the RAF for 34 murders between 1971 and the groups
announcement of final dissolution in April 1998. Other prominent victims included Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of the Confederation of German Employers Associations, Deutsche Bank chairman Alfred Herrhausen, and Detlev
Karsten Rohwedder, manager of Germanys Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency).
Further Reading
Aust, Stefan. Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009.
Hanshew, Karrin. Terror and Democracy in West Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Smith, J., and Andr Moncourt, Daring to Struggle, Failing to Win: The Reed Army Factions 1977 Campaign of Desperation. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2008.
Varon, Jeremy. Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction,
and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

BUSH, GEORGE WALKER (1946 )

ATTEMPTED
Official reports list three reported attempts on the life of the 43rd president of
the United States, George W. Bush. The first occurred on February 7, 2001, less
than three weeks after Bushs inauguration. At 11:30 that morning, Robert W.
Picketta 47-year-old accountant from Indiana, embroiled in long-running
civil litigation with former employers at the Internal Revenue Servicefired
several pistol shots toward the White House from a perimeter fence facing the
south lawn. Secret Service officers responded to the scene, and one of them
shot Pickett in the knee when he refused to drop his weapon. Following surgery, Pickett was charged with discharging a firearm during a crime. He subsequently pled guilty to a reduced local firearms violation, and also pled no
contest on a charge of assaulting a federal officer. In July 2001, he received a
three-year prison sentence, with an additional three years probation, and was

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released from custody on September 19, 2003. Although President Bush was
never in actual danger, spokesmen for the U.S. Park Police said that Picketts
shots would have reached the White House if his view had not been obstructed.
A more serious attempt on Bush apparently occurred on September 11,
2001the day when coordinated terrorist strikes by al-Qaeda claimed 2,996
lives in New York and Pennsylvania. On that day, Bush was in Florida, lodged
at Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key, in preparation for a public appearance in Sarasota. While the president went jogging with Secret Service agents, a van occupied by several men of apparent Middle Eastern descent
arrived at the lodge, claiming they were scheduled for a poolside interview
with Bush. No such appointment was registered, and the still-unidentified
men were turned away. Authorities speculated that the strangers intended to
kill Bush, as a similar party had slain anti-Taliban militia leader Ahmad Shah
Massoud in Takhar Province, Afghanistan, only two days earlier. Although
nothing was provedand Secret Service agents failed to detain the men after
questioning themwitnesses subsequently claimed sightings of 9/11 skyjacking ringleader Mohamed Atta at the Longboat Key Holiday Inn, near the
Colony Beach, on September 7, 2001. That day, coincidentally or otherwise,
was the date when White House spokesmen announced Bushs upcoming visit
to Sarasota.
The last reported attempt on President Bush occurred in Tbilis, Georgia,
on May 10, 2005. Bush was speaking to an audience in Freedom Square, accompanied by his wife and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, when
ethnic Armenian Vladimir Arutyunian tossed a hand grenade toward the podium. The grenade struck a bystander and fell short of its mark, then failed
to explode. Although it was live, and Arutyunian had pulled its pin, a handkerchief he wrapped around the grenade to conceal it from view prevented
the safety levers release to produce detonation. Arutyunian escaped from the
scene, but was caught on film by a tourists camera and subsequently identified by FBI agents, acting in concert with Georgian authorities. Cornered at
his mothers home on July 20, 2005, Arutyunian engaged in a shootout with
police, killing Zurab Kvlividze, chief of the interior ministrys counterintelligence department, before he was wounded and captured. Arutyunian initially confessed, then refused to speak at his trial, stitching his lips shut on
one occasion. On January 11, 2006, he received a life prison term without
possibility of parole.
George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946, the grandson of a U.S. senator.
His father, George H. W. Bush, served variously in Congress (19671971), as
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (19711973), as director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (19761977), as vice president (19811989), and as president (19891993). The younger Bush, commonly known by his middle initial, served as governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, then won the presidency

B U S H , G E O R G E WA L K E R

in a close and extremely controversial race against incumbent vice president

Al Gore. His electioncritics say appointment, in effect, by a five-to-four vote
of the U.S. Supreme Courtset the stage for eight years marked by the 9/11
attacks, two foreign wars, and a crushing economic recession. High public approval ratings in the wake of September 2001 dissipated over time, leaving
Bush No. 43 one of Americas least popular presidents, both absent and literally unmentioned at his partys national conventions in 2008 and 2012.
Bushs father was also the target of a reported assassination attempt, although it did not occur until three months after he left office. On April 13,
1993, the former president visited Kuwait University, in Kuwait City. Local
authorities arrested 17 persons on charges of plotting to assassinate Bush with
a car bomb. Two of the suspects allegedly confessed, then recanted at trial,
claiming they were coerced into signing the incriminating statements. FBI investigators linked captured explosives from the car bomb, found on April 14
in Kuwait City, to a manufacturer in Iraq, where dictator Saddam Hussein
presumably plotted to kill Bush in retaliation for Americas defense of Kuwait
in the first Gulf War (19901991). On June 27, 1993, acting under the code
name Operation Southern Watch, President Bill Clinton retaliated with 23
Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. naval ships against the Iraqi Intelligence Headquarters in Baghdad.
Further Reading
CNN News. Bush Grenade Attacker Gets Life. January 11, 2006. http://www.cnn
.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/11/georgia.grenade/index.html.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Case of the Failed Hand Grenade Attack. January 11, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20070411035739/http://www.fbi.gov/
page2/jan06/grenadeattack011106.htm.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI Laboratory: An Investigation into Alleged Misconduct in Explosives-Related and Other Cases. http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/
fbilab1/05bush2.htm.
Martin, Susan Taylor. Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11. St. Petersburg (FL) Times. http://
www.sptimes.com/2004/07/04/news_pf/Worldandnation/Of_fact__fiction__Bus
.shtml.

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C
CAESAR, GAIUS JULIUS (100 BCE44 BCE)
On March 15, 44 BCE, Roman chief of state Julius Caesar kept a scheduled appointment with the senate, some 40 to 60 of whose members had conspired
to kill him, thereby ending his seven-week reign as dictator in perpetuity. As
Caesar entered the chamber, Tillius Cimber approached him with a petition
for the recall of Cimbers exiled brother, while more conspirators crowded
around in support. The crowd drew knives, with Servilius Casca reportedly
striking first. Caesar received 23 wounds, but historian Gaius Suetonius
Tranquillus reports that only oneto the chestwas fatal. His account, and
that of historian Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, records no dying words from
Caesar. The dying dictators comment Et tu, Brute?supposedly addressed
to friend-turned-killer Marcus Junius Brutuswas an apocryphal remark
added posthumously, already well known by the time it was echoed in
William Shakespeares play Julius Caesar.
Gaius Julius Caesar was born on July 13, 100 BCE, into the gens Julia, an
ancient patrician family that claimed descent from the goddess Venus by way
of Iulus, son of the mythical Trojan prince Aeneas. Four different explanations
are offered for the cognomen (third name) Caesar: Pliny the Elder asserts that
it derived from an ancestor born by caesarean section, whereas the Augustan
history speculates that the first Caesar either had gray eyes (Latin oculiscaesiis),
thick hair (Latin caesaries), or had killed an elephant (Moorish caesai) at some
point in time. Julius Caesar indirectly supported the last theory by minting
coins impressed with images of elephants.
Caesar came of age in an era of turmoil, marked by war and the political
purges of dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. With his fathers death in 85 BCE,
16-year-old Caesar became head of the family, promoted the following year to
serve as a high priest of Jupiter. As a nephew of Gaius Marius and son-in-law
of Lucius Cornelius Cinnaboth enemies of SullaCaesar was targeted for
eradication, stripped of his wealth and priesthood, driven into exile. He returned to Rome in 78 BCE, with Sulla safely dead, and labored to restore his fortune as a legal advocate, earning renown for captivating oratory.
In 75 BCE, while crossing the Aegean Sea, Caesar was taken prisoner by Sicilian pirates. After he was ransomed for a price of 50 talents (3,550 pounds)
of gold, Caesar raised a fleet, captured his kidnappers, and had them crucified.

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CAESAR, GAIUS JULIUS

That incident secured his election as a military tribune, the

first step in a Roman political
career, and the year 69 BCE saw
him elected as a quaestor
treasurerof Roman-occupied
Spain. In 63 BCE, he won election as Pontifex Maximus,
the highest-ranking priest of
Romes official state religion,
and after two years in that post
he returned to Spain as governor. In 60 BCE, Caesar and
Marcus Bilbulus were elected
as consuls of Rome, the republics highest office, held by two
men jointly. His support in that
election marked by fraud and
bribery came chiefly from Marcus Licinius Crassus and from
Julius Caesar, Romes first emperor, murdered by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,
commonly known as Pompey.
senators in March 44 B.C.E. (Getty Images)
A consuls one-year term was
barely long enough for Caesar to enrich himself from graft in his province,
which encompassed northern Italy and southern France. Dodging threats of
prosecution for embezzlement, he next launched the military career that would
enshrine him in Roman history.
Caesars Gallic Wars of 5852 BCE left Rome in control of Gaul (now
France), crushing both domestic uprisings and Germanic invasions. In
50 BCE, the senate, led by Pompey, ordered Caesar to disband his forces
and return to Romepresumably for prosecution on outstanding charges
from his year as consul. While dispersing part of his army, Caesar kept the
elite Thirteenth Legion intact and led it back to Italy, crossing the Rubicon
River in force on January 10, 49 BCE. A four-year civil war ensued, with Caesar and second-in-command Mark Antony marching into Rome. Chief rival
Pompey fled to Spain, then to Egypt, where he was finally killed in September 48 BCE, by King Ptolemy XIII, acting in concert with Caesar. Victorious, Caesar was proclaimed dictator of Rome for a one-year term, but was
soon embroiled in conflict between Ptolemy XIII and his sister/wife/queen
Cleopatra. Caesar defeated Ptolemys armyand killed the young kingat
the Battle of the Nile, in February 47 BCE.

CALIGULA

MURDERED ROMAN EMPERORS

Although Julius Caesars assassination is the most famous from ancient
Rome, he was not the only Roman emperor to die by violence. Excluding those who fell in battle, 43 heads of state were dispatched by assassination or summary execution over a span of 1,142 years. They include
Gaius Caligula (41 CE), Claudius (54), Galba (69), Vitellius (69), Domitian (96), Commodus (192), Didius Julianus (193), Geta (211), Caracalla
(217), Macrinus (218), Diadumenian (218), Elagabulus (222), Alexander
Severus (235), Maximus Thrax (238), Pupienus Maximus (238), Balbinus
(238), Phillip the Arab (249), Gallus (253), Volusianus (253), Aemilianus
(253), Gallienus (268), Aurelian (272), Tacitus (276), Florianus (276), Probus (282), Carinus (285), Constans I (350), Gratians (383), Valentinan III
(455), Petronius Maximus (455), Athemius (472), Julius Nepos (480), Maurice I (602), Phocas (610), Constans II (668), Leontios (698), Tiberius III
(706), Justinian II (711), Leo V (820), Michael III (867), Nicephoros II
(867), Romanus (1034), and Alexius II (1183).

Back in Rome by 46 BCE, Caesar was reelected as consul, this time without
sharing the office. His subsequent election as dictator in perpetuity, in February 44 BCE, focused opposition from supporters of the late republic and set the
wheels in motion for his murder. Ironically, many Romans resented the aristocratic plot against Caesar, a sentiment Mark Antony used to stir up riotous
mobs. Gaius Octavian, Caesars grandnephew and sole heir led the disaffected
populace in a new round of civil warfare that ultimately doomed the republic
Caesars assassins had tried to save.
Further Reading
Freeman, Philip. Julius Caesar. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar: Life of a Colossus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2006.
Parenti, Michael. The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A Peoples History of Ancient Rome.
New York: The New Press, 2003.

CALIGULA (12 CE41 CE)

On January 24, 41 CE, while addressing a troupe of actors scheduled to perform
in celebrations for the divine spirit of Julius Caesar, Emperor Caligula was accosted by centurion Cassius Chaerea and other members of the Praetorian Guard.

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Chaerea hated Caligula for the emperors relentless insults, focused chiefly on
insinuations of effeminacy after Chaerea had suffered a genital wound while
serving Caligulas father, General Germanicus. This day, after a furious exchange of words, Chaerea stabbed Caligula, with other soldiers joining in to
inflict 30 wounds. Hours later, conspirators also killed Caligulas wife, Milonia
Caesonia, and their daughter, Julia Drusilla, thus extinguishing the royal line.
Caligulaborn Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus on August 31,
12 CEwas a member of Romes Julio-Claudian dynasty, founded by Julius
Caesar and ending with Nero. His popular name, translated from Latin as
little soldiers boot, refers to his father Germanicus, one of Romes best-loved
military champions. Following the death of Germanicus at Antioch in October 19, widow Agrippina the Elder returned to Rome and became embroiled
in a feud with Emperor Tiberius, whom she blamed for killing Germanicus
(his adopted son). That 10-year conflict decimated Agrippinas family and
ended with her own death in prison, leaving Caligula as her only surviving
son. When Tiberius died in March 37 CE, Caligula succeeded his adoptive
grandfather as emperor.
His reign was controversial, to say the least. Contemporary sources from
37 CE and 38 CE describe him as a moderate and exemplary ruler, whereas
later documents portray him tyrannical, perverse, and possibly insane. Historian Suetonius reports that 160,000 animals were sacrificed in celebration
during the first three months of Caligulas reign, and Philo described the first
seven months as completely blissful. Caligula granted bonuses to Roman
troops, repealed the convictions of alleged traitors prosecuted under Tiberius,
recalled some prominent Romans from exile, and staged lavish entertainment
in Rome, including gladiatorial contests.
On the other hand, he executed his cousin and adopted son Tiberius Gemellus (an act that drove their mutual grandmother to suicide), along with
father-in-law Marcus Junius Silanus and brother-in-law Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, sparing uncle Claudius to serve as a public laughingstock. Caligula also
exiled his sisters, Julia Livilla and Agrippina the Younger. Financial crises and
famines ensued, and Caligulas relations with the Roman senate deteriorated.
Aspiring to divinity by 40 CE, Caligula adopted the garb of various gods and
demigods from mythology, naming himself as Jupiter in certain public documents and posing as a sun god on newly minted coins. Royal scandals multiplied, involving adultery, sexual perversion, and murders committed for
sadistic pleasure. On occasion, he paraded his wife in the nude before visitors,
threatening to torture and kill her as an odd form of affection. The exile of
his sisters followed accusations that Caligula had forced them into incest.
Surrounded by enemies, Caligula ensured his own destruction by publicly
humiliating Cassius Chaerea. He mocked Chaereas high-pitched voice, compelled Chaerea to kiss his hand while forming and moving it in an obscene

C A L I N E S C U , A R M A N D

fashion, and constantly forced Chaerea to use embarrassing passwords

Priapus (for erection) and Venus (contemporary slang for a eunuch)
while serving on guard duty. Following the murders of Caligula, his wife, and
daughter, Chaereas conspirators sought to kill Claudius and restore the Roman
Republic, but Claudius escaped and loyal officers of the Praetorian Guard
named him to succeed Caligula as emperor. Chaerea was condemned for the
assassination and, at his own request, was executed with the sword he used to
stab Caligula.
Caligulas near-mythical status assured his frequent portrayal in popular
fiction and drama. Examples include the novel I, Claudius, by Robert Graves
(1934), adapted several times for stage, radio, film, and television: the play Caligula, by Albert Camus (written in 1938, performed in 1945); two films with
Jay Robinson cast as Caligula, The Robe (1953); Demetrius and the Gladiators
(1954); Independent Televisions 1968 series The Caesars; the X-rated feature
film Caligula (1979); another film, also titled Caligula (1996); and the 2004
TV miniseries Imperium Nerone. Less traditional portrayals of Caligula include
a 1978 Judge Dredd comic strip; a videogame, The Elder Scrolls, premiered in
1994; another game, Viva Caligula, produced online by Adult Swim in 2008;
and a comic book series based on Caligula, launched by Avatar Press in 2011.
All adhere to the usual themes of Caligulas pathological addiction to sex and
violence.
Further Reading
Barrett, Anthony. Caligula: The Corruption of Power. London: Batsford, 1989.
Ferrill, Arthur. Caligula: Emperor of Rome. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991.
Kerrigan, Michael. Dark History of the Roman Emperors. London: Amber Books, 2012.
Winterling, Aloys. Caligula: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

LINESCU, ARMAND (18931939)

CA
Romanian prime minister Armand Ca linescu faced a critical challenge in September 1939. Elected six months before the German invasion of Poland began
World War II, Calinescu and his National Renaissance Front were committed
to neutrality in the expanding conflict. They were opposed by the Iron Guard,
a fascist group supported by Adolf Hitlers Gestapo, which had assassinated
Prime Minister Ion Duca in December 1933. By mid-September, a strike force
had been organized to kill Ca linescu, including attorney Dumitru Miti Dumitrescu, draftsman Ion Vasiliu, and four students: Ion Ionescu, Ion Moldoveanu,
Cezar Popescu, and Traian Popescu. On September 21, as Calinescu was returning to Bucharest from the Cotroceni Palace, the assassins staged their ambush in the Prahova Valley. Dumitrescu crashed his car into Calinescus Cadillac
and the others opened fire, killing Calinescu, bodyguard Radu Andone, and

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their driver. The killers then proceeded to invade the headquarters of Radio
Romnia, holding employees at gunpoint for a bungled attempt to broadcast
news of Calinescus death.
A native of Pites ti, the son of an affluent veterinarian and landowner, Armand Calinescu was born on June 4, 1893. He studied law and philosophy
at the University of Bucharest, then earned a PhD in economics and political
science from the University of Paris. Rejected by Romanias National Liberal
Party for his leftist views, C a linescu joined the opposing Peasants Party and
won elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 1926, serving there for 11 years.
In 1931, he led a move to outlaw the Iron Guard, earning him the hatred of its
leaders. In December 1937, he accepted appointment as Prime Minister Octavian Gogas minister of the interiora move resulting in Ca linescus expulsion
from the Peasants Party. A stroke killed Goga in May 1938, thus leading to the
dissolution of his government. Calinescu retained his post under King Carol II,
and then replaced Prime Minister Miron Cristea at his death, on March 6, 1939.
Regarded as a man of steel who could defeat the Iron Guard, C a linescu
ordered sweeping arrests of its leaders in May 1939, resulting in an estimated
300 deaths. On September 1, in Copenhagen, Gestapo agents and representatives from Fascist Italy met with Iron Guard members and Mihail Sturdza
Romanias ambassador to Denmark and a friend of exiled Iron Guard leader
Horia Sima. Together, as later described by Iron Guard turncoat Mihai Vrfureanu, they planned to murder Calinescu, King Carol, and General Gavrila
Marinescu, among other Romanian leaders. Dumitru Dumitrescu received Gestapo training for the project, then returned home through Hungary to lead the
murder team on September 21.
Harsh repression of the Iron Guard followed Calinescus death. His assassins
were executed, their corpses displayed with a placard reading De acumnainte,
aceastava fi soartatradatorilor de tara (From now on, this shall be the fate of
those who betray the country), and another 253 Iron Guard members were
killed without trial in various towns. The movement subsequently triumphed,
briefly, in alliance with pro-Nazi prime minister Ion Antonescu, beginning in
September 1940, but its failure to unseat him in a coup on January 24, 1941,
doomed the Iron Guard in Romania. Sima and other leaders fled to Germany,
organizing a government in exile, while the regime at home collaborated in the
Holocaust. Antonescu was executed for war crimes on June 1, 1946.
Further Reading
Ancel, Jean. The History of the Holocaust in Romania. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 2011.
Dogaru, Mircea. History of the Romanians. Bucharest: Amco Press, 1996.
Georgescu, Vlad. The Romanians: A History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1991.
Hitchens, Keith. Rumania 18661947. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.

CANALEJAS Y MNDEZ, JOS

CANALEJAS Y MNDEZ, JOS (18541912)

On November 12, 1912, Spanish prime minister Jos Canalejas followed his
normal daily routine of walking from home to the ministry of the interior, in
downtown Madrid. Two plainclothes policemen accompanied him as bodyguards, but on orders from Canalejas they remained 20 paces behind him.
Pausing on his way to inspect books displayed in the window of the San Martin
Library, Canalejas was approached and shot repeatedly by 32-year-old anarchist Manuel Pardias. A bodyguard rushed forward and struck Pardias on
the head, dodging a bullet the gunman fired in return; Pardias then used his
last round on himself. Carried by police to the ministry, Canalejas died moments after telling a police inspector, This wretch has killed me.
Born at Ferrol, in Galicia, on July 31, 1854, Jos Canalejas graduated from
the University of Madrid in 1871, earned his PhD a year later, and joined the
school as a lecturer in the literature department in 1873, later publishing a
two-volume history of Latin literature. Turning to politics, he was elected as a
deputy from Soria in 1881, served as undersecretary for Prime Minister Jos
Posada Herrera in 1883, acted as Prxedes Mateo Sagastas minister of justice
from 1888, then as his minister of finance in 18941895. Under Segismundo
Moret, Canalejas was elected president of the Congress of Deputies. In February 1910, as head of the Liberal Party, he became prime minister.
During his two-year term in office, with support from King Alfonso XIII, Canalejas introduced electoral reforms aimed at curbing the power of rural political bosses, weakening Roman Catholic influence over Spains government, and
nudging Spain in the direction of democracy. Those policies upset some clerics
and conservatives who saw their power threatened, but the moderate reforms
were insufficient to defuse radical anger on the left. A week of bloody rioting in
Barcelona, in July 1909, had targeted the government and church alike, leaving 112 dead, 124 wounded, and 1,700 charged with armed rebellion (5 of
whom were executed, 59 sentenced to life imprisonment).
One of those executed, in October 1909, was anarchist spokesman Francesc Ferrer i Gurdia. Before Manuel Pardias died from his self-inflicted head
wound, police determined that he was a great admirer of Ferrer and acted
in retaliation for his heros execution without trial. Spanish historian Salvador
de Madariaga later asserted that his homelands subsequent troublesmilitary
rule from 1923 to 1931, a bloody civil war in 1936, Fascist rule under dictators Francisco Franco and Luis Carrero Blanco from 1936 to 1973stemmed
from the Canalejas murder, which deprived Spain of an influential advocate for
true democracy.
Further Reading
Carr, Raymond. Spain: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Peirats, Jos. Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution. London: Freedom Press, 1990.

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Phillips Jr., William, and Carla Phillips. A Concise History of Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

CNOVAS DEL CASTILLO, ANTONIO

(18281897)
Serving his sixth term as prime minister of Spain, Antonio Cnovas ranked
among the most despised and feared of politicians serving under King Alfonso
XIII. By August 1897, his suppression of dissent in Cuba and at homewhere
mass arrests and brutal torture were compared by critics to the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th centuryhis list of enemies ranged from domestic anarchists to
President William McKinleys administration in Washington, D.C. On August 8,
while visiting the Santa gueda spa in Mondragn, Cnovas was shot and
killed by 26-year-old anarchist Michele Angiolillo Lombardi, who surrendered
to police without resistance. Confronted in jail by his victims widow, Angiolillo
said, Pardon, Madame. I respect you as a lady, but I regret that you were the
wife of that man.
A native of Mlaga, born on February 8, 1828, Antonio Cnovas was raised
by his mothers cousin in Madrid after his fathers death. He studied law but focused on politics at an early age. In July 1854, he wrote the Manifesto of Manzanares, justifying General Leopoldo ODonnells coup dtat against dictator
Baldomero Espartero. Cnovas later served Queen Isabella II as an envoy to
Rome, governor of Cdiz, and director general of local administration. Briefly
retired from government after the Glorious Revolution deposed Isabella in
1868, Cnovas remained an outspoken champion of monarchy, and returned
to serve his first term as prime minister in 18741875, after General Arsenio
Martnez-Campos y Antn toppled the First Spanish Republic and placed King
Alfonso XII on the throne.
Thereafter, Cnovas was rarely far from the seat of power in Madrid. Joaqun
Jovellar y Soler replaced him as prime minister in September 1875, but Cnovas regained his office three months later, with his second term extending to
March 1879. Subsequent terms ran from December 1879 to February 1881,
January 1884 to November 1885, and July 1890 to December 1892. Back
again in March 1895, Cnovas faced an imperial crisis in Cuba.
Claimed by Spain in 1492, the distant island had simmered with violent dissent throughout the 19th century. A Ten Years War (18681878) and subsequent Little War (18791880) had failed to throw off Spanish rule, but exiled
rebel Jos Mart tried again in February 1895. His death in May, at the Battle of
Dos Rios, failed to quell the uprising, so Prime Minister Cnovas and General
Valeriano Weyler opted for a policy of cruel oppression, establishing reconcentration camps where some 300,000 civilians suffered and died in captivity,
often under torture. Cnovas ignored strident protests from the Red Cross and

CARLOS I OF PORTUGAL

U.S. senator Redfield Proctor (former secretary of war), and William Randolph
Hearst used his newspaper chain to agitate for U.S. intervention.
Seemingly oblivious to world opinion, Cnovas imposed the tactics used in
Cuba on dissident Spaniards at home. In June 1896, after a bomb exploded
during a Corpus Christi procession in Barcelona, Cnovas ordered the arrest of
300 anarchists, socialists, and trade unionists. Confined at Montjuc Fortress,
87 were condemned and executed, and others suffered brutal torture, some of
them driven insane. Seventy-one defendants were acquitted of all charges
but Cnovas still deported them to Ro de Oro, a Spanish colony in West Africa
(now Western Sahara).
It was during this period of turmoil that Michele Angiolillo traveled from
Paris to seek revenge against Cnovas. He was executed by garotte, at Bergara,
on August 20, 1897. The New York Times reported that he died bravely, with
his pulse quiet and unaltered, whereas Spanish newspapers suppressed details of his execution.
Further Reading
Barton, Simon. A History of Spain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Pierson, Peter. The History of Spain. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Ross, Christopher. Spain Since 1812. London: Hodder Education, 2009.
Trask, David. The War with Spain in 1898. New York: Macmillan, 1981.

CARLOS I OF PORTUGAL (18631908)

On February 1, 1908, the Portuguese royal family returned to Lisbon from a
month-long holiday at Vila Viosa. Disembarking from their train at Cais do
Sodr station in central Lisbon, they boarded an open carriage for the last leg of
their journey to the Queluz National Palace. While passing through the Praa do
Comrcio (Commerce Square), beside the Tagus River, they were ambushed by
republican activists Manuel Buia and Alfredo Costa. Armed with a rifle and pistol, respectively, they fired multiple shots into the carriage, killing King Carlos I
instantly, fatally wounding Prince Royal Lus Filipe, striking Prince Manuel
in the arm, and wounding the coachman in one hand. Buia also wounded
a soldier, Henrique da Silva Valente, who intervened to spoil his aim. Only
Queen Amlie of Orleans escaped injury, as police killed both assailants and an
innocent bystander.
Born in Lisbon on September 28, 1863, the son of King Lus I and Queen
Maria Pia of Savoy, Carlos Fernando Lus Maria Vctor Miguel Rafael Gabriel
Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis Jos Simo boasted a roster of royal relatives including King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, King Frederick Augustus III
of Saxony, and King Ferdinand I of Romania. Succeeding to the Portuguese throne upon his fathers death, in October 1889, Carlos faced his first

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crisis three months later, with

the British ultimatum of January 1890, breaching the 1386
Treaty of Windsor to dispute
Portuguese territorial claims
in Africa. Carlos signed the
controversial Treaty of London
in August 1890, relinquishing
much of Angola and Mozambique, while furious protests
erupted at home.
Chief among the protesters were leaders of the Portuguese Republican Party and
the Carbonria, a conspiratorial revolutionary society opposed to both the monarchy
and the Catholic Church. Republicans won only 2.7 percent
of the popular vote nationKing Carlos I of Portugal, assassinated by repub- wide in 1906four seats in
the National Assembly, all from
lican rebels. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis)
Lisbonbut its support concentrated in the capital and in Porto, where party leader Bernardino Machado
proclaimed, We are the majority. The Carbonria, founded in 1896 by Artur
Augusto Duarte da Luz de Almeida, preferred direct action to electioneering,
organizing along military lines to recruit an estimated 40,000 members
including many frustrated republicans. Further agitation came from the Liberal Regenerator Party, organized by Joo Franco in 1901, and from Progressive
Dissidence, founded by Jos Maria de Alpoim in 1905. Dissident parties battled one another, while condemning the monarchy for inefficiency and failure
to support reform.
Carlos responded to that opposition by naming Joo Franco as prime minister in May 1906. Franco tried to form a coalition with Progressive Party leader
and two-time former prime minister Jos Luciano de Castro, but failing there,
he persuaded Carlos to suspend future elections until Franco deemed them
practical, while censoring the press and jailing dissidents. Those moves predictably increased political tension, prompting Republican Party spokesman
Alfons Costa to say that for less than Dom Carlos has done, the head of Louis
XVI fell. Franco responded to increasing agitation with Costas arrest, detention of 93 other republicans, and a ban on public meetings.

CARR ANZ A DE L A GAR Z A, VENUSTIANO

After the assassinations of February 1908, Prince Manuel was proclaimed

king of Portugal. He proved to be the nations last monarch, deposed and exiled by a republican revolution in October 1910. Joo Franco was long gone by
then, driven from office and from public life by successor Francisco Joaquim
Ferreira do Amaral on February 4, 1908. A two-year investigation of the royal
murders indicted several Carbonria suspects on October 5, 1910, but they
were spared from trial by a republican coup dtat that deposed King Manuel II
and established the First Portuguese Republic.
Further Reading
Anderson, James. The History of Portugal. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Birmingham, David. A Concise History of Portugal. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003.
Hatton, Barry. The Portuguese: A Modern History. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2011.

CARRANZA DE LA GARZA, VENUSTIANO

(18591920)
Mexican president Venustiano Carranza literally dodged a bullet on April 20,
1920, when an aide to rival candidate lvaro Obregn Salido tried to kill him
in Mexico City. Frustrated, Obregn allied himself with Adolfo de la Huerta,
the rebellious governor of Sonora, and led troops to the capital. Carranza fled
with his cabinet ministers toward Veracruz, but stopped to rest at Tlaxcalantongo in the Sierra Norte de Puebla Mountains. There, the party was surprised
by hostile troops under General Rodolfo Herrero, with Carranza shot dead
while he slept.
Venustiano Carranza was the son of an affluent cattleman, born at Cuatro
Cinegas in the state of Coahuila on December 28, 1859. His familys wealth
secured him a first-class education and propelled him into politics, becoming
municipal president of his hometown in 1887. Disillusioned by the authoritarian style of President Porfirio Daz, Carranza joined 300 other Coahuila
ranchers to oppose the rigged reelection of Governor Jos Mara Garza Galn
in 1893. Diaz sent an emissary to negotiate with Carranza, and accepted his
aides recommendation that Garza retire, while Carranza serve a second term
as president of Cuatro Cinegas (18941898), then advanced to the state legislature, and finally to the Mexican senate (in 1904). Diaz approved his candidacy for governor of Coahuila in, then reneged in favor of Jess de Valle.
Embittered, Carranza won the coveted post in 1911, while scheming to unseat Diaz.
Before he could strike, Francisco Madero led a revolution that deposed
Diaz and drove him into exile, in May 1911. Victoriano Huerta deposed and

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executed Madero in February 1913, installing himself as president, and Carranza drafted the Plan of Guadalupe, raising a Constitutional Army with support from rebel leaders including Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. As that
armys Primer Jefe (First Chief ), he forced Huertas surrender in August 1914,
officially succeeding him on August 14.
The winning coalition soon dissolved, Zapata first deserting Carranza in
September 1914, when Carranza refused to institute the sweeping reforms
Zapata demanded. Villa soon followed, citing issues of his own, and fighting
resumed among the former allies. Victorious by January 1915, Carranza instituted his own program of reform, including propagation of a new constitution,
ratified in 1917. He was determined to retire with that accomplishment, when
his term expired in 1920, but insisted that Mexicos next president should be a
civilian. lvaro Obregn and other generals opposed that plan, prompting intrigue that culminated with Carranzas April assassination.
Adolfo de la Huerta served as Mexicos provisional president until December 1, 1920, when Obregn officially secured the office, with Huerta demoted
to secretary of the treasury. Obregn charged General Herrero with Carranzas
murder, but he was acquitted on grounds that the actual triggerman could not
be identified. Herrero still spent seven months in the military prison at Santiago Tlaltelolco, fighting treason charges, then was released with a dishonorable
discharge from the army. Curiously, Obregn later reinstated him as a general,
leaving President Lzaro Crdenas to make Herreros dismissal permanent, in
the 1930s.
Further Reading
Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. New
York: Basic Books, 2002.
Gibbon, Thomas. Mexico Under Carranza: A Lawyers Indictment of the Crowning Infamy
of Four Hundred Years of Misrule. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1919.
Richmond, Douglas. Venustiano Carranzas Nationalist Struggle, 18931920. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Stout, Joseph. Border Conflict: Villistas, Carrancistas and the Punitive Expedition,
19151920. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1999.

CARRERO BLANCO, LUIS (19041973)

When ailing dictator Francisco Franco formally retired as Spains prime minister, in June 1973, handpicked successor Luis Carrero Blanco assumed office
and inherited the enmity of militant Basque separatists organized as the ETA
(Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Homeland and Freedom). While serving as
vice president, from 1967, Blanco had supervised repressive measures targeting the ETA and other dissidents. Now, the ETA mounted Operation Ogre,
fielding a team that rented a Madrid apartment on the street Carrero Blanco

C A R R E R O B L A N C O, L U I S

to church each Sunday. Tunneling beneath the road over a fivemonth period, the team planted
176 pounds of explosives stolen
from a government arsenal. As
Carrero Blancos car passed on
December 20, 1973, the bombers detonated their charge,
launching the vehicle 65 feet
in the air, over one five-story
building, to land on the secondfloor balcony of a Jesuit college.
Carrero Blanco died in the blast,
with a bodyguard and his chauffeur. The ETA claimed responsibility on January 22, 1974.
A native of Santoa, born
on March 4, 1904, Luis Carrero Blanco entered the Spanish
Naval Academy in 1918, subsequently participating in the
Rif War of 19241926, against
Moroccan Berber tribesmen. He Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco died at
initially supported the Second the hands of Basque separatists. (Bettmann/Corbis)
Spanish Republic when civil
war broke out in 1936, then defected in June 1937 to serve as a naval officer
with Francos rebel forces. Rising through the ranks and gaining influence in
Francos Falange Party, Carrero Blanco became a cabinet minister in 1957, a
vice admiral in 1963, and a full admiral in 1966. In 1967, he succeeded General Agustn Muoz Grandes as Spains vice president and heir apparent to post
of Caudillode Espaa (Leader of Spain) upon Francos demise.
ETA spokesman Julen Agirre justified Carrero Blancos assassination in a
manifesto that declared:
The execution in itself had an order and some clear objectives. From the beginning of 1951 Carrero Blanco practically occupied the government headquarters
in the regime. Carrero Blanco symbolized better than anyone else the figure of
pure Francoism and without totally linking himself to any of the Francoist tendencies, he covertly attempted to push Opus Dei into power. A man without
scruples conscientiously mounted his own State within the State: he created a
network of informers within the Ministries, in the Army, in the Falange, and also
in Opus Dei. His police managed to put themselves into all the Francoist apparatus. Thus he made himself the key element of the system and a fundamental

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piece of the oligarchys political game. On the other hand, he came to be irreplaceable for his experience and capacity to manoeuvre and because nobody
managed as he did to maintain the internal equilibrium of Francoism.

Franco survived and controlled Spain through puppet presidents until November 1975. Carrero Blancos killers eluded police, but the teams leader,
Jos Bearan Ordeana, was himself assassinated with a car bomb in December 1978, a reprisal carried out by allied neo-fascist groups including Argentine Anticommunist Alliance and Italys National Vanguard, with collaboration
from Spains Naval Intelligence Service.
Further Reading
Agirre, Julen. Operation Ogro: The Execution of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco. New York:
Ballantine, 1976.
Anderson, Wayne. The ETA: Spains Basque Terrorists. New York: Rosen Publishing, 2003.
Clark, Robert. The Basque Insurgents: ETA, 19521980. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
Woodworth, Paddy. Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL and Spanish Democracy.
Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 2001.

CASTILLO ARMAS, CARLOS (19141957)

Carlos Castillo Armas celebrated his third anniversary as president of Guatemala
on July 8, 1957. Eighteen days later, he was assassinated at the National Palace
in Guatemala City. Authorities said Castillo was shot at 9:00 P.M. on July 26, in
the palace dining room, as he and his wife sat down for dinner. They blamed the
crime on 20-year-old Romeo Vasquez Sanchez, a member of the palace guard
who then committed suicide. A communiqu released on August 3 described
Vasquez as a Communist fanatic who was expelled from the Guatemalan army
in June 1955, then somehow found his next job at the palace. At his death,
Vasquez allegedly carried a card from the Latin American service of Radio
Moscow, reading: It is our pleasure, dear listener, to engage in correspondence
with you. We are very thankful for your regular listening to these programs.
Police also claimed to possess a 40-page diary, in which Vasquez wrote, I have
had the opportunity to study Russian communism. The great nation that is
Russia is fulfilling a most important mission in history . . . the Soviet Union
is the first world power in progress and scientific research. That document
reportedly closed with a reference to the gunmans diabolic plan to put an end
to the existence of the man who holds power.
Born on November 4, 1914, Carlos Castillo Armas served in Guatemalas
army until 1950, when he led an abortive coup dtat against President Juan
Jos Arvalo. Wounded and imprisoned, he escaped from custody and fled
to Colombia, then to Honduras, where he worked as a furniture salesman,

CASTILLO AR M AS, CARLOS

biding his time for a comeback.

His opportunity arrived with
the 1951 election of Jacobo rbenz Guzmn, whose administration launched a campaign
of agrarian reform in Guatemala threatening the economic
interests of the United Fruit
Company (UFC).
Major UFC stockholders included U.S. secretary of state
John Foster Dulles and his
brother, Allen, director of the
Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). With the blessings of
President Dwight Eisenhower,
the Dulles brothers launched
Operation PBFORTUNE in
1952, enlisting military aid from
Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio
Somoza Garca and compiling Guatemalan president Carlos Castillo Armas, allega list of top flight Commu- edly shot by a Communist rebel in 1957. (Bettmann/
nists whom the new government Corbis)
would desire to eliminate immediately in the event of a successful anti-Communist coup. Castillo Armas agreed to lead the CIAs National
Liberation Movement against rbenz, and although his first incursion failed on
March 29, 1953, rbenz was deposed by a second offensive (code-named Operation PBSUCCESS) in June 1954. Castillo Armas took office as president on
July 8, bankrolled with $80 million from Washington over the next three years,
and the CIA conducted Operation PBHISTORY, manipulating world opinion
toward belief that rbenz was a tool of Moscow.
Once in power, Castillo Armas swiftly reversed the rbenz reforms, driving
peasants from the land they had been granted during 19511953, purging the
government and trade unions of alleged leftists, banning political parties and
peasant organizations, and signing a Preventive Penal Law against Communism,
which imposed prison terms for various subversive activities (including organization of labor unions). Encouraged by the CIA, Castillo Armas also organized the
National Committee of Defense against Communism (NCDAC), invested with
power to detain any suspected Reds for six months without trial. By November
1954, the committee had compiled a list of 72,000 alleged communists, many
of whom were arrested and tortured, with some disappeared forever. Today, the
NCDAC is widely regarded as Latin Americas first death squad.

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U.S. vice president Richard Nixon visited Guatemala in 1955, proclaiming

that President Castillo Armass objective, to do more for the people in two
years than the Communists were able to do in ten years, is important. This is
the first instance in history where a Communist government has been replaced
by a free one. Freedom was relative, however, as the new regime maintained
repressive policies, later deemed genocidal by the countrys Historical Clarification Commission. In the year of Nixons visit, Castillo Armas canceled presidential elections, while permitting only members of his own party to run for
Congress. In 1956, he imposed a new constitution, naming himself as president until 1960.
Various generals succeeded Castillo Armas as Guatemalas dictator, prompting a leftist coup in November 1960 that touched off a 36-year civil war. At
least 200,000 persons died in that conflict, with another 40,000 to 50,000
missing. Peace accords were signed in December 1996. Several military officers
were later convicted of war crimes and sentenced to prison, with trials continuing through 2011.
Further Reading
Cullather, Nick. Secret History: The CIAs Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala
19521954. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Grow, Michael. U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change
in the Cold War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: Americas Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.
New York: Times Books, 2006.
Kinzer, Stephen, and Stephen Schlesinger. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup
in Guatemala. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
La Feber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. New York:
Norton, 1993.

CASTRO RUZ, FIDEL ALEJANDRO (1926 )

ATTEMPTED
On November 28, 2006, Britains television Channel 4 aired a documentary
film titled 638 Ways to Kill Castro, detailing some of the murder plots directed
against Cuban president Fidel Castro over half a century. Sponsored by the
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in league with organized crime and
far-right Cuban exiles, the methods employed or debatednone successful
included snipers, exploding seashells and fungus-laden wetsuits, cigars and
handkerchiefs infected with bacteria, a radio loaded with poison gas, and a
fountain pen containing a lethal syringe.
Born on August 13, 1926, at Birn, in Cubas Holgun Province, Fidel Castro
was initially supported by the CIA in his campaign against longtime dictator
Fulgencio Batista, whose corruption and brutality made him embarrassing as

CASTRO RUZ, FIDEL ALEJANDRO

a U.S. ally. Castro deposed Batista in January 1959, encouraging Washington

with his announcement that power does not interest me, and I will not take
it. He changed his mind a month later, however, and embarked on a sharp
leftward course that included nationalizing land and facilities owned by U.S.
investors. At the same time, he closed casinos and brothels owned by U.S.
gangsters, ensuring their support for subsequent plots to destroy him.
In a CIA memo dated December 11, 1959, CIA director Allen Dulles ordered that consideration be given to the elimination of Castro. A month
later the agency launched Operation 40, aimed at careful planning of covert actions to legitimize U.S. intervention in Cuba. On March 9, 1960,
recommendations were advanced to eliminate the leaders [Fidel Castro,
brother Raul Castro, and Che Guevara] with a single blow. In August the
CIA acquired a box of Fidels favorite cigars and spiked them with poison.
On September 2, 1960, CIA chief of operational support James OConnell
reported that the murder plan had officially commenced. When the cigars
failed, OConnell hatched a new plan with the agencys technical services division, involving poison pills.
By October 1960, Mafia leaders Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante (briefly
jailed by Castro in 1959), and John Rosselli were embroiled in fresh CIA conspiracies, officially dubbed Operation ZR/RIFLE in February 1961. Rosselli delivered poison pills to a friendly Cuban official on March 16, 1961, but the
selected hit man was dismissed before he had a chance to strike. In April 1961,
Rosselli passed more pills to Juan Orta, Castros personal secretary, but Orta
was exposed and imprisoned. On September 24, 1961, Castro announced the
exposure of Operation AM/BLOOD, a murder plot involving Cuban exiles
trained by the CIA at Guantanamo Bay. Eleven days later, another plot was revealed, involving Castro opponent Antonio Veciana and CIA agent Maurice
Bishop. Veciana fled Cuba, and his three accomplices were jailed. On November 1, 1961, the CIA launched Operation Mongoose, led by agent James
OConnell. Giancana, Trafficante, and Rosselli remained as key players, aided
in some scenarios by mob financial genius Meyer Lansky (a key figure in Havana gambling prior to Batistas downfall). ZR/RIFLE continued, meanwhile,
with conspiracies running on parallel tracks.
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, ever jealous of the CIA, revealed those plots
to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in May 1962, and although Kennedy reportedly chastised CIA leaders for dealing with hoodlum elements, the plots
continued. John Rosselli visited Cuba twice that summer, reporting on June 21
that a new assassin had infiltrated the island. Maxwell Taylor, chairman
of special group created to pursue Castros elimination, authorized development of more aggressive plans on August 20, 1962. Operation Mongoose
was officially disbanded three months later, following the Cuban missile crisis, but Castros enemy Rolando Cubela (code-name AMLASH) revived the

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assassination plots in February 1963 and CIA agent William Harvey resumed
meetings with Rosselli in April. President Lyndon Johnson privately suspected
that attacks on Castro prompted Cuban retaliation in November 1963, with
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy ( JFK).
Be that as it may, efforts to murder Castro did not end with JFKs administration. The last known attempt on Castros life occurred in 2000, during a
visit to Panama. Cuban terrorist and ex-CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles placed
200 pounds of high explosives under a podium where Castro was scheduled
to speak, but Cuban security personnel discovered the bomb and defused it.
Posada and three accomplices were imprisoned for that attempt, later pardoned by outgoing president Mireya Moscoso in August 2004. Posada was
subsequently convicted by Venezuelan prosecutors in absentia for the October
1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, which killed 73 persons, and for a series
of 1997 bombings in Cuban hotels and nightclubs. Detained in Texas during
2005, Posada avoided extradition thanks to a superseding U.S. indictment and
trial, ending with his acquittal on April 8, 2011.
Although deadly serious, some of the plots against Castro assumed the aspect of black comedy. Supplied with poison pills, presidential lover Marita Lorenz hid them in a jar of cold cream, only to have them dissolve. She balked at
forcing the cream into Castros mouth while he slept, and finally confessed to
the plot. Castro, bemused, offered her his own pistol, whereupon Lorenz tearfully replied, I cant do it, Fidel.
Over time, Castros longevity became a running joke among his enemies.
Fidel himself once remarked, If surviving assassination attempts were an
Olympic event, I would win the gold medal. One apocryphal story, recounted
in New Yorker magazine, described a friend presenting Castro with a Galpagos
tortoise. On hearing that his new pet might live for 100 years, Castro declined
the gift, saying, Thats the problem with pets. You get attached to them and
then they die on you.
Further Reading
Bohning, Don. The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations against Cuba, 19591965.
Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005.
Breuer, William. Vendetta! Fidel Castro and the Kennedy Brothers. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 1997.
Escalante, Fabin. The Cuba Project: CIA Covert Operations 195962. New York: Ocean
Press, 2004.
Hinckle, Warren, and William Turner. The Fish Is Red. New York: Harper and Row, 1981.
Russo, Gus. Live By The Sword: The Secret War against Castro and the Death of JFK. Baltimore: Bancroft Press, 1998.
Von Tunzelmann, Alex. Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean.
New York: Henry Holt, 2011.

C ATA RG I U, BA R B U

CATARGIU, BARBU (18071862)

Romanian prime minister Barbu Catargiu left a hectic session of parliament at
5:00 P.M. on June 20, 1862, accompanied by Colonel Nicholas Bibescu, prefect
of police for Bucharest. As their open carriage passed the ancient Metropolitan
Church (now the Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral), a gunman hidden in the
shadows fired two shots, one striking Catargiu at the base of his skull and
killing him instantly. The frightened horses galloped on for several hundred
feet before Bibescu could control them, and the assassin fled into vineyards
on Metropolitanate Hill. He was never apprehended, and the crime remains
officially unsolved.
Barbu Catargiu was born in Wallachia on October 26, 1807, the son of a
well-known political activist. From age 18 to 27 he lived in Paris, where he
studied history, law, and philosophy. Returning home to serve in Wallachias
Obsteasca Assembly, he left again during the Revolution of 1848 and earned
his living abroad as a journalist until the violent upheaval subsided. Upon his
next return, he entered politics with the intention of promoting evolutionary
change over radical revolution. (Some accounts name Catargiu as a member
of Romanias Conservative Party, but in fact that group was not created until
February 1880, long after his death.) He championed the boyars (serf-holding
land owners), while asserting that feudalism in Romania has never existed.
Under Prince of Wallachia Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Catargiu served as minister of
finances from 1859 until he outgrew his liege, taking office as Romanias first
prime minister on February 15, 1862.
An advocate of Romanian unity, Catargiu simplified government by reducing the number of administrative districts and began construction of a railroad
to connect Moldavias provinces. At the same time, he continued his defense of
boyar rule over serfs, censored the Romanian press, and banned large public
assemblies. When Romanians gathered on June 13, 1862, to commemorate the
Revolution of 1848 in Blaj, Transylvania, Catargius soldiers barred them from
Cmpia Libertatii (The Field of Liberty), creating widespread anger and resentment. His assassination followed one week later.
Dr. Nicolae Cretulescu, a relative liberal, replaced Catargiu as prime minister on June 24, 1862. He avoided contentious debates over land reform, focusing instead on unification of Romanias public health system, improving
education through a Council for Public Instruction, and creating the Directorate General of the Public Archive to preserve historical documents. Prince
Cuza was deposed and exiled by a military coup dtat in February 1866, replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (proclaimed King Carol I
in May 1881). Carol I presided over an era of stability and progress, ending
with his death in October 1914. Despite Catargius general unpopularity, a
statue of the late prime minister was erected near the site of his assassination,
which remained in place until 1984.

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Further Reading
Hitchins, Keith. The Romanians 17741866. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Jelavich, Barbara. Russia and the Formation of the Romanian National State 18211878.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

CERMAK, ANTON JOSEPH (18731933)

On February 15, 1933, president-elect Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) addressed
a crowd at Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida. After his brief remarks spectators flocked around his open touring car, but a flurry of gunshots disrupted
the rush for handshakes. Bullets wounded five persons, including Chicago
mayor Anton Cermak, who took a shot to the stomach. Before he was rushed
to Jackson Memorial Hospital, Cermak purportedly told FDR, Im glad it
was me instead of you. Bystanders and police seized gunman Giuseppe Zangara, swiftly tried and sentenced to 80 years in prison for assault with intent
to kill. That charge was upgraded to murder on March 6, when Cermak died
from infection despite the best efforts of local physicians, and Zangara died
in the electric chair on March 20, 1933.
Anton Cermak was born in Kladno, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) on May 9, 1873, emigrating to Chicago with his parents as an infant. He
entered Windy City politics as a
precinct captain, was elected to
the state legislature in 1902, became alderman of the 12th Ward
in 1909, and was elected president of the Cook County Board
of Commissioners in 1922. He
failed to win a U.S. Senate seat
in 1928, but received 46 percent of the vote and finished
that year as chairman of Cook
Countys Democratic Party. In
1931, he challenged mayoral
incumbent William Big Bill
Thompson and emerged victorious despiteor because of
Thompsons racist slurs, such as
Bohunk Chermack, or whatever his name is, against Eastern European immigrants.
Although some observers porChicago mayor Anton Cermaks murder remains a
trayed Cermak as a reformer in
subject of controversy. (Bettmann/Corbis)

CERMAK, ANTON JOSEPH

the final years of Prohibition, Chicago insiders dubbed him Ten-percent Tony,
a reference to the share of cash he skimmed from local rackets and corrupt government deals. Where Mayor Thompson had allied himself with mobster
Al Caponeconvicted of tax evasion six months after Cermaks election
Cermak cast his lot with rival gangster Roger Touhys syndicate. On December 19, 1932, a police squad led by Detective Sergeants Harry Lang and Harry
Miller raided Capone successor Frank Nittis headquarters at the La Salle Hotel.
Lang shot Nitti three times, then gave himself a superficial wound and called
the shooting self-defense. Nitti surprised his would-be killers by surviving and
beat a charge of attempted murder in February 1933, when Sergeant Miller testified that Lang had received $15,000 to kill Nitti. Another member of the raiding party testified that Nitti was unarmed when shot by Lang. As a result, Lang
and Miller were fired and fined $100 each for simple assault.
Cermak was shot within days of that verdicts return. Miami prosecutors portrayed Giuseppe Zangara as a delusional immigrant and quasi-anarchist who
blamed chronic stomach pain on wealthy public figures. FDR was named as
his primary target, though he also appeared to despise Republican incumbent
Herbert Hoover. Gossip columnist Walter Winchell, coincidentally present at
the Miami shooting scene, later surmised that Cermak was Zangaras primary
target, marked for death after offending Chicago mobsters. The usual twist
to that story paints Cermak as a martyred reformer, but if gangsters were involved, retaliation for the attempted police assassination of Frank Nitti seems
a more likely motive.
Cermaks gangland ally, Roger Touhy, was indicted for kidnapping Missouri
brewer William Hamm in August 1933, but jurors acquitted him three months
later and the blame for that abduction was later (rightly) placed on the Barker
Karpis outlaw gang. FBI agents arrested Touhy again in December 1933, this
time for the faked kidnapping of Chicago felon Jacob Factor. Convicted on
that charge and sentenced to 99 years, Touhy was freed in 1959 after a federal
judge determined that Factor was never kidnapped. The case was a frame-up
concocted by Nitti and company, with aid from corrupt prosecutors. Soon after
his release, Touhy was gunned down in Chicago. His dying words: The bastards never forget.
Cermaks daughter, Helena, married Otto Kerner Jr., who served as governor
of Illinois from 1961 to 1968, then as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Seventh Circuit. Kerner resigned that position in July 1974, following his
conviction on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and other charges. He
received a three-year prison term but was released early upon diagnosis of terminal cancer and died in Chicago on May 9, 1976.
The controversy surrounding Cermaks death makes it a natural subject for
fiction and drama. The first effort, a film billed as an imaginative biography
of Cermak, was hastily released on June 30, 1933, casting the mayor as an

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FRANK THE ENFORCER NITTI (18861943)

Born Francesco Raffaele Nitto in Angri, Italy, Chicagos future mob boss
emigrated to New York with his family at age seven. He quit school after
seventh grade and worked as a barber in Brooklyn until he moved west in
1913. The onset of Prohibition in 1920 found him allied with John Torrio
and Al Capone, rising through syndicate ranks as each boss in turn was
convicted on federal charges. Nitti suffered his own tax-evasion conviction in 1931, but received an 18-month sentence, compared to Capones
11 years, retaining power as a major figure in the national crime syndicate.
In 1943, he was indicted, with other Chicago gang leaders, on charges of
extorting millions from the motion picture industry through labor racketeering. Police found him shot to death in a Chicago railyard on March 19,
1943, and ruled his fate a suicide, speculating that the prospect of a second prison term left Nitti panicked and depressed. However, local gambler
George Redston claimed he saw Nitti in custody of two Chicago detectives
shortly before his body was found, suggesting the possibility that police
succeeded in killing him on their second attempt, where Detectives Lang
and Miller failed in 1932. Ever popular on television and in films, Nitti
has been portrayed at various times by actors Bruce Gordon in The Untouchables (19591963); Harold J. Stone in The St. Valentines Day Massacre
(1967); Sylvester Stallone in Capone (1975); Billy Drago in The Untouchables (1987); Anthony LaPaglia in Nitti: The Enforcer (1988); Paul Regina in
The Untouchables (1993); Stanley Tucci in Road to Perdition (2002); and Billy
Camp in Public Enemies (2009).

inadvertent hero for saving FDR. Cermak also got the hero treatment in a twopart episode of The Untouchables, aired on February 25 and March 3, 1960,
then recycled later that same year as a full-length TV movie, The Gun of Zangara. Cermaks rise to power was portrayed in Jeffrey Archers novel Kane and
Abel (1979), and best-selling mystery author Max Allan Collins solved the
case four years later, blaming Frank Nitti in True Detective (1983). Unexpectedly, Cermaks murder also inspired a November 1998 episode of the science
fiction TV series, Babylon 5, titled Objects in Motion.
Further Reading
Allsop, Kenneth. The Bootleggers: The Story of Prohibition. New York: Arlington House, 1970.
Bergreen, Laurence. Capone: The Man and the Era. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Gottfried, Alex. Boss Cermak of Chicago: A Study of Political Leadership. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

CHAI N MU RDERS ( I R AN )

Humble, Ronald. Frank Nitti: The True Story of Chicagos Notorious Enforcer. Fort Lee,
NJ: Barricade Books, 2008.
Lindberg, Richard. To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the
Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 18551960. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1998.
Russo, Gus. The Outfit: The Role of Chicagos Underworld in the Shaping of Modern
America. New York: Bloomsbury, 2001.

CHAIN MURDERS (IRAN) (19791998)

The term chain murders is applied to a series of Iranian homicides and disappearances, in which all victims were dissident intellectuals publicly critical of
the Islamic Republic established in February 1979. Slayings were not restricted
to Iran, but included attacks throughout Europe and North America. Although
no official tally is available, estimates of the final death toll range from dozens
to 107. Recognized victims include:
Prince Shahryar Shafiq, son of the exiled shahs twin sister, gunned down
in Paris on December 7, 1979.
Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, former press attach to Irans U.S. embassy, killed at
his home in Bethesda, Maryland, on July 22, 1980. Suspect Dawud Salahuddin, reportedly paid $5,000 for that killing, escaped to Iran on July 31.
He confessed the murder in a 1996 televised interview, calling it an act
of war.
Shahrokh Missaqi, supporter of the Peoples Fedaii exiled to the Philippines, stabbed in Manila on January 14, 1982.
Ahmad Zolanvar, a member of the dissident Mojahedin of the Islamic
Revolution Organization (MIRO), fatally beaten in Karachi, Pakistan, on
August 29, 1982. He died on September 5.
Abdol-Amir Rahdar, a leader of student opposition to the Islamic Republic,
hacked to death with machetes in Bangalore, India, on September 10, 1982.
MIRO supporter Esfandiar Rahimi Taqanaki, killed with machetes in Manila, on February 8, 1983.
General Gholam-Ali Oveissi, military governor of Tehran under the shah,
killed with his brother Gholam-Hossein in Paris, on February 7, 1984.
Behrouz Shahvardilou, a police colonel under the shah, killed in Istanbul
on January 6, 1985.
Mir Monavat, exiled politician from Balochistan Province, shot by three
men at his home in Karachi, Pakistan, on September 28, 1985.
Ex-colonel Aziz Moradi, killed in Istanbul on December 23, 1985.

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Ahmad Madani, the shahs former defense minister, poisoned with a gift of
candy in Paris on January 1, 1986.
Ahmadhamed Monfared, another ex-colonel, shot in Turkey by two men
with silenced pistols on October 24, 1986.
Vali Mohammad, a former marine officer under the shah, shot in Pakistan
on November 12, 1986.
Ali Akbar Mohammadi, former pilot for Chairman of Parliament Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, killed by two gunmen in Hamburg, Germany,
on January 16, 1987.
Hamid Reza Chitgar, First Secretary of Hezb Kaar (Labor Party), killed at
an apartment in Vienna, Austria, on May 19, 1987, with his corpse found
a week later. Suspect Ali Amiztab allegedly lured Chitgar from Paris to Vienna, after a two-year correspondence from Iran.
Alireza Hassanpour Sharifzadeh and Faramarz Aqai, killed at their homes
in Karachi on July 8, 1987, in an attack with rocket launchers and machine guns that left 33 other persons wounded. Pakistani border guards
detained nine members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as suspects.
Exiled dissident Mohammad Hassan Mansouri, killed with a companion
at his home in Istanbul, by two gunmen, on July 25, 1987.
Ahmad Talebi, former fighter pilot in the shahs air force, shot by two assassins in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 10, 1987.
Ali and Noureddin Nabavi Tavakoli, father and son royalists, shot in their
London home on October 3, 1987.
Javad Haeri, stabbed by two men at his home in Istanbul on December 1,
1987.
Behrouz Bagheri, son of a general in the shahs army, killed by a bomb at
his shop in Paris on November 28, 1987.
Ataollah Bayahmadi, ex-colonel with military intelligence, killed in his
Dubai hotel room on June 4, 1989.
Abdulrahman Ghassemlou, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of
Iran (KDPI), ambushed at a meeting with Iranian officials in Vienna, on
July 13, 1989. Also killed in that shooting were KDPI members Abdollah
Ghaderi, Fadal Mala, and Mamoud Rassoul. Austrian police released the
suspects, then expelled them from the country.
Gholam Keshavarz, exiled member of the Worker-Communism Unity
Party of Iran, killed in Cyprus in August 1989.
Bahman Javadi, a member of Komalah (a Kurdish political party), killed
in an August 26, 1989, shooting in Cyprus that also wounded party member Youssef Rashidzadeh.

CHAI N MU RDERS ( I R AN )

Komalah member Sadiq Kamangar, murdered at his office in Iraq on September 4, 1989.
Exiled royalist Hadj Balouch Khan, shot by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Taftan, Pakistan, on February 16, 1990.
Dr. Kazem Rajavi, Irans first ambassador to the United Nations after the
1979 revolution and elder brother of Massoud Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance, killed in a village near Geneva, Switzerland,
on April 24, 1990.
Ali Kashefpour, a member of the KDPIs Central Committee, kidnapped in
Turkey and tortured to death on July 15, 1990.
Effat Qazi, daughter of Kurdish dissident leader Gazi Mohammed, killed
by a letter bomb addressed to her activist husband in Sweden, on September 6, 1990.
Political refugee Gholam Reza Nakhai, beaten to death in a Turkish hotel
room on October 1, 1990.
Cyrus Elahi, a member of the opposition monarchist group Derafsh-e
Kaviani (Flag of Freedom), shot at his home in Paris on October 23, 1990.
KDPI members Ahad Aqa and Khaled Hosseinpour, killed by a bomb
planted at party headquarters in Iraq on January 1, 1991.
Abdolrahman Boroumand, executive committee member of the National Resistance Movement of Iran, stabbed on a Paris street, on April 8,
1991.
Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar, last prime minister under the shah and founder of
the National Resistance Movement, stabbed to death in Paris with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, on August 7, 1991. Killers Nasser Ghasemi Nejad
and Gholam Hossein Shoorideh Shirazi escaped to Iran, and a thirdAli
Vakili Radwas captured in Switzerland, extradited to France, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Saeed Yazdanpanah, member of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdish People, was fatally stabbed at his home in Iraq, on September 19, 1991, along
with his secretary Cyrus Katibeh.
Nareh Rafizadeh, wife and sister-in-law of exiled royal intelligence agents,
shot outside her home in New Jersey, on March 26, 1992.
Exiled dissident Seifollah Seimanpour, machine-gunned in Iraq on May 1,
1992.
KDPI member Shahpour Firouzi, shot with automatic weapons in Iraq on
May 31, 1992.
Union of Iranian Communists member Kamran Mansour Moqadam,
machine-gunned in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, on June 3, 1992.

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MIRO member Ali-Akbar Ghorbani, kidnapped from his home in Istanbul on June 4, 1992, and tortured to death. Suspects in custody later confessed and led police to his grave.
Exiled singer Fereydoun Farrokhzad, beheaded at his home in Bonn, Germany, on August 8, 1992. The attackers also severed his tongue.
KDPI leader Dr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, shot with aides Homayoun Ardalan,
Fattah Abdollahi, and Nouri Dehkordi at a Berlin restaurant on September
17, 1992. Two Iranians were convicted in April 1997, and the court issued
an arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, then Irans minister of intelligence.
Abbas Golizadeh, former bodyguard to the shah, kidnapped from home
in Istanbul on December 26, 1992, and still missing, presumed dead.
MIRO member Gholam-Hossein Kazemi, ambushed and shot while driving between the groups camps in Iraq, on January 21, 1993.
Heybatollah Naroui and Delaviz Naroui, exiled Naroui tribal chiefs from
Balochistan, killed at their home in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 9, 1993.
Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, shot in Rome on March 16, 1993.
Mohammad Ghaderi, a former KDPI member, kidnapped from home in
Kirshahir, Turkey, on August 25, 1993. His mutilated corpse was found
10 days later.
KDPI member Bahram Azadifar, shot at his home in Ankara on August 28,
1993, by two men disguised as Turkish police officers.
Hossein Barazandeh, an engineer and close aide of expatriate scholar Dr.
Ali Shariati, reported missing after he left a Quran recitation session in
Mashhad on January 3, 1995. His body was found the next day, with his
death attributed to cardiac arrest, but colleagues believed he was poisoned.
Ahmad Khomeini, younger son of Iranian ruler Ayatollah Khomeini, pronounced dead from a heart attack on March 17, 1995, one month after
publicly criticizing regime hardliners. Outside observers claim the ministry of intelligence killed him with cyanide.
MIRO members Effat Haddad and Fereshteh Esfandiari, shot in Baghdad
on May 19, 1995.
Ahmad Mir Alaei, signatory of an open letter criticizing the Islamic Republic, reported missing en route to deliver a speech at the medical school
in Isfahan, on October 24, 1995. An unknown caller canceled his appearance, and Alaei was found six hours later, another victim of cardiac
arrest.
Javad Saffar and Jalal Mobinzadeh, kidnapped and killed in Mashhad,
Iran, on January 1, 1996.

CHAI N MU RDERS ( I R AN )

Sunni cleric Dr. Ahmad Sayyad, murdered and mutilated at Bandar-Abbas,

Iran, on February 2, 1996.
MIRO members Abdul-Ali Muradi and Zahra Rajabi, shot in Istanbul on
February 20, 1996.
Sunni cleric Molavi Abdul-Malek Mollahzadeh, shot at his Karachi home
on March 4, 1996.
MIRO member Hamed Reza Rahmani, shot in Baghdad on March 7, 1996.
Exile Taher Rouhani, killed in Sulaymaniyah on March 13, 1996.
Kurdish exiles Taher Azizi, Hassan Ebrahimzadeh, Faramarz Keshavarz,
and Osman Rahimi, shot in Erbil, Iraq, on March 18, 1996.
Novelist Ghazaleh Alizadeh, strangled at home in northern Iran on
May 11, 1996, with her death initially ruled suicide.
Reza Mazlouman, deputy minister of education under the shah, shot at
his apartment in Paris on May 28, 1996.
Sunni cleric Abdolaziz Kazemi, snatched from his office at the University
of Sistan and Baluchestan on November 5, 1996, found shot to death outside Zahedan, Iran, two days later.
Sunni cleric Molla Mohammad Rabiei, killed with the injection of air bubbles to simulate a heart attack on November 30, 1996, in Kermanshah, Iran.
Opera singer Hossein Sarshar, tortured, then killed in a staged car accident at Abadan, Iran, on February 14, 1997.
Married former exiles Manouchehr Sanei and Firouzeh Kalantari, kidnapped from home in Tehran on February 17, 1997, found stabbed to
death five days later.
Poetscholar Hamid Hajizadeh, stabbed 38 times at his home in Kerman,
Iran, on September 22, 1998.
Irans Islamic Republic News Agency broke the chain murders story on
November 22, 1998, whereupon President Mohammad Khatami formed a
committee to investigate. On January 4, 1999, the ministry of intelligence issued a statement blaming the murders on a small number of irresponsible,
misguided, headstrong and obstinate staff . . . who are no doubt under the influence of rogue undercover agents and acting toward the objectives of foreign
and estranged sources when committing these criminal acts. Alleged ringleader Saeed Emami died in prison on June 19, 1999. Regime critics were not
satisfied with that conclusion.
Further Reading
Iran Watch Canada. http://moriab.blogspot.com/2006/11/these-are-people-who-have-_
116460629705367011.html.

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Sahimi, Muhammad. The Chain Murders: Killing Intellectuals and Dissidents,

19881998. Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/
2011/01/the-chain-murders-killing-dissidents-and-intellectuals-19881998.html.
Victims of Serial Killings by the Information Ministry. Middle East Left Forum. http://
www.iran-bulletin.org/witness/infominlist.html.

CHARLES VII OF SWEDEN (11301167)

Murder was rife in the royal courts of 12th-century Sweden. King Charles VII
was a prime suspect in the May 1160 assassination of rival monarch Eric IX,
and his supposed accomplice in that killingKing Magnus IIwas murdered
the following year, propelling Charles onto the throne. Still, he contended
with Knut Erikson for primacy in Sweden, and Eriksons assassins overtook
Charles on the island of Visings, in Lake Vttern, on April 12, 1167. His
death continued the tradition of hostility between dynasties intent on ruling
Sweden.
Born Karl Sverkersson in southern Swedens Gtaland region, circa 1130,
Charles was the son of Sverker I, also called Sverker the Elder, who ruled as
king from 1130 until his murder on December 25, 1156. Successor Magnus
Henriksson was suspected of arranging Sverkers death, and succeeded him
on the throne. The rival House of Erik, meanwhile, coveted control of Sweden, was establishing its own monarchy north of Gtaland, in Uppsala, under
Erik Jedvardsson, also called Eric IX and Eric the Lawgiver. Eric ruled Uppsala
from 1155 until his murder on May 18, 1160, presumably by agents of Magnus and Charles. The 1161 assassination of Magnus, in turn, was viewed by
many Swedes as Charless belated vengeance for his fathers slaying five years
earlier.
If Charles believed the House of Erik had been neutralized with Eric IXs
removal, he was badly mistaken. Successor Knut Erikssonbetter known to
history as Canute Icontinued the familys struggle to unite and dominate
Sweden. Though driven into exile following his fathers death, Canute returned
in 1167 to assert authority and plot the death of Charles. With that accomplished, he faced opposition from Charless siblings Boleslaw (or Burislev) and
Kol Sverkersson. Both claimed to be king, but any homicidal rivalry between
them was forestalled by fear and hatred of Canute. Their fates are vague: historians suggest that Kol was probably assassinated by Canutes men or killed
in battle around 1170, and Boleslaw was either murdered or escaped to Poland
three years later. The Sverker line would not produce another Swedish king
until the rise of Sverker II, crowned in 1196 and slain at the Battle of Gestilren
in July 1210.
Canute, meanwhile, died peacefully from natural causes in 1195, with no
sons old enough to claim his throne. Influential courtiers chose Birger Brosa to

CHILLINGWORTH, CURTIS EUGENE

succeed Canute as Sverker II. Canutes four sons were exiled, but returned with
Norse support in 1205 to face Sverker II in the Battle of lgars. All but Erik
Knutsson died there, and he fled once again, but returned a second time with
more Norwegians in 1208, defeating Sverker II at the Battle of Lena. Crowned
Eric X thereafter, he disposed of Sverker once and for all two years later, at Gestilren. A sudden fever claimed his life in April 1216.
Further Reading
Kent, Neil. A Concise History of Sweden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Moberg, Vilhelm. A History of the Swedish People from Prehistory to the Renaissance.
Vol. 1. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

CHILLINGWORTH, CURTIS EUGENE

(18961955)
On the night of June 14, 1955, Judge Curtis Chillingworth and wife Marjorie
dined with friends in West Palm Beach, Florida. They left for home at 10 P.M.,
saying that they expected a carpenter to come the next morning and build a
playground for their grandchildren, at their home in Manalapan. When the
carpenter arrived at 8 A.M. on June 15, he found their front door open and
the house deserted. Judge Chillingworth missed a scheduled court hearing at
10 A.M., and police then visited his house. They found the porch light shattered, with a blood trail on a walkway to the nearby beach. Two rolls of adhesive tape were also found, one in the living room and one outside. Speculation
of an accidental double-drowning was dismissed, and robbery was ruled out
when investigators found $40 in Marjorie Chillingworths purse. Likewise, the
judges car was still outside the house, with keys in the ignition. Two years later,
with no solution in sight, a court pronounced the couple legally dead.
Curtis Chillingworth was born on October 24, 1896. He graduated from
the University of Florida in 1917 and was admitted to the state bar that same
year, then entered the U.S. Naval Academy and served as an ensign aboard the
cruiser USS Minneapolis for the duration of World War I. Upon discharge, he
practiced law with his father in West Palm Beach, then was elected as a county
judge in 1921. Two years later, he won election to the circuit court bench, a
post he held for the remainder of his life, with a hiatus for recall to active military duty during World War II.
Police were stymied on the Chillingworth case until 1959, when they heard
that career criminal Floyd Lucky Holzapfel had bragged to a friend, James
Yenzer, that he knew the persons responsible. Yenzer and policeman Jim Wilber lured Holzapfel to a Titusville hotel, plying him with liquor while detectives
eavesdropped from an adjoining room. Over three drunken days, Holzapfel admitted taking care of the Chillingworths, providing enough details to

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support his arrest on October 1, 1960. He pled guilty to double murder on

December 12, 1960, and was sentenced to death (commuted to life imprisonment in 1966). Accomplice George Bobby Lincoln, who had helped abduct
the victims, weight their bodies, and drop them at sea while still living, was
already imprisoned on a 1958 moonshine conviction. Prosecutors granted him
immunity from murder charges, in exchange for testimony against the double
murders mastermind.
That defendant was former West Palm Beach municipal judge Joseph Alexander Peel Jr., known for his association with local bootleggers and gamblers.
His hatred of Chillingsworth dated from 1953, when Chillingworth censured
Peel for representing both sides in a divorce case. A similar breach of ethics
brought him back before Judge Chillingworth in 1955, resulting in a 90-day
suspension. Furious, and fearing that Chillingworth might take steps to have
him disbarred, Peel then arranged the killings to protect himself. Jurors convicted Peel as an accessory to murder on March 30, 1961, but spared him from
the electric chair by recommending mercy. Sentenced to a double life term,
he served 18 years in Florida, then was paroled in 1979 to begin an 18-year
federal sentence resulting from an unrelated mail fraud conviction. Diagnosed
with terminal cancer in 1982, Peel was released from custody and died after
nine days of freedom. Bobby Lincoln completed his federal moonshining sentence in 1962 and vanished into obscurity.
Further Reading
Cole, Catherine, and Cynthia Young. True Crime: Florida. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2011.
McIver, Stuart. Murder in the Tropics: The Florida Chronicles. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple
Press, 1995.

CHINNICI, ROCCO (19251983)

Friday, July 29, 1983, began routinely for Chief Prosecutor Rocco Chinnici in
Palermo, Sicily. His driver waited outside Chinnicis apartment house with two
bodyguards, beside the prosecutors armored Alfa Romeo Alfetta. Chinnici left
the building, speaking briefly to concierge Stefano Li Sacchi, and was turning
toward his car when a small Fiat filled with explosives detonated at the curb.
The blast killed Chinnici, Li Sacchi, and bodyguards Salvatore Bartolotta and
Mario Trapassi, while wounding 40 others. Chinnicis chauffeur, Giovanni Paparcuri, was partly shielded by the armored Alfa Romeo, but still suffered crippling injuries.
Rocco Chinnici was born at Misilmeri, Sicily, on January 19, 1925, and earned
his law degree from the University of Palermo in 1947. After five years in private practice, he was named to serve as a magistrate in Trapani, where the bulk

CHINNICI, ROCCO

of his criminal cases involved

livestock rustling. In 1966, he
transferred to the Palermo prosecutors office, confronting mafiosi for the first time with the
Viale Lazio massacre of December 1969. Twenty-four defendants were suspected in that
case, but none were finally
convicted. Frustrated, Chinnici
sought a way to crack the Mafias code of silence through use
of informers.
As he explained the plan,
The Mafia is a way to practice politics by means of violence. . . . We live in a sick
society that doesnt recognize
the proportions of the sickness,
the gravity, the dimensions of the
disease. . . . I dont believe in Mafia bombers killed Sicilian prosecutor Rocco
the repentance of the mafioso. Chinnici in July 1983. (Associated Press)
The mafioso is a different character than the terrorist. The mafioso is an individual who always carries with him
a bent for violence and crime. He doesnt have a moral sense and therefore he
cant be repentant. However, there can be a mafioso who knows he has been sentenced to death by an enemy group. To escape the sentence, he desperately grabs
hold of the only possible force that can protect him: the state and the justice that
he has always despised. Justice is his last refuge. In that sense the mafioso can
expect a lesser punishment if decides to collaborate with justice, provided, naturally, that his contribution is effective and valid. All the better, then, to have a law
for repentant mafiosi. It wont reward moral redemption for a collaboration dictated by terror. In the end its a useful way to fight the Mafia.

Promoted to chief prosecutor in 1979, upon the murder of predecessor Cesare Terranova, Chinnici organized the Antimafia Pool, a group of investigating magistrates that included Paolo Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello, Giovanni
Falcone, and Leonardo Guarnotta. One of their leading targets was Michele
Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as The Pope for his
ability to mediate feuds between rival mob bosses. Indicted with 14 other mafiosi on July 9, 1983, for the September 1982 murder of Carabinieri general
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, Greco fled into hiding and plotted the eradication of his enemies. The bomb that killed Chinnici was triggered by Giuseppe

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Pino Greco, Micheles nephew and enforcer, subsequently murdered in September 1985, while still a fugitive from justice.
Police captured Michele Greco on February 20, 1986, in time for him to join
354 codefendants for a Maxi Trial in Palermo. He was convicted of ordering 78
murders, including Chinnicis, and received a life prison term on December 16,
1987. An appellate court freed Greco on February 27, 1991, but his sentence
was reinstated in February 1992. He died in prison, still claiming innocence,
on February 13, 2008.
Further Reading
Jamiesen, Alison. The Antimafia: Italys Fight against Organized Crime. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
Orlando, Leoluca. Fighting the Mafia and Renewing Sicilian Culture. Jackson, TN: Encounter Books, 2003.
Schneider, Jane, and Peter Schneider. Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the
Struggle for Palermo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Seindal, Ren. Mafia: Money and Politics in Sicily 19501997. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 1998.
Stille, Alexander. Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.
New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

CHITUNDA, JEREMIAS KALANDULA

(19421992)
In September 1992, after 17 years of warfare between the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the rival Peoples Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Angola scheduled its first presidential
election. MPLA candidate Jos Eduardo dos Santos received 49.57 percent of
the vote, and UNITA standard-bearer Jonas Savimbi railed with 40.6 percent.
Lacking a 51-percent majority for either candidate, prevailing law demanded
a fresh round of voting, but the process collapsed with the Halloween Massacre of October 30November 2, wherein MPLA forces slaughtered scores
of UNITA supporters. One of those slain was UNITA vice president Jeremias
Chitunda, killed in Luanda when UNITA gunmen stopped his convoy on November 2, summarily executing him with party officials Aliceres Mango and
Elias Salupeto Pena. Their corpses were displayed on state-run television, but
were not returned to their families for burial.
Jeremias Chitunda was born in Chimbuelengue on February 20, 1942, and
educated in a mission school at Bela Vista, before attending Joo de Castro
College and Huambo National Secondary School. From there, he received a
scholarship to the University of Arizona at Tucson, where he earned a degree in
mining engineering. Returning to Angola in 1966, midway through his homelands war for liberation from Portugal, he joined the newly organized UNITA.

CLINTON, WILLIAM JEFFERSON

Fearing arrest by Portuguese authorities for revolutionary agitation, Chitunda

subsequently fled to Zaire, then worked in the United States, soliciting aid for
UNITA. Portuguese withdrawal in 1975 cleared the way for Chitundas return,
but it brought no cessation of violence. Civil war erupted between UNITA and
the MPLA before the end of 1975, soon involving Congolese, South African,
and Cuban troops, as well as agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and
their mercenaries.
Chitunda was elected as UNITAs vice president in 1986, at the partys sixth
national congress. Jos dos Santos, named as president by the MPLAs Central
Committee in September 1979, failed to suppress the fighting or prevent South
African incursions, but his welcoming of troops from Cuba prompted U.S. conservatives to back UNITA with formation of a Democratic International opposing communist influence in Angola. To balance that campaign, the Soviet Union
bankrolled MPLA rulers with an estimated $1 billion. President Ronald Reagan,
in turn, furnished cash and weapons to UNITA until December 1988, with the
United Nations dispatched a peacekeeping force to the troubled nation. The Bicesse Accords of May 1991 sought to demobilize 150,000 combatants, while
merging 50,000 UNITA and MPLA troops into a cohesive Angolan Armed Forces,
laying groundwork for the ultimately disastrous 1992 elections campaign.
After the Halloween Massacre, UNITA forces rejected conventional politics
and resumed their armed struggle against the MPLA, capturing provincial capitals Caxito, Huambo, MbanzaKongo, Ndalatando, and Uge. The civil war continued, with brief occasional ceasefires, until government troops killed Jonas
Savimbi on February 22, 2002. UNITA vice president Antnio Dembo succeeded him, then died from diabetes nine days later. Paulo Lukamba, UNITAs
secretary general, announced an end to fighting on March 13 and signed a
memorandum of understanding with the government on April 4, 2002.
Further Reading
Cohen, Herman. Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent.
London: Macmillan Press, 2000.
Fish, Bruce, and Becky Fish. Angola, 1880 to the Present: Slavery, Exploitation, and
Revolt. New York: Chelsea House, 2001.
James, W. Martin III. Historical Dictionary of Angola. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press,
2011.
Weigert, Stephen. Angola: A Modern Military History, 19612002. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2011.

CLINTON, WILLIAM JEFFERSON (1946 )

ATTEMPTED
Public records include three supposed assassination attempts against President
Bill Clinton during his eight years in office. The first occurred on September 12,

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1994, when Maryland aircraft mechanic Frank Eugene Corder crashed a

single-engine Cessna 150 onto the south lawn of the White House. The president and his family were away from home that day. Corder died on impact, the
only casualty. No motive was advanced for the attack, and acquaintances of
Corder claimed that he had never voiced antipathy toward Clinton personally,
suggesting that the crash may have been a bungled publicity stunt. Background
investigation revealed that Cordertwice divorced, and estranged from his
third wifehad been arrested for theft in April 1993, and again for drug dealing in October 1993. He spent 90 days in a rehab facility on the latter charge,
afterward suffering from depression and thoughts of suicide.
On October 29, 1994, New Mexico native Francisco Martin Duran approached a fence overlooking the north lawn of the White House, firing
29 shots from a Chinese-made semiautomatic rifle toward a group of men
dressed in business suits. President Clinton was not among them, but was
inside the White House when the shooting occurred. Three tourists tackled Duran and disarmed him before Secret Service agents reached the scene.
An ex-convict, previously incarcerated for aggravated assault with a vehicle while serving in the U.S. Army, Duran now faced charges including attempted murder of the president, four counts of assaulting a federal officer,
illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, use of an assault weapon
during a crime of violence, destruction of U.S. property, and interstate transportation of a firearm with intent to commit a felony. At trial in March 1995,
Duran pled not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that he had tried to save
Earth by destroying an alien mist, linked to the umbilical cord of an extraterrestrial being hidden somewhere in Colorado. Prosecutors countered with
a parade of 60 witnesses who testified that Duran hated the federal government in general, and Clinton in particular. Jurors found him sane and guilty,
resulting in a 40-year sentence.
The third attempt on Clintons life reportedly occurred in November 1996,
during his visit to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in
Manila, although it was not publicized until 2009. During Clintons Manila visit,
New York Times reporter David Sangar revealed that two terrorist bombs had
been found and defused at proposed meeting sitesone at Manilas airport, another at Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base where APEC members were slated
to gatherbut Sangar apparently knew nothing of a third device that narrowly
missed Clinton himself. According to author/professor Ken Gormley, in his 2009
book The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, the presidents motorcade
was about to cross a bridge in downtown Manila when a Secret Service agents
radio earpiece picked up a faint transmission including the words bridge and
weddingthe latter recognized as a code word for assassination. Clintons car
was diverted, and a bomb was found under the bridge, allegedly traced back to
the terrorist group al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

COLLINS, MICHAEL, JR.

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III, in Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946. His father died in an auto accident before Clintons birth, and his
mother later remarried, with Clinton assuming his stepfathers surname. Scholarships enabled Clinton to attend Georgetown Universitys Edmund A. Walsh
School of Foreign Service, where he obtained a BS degree in 1968, followed by a
Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, in England. Clinton entered
Arkansas politics in 1974, losing a congressional race, then was elected as the
states attorney general (1976) and as governor (1978). Defeated by gubernatorial challenger Frank White in 1980, Clinton rebounded to win a second term,
unseating White in 1984thereby securing a reputation as the comeback kid.
Reelections as governor followed in 1986 and 1990. In 1992, Clinton defeated
incumbent President George H. W. Bush, and successfully defended that office
against challenger Bob Dole in 1996.
Despite Clintons 1996 reelection by some eight million votes in a threeparty race (including independent candidate Ross Perot), his White House tenure was beset by bitter controversy and dissension. First Lady Hillary Clinton
blamed a vast right-wing conspiracy for the attacks, and although extremist groups certainly played a role, fueled by flamboyant talk-show hosts, the
president contributed to his own difficulties as private behavior turned public.
In 1998, a Republican Congress led by Clinton foe (and presidential hopeful)
Newt Gingrich of Georgia voted to impeach Clinton for testifying falsely under
oath about a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The U.S.
Senate acquitted Clinton in February 1999, and despite that sordid episode, he
left Washington in January 2001 with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Subsequent public opinion polls
rank him high among all former presidents, ranging from second to fourth in
popularity.
See also: bin Laden, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad (19572011).

Further Reading
Gormley, Ken. The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr. New York: Crown, 2010.
Malanowski, Jamie. Did Osama Try to Kill Bill Clinton? True/Slant. December 21, 2009.
http://trueslant.com/jamiemalanowski/2009/12/21/did-osama-try-to-kill-bill-clinton.
Summary Statement of Facts (the September 12, 1994 Plane Crash and the October 29,
1994 Shooting) Background Information on the White House Security Review. http://
prop1.org/park/pave/rev6.htm.

COLLINS, MICHAEL, JR. (18901922)

On August 22, 1922, in the midst of Irelands civil war, Michael Collins
chairman of Southern Irelands provisional government and commander in
chief of its National Army, led a military convoy into County Cork, seeking

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COLLINS, MICHAEL, JR.

opponents from the Irish Republican Army (IRA; see sidebar). En route from
Bandon to Cork, the column stopped at the village of Balnam Blth (The
Mouth of Flowers) to ask directions, inadvertently receiving advice from
Dinny Long, an IRA supporter. Long directed Collins and his men along a
route guarded by hostile troops under Liam Deasy, an officer in the IRAs 3rd
Cork Brigade. When the ambush party opened fire at 8 P.M., Collins ordered
his men to stop and return fire. The skirmish lasted 20 minutes, and Collins
was the sole fatality, struck in the head by a rifle shot. Participants in the firefight later named the triggerman as Denis (Sonny) ONeill, a former British
army marksman turned IRA sniper.
Michael Collins was born at Sams Cross, near Clonakilty, in West County
Cork, on October 16, 1890. His father was a retired member of the Fenian
Brotherhood, which opposed British rule of Ireland in the latter part of the
19th century. On his death bed, Michael Sr. reportedly predicted that his
son would do great work for Ireland. At first, however, Michael Jr. seemed
to serve the British. Leaving school at age 15, he worked for the Royal Mail
from 1906 to 1910, then moved to London as a messenger for Horne and
Company, a stockbroking firm. Unknown to his employers, though, he
joined Londons Gaelic Athletic Association, and through it, the covert revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood. After a stint with J.P. Morgan &
Company in New York, he returned to Ireland in time for the Easter Rising
of April 1916.
While that revolt failed to throw off British rule, landing Collins in custody at Frongoch internment camp in Wales, he escaped execution and was
freed in December 1916, later joining in the Irish War of Independence that
began on January 21, 1919. By then, he was a leading figure in Sinn Fin (We
Ourselves), a nationalist party, and director of its paramilitary Irish Volunteers, created to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the
whole people of Ireland. With the outbreak of war, that group expanded to
become the IRA, battling British troops and the Black-and-Tan Royal Irish
Constabulary.
In December 1919, Britains House of Commons introduced a Better Government of Ireland Bill, proposing two Irish parliaments: one for the six
northern counties of Ulster, and another for 26 southern counties of a proposed Irish Free State. That proposal of division split public opinion in Ireland, with strongest support drawn from Ulsters Protestant majority. It also
split the IRA, one faction willing to settle for partial victory, while the other
opposed any treaty. With the war for independence still ongoing, the AntiTreaty IRA began attacks on treaty supporters in June 1922, touching off the
Irish Civil War. As a defender of the existing provisional government, Michael
Collins took the field against his former IRA comrades, and thus went to his
death. Despite ongoing opposition, the treaty dividing Ireland was ratified in

COLLINS, MICHAEL, JR.

IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY (IRA)

Founded in 1919, the IRA was a descendant of the earlier Irish Republican Brotherhood, created in November 1913 and active in the Easter Rising of April 1916. The new organization, led by Michael Collins, waged
guerrilla campaigns during the Irish War of Independence (19191921),
then split with the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that severed
Northern Ireland from the Irish Free State. Supporters of the treaty followed Collins into the Irish National Army, and opponents waged a
losing civil war against their former comrades during 19221923. Thereafter, the IRA condemned both the Irish Free State and the loyalist government of Northern Ireland as tools of British imperialism. After flirting
with communism under leader Moss Twomey, between 1926 and 1937,
the IRA collaborated with Axis enemies of Great Britain during World
War II, staging sabotage attacks in England. Chief Tony Magan led a border campaign against Northern Ireland from 1952 to 1962, then relative
quiet ensued until 1969, when renewed militancy in Belfast brought another split between the official (or old) IRA (OIRA) and a new provisional IRA (PIRA). The OIRA abandoned armed struggle and focused on
politics via its party, official Sinn Fin, known since 1982 as the Workers
Party of Ireland. The PIRA remained committed to guerrilla warfare, as
Northern Irelands troubles claimed at least 3,526 lives between 1969
and 2001. An official tabulation blamed republican groups for 2,057 of
those deaths; loyalist paramilitaries claimed 1,019 victims, security forces
killed 368, and unknown perpetrators slew 82. After announcement of
a ceasefire in 2001, PIRA spokesman declared resumption of hostilities
in April 2011, declaring that they had now taken on the mantle of the
mainstream IRA. We continue to do so under the name of the Irish Republican Army. We are the IRA.

December 1922. It took another five months to conclude the civil war, but
mayhem had become an ingrained habit, continuing with troubles spanning
eight more decades.
Ranked as one of Irelands greatest popular heroes, Michael Collins has been
portrayed several times on screen and stage. Beloved Enemy, a 1936 feature
film, cast Brian Aherne as Dennis Riordan in a fictionalized version of Collinss life (including survival of the final ambush by IRA rivals). Collins had his
real name restored for The Treaty, a 1991 film for television starring Brendan
Gleeson and Michael Collins (1996), with Liam Neeson in the title role. The
Cork Opera House commissioned a musical about Collins in 2005, staged for

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COLLINS, MICHAEL, JR.

the first time in 2009. In the interim, playwright Mark Kenny penned Allegiance in 2006, depicting a meeting between Collins (played by Michael Fassbender) and Winston Churchill (portrayed by Mel Smith).
Further Reading
Coogan, Tim Pat. Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland. Boulder, CO: Roberts
Rinehart, 1996.
Dwyer, T. Ryle. Michael Collins: The Man Who Won the War. Blackrock, Ireland: Mercier
Press, 2009.
Hittle, J.B.E. Michael Collins and the Anglo-Irish War: Britains Counterinsurgency Failure.
Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2011.
MacKay, James. Michael Collins: A Life. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1997.
OConnor, Frank. The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds, 1965.
OConnor, Ulick. Michael Collins and the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedom 19121922.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

D
DANILO I, PRINCE OF MONTENEGRO
(18261860)
On August 13, 1860, while boarding a ship at Kotor, Montenegro, Prince
Danilo I was shot and fatally wounded by Todor Kadic,
a chief of the Bjelopavlici

tribe. Danilo died the following day, and although Kadic refused to explain the
killing, various theories were advanced. Some authors claim that Kadic was
enraged by Danilos adulterous affair with Kadi c s wife. Others claim he acted
to avenge atrocities committed on his kinsmen by Danilos troops. Another
theory claims that Austrian authorities recruited him to kill Danilo, fearing that
the prince would forge an alliance with Russian czar Alexander II. The truth
remains obscure.
A native of Njegui, born on June 29, 1871, Danilo was born into the House
of Petrovic-Njego,

hereditary rulers of Montenegro from 1696 to 1918. In October 1851, with the death of vladika (prince-bishop) Petar II Petrovic-Njego,

the senate proclaimed Petar IIs elder brother, Pero Tomov Petrovic,
to succeed
him. Danilo trumped that choice with popular appeal, having negotiated peace
between the warring Crmnica and Katunjani tribes, thereby winning recognition from all Serb bratzvos (clans) except the contentious Bjelopavlici.
At the
same time, he secured endorsement from Russian emperor Nicholas I and was
ordained as vladika Danilo II in Vienna, Austria. Returning to Montenegro in
1852, Danilo accommodated senators by permitting Montenegros change to a
secular principality, whereupon he became knyaz (prince) Danilo I.
That same year, he declared war on the Ottoman Empire, which claimed
jurisdiction over Montenegro. That struggle dragged on for seven years, ending in Montenegrin victory when Danilos elder brother, Grand Duke Mirko
Petrovic-Njego,

routed a superior Turkish force at the Battle of Grahovac

(April 28May 1, 1858). That victory compensated for Montenegros defeat in
the Crimean War of 18531856, achieving de facto independence from Turkey. Danilo sought to strengthen his position through alliance with France,
negotiating payments of 200,000 francs per year from Napoleon III, but those
overtures alienated Russia and troubled Austria, both longtime enemies of
France. On the home front, Danilo ruled as a sometimes brutal autocrat, imposing heavy taxes and dispatching brother Mirko with orders not only to slay
all leaders but also to kill even the babies in cradles among tribes that failed

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DAOUD KHAN, MOHA M MED

to pay up. The Bjelopavlici

who had failed to back Danilo in the power play in
1851 were hardest hit.
Such policiesand his outwitting of the senates plan to crown Pero Tomov
Petrovicraised

an army of domestic enemies, with senate president ordije

Petrovic chief among them. A plot was organized to oust Danilo and replace
him with exiled rival Stevan Perovic Cuca, but Danilo sent assassins to kill
Cuca in Istanbul. He failed to reckon with the vengeful Bjelopavlici,
though,
and thereby met his end.
Nephew Nikola Mirkov Petrovic-Njego

succeeded Danilo as Prince Nicholas I, pursuing a series of administrative, educational, and military reforms.
In 1900, he proclaimed himself Montenegros first (and only) king. Five years
later, bowing to popular pressure, he granted the nation its first constitution.
Deposed and exiled in 1918, Nicholas maintained his futile claim to the throne
until his death, in Antibes, in March 1921.
Further Reading
Boehm, Christopher. Blood Revenge: The Enactment and Management of Conflict in Montenegro and Other Tribal Societies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1984.
Morrison, Kenneth. Montenegro: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009.
Roberts, Elizabeth. Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2007.
Stevenson, Francis. A History of Montenegro. London: Jarrold & Sons, 1914.

DAOUD KHAN, MOHAMMED (19091978)

On April 27, 1978, the communist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan
(PPDA) joined military units in an uprising against President Mohammed
Daoud Khan. An armored column attacked the ministry of defense and ministry of interior at noon, in downtown Kabul, followed by airborne rocket attacks
on Daouds palace. Surrounded by the early hours of April 28, President Daoud
faced demands for his surrender. Rather than submit, Daoud and his brother
Naim burst from the palace, firing pistols, and were cut down in a storm of bullets. His death was not acknowledged; rather, the assassins claimed that Daoud
had resigned for health reasons. Thirty years elapsed before discovery of two
mass graves in Kabuls District 12, Pul-e-Charkhi, on June 28, 2008. Diggers
found 16 bodies in one pit, 12 in the other. On December 4, 2008, the Afghan
health ministry reported that Daoud had been identified from dental records
and a small golden Quran presented to him by King Khalid of Saudi Arabia.
Daoud received a belated state funeral on March 17, 2009.
The eldest son of Prince Mohammed Aziz Khan, nephew of King Mohammed Nadir Shah, Daoud was born in Kabul on July 18, 1909. He was 24 when
an assassin killed his father in Berlin. A short time later, in November 1933,

DAOUD KHAN, MOHAMMED

President Mohammed Daoud Khan of Afghanistan, killed during a military coup. (Associated Press)

the king was also murdered, in Kabul. Daoud was thereafter tutored in politics
by an uncle, Prince Hashim Khan, and studied in France. He served two terms
as governor of the Eastern Province, in 19341935 and 19381939, with an
intervening term as governor of Kandahar. In 1939, as a lieutenant general,
he assumed command of the Kabul Army Corps, holding that post until his
promotion to minister of defense (19461948), ambassador to France (1948),
then minister of the interior (19491951). Back in uniform by 1951, he served
as commander of the Central Forces in Kabul until September 1953, when he
began a decade as prime minister.
As prime minister, Daoud courted antagonism with his plan to reunite the
Pashtun people (ethnic Afghans) of Pakistan with their ancestral homeland,
a move that simultaneously angered Pakistan and worried non-Pashtun minorities in Afghanistan, such as the Tajiks and Uzbeks. Pakistan closed its borders with Afghanistan in 1961, damaging the Afghan economy and pushing
Daouds regime into closer alliance with the Soviet Union as the countrys foremost trading partner. In 1962, armed with Russian tanks, planes, and artillery, Daoud invaded Pakistans Bajaur region, but was repulsed by superior
forces. That crisis was defused with Daouds forced resignation in March 1963,

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whereupon Pakistan reopened its border for trade. Daouds brother-in-law,

King Mohammed Zahir Shah moved to prevent any future repetition of the
problem in 1964, promulgating a new constitution that barred royal family
members from Afghanistans Council of Ministers.
Daoud bided his time, then deposed King Zahir in a bloodless coup on
July 17, 1973. Instead of claiming title as the shah, however, he declared Afghanistan a republic, with himself as president. Where Zahirs constitution
provided for separation of powers and popular election of legislators, Daoud
established the Loya Zirga (Grand Assembly), with most of its members appointed. By 1976, while promoting a proxy guerrilla war with Pakistan, Daoud
faced a rising Islamic fundamentalist movement led by exiled clerics, aided
openly by Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1978, Daoud began
severing ties with the PPDA, and thereby sowed the seeds of revolution that
destroyed him and his family.
Afghan Air Force colonel Abdul Qadir Dagarwal ruled Afghanistan during
the coup, from April 27 to 30, 1978, then was replaced by Nur Muhammad
Taraki, chairman of the PPDAs Revolutionary Council. Taraki was assassinated
on September 14, 1979, by order of successor Hafizullah Amin, who was in
turn killed three months later, as Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan.
Further Reading
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
Ewans, Sir Marti. Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics. New York:
Harper Perennial, 2002.
Feifer, Gregory. The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
Freedman, Lawrence. A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East. New York:
Public Affairs, 2008.

DELGADO CHALBAUD GMEZ, CARLOS

(19091950)
Venezuelan president Carlos Delgado Chalbaud left home for his office as usual
on November 13, 1950, but he was stopped en route by several carloads of gunmen, some 20 in all. The attackers drove Delgado, an aide, and his chauffeur to
an abandoned house, where, as authorities later explained, the president was
brutally slugged and shot at least six times. His aide was also wounded but
survived, and the chauffeur was left unharmed. Agents of Venezuelas National
Security Directorate tracked ringleader Rafael Simon Urbina to the Nicaraguan
embassy, where he had taken refuge, and arrested him, reporting on November 14 that he had been shot dead in a scuffle with a prison guard. A second
suspect died in custody on November 16, sparking rumors of conspiracy and

DELGADO CHALBAUD GMEZ, CARLOS

cover-up by Venezuelas ruling military junta. By November 24, police had

captured 28 suspects, 23 of whom were formally indicted on March 27, 1951.
A native of Caracas, born on January 20, 1909, Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
fled to Paris with his family at age four, when dictator Juan Vicente Gmez imprisoned his father. Released in 1927, Roman Chalbaud joined his wife and
children in Paris, plotting with other Venezuelan exiles to depose Gmez. Carlos joined in an abortive invasion, on August 11, 1929, but his father died
in battle and Delgado retreated to Paris, where he earned a degree in engineering and married a Romanian communist. President Gmez died in December 1935, and Delgado returned to Venezuela after completing studied at
the School of War of Versailles. He joined the Military Engineering Service in
1938, and advanced to command of an engineering battalion in 1941.
Four years later, in October 1945, Delgado joined in a coup dtat that deposed President Isaas Medina Angarita, emerging as a member of the sevenman military junta ruling Venezuela under leader Rmulo Betancourt Bello.
Successor Rmulo Gallegos Freire retained Delgado as minister of defense in
February 1948, but Delgado was unsatisfied. He led another coup nine months
later, on November 24, unseating Gallegos and naming himself president of a
new three-man junta, with Marcos Prez Jimnez and Luis Llovera Pez.
Early in 1950, Delgado opened dialogue with various opponents of his
military regime, ostensibly seeking an accord between the army and various
political parties to permit open elections. The move may have troubled his
co-rulers in Caracas. Although they blamed Delgados kidnapping and accidental murder on rebels led by Rafael Urbina and his nephew Domingo,
some observers named Marcos Prez Jimnez as the mastermind of the assassination. Others countered that assertion by noting that Prez was married to
a cousin of Delgado, suggesting that the family association would have ruled
out a conspiracy.
In any case, Prez ruled Venezuelas junta until December 1952, when he
took office as provisional president. Officially inaugurated as president in
April 1953, he held that post until January 1958, when he was succeeded by
Rmulo Betancourt (subsequently dubbed The Father of Venezuelan Democracy). Prez fled to the United States in 1959, accused of embezzling some
$200 million. He fought extradition until 1963, then was convicted, his prison
term commuted to exile in Spain. Venezuelas voters elected him to a senate
seat in 1968, but his would-be colleagues swiftly passed a law excluding convicted felons from public office. Prez remained in Spain and died there in
2001, at age 87.
Further Reading
Scheina, Robert. Latin Americas Wars Volume II: The Age of the Professional Soldier,
19002001. Dulles, VA: Brasseys, Inc., 2003.

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Tarver, H. Michael, and Julia Frederick. The History of Venezuela. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Trinkunas, Harold. Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Venezuela: A Comparative
Perspective. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.

DELIGIANNIS, THEODOROS (18201905)

At 5:00 P.M. on June 13, 1905, Prime Minister Theodoros Deligiannis arrived
by carriage at the Greek Chamber of Deputies in Athens. An unfamiliar man
approached the vehicle, saluted Deligiannis, and opened his door. As Deligiannis thanked the man, his greeter pulled a long knife from beneath his coat
and plunged it into the prime ministers abdomen. Police swarmed the assailant
and disarmed him, and aides took Deligiannis to a nearby Red Cross station,
but attempts to stop his bleeding proved futile and he died at 7:30 P.M. A lynch
mob gathered, bent on hanging the assassin, but police secured him in prison.
Identified as a professional gambler named Gherakaris, the attacker confessed
to slaying Deligiannis in retaliation for passage of a recent anti-gaming statute.
Theodoros Deligiannis was born at Lagkadia, a mountain village in northwestern Arcadia, on January 2, 1820. He studied law in Athens, and in 1843
joined the ministry of the interior, advancing by 1859 to the post of permanent secretary. Three years later, King Otto appointed him minister of foreign
affairs. That led to a Parisian posting in 1867, and Deligiannis allied himself
with Alexandros Koumoundouros, founder (in 1865) of the Nationalist Party.
Their chief opponent was Charilaos Trikoupis, publisher of the anti-royalist
newspaper Whos to Blame? and founder (in 1873) of the liberal New Party.
Constantly at odds, Koumoundouros and Trikoupis served alternating terms as
prime minister from 1875 to 1882. When Koumoundouros resigned in February 1883, Deligiannis claimed leadership of the National Party, declaring himself against everything Trikoupis was for. A champion of nationalism and
Greek territorial expansion, he capitalized on unfolding military events and
economic crises to win office as prime minister in May 1885.
The seesaw struggle for control of government continued. Dimitrios Valvis
briefly succeeded Deligiannis in May 1886, before Trikoupis took office once
more. Deligiannis recaptured the office in November 1890, then was voted
out again in March 1892. He served a third term between June 1895 and April
1897, then returned for his fourthand laston December 6, 1902. He is
remembered today for grandiose schemesthreatening Turkey over boundary disputes in 1885, declaring war in 1897, building up Greek military forces
to the point that worried neighbor nations mounted blockades at Piraeus and
other ports to prevent importation of armsbut he never seemed to grasp
the need for balance between aspiration and economy. Intensely controversial,
nearly bankrupt at his death, he left two nieces who resided with him destitute, until his party voted pensions to support them.

DESSALINES, JEAN-JACQUES

Dimitrios Rallis succeeded Deligiannis, serving six months as prime minister

before the New Party regained control in Athens, under Georgios Theotokis.
Rallis bounced back for another term in July 1909, but was deposed a month
later by a coup dtat that established control by a Military League, composed
of 1,300 soldiers furious and mortified by Greek defeats since 1895.
Further Reading
Clogg, Richard. A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002.
Keridis, Dimitris. Historical Dictionary of Modern Greece. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2009.
Woodhouse, C. M. Modern Greece: A Short History. Chatham, United Kingdom:
Mackays, 1998.

DESSALINES, JEAN-JACQUES (17581806)

On October 17, 1806, while leading troops to fight a band of rebels, Haitian
dictator Jean-Jacques Dessalinesself-styled emperor Jacques Iwas killed at
Pont Larnage (now Pont-Rouge), north of Port-au-Prince. Several contradictory accounts describe his death, one claiming he was lured to the home of
successor Alexandre Sabs Ption and murdered there, whereas another says
he was ambushed on the road and shot. A third version says Dessalines was
arrested and beaten to death by his captors. A fourth claims he was hacked and
stabbed to death by his own mutinous soldiers, after which a peasant mob dismembered his corpse and dumped the remains in Government Square.
As with his death, the birth of Jean-Jacques Dessalines is subject to dispute.
Some biographers contend that he was born in Africa, transported as a slave to
French-owned Saint-Domingue; others insist he was born on the island to enslaved parents, on September 20, 1758. Known in his youth as Jean-Jacques Duclos, a name ostensibly adopted by his father from their mutual owner, Duclos/
Dessaline spent his early life on a plantation near Grande-Rivire-du-Nord. Rising
to the rank of foreman on the Duclos plantation by age 30, he was then purchased
by a free black man named Dessalines, and adopted his new masters surname.
Three years later, in 1791, Dessalines joined in the slave rebellion led by
Georges Biassou and Jean-Franois Papillon at Plaine du Nord, the first uprising in what soon became the Haitian Revolution. He soon met rebel military
commander Toussaint Brda, later called Toussaint Louverture, and allied with
Spanish forces from neighboring Hispaniola against the French. When France
abolished slavery in May 1794, Louverture shifted allegiance to the French
Republic, battling Spain and Britain. Biassou and Papillon opposed him, but
Dessalines fought with Louverture, attaining the rank of brigadier general in
his army by 1799. In 1801, he crushed an insurrection by Louvertures own
nephew and second-in-command, General Moyse, earning a reputation as a

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warrior who granted his enemies no quarter. That March, Toussaint convened
a constitutional assembly, and by July had forged a document that made him
president for life, while reaffirming loyalty to France.
In Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte felt pressure to restore slavery in SaintDomingue. In December 1801, he sent his brother-in-law, General Charles
Leclerc, to restore French control on the island. Leclerc arrived with 40,000
troops in February 1802, arrested Louverture in May, and shipped him back to
France, where he later died in prison. Yellow fever killed Leclerc in November,
leaving Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, in command of French forces. Dessalines defeated Rochambeau in November 1803,
at Vertires, and Napoleons army surrendered on December 4.
Dessalines declared Saint-Dominguenow Haitian independent nation
on January 1, 1804. The following month, he launched a campaign to eradicate the islands white minority, killing at least 3,000 persons (some accounts
say 5,000, including 1,700 whites and various loyal servants) by April 22,
when the campaign ceased. On September 22, Dessalines named himself as
emperor, with his official coronation occurring at Cap-Franais on October 6.
A constitution, published on May 20, 1805, established him as emperor for life
with the right to name his successor.
Under Dessaliness reign, whites were forbidden to own property, and a
harsh regimen of caporalisme agraire (agrarian militarism) was imposed, requiring that all black males work either as soldiers or plantation laborers. Dessalines also retained strict control of foreign trade, specifically export of sugar
and coffee, favoring British and American buyers over French. Dissension simmered until 1806, when conspirators Alexandre Ption and Henri Christophe
succeeded in eliminating Dessalines.
After the assassination, Ption and Christophe suffered a falling out. Both
hoped to rule in the late emperors place, resulting in the division of Haiti in
1810. Ption ruled the southern Republic of Haiti as president (transformed
to president for life in 1816), and Christophe proclaimed himself king of the
northern kingdom of Haiti. Ption suspended his realms legislature in 1818,
while seizing plantations from the landed gentry and granting parcels to peasants, a tactic that earned him the label Papa Bon-Cur (Good-hearted Father). Ption died from yellow fever in March 1818, succeeded by president
for life Jean-Pierre Boyer, and King Christophe committed suicide in October
1820. Haiti was reunified that same month, with full independence recognized
by France in 1825.
Although widely reviled in life for his despotic rule, Jean-Jacques Dessalines was rehabilitated in the early 20th century, emerging as a national icon.
The city of Dessalines is named in his honor, as is Haitis national anthem, La
Dessalinienne (The Dessalines Song). His great-grandson, Cincinnatus Leconte,
ruled briefly as president from August 1911 to August 1912.

DEVI, PHOOLAN

Further Reading
Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Girard, Philippe. Haiti: The Tumultuous HistoryFrom Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken
Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Girard, Philippe. The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence 18011804. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011.
Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in
Haiti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
Popkin, Jeremy. You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

DEVI, PHOOLAN (19632001)

On July 25, 2001, three gunmen lay in wait outside a home on Ashoka Road
in New Delhi, India. Their target was Phoolan Devi, a notorious former outlaw,
serving since 1996 as a member of the Lok Sabha (House of the People, the
lower house of Indias parliament). As her car arrived, the shooters opened fire,
killing Devi and wounding Balender Singh before escaping in
an auto-rickshaw. Suspect Sher
Singh Rana later surrendered
in Dehradun and confessed his
role in the slaying, claiming he
acted to avenge 22 fellow clan
members killed by Devis former gang of outlaws at Behmai,
in 1981.
Phoolan Devi was born on
August 10, 1963, in the Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh, a
member of Indias mallah (boatmen) caste. Forced into marriage at age 11, to a man of very
bad character, she suffered incessant domestic abuse while
pursuing a financial quarrel
with a cousin who dominated
her family. He accused her of
theft at age 16, and she spent
three days in jail, reportedly
beaten and gang-raped by po- Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi, killed while serving
lice. Later that same year, 1979, in Indias parliament. (AFP/Getty Images)

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she joined a gang of dacoits (bandits) and married its leader, Vikram Mallah.
The band soon raided her ex-husbands home and left him near death, with a
letter threatening other men who married young girls.
From that point, Devi joined enthusiastically in bandit raids across Uttar
Pradesh and neighboring Madhya Pradesh, robbing trains, looting high-caste
villages, and kidnapping wealthy victims for ransom. Over time, a rift developed between gang members of the mallah caste and rival Thakur Rajputs,
considered divine by some elements of Indian society. In September 1979,
Thakar brothers Shri and Lala Ram killed Vikram Mallah, seized control of
the gang, and left Devi at Behmai, where she endured three weeks of rape and
torture by their fellow clansmen. Upon escaping, she built a new gang and set
off on a quest for revenge, pursing Shri and Lala Ram while killing any other
men she met along the way, suspected of abusing women or children. Whenever I heard of it, Devi explained, I crushed the serpent they used to torture
women. I dismembered them.
On February 14, 1981, Devi returned to Behmai with her gang, disguised as
police; the gang executed 22 Thakur men and looted the village. She eluded police for two years, forcing the resignation of Vishwanath Singh, chief minister of
Uttar Pradesh, then surrendered in February 1983 on condition that she would
not face execution. Charged with 48 criminal counts, Devi spent 11 years in jail
awaiting trial; she was released in 1994, when Chief Minister Mulayam Singh
Yadav dismissed all charges. A film released that same year, Bandit Queen, dramatized Devis life and elevated her to folk hero status, although she protested
its inaccuracies and even threatened suicide until producers paid her 40,000.
In 1996, Devi won election to the Lok Sabha from Mirzapur, in Uttar Pradesh,
as a member of the Bharatiya Janata (Indian Peoples) Party, vowing to protect
the weaker sections of society. Her candidacy and successful reelection bid
in 1999 were bitterly opposed by widows of the Behmai massacre, and on
a broader scale by the Kshatriya Swabhimaan Andolan Samanvay Committee (KSASC), representing the military and ruling elite of the Vedic-Hindu social system. Ostensibly repulsed by the election of a once-indicted felon, the
KSASC also opposed Devis commitment to providing drinking water, electricity, schools, and hospitals to the poor, further exacerbated by her stand on
equal rights and opportunities for women.
The course of justice for Devis killers has been as slow and tortuous as her
own prosecution for the Behmai massacre (still officially unsolved at this writing, with a score of suspects awaiting trial). Sher Singh Rana escaped from
jail on February 17, 2004, with aid from an accomplice dressed as a policeman, and was not recaptured until April 20, 2006. Another suspect in Devis
assassination, Shravan Kumar, was not arrested until July 2004. Their longdelayed trial was transferred to a fast track court in January 2009, but was
still ongoing three years later. On January 24, 2012, Sher Singh Rana received

 I N I C , Z O R A N

official permission to campaign from his jail cell, for a seat in the Uttar Pradesh
Assembly.
Further Reading
Devi, Phoolan. The Bandit Queen of India. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2006.
Sen, Mala. Indias Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Shears, Richard, and Isobelle Gidley. Devi: The Bandit Queen. London: Allen & Unwin,
1984.

I N I C , Z O R A N ( 1 9 5 2 2 0 0 3 )
Serbian prime minister Zoran indi
c had official business to perform on
March 12, 2003, specifically a meeting with Anna Lindh, Swedens minister of
foreign affairs, and colleague Jan Karlsson, minister for development cooperation, migration, and asylum policy. Despite an attempt on his life three weeks
earlier, indi
c chose to walk from his home in Belgrade to the National Assembly building, accompanied only by bodyguard Milan Veruovic.
At 12:23 P.M.,
Zvezdan Jovanovica

police lieutenant colonel and ex-member of the Serbian

armys Red Beret Special Operations Unitfired on the pair with a snipers
rifle from a window 195 yards distant. indi
c died an hour later, at a local
hospital, and Veruovic survived his stomach wound. Arrested on March 25,
Jovanovic admitted killing indi
c,
describing his victim as a traitor to Serbia.
A native of Bosanskiamac, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina), born
on August 1, 1952, Zoran indi
c traveled widely with his family, due to his fathers assignments as an officer in the Yugoslav Peoples Army. Finally settled in
the capital, he earned a degree in philosophy from the University of Belgrade in
1974. Already drawn to politics, he was convicted for his role in organizing an
independent (noncommunist) students movement. Chancellor Willy Brandy
persuaded Yugoslavian authorities to release indi
c and permit his emigration
to West Germany, where he continued his studies and earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of Konstanz in 1979.
indi
c returned to Yugoslavia a decade later, to accept a teaching post at
the University of Novi Sad, and in December 1989 participated in the foundation of the Democratic Party. He was elected to parliament in 1990, then
served as Belgrades first noncommunist mayor of the postwar era, from February to September 1997. Democrats, with indi
c as their president, boycotted that years presidential election, watching from the sidelines as Yugoslavia
disintegrated under President Slobodan Miloevic.
Named by Time magazine in
1999 as one of Europes most important politicians, indi
c was photographed
shaking hands with U.S. president Bill Clinton while NATO forces bombed his
homeland. indi
c was jailed and tried in secret that July on charges of endangering state security.

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I N I C , Z O R A N

Meanwhile, nearly lost in the regions nightmare of civil war and ethnic
cleansing, Yugoslavia suffered a series of assassinations: Defense Minister
Pavle Bulatovic on February 7, 2000; Socialist Party officer ika Petrovic on
April 26, 2000; and ex-president Ivan Stambolic on August 25, 2000. Those
deaths and others were later blamed on Red Berets, acting in concert with the
Zemun Clan, a Belgrade organized-crime family.
indi
c played a leading role in the so-called Bulldozer Revolution that
unseated President Miloevic in October 2000, and thereafter he was chosen as prime minister, assuming office on January 25, 2001. He advocated
pro-democratic reforms and opposed civic corruption, a stance that placed
him at odds with the Zemun Clan and their Red Beret allies. On February 7,
2003, Zemun Clan member Dejan Milenkovic tried to ram indi
cs car with
a truck in New Belgrade, but indi
c escaped injury. A friendly judge released
Milenkovic,
explaining that he was a salesman whose absence imperiled his
business.
Serbian police continued their hunt for conspirators after Zvezdan Jovanovic
confessed to shooting indi
c.
On March 27, 2003, officers killed Zemu Clan
members Dusan Spasojevic and Mile Lukovic in a Belgrade suburb, during a
fierce shootout with automatic weapons. Roughly 1,000 other suspects were
detained, including Red Berets and members of Serbias secret police. Suspicion
quickly focused on Red Beret ex-commander Milorad Ulemek, alleged ringleader of the plots to kill indi
c and Ivan Stambolic,
as well as a bungled attempt to slay Serb opposition leader Vuk Drakovic in October 1999 and June
2000. Suspect Aleksandar Simovic was not apprehended until November 2006.
Finally, on May 23, 2007, Belgrade's High Court Special Department for
Criminal Acts of Organised Crime convicted Ulemek, Simovic,
and 10 other
defendants on charges of murdering indi
c. Ulemek and Zvezdan Jovanovic
received 40-year prison terms, and the othersincluding five still at large,
tried in absentiadrew sentences ranging from 8 to 35 years.
Anna Lindh, the Swedish minister of foreign affairs (and presumed future
prime minister), was herself assassinated on September 10, 2003, by an attacker who stabbed her repeatedly as she shopped, unprotected, in the ladies department of Stockholms Nordiska Kompaniet department store. Her
slayinglike that of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986remains officially unsolved.
Further Reading
Cox, John. The History of Serbia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Gagnon, V. P. Jr. The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2004.
Judah, Tim. The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 2010.

DOE, SAMUEL KANYON

Stojanovic, Svetozar. Serbia: The Democratic Revolution. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books,
2003.

DOE, SAMUEL KANYON (19511990)

On September 9, 1990, in the midst of an apparent losing battle against rebel
forces bent on toppling his government, Liberian president Samuel Doe visited
leaders of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group
in Monrovia, Liberias capital. Guerrillas led by rival Prince Yormie Johnson
raided the meeting and captured Doe, dragging him off to a site where he was
tortured prior to execution. Johnson later denied participation in the murder, but a videotape of the eventbroadcast worldwide in the wake of Does
assassinationshowed Johnson sipping from a can of beer while soldiers severed the presidents ear. Johnson briefly claimed the presidency after killing
Doe, then fled to Nigeria when fellow rebel leader Charles Taylor emerged as
the nations dominant strongman.
Born at Tuzon, on May 6, 1951, Samuel Doe was a member of the Krahn
tribe, one of several indigenous groups that had been dominated by AmericoLiberian rulers since Liberia was founded in 1847, as a homeland for American ex-slaves and free-born blacks. Dissatisfaction with that system prompted
Doea master sergeant in the armyto lead a coup dtat against President
William R. Tolbert Jr., on April 12, 1980. Establishing himself as Liberias first
indigenous leaderChairman of the Peoples Redemption CouncilDoe inaugurated a reign of terror against his opponents. Within days, he jailed 91 True
Whig Party members, publicly executing 13 on charges of high treason, rampant corruption and gross violation of human rights. Hundreds more fled the
country, rather than face trial without legal representation before a court-martial.
He suspended Liberias constitution, then sought to legitimize his regime by
promulgating a new one in 1984, promising free elections the following year.
That fraudulent contest, condemned by observers from various other nations, climaxed with Does election as president. Inaugurated on January 6,
1986, he continued on a path of corruption and cronyism favoring fellow
Krahn tribesmen, which bred dissatisfaction both at home and overseas. Civil
war erupted when Charles Taylordisgruntled over his dismissal from Does
government on charges of embezzlementraised an army of ethnic Gios and
Manos in Cte dIvoire, operating as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia,
and invaded Nimba County on December 24, 1989. Does army retaliated with
a scorched-earth campaign against the countys population, further inflaming
his opposition. By September 1990, Doe controlled only a small part of Liberia, centered around the capital, and that hold was demolished by his death.
Liberias civil war dragged on until August 1996, claiming more than 200,000
lives before various factions agreed to disarm and permit free elections in July
1997. Taylor and his National Patriotic Party crushed 12 rivals in that contest,

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D O E, SA M U E L K A N YO N

AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY (ACS)

Organized in 1816 as the Society for the Colonization of Free People of
Color of America, the ACS counted among its founders such early 19thcentury luminaries as future secretary of state Henry Clay, Congressman
and future U.S. minister to Russia John Randolph, Congressman Charles
Fenton Mercer, and former congressman Richard Bland Lee. Their stated
purpose was the return of free blacks to Africa as a means of gradually eradicating slavery through voluntary deportation. Committed as he
was to compromise between free and slave states to preserve the Union,
Henry Clay and his associates encouraged repatriation of African Americans who had never before set foot in Africa, and to that end helped
found the colony of Liberia in 1821, promoted to the status of an independent republic in 1847. Future president Abraham Lincoln, an admirer of Clay, initially supported the ACS program, but later admitted,
in 1854, that its slow progress offered little hope for ending slavery. The
ACS continued its efforts after Americas civil war, shipping more than
13,000 black Americans to Liberia by 1867. It published a journal, the
African Repository and Colonial Journal, until 1919, and did not formally
disband until 1964.

winning 75 percent of the vote from a populace hoping for peace. Instead, they
found themselves dwelling in a pariah state, as Taylor used blood diamonds
and illegal timber exports to finance the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra
Leones civil war. Bloodshed resumed in Liberia during April 1999, when exiles
fighting as the Organization of Displaced Liberians invaded the country from
Guinea. In June 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted Charles Taylor for war crimes. Taylor resigned in August and fled to Nigeria, but he was
captured in March 2006 and convicted at The Hague on April 26, 2012.
Meanwhile, Prince Johnson returned to Liberia in March 2004, but left
again in April, citing death threats. He won a senate seat from Nimba County
in 2005, and sought the presidency in 2011, but failed to unseat incumbent
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
See also: Tolbert, William Richard, Jr. (19131980).

Further Reading
Ellis, Stephen. The Mask of Anarchy Updated Edition: The Destruction of Liberia and the
Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. New York: New York University Press,
2006.

DOLLFUSS, ENGELBERT

Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence. New
York: Public Affairs, 2011.
Waugh, Colin. Charles Taylor and Liberia: Ambition and Atrocity in Africas Lone Star
State. London: Zed Books, 2011.
Williams, Gabriel. Liberia: The Heart of Darkness. Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2006.

DOLLFUSS, ENGELBERT (18921934)

On July 25, 1934, the outlawed Austrian Nazi Party staged a coup dtat against
the Austrian government led by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. Disguised as
soldiers and police, 154 members of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron)
invaded the chancellery building and shot Dollfuss, and the remainder of his
cabinet escaped unharmed. Another group of putschists seized a Viennese radio station and broadcast a false report that Dollfuss had ceded authority to
Nazi leader Anton Rintelen.
Two days of fighting ensued,
claiming 250 lives and injuring at least 500 persons. Four
thousand Nazis were detained,
of whom 13 were later hanged,
and 7 more committed suicide.
Others escaped to Germany
and Yugoslavia.
Engelbert Dollfuss was born
on October 4, 1892, in Texing,
Lower Austria, to an unwed
mother who never named his
father. After education at a
Roman Catholic seminary, he
studied law at the University
of Vienna, then economics at
the University of Berlin. Initially rejected by the AustroHungarian army in World War I,
due to his short stature, he
was finally accepted for combat in Italy, where he was decorated for valor, then captured
in 1918. With arrival of the
armistice, he joined the rightwing Christian-Social Party. He
took over Austrias ministry of Nazi terrorists killed Austrian chancellor Engelbert
agriculture as secretary to the Dollfuss in July 1934. (Associated Press)

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DUBS, ADOLPH

farmers association, and was elevated to serve as director of Lower Austrias

Chamber of Agriculture in 1927. Three years later, he became president of
Austrian Federal Railways, then switched again in 1931 to serve as minister of
agriculture and forests.
In May 1932, following the resignation of Chancellor Karl Buresch, President Wilhelm Miklas offered the post to Dollfuss. After a night of prayer and
fasting, Dollfuss accepted leadership of a coalition government involving four
contentious parties and faced with an economic crisis in the middle of the Great
Depression. In March 1933, after a quarrel over voting procedures prompted
leaders of parliaments lower house to resign in protest, Dollfuss persuaded
President Miklas to adjourn the legislature indefinitely, fielding police to bar its
members from returning. Henceforth, he ruled as dictator of Austria, mingling
church and state in a system that outsiders dubbed Austrofascism. On May 1,
1934, he proclaimed a one-party government led by the Vaterlndische Front
(Fatherlands Front).
By that time, Dollfuss faced a challenge from Austrian Nazis loyal to Adolf
Hitlers Third Reich. Dollfuss banned the native Nazis paramilitary Republikanischer Schutzbund (Republican Protection League) in June 1933; a fourday civil war erupted in February 1934, with estimated death tolls ranging
from 242 to 1,118. Authorities crushed the Nazi revolt, executing 10 of its
leaders, but the conflict between fascist factions continued, culminating in the
abortive July coup of 1934.
An estimated 500,000 of Austrias 6.5 million citizens attended funeral services for Dollfuss in Vienna. Vice Chancellor Ernst Rdiger Starhemberg briefly
succeeded Dollfuss, then ceded power to Kurt Schuschnigg on July 29, 1934,
while returning to his normal duties. Supported by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, French foreign minister Pierre Laval, and British prime minister Ramsay
MacDonald, Schuschnigg ruled Austria through the Stresa Front until German troops invaded and annexed Austria in March 1938.
Further Reading
Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Prelude to Infamy: The Story of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria.
New York: I. Obolensky, 1962.
Kitchen, Martin. The Coming of Austrian Fascism. London: Routledge, 1980.
Maass, Walter. Assassination in Vienna. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1972.
Messner, Johannes. Dollfuss: An Austrian Patriot. Norfolk, VA: Gates of Vienna Books,
2004.

DUBS, ADOLPH (19201979)

On February 14, 1979, four men dressed as traffic police approached a
black Chevrolet stopped in a no-parking zone outside the cultural center in
downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. When the driver rolled down his window, the

DUBS, ADOLPH

officers drew guns and directed him to the government-owned Kabul Hotel,
two miles away. Arriving there, the gunmen removed their targetU.S. ambassador Adolph Spike Dubsfrom the car and marched him into the hotels
lobby. While three fired shots into the ceiling, the fourth made a phone call
to the Afghan foreign ministry, announcing, Weve got the ambassador. Proclaiming themselves members of the Settam-e-Melli (National Oppression)
movement, the kidnappers demanded release of imprisoned leader Badruddin
Bahes, in exchange for Dubs. Minister of national defense Hafizullah Amin
denied that Bahes was in government custody, and refused to negotiate with
terrorists in any case. Three hours after the abduction, Afghan security forces
and Russian advisors stormed Room 117 of the hotel, killing Dubs and his
kidnappers in a brief firefight.
Adolph Dubs was born in Chicago on August 4, 1920, earned a degree in
political science from Beloit College in 1942, and served in the U.S. Navy
during World War II. After the war, he completed his graduate studies in
political science at Georgetown University, then Foreign Service studies at
Harvard and at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. From there,
he joined the United States Foreign Service as a career diplomat, filling posts
in Canada, Germany, Liberia, Russia, and Yugoslavia, while earning a reputation as an expert on the Soviet Union. After the Saur Revolution of April
1978 brought the Khalq (masses) faction of the Peoples Democratic Party
to power in Afghanistan, Dubs was appointed ambassador to that perpetually
troubled nation.
Washington did not replace Dubs with a new ambassador. The Kabul embassy was closed in 1989, with no new ambassador appointed until 2002,
following occupation of the country by U.S. troops. Meanwhile, in 1992, defecting Soviet major Vasili Mitrokhin arrived in the United States with 25,000
pages of classified documents, including reports that KGB advisor Sergei Batrukihn recommended the failed rescue attempt over U.S. protestsand authorized execution of one captured gunman before he could be questioned by
U.S. investigators. In March 1992, President Mohammad Najibullah offered
to appoint a high-level investigative commission when an official appeal is
made to us by the U.S. State Department. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he added, I do not have so much hope, but we will begin the work.
My personal view is that there has been no document from the very beginning.
But of course, when we look, something will be found. At least we will achieve
something.
In fact, Najibullah left office the following month and was killed by Taliban opponents in 1996. The promised investigation never occurred. Vasili Mitrokhin published six volumes of KGB history and documents in the United
States between 1999 and 2005, known collectively as the Mitrokhin Archive,
with the final installment appearing after his death.

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Further Reading
Ansary, Tamim. Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan. New
York: Public Affairs, 2012.
Barfield, Thomas. Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2012.
Fitzgerald, Paul, and Elizabeth Gould. Invisible History: Afghanistans Untold Story. San
Francisco: City Lights Books, 2009.
Tomsen, Peter. The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the
Failures of Great Powers. Philadelphia: Public Affairs, 2011.

DUCA, ION GHEORGHE (18791933)

On December 30, 1933, Romanian prime minister Ion Duca was ambushed by
assassins at the railway station in Sinaia, a mountain resort patronized by the
royal family and prominent guests. His killers were three members of the fascist
Iron Guard, dubbed the Nicadori by their comrades, after their initials: Nicolae Constantinescu, Ion Caranica, and Doru Belimace. Arrested at the murder
scene, all three were convicted and sentenced to life at hard labor, but they
were subsequently killed with other Iron Guard assassins during transport to
Jilava prison, on November 30, 1938.
A native of Bucharest, born
on December 20, 1879, Ion
Duca was elected to Romanias
Chamber of Deputies (lower
house of the countrys bicameral legislature) in 1907, as a
member of the National Liberal
Party. In 1914, he joined the
cabinet of Prime Minister Ion
Bra tianu, and in the same year
participated in the founding
of Cercetasii Romniei (Romanias Scouts), a branch of the
international Scouting movement. When Prime Minister
Bratianu returned for a fourth
term in 1922, he named Duca
as his minister of foreign affairs, supporting the Little Entente with Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia, to prevent Hungary
Iron Guard assassins murdered Romanian prime from regaining territory lost to
minister Ion Duca in 1933. (AP/Corbis)
its neighbors after World War I.

D U D AY E V, D Z H O K H A R M U S AY E V I C H

On November 14, 1933, King Carol II named Duca as prime minister, replacing Alexandru Vaida-Voevod of Transylvania. Duca clashed immediately
with the Iron Guard, ordering thousands of its members arrested for acts of violence preceding general elections scheduled for December 2029, 1933. That
action led directly to his murder by the three Nicadori, as an act of retaliation.
His murder was the first major Romanian assassination since that of Barbu
Catargiu in 1862, but it would not be the last.
With the Nicadori imprisoned, Iron Guardists formed a new death squad,
Decemviri, so called because it had 10 members. On July 16, 1936, they killed
Iron Guard defector Mihai Stelescu at a Bucharest hospital, where he had
checked in for an appendectomy. After shooting Stelescu at least 38 times (some
accounts say 200), they dismembered his corpse with axes and danced around
the ward in celebration until they were arrested. They were killed by guards,
together with the Nicadori, in November 1938. Another team, the Ra zbunatori
(Avengers), assassinated Prime Minister Armand C a linescu in 1939.
The Iron Guard ultimately gained control of Romania and struck back at its
enemies on November 26, 1940, executing at least 14 prisoners at Jilava penitentiary. Those slain included ex-prime minister Gheorghe Arges anu, former
justice minister Victor Iamandi, former Bucharest police prefect Gabriel Marinescu, former gendarmerie inspector general Ioan Bengliu, former chief of
secret police Mihail Moruzov, Colonel Vasile Zeciu (who organized the 1938
executions), Majors Aristide Macoveanu and Iosif Dinulescu (who carried
them out), and Staff Sergeant Srbu (who personally strangled Nicolae Constantinescu). Following the massacre, the killers thanked the prisons warden
for assisting them, then held a brief ceremony at Constantinescus grave.
Further Reading
Frantz, Douglas, and Catherine Collins. Death on the Black Sea. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Hitchens, Keith. Rumania 18661947. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Petreu, Marta. An Infamous Past: E. M. Cioran and the Rise of Fascism in Romania. Chicago:
Ivan R. Dee, 2005.
Riley, Dylan. The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe: Italy, Spain, and Romania,
18701945. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

DUDAYEV, DZHOKHAR MUSAYEVICH

(19441996)
On April 21, 1996, President Dzhokhar Dudayev used a satellite phone to
call Russian statesman Konstantin Borovoy from the village of Gekhi-Chu,
18 miles southwest of Grozny in the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. A Soviet Beriev A-50 surveillance aircraft, already hunting the rebel leader,
intercepted his call and alerted Sukhoi Su-25 fighter planes to Dudayevs

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location. The fighters fired two laser-guided missiles, and the ITAR-TASS news
agency subsequently announced that Dudayev died in the resulting explosions.
Chechen guerrilla commander Shamil Basayev confirmed Dudayevs death,
whereas Interfaxa nongovernmental Russian news agencycontradicted
that report, quoting Saipudi Khasanov, Dudayevs private secretary, as saying
that the president is alive and working as usual. Claims of Dudayevs survival
continued into 2003, but no evidence of a faked death has yet been produced.
Dzhokhar Dudayev was born at Yalkhoroy, a village named for its dominant
clan in the former ChechenIngush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on
February 15, 1944. Days after his birth, the regions entire population was deported to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on orders from Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, living in exile until 1957. Following repatriation, Dudayev
studied to become an electrician, then joined the Russian army in 1962. Four
years later, he graduated from the Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots at
Tambov, then joined the Communist Party and thereby gained admission to
the Soviet Air Force Academy. Ultimately rising to the rank of major general,
he served in Afghanistan during 19861987, winning the Order of the Red
Banner and the Order of the Red Star for bravery. From 1987 to 1990, Dudayev commanded a unit of long-range nuclear bombers based at Tartu, Estonia, where he appeared to sympathize with nationalist dissidents, ignoring
orders to muzzle the Estonian media.
Retired from military service by May 1990, Dudayev returned to Chechnya and entered politics, winning election to the executive committee of the
separatist All-National Congress of the Chechen People (NCChP). Dissolution
of the Soviet Union in 1991 encouraged militant action, prompting NCChP
members to seize the local Supreme Soviet on September 6. A hasty referendum created the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria on November 1, with Dudayev
elected as its first president. Conflict between Ingush and Ossetian ethnic factions split the republic in June 1992, leaving the state of Ichkeria to declare
independence from the rest in June 1993. President Dudayev dissolved parliament and demanded withdrawal of all Russian troops from Chechnya.
The resultant First Chechen War erupted on December 1, 1994, when Russian bombers decimated Dudayevs air force at Grozny airport. A full-scale
invasion proceeded 10 days later, with Russian troops capturing Grozny, driving Dudayevs into hiding at a missile silo near the historic Chechen capital
of Vedeno. Although some native Muslims questioned their presidents faith,
based on his prior actions in Afghanistan, Dudayev appointed Akhmad Kadyrov as chief mufti of Ichkeria, followed by a declaration of jihad against Russian forces. Muslim volunteers from other nations bolstered Chechen ranks,
and the war dragged on, killing more than 23,000 soldiers and an estimated
100,000 civilians. Fighting continued for another four months after Dudayevs
assassination, ending with the Khasavyurt Accord on August 30, 1996.

D U D AY E V, D Z H O K H A R M U S AY E V I C H

Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev succeeded Dudayev in office, even

as tales of the martyred presidents survival persisted. Dudayevs son-in-law,
Salman Raduyev, met with reporters and swore on the Quran that he had spoken to Dudayev in an unnamed European country on July 5, 1996. Raduyev
promised that his father-in-law would soon return, but the appointed Hour X
passed with no sign of Dudayev. In August 2001, Chechen president Akhmad
Kadyrov declared that Dudayev may be alive, living incognito to avert further warfare. In September 2003, other sources declared that a twin of Dudayev was killed in 1996, announcing plans to put him in front of TV cameras
in Turkey before Chechnyas next presidential election, but Dudayev remains
among the missing.
Further Reading
Jagielski, Wojciech. Towers of Stone: The Battle of Wills in Chechnya. New York: Seven
Stories Press, 2009.
Sheets, Lawrence. Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey through the Soviet Collapse.
New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011.
Smith, Sebastian. Allahs Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Treisman, Daniel. The Return: Russias Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev. New York:
Free Press, 2011.

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E
EARP, MORGAN SETH (18511882)
The Wild Wests most famous gunfight occurred in Tombstone, Arizona, on
October 26, 1881. At 3:00 P.M. that Wednesday, the Earp brothersMorgan,
Virgil, and Wyatt, all local or federal lawmanjoined gambler John Doc Holliday to, as they later claimed, disarm a group of outlaws including William
Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Frank and Tom McLaury. Claiborne
and Ike Clanton fled the battleground before the shooting started. When the
gun smoke cleared, with 30 shots fired in as many seconds, Billy Clanton and
both McLaury brothers were dead, and Holliday and two of the Earps suffered
flesh wounds. Ike Clanton charged the Earps and Holliday with murder, but a
month-long preliminary hearing exonerated them. Two months later, on December 28, unidentified gunmen shot Virgil Earp in an ambush, leaving him
with one arm permanently crippled. On March 18, 1882, at 10:50 P.M., an
unseen sniper killed Morgan Earp at a Tombstone billiards parlor, in the presence of Wyatt and three other witnesses. Recalling a family promise to share
any visions observed near the moment of death, Morgan gasped to Wyatt,
I cant see a damned thing.
Morgan Earp was born in Pella, Idaho, on April 24, 1851, the fourth of six
sons in a family today regarded as iconic Western figures. Eldest brother Newton Earp was satisfied to farm and raise a family after his service in the Civil
War, but his brothers passed into history, often lionized in fabricated tales of
derring-dofrom early dime novels to Hollywood filmsthat cast them as heroes. The truth, unearthed by slow degrees since the 1960s, is rather different.
James Earp, second oldest of the brothers, was a saloon keeper by preference, married in 1873 to a Wichita prostitute, but he also dabbled in law
enforcement as a deputy marshal in Dodge City, Kansas. Morgan joined him
there, also as a deputy, in 1875, followed by brother Wyatt in 1876 and Virgil in 1877. While arresting drunks, the brothers also managed gambling dens
and brothels in Dodge, earning a reputation as the fighting pimps for their
belligerence. James was the first to pull up stakes and move to Tombstone, in
1879, followed in 1880 by the other three and youngest brother Warren Earp.
Again, they settled in as gamblers, saloon keepers, and panderers, and Virgil
doubled as a deputy U.S. marshal for the eastern portion of Pima County, subsequently named as Tombstones city marshal. In that post, he deputized Morgan and Wyatt to help him enforce the Earps brand of law and order.

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E A R P, M O R G A N S E T H

Their opposition in Tombstone included John Behan, named as sheriff of

newly formed Cochise County in February 1881, and his cohorts in a gang
known as the Cowboys, a loose-knit band of rustlers and robbers dominated
by the Clanton and McLaury families, with quick-draw killers Johnny Ringo
and Curly Bill Brocius. The Cowboys specialized in stagecoach robberies and
stealing Mexican cattle for sale in the United States. Trouble between the Earps
and Cowboys began on March 15, 1881, with a stage holdup near Contention
that netted the bandits $26,000 in silver bullion ($626,000 today). The Earps
accused four Cowboys; others claimed Doc Holliday himself had led the raid.
A month later, on April 19, Tombstones city council passed an ordinance directed chiefly at the Cowboys, banning anyone from carrying firearms, Bowie
knives, or dirks within the citys limits. After several confrontations with the
Cowboys, who ignored the ordinance, the Earps set out to strip them of their
weapons on October 26.
The rest is historyor fiction, as the case may be. After Morgan Earps assassination, a coroners jury named Cowboys Pete Spence, Frank Stilwell, Florentino Indian Charlie Cruz, Frederick Bode, and another known only as
Fries as the probable killers. Witnesses reported them skulking near the pool
hall when Earp was shot, and Spences wife claimed the outlaws had boasted
of the shooting, within an hour of its occurrence. Spence surrendered to sheriff
Behan for protective custody, and the surviving able-bodied Earps and Holliday determined to eradicate their enemies in a campaign memorialized today
as the Earp vendetta ride.
Retribution began on March 20, 1882, in Tucson. Wyatt and Warren Earp,
with Holliday and two other deputies, were escorting Virgil and his wife
aboard a train to California when they saw Frank Stillwell and Ike Clanton,
apparently lying in ambush. Clanton fled once again, but the Earps cornered
Stillwell and riddled him with bullets, leaving him, in the words of witness
George Hand, the worst shot up man I ever saw. Tucson Justice of the Peace
Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants for Stillwells killers, but they refused to
surrender when confronted by sheriff Behan in Tombstone. Behan responded
by deputizing various Cowboys and leading them in pursuit of Earps manhunting posse.
Thus began the peculiar spectacle of county deputies pursuing federal
lawmena total of 10, deputized by Wyatt Earpwhile their quarry hunted
Cowboys with clear homicidal intent. There is no indication that the Earps
ever intended to arrest the men they stalked. On March 22, 1882, they surprised Florentino Cruz at a camp in the Dragoon Mountains, shooting him
four times at close range. Two days later, near Iron Springs in the Whetstone
Mountains, they met Curly Bill Brocius and eight other cowboys, engaging
in a pitched battle that left Brocius dead and another Cowboy, Johnny Barnes,
mortally wounded.

E A R P, M O R G A N S E T H

The day after that shootout, March 25, Tucsons grand jury indicted Pete
Spence, Frank Stilwell, Indian Charlie Cruz, Frederick Bode, and John Doe
Fries for Morgan Earps murder. Cruz and Spence were dead by then, and Fries
was absconding, but Spence and Bode faced trial on April 2. The prosecutor
called Spences wife, whereas defense attorneys objected to her evidence as
hearsay and insisted that a wife should not be forced to testify against her husband. The judge agreed, then dismissed the charges for lack of evidence.
Around the same time, Earps posse left Arizona for New Mexico Territory,
moving on from there to Colorado, beyond the reach of sheriff Behan. Denver police arrested Doc Holliday on May 15, 1882, for extradition to Tucson,
but Wyatt Earp persuaded friend Bat Mastersonthen marshal of Trinidad,
Coloradoto wangle Hollidays release from custody. Two months later, the
Cowboy gunman was shot and killed near Chiricahua Peak, in Arizonas Cochise County. His slayer was never identified, and whereas some researchers
blame Doc Holliday, court records from Pueblo County, Colorado, place Holliday there on July 11, 14, and 18, 1882.
Although Wyatt was unquestionably the most famous Earp brotherthanks
in large part to dime novels and his own self-promotional skillsMorgan also
appears in various film and television portrayals of the familys often-fictionalized
adventures. Actors who have portrayed him include Harvey Stephens in Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942); Ward Bond in My Darling Clementine
(1946); Peter Graves in Wichita (1955); DeForest Kelley in Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral (1957); Sam Melville in Hour of the Gun (1967); Rex Holman in Spectre
of the Gun, a Star Trek episode originally aired on October 25, 1968; Philip
Shafer in Doc (1971); Bill Paxton in Tombstone (1993); Ray Boyle in Wyatt Earp:
Return to Tombstone (1994); Linden Ashby in Wyatt Earp (1994); and Austin
Nicols in an episode of HBOs Deadwood series, Leviathan Smiles, originally
aired on July 30, 2006. To date, the O.K. Corral gunfight and its aftermath
have been depicted in at least nine feature films since 1939, plus various documentaries. Perspectives on the conflict differ radically, and there seems little
doubt that controversy will continue.
Further Reading
Guinn, Jeff. The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. CorralAnd
How It Changed the American West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
Marks, Paula. And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Roberts, Gary. Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,
2006.
Tefertiller, Casey. Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1997.
Waters, Frank. The Earp Brothers of Tombstone. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 1976.

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EDMUND I

EDMUND I (922946)
On May 26, 946, King Edmund I of England celebrated St. Augustines Mass
Day at Pucklechurch, a village in South Gloucestershire. While feasting with
other nobles, Edmund cast his eyes over the crowd and saw an exiled thief
named Leof (or Leofa, in some accounts) seated among the revelers. Recognizing the uninvited diner as an atrocious robber he had banished six years
earlier, Edmund rushed to arrest Leof himself. Grabbing the bandit by his hair,
he threw Leof to the floor, but was stabbed in the chest when Leof drew a hidden dagger. As Edmund lay dying, his attendants mobbed the killer, reportedly
tearing him limb from limb.
Born at Wessex in 922, Edmund was the son of King Edward the Elder and
his third wife, and half-brother to Aethelstan, first king of a unified England
from 927 to 939. In 937, he fought at Aethelstans side in the Battle of Brunanburh, defeating the combined forces of Norse-Gael king Olaf Guthfrithsson,
Constantine II of Scotland, and Owen I of Strathclyde. At Aethelstans death,
on October 27, 939, Edmund
succeeded him as king.
Olaf Guthfrithsson, still
smarting from his previous defeat, conquered Northumbria
and part of Mercia (now the
Midlands), but Edmund began
recapturing that territory after
Olaf died in 941. Four years
later, he conquered Strathclyde,
then ceded it to King Malcolm I of Scotland in return
for a pledge of mutual military
support. Those campaigns
as well as Edmunds revival of
monasteries in England, and his
role in restoring Louis IV to the
throne of Franceearned him
recognition in his lifetime as Edmund the Deed-doer, Edmund
the Just, and Edmund the Magnificent. In retrospect, his primary achievement as king was
the establishment of a safe borKing Edmund I of England, murdered by an exiled der and peaceful relations with
bandit at a feast. (Getty Images)
Scotland, to the north.

E D WA R D T H E M A R T Y R

Following his murder, Edmunds younger brother Eadred ruled as king

until his death from a digestive malady in 955. Eadred died a childless bachelor, whereupon Edmunds son, Eadwig the Fair, assumed the throne. Eadwig quarreled with other members of his family, and with church leaders,
including Archbishop Oda of Canterbury and Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury.
Though driven into exile, Dunstan raised support for an alternate monarch,
Athelstan half-king of West Anglia, leaving Eadred to rule only Wessex and
Kent from 957 to his death on October 1, 959. His younger brother and successor, Edgar Ithough dubbed Edgar the Peaceablehad already seized
Northumbria and Mercia from Eadred in 958. At Eadreds death, Edgar made
peace with the church by recalling Dunstan to serve as bishop of Worcester,
later as bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury. Historians mark his
death in 975 as the effective end of Anglo-Saxon England, which succumbed
to 11th-century conquests by Danes and Normans.
Further Reading
Fraser, Antonia, ed. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2000.
Panton, Kenneth. Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2011.
Phillips, Charles. The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Kings & Queens of England. Leicester: Anness Publishing, 2006.
Stafford, Pauline. Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in
the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Edward Arnold, 1989.

EDWARD THE MARTYR (962978)

On March 18, 978, King Edward of England stopped at Corfe Castle in Dorset to visit his half-brother brother thelred and his sister-in-law, lfgifu of
York. He was slain on the castle grounds that evening, in circumstances still
disputed by historians. One version says that he was murdered by a group
of thelreds advisors on arrival, while dismounting from his horse. Another
story claims that lfthryth, thelreds mother, organized the attackor even
killed Edward herselfto advance her son. Modern historian Frank Stinton
portrays Edward as an unstable ruler who had offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behavior. Long after he had
passed into veneration as a saint it was remembered that his outbursts of
rage had alarmed all who knew him, and especially the members of his own
household. An early text, the Peterborough Chronicle, was more charitable,
stating that: No worse deed for the English race was done than this was, since
they first sought out the land of Britain. Men murdered him, but God exalted
him. In life he was an earthly king; after death he is now a heavenly saint. His

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E D WA R D T H E M A R T Y R

earthly relatives would not avenge him, but his Heavenly Father has much
avenged him.
The eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceable, born circa 962, Edward was
crowned at Edgars death in July 975, supported by Archbishops Dunstan and
Oswald, despite protests from his younger half-brother, dubbed thelred the
Unready. Hostile noblemen lfhere of Mercia and thelwine of East Anglia
soon took advantage of young Edwards weakness to seize lands bestowed by his
father to various Benedictine monasteries, briefly threatening a civil war that is
sometimes called the anti-monastic reaction to Edgars close relations with the
church. The appearance of a comet in the heavens seemingly encouraged many
superstitious folk to join church leaders in supporting Edwards coronation.
If so, his succession did not help clerical reformers who had supported his father. Corrupt secular clerics, banished under Edgar, soon returned and routed
their opponents from various English monasteries, and nobles forced beleaguered
abbots to surrender leases granted under Edgar. Although few documents remain
from Edwards reign, it is known that he reversed his fathers policy of minting
coins only at Westminster. That change, coupled with his inability to halt quarrels
between rival lords in the hinterlands, leaves an impression of weakness and disorganization for his short tenure as king.
Following Edwards murder, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle declared that he was
buried at Wareham, in Dorset, without any royal honors. Archbishop Wulfstan II, writing between 1010 and 1016 in his Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Sermon
of the Wolf to the English), goes further yet, stating that Edwards corpse was
burned. Something must have remained, because his corpse was reburied with
high ceremony in February 980, at Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset, then moved
again in 1001 to a more prominent place at the same abbey. His portrayal as a
martyr apparently springs from Edwards support of his fathers policy toward
the church, as portrayed in clerical writings. King Henry VIII dissolved Englands monasteries in the 16th century, but monks concealed Edwards remains
to avert desecration. Archaeologists recovered and tentatively identified his
bones in 1931. A dispute arose, as to who should claim the relics, with claims
filed by Shaftesbury abbey and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia.
Edwardif it was Edwardspent decades in a Surrey bank vault, before he
was finally consigned to Wokings Brookwood Cemetery, in September 1984.
Further Reading
Fell, Christine. Edward, King and Martyr. Leeds: University of Leeds School of English,
1971.
Higham, Nick. The Death of Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud, United Kingdom: Sutton,
1997.
Panton, Kenneth. Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2011.

EISNER, KURT

EISNER, KURT (18671919)

Bavarian ministerpresident Kurt Eisner bears the distinction of having been
murdered unnecessarily by a political opponent. On February 21, 1919, while
en route to resign from Bavarias parliament, he was shot in the back by German nationalist Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley. Historians speculate that ArcoValley (as he is more commonly known) killed Eisner to win approval from the
anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalist Thule Society, a cult of sorts that had rejected
his membership application. Speaking for himself, Arco-Valley explained that
he hated Eisner because the ministerpresident is a Bolshevist, a Jew; he isnt
German, he doesnt feel German, he subverts all patriotic thoughts and feelings. He is a traitor to this land.
Born in Berlin, then capital of the kingdom of Prussia, on May 14, 1867, Kurt
Eisner studied philosophy, then switched to journalism, serving from 1890 to
1895 as a contributing editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung. An outspoken member
of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he served nine months in prison for an
editorial that criticized Kaiser Wilhelm II and emerged unrepentant. In 1900,
he replaced the late Wilhelm Liebknecht as editor of Vorwrts (Forward),
the SDPs chief public organ, which featured articles by Communist Manifesto
coauthor Friedrich Engels,
among other leftists. Leaving
Vorwrts in 1905, Eisner thereafter confined his political efforts to Bavaria, writing as a
freelance journalist and serving as chief editor of Nurembergs Frnkische Tagespost from
1907 to 1910.
In the midst of World War I,
Eisner shifted his allegiance to
the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, and
served another nine-month
prison term for treason, after
inciting a strike by munitions
workers. Freed in a general amnesty that October, he played a
key role in fomenting the German Revolution of 19181919,
which deposed King Ludwig III
as Bavarias monarch. Eisner
proclaimed a Bavarian Repub- Bavarian minister-president Kurt Eisner, killed by
lic on November 23, 1918, but a political rival in February 1919. (DB/dpa/Corbis)

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ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA

the rebellion continued until August 1919, with adoption of the Weimar Constitution declaring Germany a democratic parliamentary. Eisner did not live to
see that transient victory, however, as German backlash over the harsh Treaty
of Versailles led to his partys electoral defeat in January 1919, overwhelmed by
the conservative Bavarian Peoples Party.
Anton Arco-Valley was convicted of Eisners murder and sentenced to death
in January 1920, but a friendly right-wing judge commuted his sentence to five
years in prison, and the state prosecutor declared, If the whole German youth
were imbued with such a glowing enthusiasm we could face the future with
confidence. Arco-Valley remained in Cell 70 at Stadelheim Prison until 1924,
when he was released to make room for recently convicted Adolf Hitler. Placed
on probation until 1927, Arco-Valley was then pardoned and apparently retired from public life, although Third Reich leaders later decorated him as a
hero of the [Nazi] movement. Hitler seemed ambivalent toward Arco-Valley,
writing that Eisners death only hastened developments and led finally to the
Soviet dictatorship, or to put it more correctly, to a passing rule of Jews, as
had been the original aim of the instigators of the whole revolution. Perhaps
ironically, Arco-Valleys elder brother married a cousin of Raoul Wallenberg, a
Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II.
Further Reading
Grunberger, Richard. Red Rising in Bavaria. Galway, Ireland: M.W. Books, 1973.
Luhrssen, David. Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism. Dulles,
VA: Potomac Books, 2012.
Mitchell, Allan. Revolution in Bavaria, 19181919: The Eisner Regime and the Soviet
Republic. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.

ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA (18371898)

In September 1898, Empress Elisabeth of Austria traveled incognito to Geneve,
Switzerland, with her lady in waiting, Countess Irma Sztray de Sztra et
Nagymihly. They lodged at the Htel Beau-Rivage, on Lake Geneva, where
the empress had stayed during a previous visit, in 1897. At 1:35 P.M. on September 10, they left the hotel to catch the paddle steamer Genve, bound
for Montreux. Elisabeth, despising royal processions, had insisted that they
walk without the other members of her entourage. As they approached the
steamers dock, Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni approached and stabbed Elisabeth beneath her left breast with a four-inch needle file attached to a wooden
handle. The empress collapsed, then walked another 100 yards, supported by
two passersby, and reached the Genve before Countess Sztray noticed blood
on her dress. The boat had sailed by then, but soon returned to port when

ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA

Elisabeths injury was discovered. Carried back to the Htel

Beau-Rivage on an improvised
stretcher, she was attended by
two doctors who pronounced
her dead at 2:10 P.M.
A tragic figure in AustroHungarian history, Her Royal
Highness Duchess Elisabeth
Amalie Eugenie was born in
Munich on December 24,
1837, the fourth child of eccentric Duke Maximilian Joseph of
Bavaria. In April 1854, she entered into an arranged marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph
I of Austria, thus becoming
both empress of Austria and
queen of Hungary. Elisabeths
mother-in-law, the domineering
Princess Sophie of Bavaria, virtually kidnapped the empresss
first two daughters, born in Empress Elisabeth of Austria, stabbed by an anar1855 and 1856, refusing to let chist while on holiday, in 1898. (Alinari via Getty
Elizabeth nurse either infant or Images)
take in part in their care, naming the first child after herself.
The younger Sophie died from typhus in 1857, and her namesake harangued
Elisabeth to produce a male heir and printed an anonymous pamphlet denouncing her for failure to conceive a son. She finally fulfilled that duty, bearing
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, in August 1858, but festering tension still
blighted her relationship with Princess Sophie.
Although renowned for her great beauty, which inspired a cult of sorts
among high-born Austrian women, Empress Elizabeth habitually wore tight
leather corsets (leading the Prince of Hesse to describe her as almost inhumanly slender), practiced a strict regimen of exercise (with fencing lessons begun
at age 50), and undertook fasting cures with steam baths whenever her weight
topped 110 pounds. Hairdressing along consumed two hours of her daily
schedule, extended further by applications of various beauty creams concocted
in the court pharmacy or by Countess Sztray. Looks aside, Elisabeth suffered
from depression, exacerbated by her mother-in-law, the death of her first child,
her fathers death in November 1888, and the suicide of son Rudolf in January

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ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA

1889 (found with his murdered mistress, Baroness Marie Alexandrine von Vetsera). She avoided having any other children, and was heard to say, Children
are the curse of a woman, for when they come, they drive away Beauty, which is
the best gift of the gods. On the day of her assassination, Elisabeths trademark
corset initially prevented her from realizing that she had been stabbed.
On receiving news of his wifes death, Franz Joseph feared that it was suicide. An autopsy proved otherwise, after which the postmortem instruments
and photographs were destroyed on orders from the emperor. Meanwhile,
Luigi Lucheni was detained while fleeing from the scene of the attack, and his
discarded weapon was recovered on September 11. In custody, Lucheni said
he had chosen his toolused to file the eyes of industrial needlesbecause he
lacked 12 francs to purchase a stiletto. Committed to the propaganda of the
deed, he declared, I am an anarchist by conviction . . . I came to Geneva to
kill a sovereign, with object of giving an example to those who suffer and those
who do nothing to improve their social position; it did not matter to me who
the sovereign was whom I should kill . . . It was not a woman I struck, but an
Empress; it was a crown that I had in view.
At trial in October 1898, Lucheni was enraged to hear that Geneva had abolished capital punishment. Seeking martyrdom, he penned a letter demanding
trial in the Canton of Lucerne, where executions were still permitted, signing
the note, Luigi Lucheni, anarchist, and one of the most dangerous. Instead,
he was sentenced to life imprisonment and began work on a lengthy memoir.
After guards seized that manuscript, in October 1910, Lucheni hanged himself
in his cell.
Despite Luchenis insistence that he acted alone, Elisabeths murder inspired
the International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense against Anarchists,
held between November 24 and December 21, 1898, with delegates from 21
nations attending. After defining anarchism as as any act that used violent
means to destroy the organization of society, all participating countries agreed
to create special agencies to conduct surveillance on suspected anarchists, ban
membership in anarchist organizations, restrict civilian access to explosives,
limit press coverage of anarchist activities, and impose mandatory capital punishment for killing heads of state.
Empress ElisabethSisi to her friends, frequently misspelled Sissi for
some unknown reason in fictional workshas proved irresistible to authors
of stage productions, films, novels, and television programs. Stage productions
based on her life include Fritz Kreislers comic operetta Sissi (1932); Jean Cocteaus play LAigle deux ttes (The Eagle with Two Heads), written in 1943 and
first produced in 1946; Kenneth MacMillans ballet Mayerling (1978); the musical Elisabeth (1992); and Maurice Bjarts 1993 ballet Sissi, limpratice anarchiste (Sissi, Anarchist Empress). Feature films include Kaiserin Elisabeth von
sterreich (1921), coauthored by Elisabeths niece, Marie Larisch; The King Steps

ERIC V OF DENMARK

Out (1936); Cocteaus The Eagle with Two Heads (1948); Sissi (1955); SissiThe
Young Empress (1956); SissiFateful Years of an Empress (1957); Forever My
Love (1962); Mayerling (1968); Michelangelo Antonionis The Mystery of Oberwald (1981); and Sisi/Last Minute (1991). Fictionalized television portrayals of
Elisabeth include Fall of Eagles (1974); Princess Sissi (1997); Sissi, limpratrice
rebelle (2004); The Crown Prince (2006); and Sisi (2009). Elisabeth also appears
as a character in at least three novels: Stars in My Heart, by Barbara Cartland
(1981); Spangle, by Gary Jennings (1987); and Elisabeth: The Princess Bride, by
Barry Denenberg (2003).
Further Reading
Buschek, Alfred. Elisabeth, Empress of Austria. Concord, MA: Infinity Publishing, 2010.
Cunliffe-Owen, Marguerite. Martyrdom of an Empress. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005.
Hamann, Bridget. The Reluctant Empress. Berlin: Ullstein Taschenbuch, 2000.
Haslip, Joan. The Lonely Empress: Elisabeth of Austria. Phoenix, NY: Phoenix Press,
2000.
Stephan, Renate. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 18371898: The Fate of a Woman Under
the Yoke of the Imperial Court. Vienna: Austria Imperial, 1998.

ERIC V OF DENMARK (12491286)

On November 22, 1286, after a long days hunt in the countryside surrounding
Viborg, on Denmarks Jutland peninsula, King Eric V and his royal entourage
stopped for the night in the village of Finderup. As they slept in the local church
barn, a group of assassins disguised as Franciscan monks crept among them,
surrounding Eric and stabbing him 56 times, leaving his corpse to be found the
next morning. Suspicion fell first upon nobleman Stig Andersen Hvide, who
hated Eric for seducing his wife while Andersen was serving as a general in Denmarks army, then expanded to include Count Jacob Nielsen of Halland (a Swedish province ruled by Denmark). A special court convicted Andersen, Nielsen,
and seven other suspectsall members of Erics inner circlewhereupon all of
their property was forfeited and they were banished under threat of death.
Born in 1249, the son of King Christopher I, Eric was deemed too young
to rule in his own right when his father diedperhaps a victim of poison
in May 1259. The Danish court chose Erics mother, queen dowager Margaret Sambiria, to reign as regent, no easy task when powerful rivals vied for
the throne. One contender, Archbishop Jakob Erlandsen, was a suspect in
King Christophers death and had excommunicated the bishop who anointed
10-year-old Eric as his fathers successor. Another was Chief Jarimar II of Rgen
(an island in the Baltic Sea), who promptly invaded neighboring Danish-held
Zealand. Queen Margaret fought back, but Danish forces lost to Jarimar at
Ringsted, whereupon his troops pressed on to sack Copenhagen before years

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end. Jarimar might have pressed farther, but he was slain by a rural farmers
wife, whereupon his leaderless army withdrew.
Queen Margaret, meanwhile, faced a new challenge from Duke Valdemar of
southern Jutland, supported by German allies. Their combined might defeated
Danish forces at the Battle of Lo Heath, capturing both Margaret and Eric in
1261, compelling Margaret to cede royal property in Jutland as the price of
their release. Archbishop Erlandsen, meanwhile, persisted in his efforts to depose the queen and Eric, until Pope Urban IV intervened.
As an adult monarch, Eric aggravated other Danish nobles by attempting to
reduce their personal authority, breaking his promises at every turn, and by
seducing any woman who aroused him, regardless of age or marital status. He
earned the nickname Klippingfrom the common medieval practice of cutting coins to reduce their valueas a demonstration of popular opinion that
he had cheated or short-changed both his subjects and the Danish monarchy
itself. Historians remain undecided as to which of his unfortunate character
traits contributed the most to Erics murder.
One point of broad agreement is that the conviction of his supposed assassins
was probably a miscarriage of justice. Although Stig Andersen Hvide had ample
reason to wish Eric dead, no evidence placed him or any of his codefendants at
the scene of the crime. Neither was the accused permitted to testify in their own
defense, or to call supporting witnesses, rights clearly granted to them under
Danish law. Even their motive was dubious, because all nine were intimates of
Eric and actually stood to lose influence at his death. Convicted nonetheless,
Andersen settled on the island of Hjelm and raised a band of pirates who terrorized the Danish coast until his death in December 1293. Count Nielsen retired
to Halland and allied himself with King Eric II of Norway, but his influence declined as Eric II and successor Haakon V lost interest in conquering Denmark.
Twelve-year-old Eric VI succeeded his father as king of Denmark in 1286,
with his motherqueen consort Agnes of Brandenburgruling as regent until
1294. Unrest persisted, and his reign continued Denmarks Age of Decay, including further conflict with the church and rival noblemen.
Further Reading
Jespersen, Knud. A History of Denmark. Houndsmill, Hampshire, United Kingdom:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Jordan William. Europe in the High Middle Ages. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

ERIC XIV OF SWEDEN (15331577)

A mentally unstable monarch, likely schizophrenic and prone to killing those
he thought were plotting against him, King Eric XIV of Sweden was deposed by

ERIC XIV OF SWEDEN

rebellious nobles on September 30, 1568. The rebels chose Erics half-brother,
Duke John of Finland, to replace him on the throne, while Eric was imprisoned, shuttled around various castles in Sweden and Finland over the next
eight years. He died on February 25, 1577, after consuming a meal of pea
soup that was said to be poisoned. A document signed by King John III and Sir
Bengt Bengtsson Gilt, a Swedish judge, empowered Erics jailers to poison him
if anyone tried to release him from custody, but his cause of death remained
uncertain until 1958, when exhumation and autopsy revealed lethal levels of
arsenic in Erics remains.
Born at Stockholms Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) Castle on December 13,
1533, Eric lost his motherqueen consort Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg
seven weeks before his second birthday. Rumors spread that Erics father,
Gustav I, had murdered Catherine with a hammer, but a 20th-century examination of her skeleton revealed no evidence of homicide. Gustav married
Swedish noblewoman Margaret Leijonhufvud in 1536, and she bore him seven
children, including two future kings. At Gustavs death, in September 1560,
Swedens parliament elected Eric as the nations next monarch.
Whereas Gustav had satisfied himself with ruling an independent kingdom,
Eric sought to build an empire in the Baltic region and by seizing territory
from Estonia. By 1563, when those ambitions sparked the Northern Seven
Years War, with Sweden battling a coalition of Denmark, Norway, the Free
City of Lbeck, and the PolishLithuanian Union, Erics mental instability had
grown apparent to his family and other members of his court. Arbitrary rule,
marked by fits of personal violence, reached its nadir in July 1566, when a
group of concerned nobles gathered in Stockholm to discuss Erics increasingly erratic behavior. Learning of their treason, Eric invited them to Svartsj
Palace, where they were confined and placed on trial, convicted, and subsequently murdered in their cells on May 24, 1567.
That massacre, during which Eric personally stabbed one of the prisoners to death, paved the way for the rebellion that dethroned Eric in 1568. Although his life was spared, the order for jailers to kill him if escape seemed
imminent suggests the danger that was seen in his attempting to regain the
throne. John III ruled Sweden for another 15 years after his brothers death in
custody, also assuming the title Grand Prince of Finland in 1581. His son, Sigismund III Vasa, was crowned king of Poland in September 1587, thereby resolving one of Swedens foreign conflicts. At Johns death, in November 1592,
Sigismund succeeded him as Swedens king. He tried to rule from Poland,
while restoring strict Roman Catholicism to his homeland, but that effort led
to his defeat at Battle of Stngebro, in September 1598. Thereafter, Sigismund
ruled Sweden from abroad, but he returned to Poland and was then officially
deposed in July 1599.

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Further Reading
Bain, Robert. Scandinavia: A Political History of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1513
to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905.
Robert, Michael. The Swedish Imperial Experience, 15601718. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1984.

ERIM, ISMAIL NIHAT (19121980)

On July 19, 1980, two assassins ambushed former Turkish prime minister Ismail Erim outside his summer home in the Kartal district of eastern Istanbul,
killing Erim and a bodyguard with close-range gunfire. Although the shooters escaped, spokesmen for Turkeys militant Dev Sol (Revolutionary Left)
organization claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities speculated that
shooting was retaliation for Erims order to execute three radicals in May 1972,
following their conviction for a January 1971 bank robbery in Ankara. One
of those hanged, Deniz Gezmis, had been a founder of the Peoples Liberation
Army of Turkey and was regarded as a martyr by Dev Solitself a splinter of a
spin-off from the original organization.
Born in 1912 at Kandra, in Hdavendigr, Ismail Erim graduated from Istanbul University Law School in 1936 and earned his LLD from Paris Law
School three years later. He taught at Ankara Universitys law school from 1939

Turkish prime minister Ismail Erim, shot by members of the Revolutionary Left in Istanbul. (Bettmann/Corbis)

E R I M , I S M A I L N I H AT

to 1943, when he was named as legal advisor to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs. In 1945, he joined Turkeys delegation to the founding conference
of the United Nations, and was elected to represent Kocaeli Province in Turkeys parliament, as a member of the Republican Peoples Party. Appointed as
minister of public works in June 1948, Erim held that post until January 1949,
when he was elevated to the job of deputy prime minister.
Erims party lost its parliamentary majority in May 1950, whereupon he
became chief political editor for the newspaper Ulus (Nation). When that
paper shut down in 1953, Erim published his own, Yeni UlusHalk (New
NationPopulist). In 1956, he was elected as Turkeys representative to the
European Commission of Human Rights, and also participated in negotiations over Cyprus, held in London. His involvement with Cyprus continued
through 1959, when Erim led Turkeys committee on preparation of a new
Cypriot constitution.
Turkeys military coup of May 27, 1960, toppled the ruling Democrat Party,
but the junta restored civilian government in October 1961. Erim was reelected to parliament from Kocaeli Province, and began nine years of service
as Turkeys representative to the Council of Europe, winning election as that
bodys deputy secretary general. In 1969, he was appointed as a member of
the United Nations International Law Commission, at The Hague. Meanwhile,
political mayhem continued in Turkey, capped by another military coup on
March 12, 1971. Two weeks later, the ruling junta chose Erim as a neutral
prime minister, seated to form a coalition government for national unity. That
effort proved fruitless, and mass resignation of his cabinet led Erim to resign
on December 3, 1971. President Cevdet Sunay restored Erim to his post eight
days later, but poor health led Erim to resign for good on April 17, 1972.
Violence on right and left accelerated through the remainder of the 1970s,
with 5,388 political murders recorded by 1978. At the time of Erims death,
planning was underway for Turkeys third coup dtat, initially scheduled
for July 11, 1980, then pushed back to August 26, and yet again to September 12. On that final date, General Kenan Evren, army chief of staff, seized
Turkish airwaves and declared martial law nationwide in the name of the
National Security Council. Later investigation revealed that Evren had solicited
support from other army officers a full year earlier, beginning on September 11, 1979. The generals of Turkeys War Academy had voted to support the
coup on December 21, 1979, with a formal proposal for the plandubbed
Operation Flagdrafted in March 1980.
In June 1981, the junta appointed 160 persons to draft a new constitution for
Turkey, which was approved by public referendum in June 1982. Democratic
elections resumed in November 1983, but although the generals sought to dictate terms of their own retirement, they were not entirely successful. Another
referendum, in September 2010, launched an investigation of the coup and led

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to the foundation of a Specially Authorized Ankara Deputy Prosecutors Office in June 2011. In January 2012, indictments were filed against ex-generals
Evren and Tahsin Sahinkaya, the only coup leaders still living. Charged with
the deaths of 191 political prisoners, the defendants were scheduled to face
trial in April 2012.
Further Reading
Ahmad, Feroz. The Making of Modern Turkey. London: Routledge, 1993.
Hale, William. Turkish Politics and the Military. London: Routledge, 1993.
Zrcher, Eric. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.

EVERS, MEDGAR WILEY (19251963)

On June 12, 1963, a snipers bullet killed Medgar Evers, state leader of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Police found a rifle hidden in bushes
nearby and identified its last known owner as Byron De La Beckwith, a resident of Greenwood, Mississippi, and an outspoken member of various racist
groups including the Citizens Council and the Ku Klux Klan. Facing trial for
murder in February 1964, Beckwith was surprised and delighted when exgovernor Ross Barnett appeared in court to shake his hand, in full view of
jurors. That panel failed to reach a verdict, and a second jury likewise deadlocked in April 1964. Released thereafter without further charges, Beckwith
returned to a heros welcome in Greenwood and ran for lieutenant governor in
1967, on the slogan Hes a straight-shooter.
Medgar Evers was born outside Decatur, Mississippi, on July 2, 1925, and
attended segregated schools there until he was drafted for service in World
War II, at age 18. Soon after his return, in 1945, an incident occurred that set
the stage for his lifes work. Evers and brother Charles were sitting on the steps
of a rural Mississippi courthouse when U.S. senator Theodore Bilbo emerged,
telling police, Get those niggers out of here. The next thing you know, theyll
be running for office. As Charles Evers recalled the event, Medgar turned to
him, smiling, and remarked, You know, thats not a bad idea.
It was premature, however, in a state where most African Americans were
barred from voting and the races were rigidly segregated from cradle to grave.
After attending all-black Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University), with a
major in business administration, Evers worked as an insurance agent until 1954,
when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered school integration with all deliberate
speed. Despite that order, Evers was denied admission to the University of Mississippis law school, and focused instead on work for the NAACP, rising quickly
to statewide leadership as the organizations field secretary. In an atmosphere of
escalating violence, harassed with countless threats, logging frequent reports of

EVERS, MEDGAR WILEY

unpunished race-related murders, Evers campaigned to register black voters

and supported legal offensives including the federal lawsuit that secured James
Merediths admission to the University of Mississippi in September 1962.
Despite that victorymarked by a racist riot that left two men dead and
scores injured, including more than 100 deputy U.S. marshalsnone of Mississippis elementary or high schools were desegregated by the time Evers was
killed in 1963. His best efforts had registered 28,000 African American voters
statewide, but the vast majority were still excluded from the ballot box. The
year of his murder, two new militant Ku Klux Klan (KKK) factions established
themselves in Mississippi, eclipsing the respectable Citizens Councils and
inaugurating years of mayhem that saw 75 black churches bombed or burned
by arsonists in 1964 alone.

MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM SUMMER

From the 1880s onward, Mississippi earned notoriety as the United States
most segregated state, a closed society impervious to outside influence, where white supremacy was enforced by a combination of law, police brutality, and vigilante terrorism. In 1963, young members of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a mock
Freedom Vote demonstrating the desire of black Mississippians to vote,
if unimpeded by intimidation. Soon afterward, a Council of Federated
Organizationscombining elements of SNCC, the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial
Equality, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conferencebegan laying
plans for a Freedom Summer campaign in 1964. The operations vehicles
were local freedom schools, voter-registration drives conducted in the face
of stolid, often violent resistance, and a new Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party with interracial membership. More than 1,000 out-of-state volunteers, 90 percent of them white, teamed with Mississippi-born African
Americans for the 10-week campaign. Additionally, more than 100 volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists, medical students, and other medical
professionals from the Medical Committee for Human Rights donated their
services for emergency care, health-education classes, and improvements
in Mississippis Jim Crow health system. An official tabulation for summer
listed 7 deaths; 4 persons critically wounded by gunfire; 80 persons beaten;
1,062 arrests; and 117 churches, homes and businesses bombed or burned
by nightriders. Visible results were modest, with few new voters registered,
but the bold campaign helped motivate passage of the federal Voting Rights
Act, signed by President Lyndon Johnson in August 1965.

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Byron De La Beckwith was in the thick of that white resistance, serving

as a Klan recruiter and motivational speaker, hobnobbing with terrorists, finally convicted in August 1975 of conspiring to murder a prominent Jewish
community leader in Louisiana. Paroled in January 1980, Beckwith relocated
to Tennessee, serving as pastor for a Knoxville congregation of the Christian
Identity secta white supremacist, anti-Semitic cult whose leaders teach that
subhuman Jews were spawned in the Garden of Eden, after Eve had sex with
Satan in serpentine form.
For decades it seemed that Beckwith would avoid conviction for killing
Medgar Evers, but Mississippi prosecutors reopened the case in 1993, based
on new evidence including FBI reports that Beckwith had confessed the slaying to friends and at KKK rallies. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994, Beckwith stalled incarceration with appeals until 1997, when
the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld his conviction. He died in custody,
from complications of heart disease, hypertension, and other ailments, on January 21, 2001. Medgar Evers is an icon of the 1960s civil rights movement,
and Beckwith remains a martyr to hard-core white-supremacists.
Charles Evers, older brother of Medgar, was elected as mayor of Fayette,
Mississippi, in 1969. That same year, police arrested three other members of a
KKK splinter group, the Knights of the Green Forest, on charges of conspiring
to kill the mayor-elect. Captured at a local motel with automatic weapons, the
trio served time on various charges. Hollywood examined the Medgar Evers
case in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), with James Woods cast as Byron De La
Beckwith. Evers himself, played by James Pickens Jr., appears only in the films
opening sequence, and the remainder depicts events from the 1990s.
See also: Ku Klux Klan (1866 ).

Further Reading
Evers, Myrlie, and William Peters. For Us, the Living. Oxford: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.
Massengill, Reed. Portrait of a Racist. New York: St. Martins Press, 1994.
Nossiter, Adam. Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers. Boston:
Addison-Wesley, 1994.
Vollers, Maryanne. Ghosts of Mississippi: The Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron
De La Beckwith, and the Haunting of the New South. New York: Back Bay Books, 1995.
Williams, Michael. Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr. Little Rock: University of Arkansas
Press, 2011.

EWART-BIGGS, CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

(19211976)
On July 21, 1976, members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)
detonated a mine in the Dublin suburb of Sandyford, demolishing a car

E WA R T- B I G G S , C H R I S T O P H E R T H O M A S

occupied by British ambassador to Ireland Christopher Ewart-Biggs and others. The blast killed Ewart-Biggs and civil servant Judith Cooke, while wounding driver Brian ODriscoll and passenger Sir Brian Cubbon, then Northern
Irelands highest-ranking government official as permanent undersecretary of
state. Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Liam Cosgrave declared the bombing an
atrocity [that] fills all decent Irish people with a sense of shame, and British
prime minister James Callaghan branded the killers a common enemy whom
we must destroy or be destroyed by. Authorities detained 13 suspected PIRA
members after the assassination, but no convictions were obtained and the
crime remains officially unsolved.
Christopher Ewart-Biggs was born in Thanet, Kent, on August 5, 1921, the
son of a captain in the Royal Engineers. He attended Wellington College, in
Berkshire, and University College, Oxford, prior to the outbreak of World
War II. Enlisting with the British armys Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, he participated in the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 1942), and
was wounded there, losing his right eye to shrapnel. Thereafter, Ewart-Biggs
wore a false eye partially disguised by a smoked-glass monocle that became his
personal trademark.
Leaving the army for a career in diplomatic service, Ewart-Biggs next found
his life at risk in Algeria, where he served as British consul in early 1961,
during transition from French colonial rule to independence. Perhaps fortunately, diehard colonialists operating as the Organisation de larme secrte (Secret Army Organization) focused most of their homicidal energy on French
president Charles de Gaulle, and Ewart-Biggs left Algiers unscathed, while an
estimated 50,000 persons were slain by lynch mobs in the wake of liberation.
Ireland was another danger zone for British diplomats in 1976, when
Ewart-Biggs replaced Sir Arthur Galsworthy as ambassador to Dublin. The latest
round of Northern Irelands troubles had begun in May 1966, when a loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), publicly declared war
on the Irish Republican Army. A campaign of sectarian murders targeting Catholics ensued, followed by rioting between loyalists and republicans in Belfast
and elsewhere. A split in IRA ranks spawned the new PIRA in December 1969,
pursuing a policy of armed resistance against right-wing terrorists, police, and
British occupation forces. By spring 1974, the PIRA had expanded its bombing
campaign to England and the Republic of Ireland, with lethal blasts in Dublin,
Monaghan, and West Yorkshire. A PIRA truce, announced in February 1975,
foundered in January 1976, as Ambassador Galsworthy prepared to retire. The
UVF renewed hostilities by executing six Catholic civilians in County Armagh,
whereupon PIRA gunmen killed 10 Protestants in the same district. As Britains
new ambassador to Ireland, appointed in July, Ewart-Biggs became an irresistible target.
Following her husbands murder, Jane Ewart-Biggs entered politics as a
member of the Labour Party and became a Life Peer in the House of Lords, in

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May 1981. There, she campaigned to improve Anglo-Irish relations, and also
served in 1984 as president of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF).
Outside of politics, in 1977, she established the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, awarding 5,000 annually to a book, a play, or a piece of journalism that promotes peace and reconciliation in Ireland, a greater understanding
between the peoples of Britain and Ireland, or closer cooperation between
partners of the European Community.
Further Reading
Bishop, Patrick, and Eamonn Mallie. The Provisional IRA. London: Corgi, 1987.
Coogan, Tim. The IRA. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
McKearney, Tommy. The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. London: Pluto
Press, 2011.
Shanahan, Timothy. The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Morality of Terrorism.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

F
FAISAL BIN ABDUL-AZIZ AL SAUD
(19061975)
On March 25, 1975, while entertaining petitions from his subjects at the royal
residence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, King Faisal greeted visitors from neighboring
Kuwait. His half-brothers son, Prince Faisal bin Musa'id bin Abdul-Aziz, was
also present, having recently returned from the United States. As King Faisal
leaned in to kiss his nephew, Prince Faisal drew a pistol and shot his uncle
twice, in the chin and ear. A bodyguard slashed at the prince with a sheathed
sword, while Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani shouted orders to spare the
princes life. King Faisal reached the hospital alive, but surgeons could not save
his life. Despite reports that he forbade Prince Faisals execution with his dying
breath, the assassin was convicted of murder on June 18, 1975, and publicly
beheaded the same afternoon, before a crowd of thousands. His brother, Bandar, served a year in prison on suspicion of conspiracy, and was then released.
Born in Riyadh, in April 1906, Faisal was the third son of Abdul-Aziz ibn
Saud, first king of Nejd and Hejaz from 1926 to 1932, then first king of Saudi
Arabia from August 1932 until his death in November 1953. Son Saud bin
Abdul-Aziz Al Saud assumed the throne, and younger brother Faisal graduated from service as governor of Hijaz (appointed by their father in 1925) to
become minister of foreign affairs, also commanding an army unit that participated in the SaudiYemeni War of early 1934. Vast wealth derived from oil
in the wake of World War II sent King Saud on an epic spending spree that,
coupled with his evident incompetence in foreign affairs, appeared to threaten
both the monarchy and the nation.
In 1958, senior members of the royal family and high-ranking Muslim clerics persuaded Saud to make Faisal prime minister, with sweeping executive
powers. Faisal curbed spending, then resigned his post in December 1960,
in a dispute with Saud over the level of authority granted to Saudi Arabias
Council of Ministers. He was reinstalled as prime minister in 1962, but conflicts with his brother continued, prompting Saud to abolish the office by
royal decree. In January 1963, while Saud sought medical treatment abroad,
Faisal replaced key office holders with his own supporters and placed his
brother Abdullah in charge of the National Guard. Saud returned to find himself outnumbered and outgunned, pressured to accept a purely ceremonial

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FA I S A L I I O F I R AQ

role and Faisal assumed command of the country. Saud resisted until March
1964, when Faisal was appointed as regent, formally replacing his brother as
king on November 2, 1964.
As king, Faisal balanced the nations budget, increased oil production, and
supported selective modernization of Saudi Arabias government, including
the establishment of a judicial system and civil service, a modern welfare system, creation of administrative regions, and pursuance of five-year plans for
economic development. Faisal had already established the nations first television station, although broadcasts were delayed until 1965. A year later, one of
his ultraconservative nephewsPrince Khalid ibn Musaid, brother of Faisals
assassinwas killed by police while attacking a Saudi television station he
condemned as decadent. In 1969, Faisal arrested hundreds of army officers,
announcing that they had conspired to depose him by force. Closely allied
with the United States, he reportedly learned of the budding coup from agents
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Journalists suggested three possible motives for Faisals assassination. One
school of thought suggested that Prince Faisal acted belatedly to avenge his
brothers killing by police, nine years earlier. The Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar
speculated that his death was retribution for deposing King Saud in 1964. A rival
paper, Al-Bayrak, alleged that King Faisal had restricted his nephewassassins
foreign travels, based on concern over Prince Faisals drinking and drug abuse
while outside the country. A fourth theory, popular with anti-American elements,
claimed that the CIA had used Prince Faisal to eliminate the king. No motive for
the agencys decision to assassinate a seeming friend was ever clarified.
King Faisal was succeeded by a younger brother, Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz
Al Saud, who reigned until his death from heart failure in June 1982. Another brother, Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, then occupied the throne until
his death from pneumonia in August 2005. The countrys present king, brother
Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, maintains his familys longstanding alliance
with the United States.
Further Reading
Beling, Willard. King Faisal and the Modernisation of Saudi Arabia. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1980.
de Gaury, Gerald. Faisal: King of Saudi Arabia. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2008.
Stefoff, Rebecca. Faisal. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2008.
Vassiliev, Alexi. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, Faith and Times. London: Saqi
Books, 2013.

FAISAL II OF IRAQ (19351958)

In the early hours of July 14, 1958, while en route to Jordan in support of King
Hussein and President Camille Chamoun against rebellious opposition led by

FA I S A L I I O F I R A Q

Prime Minister Rashid Karami,

Iraqi troops led by General Abd
al-Karim Qasim marched on
Baghdad instead, staging a coup
dtat against King Faisal II,
Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah,
and Prime Minister Nuri asSaid. By 8:00 A.M., the rebel soldiers had surrounded the royal
familys al-Rahab Palace and
Nuri as-Saids residence. Royal
guards offered no resistance
as Faisal, the crown prince,
Princess Hiyam (Abd al-Ilahs
wife), Princess Nafeesa (Abd
al-Ilahs mother), Princess
Abadiya (Faisals aunt), and
several servants were herded
into the palace courtyard, lined
up against a wall, and cut
down by machine-gun fire. All
but Faisal were killed outright;
the king was placed aboard an King Faisal II of Iraq died in a military coup, on
July 14, 1958. (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
ambulance but died en route
to Baghdads Royal Hospital.
Nuri as-Said, forewarned of the attack, briefly eluded his pursuers, but was
killed by insurgents on July 15, effectively ending Iraqs 37-year Hashemite
monarchy.
Born in Baghdad on May 2, 1935, Al-Malik Fais.al Ath-than was the only son
of Ghazi I, Iraqs second king, and Queen Aliya bint Ali. A mysterious singlecar crash killed Ghazi in April 1939, leaving some Iraqis convinced he was murdered on orders from Nuri as-Said, then serving the second of his eight terms
as prime minister. That case remained unproven, and although three-year-old
Faisal officially succeeded his father, uncle Abd al-Ilah ruled as regent until
Faisal attained his majority in May 1953. He spent the years of World War II
in England, studying at Harrow School with his cousin, future King Hussein
of Jordan. Meanwhile, Abd al-Ilah injured the monarchy by signing the AngloIraqi Treaty of January 1948 (extending British influence over Iraq, established
in prior treaties from 1922 and 1930), and by persuading Faisal to sign the
Baghdad Pact of 1955, allying Iraq with Britain, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, in
the anticommunist Central Treaty Organization. Massive protest demonstrations
followed ratification of both agreements, with hundreds of protesters killed by
Iraqi troops and police.

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By the time Faisal assumed his throne, rebellion was already brewing inside
his army. A corps of pan-Arab Free Officers, inspired by those who toppled
Egypts monarchy in 1952, fomented uprisings in Hayy and Najaf in 1956. In
February 1957, a coalition of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, Iraqs Communist
Party, and the National Democrats organized a Front of National Union, supported by a parallel Supreme Committee of Free Officers within the Iraqi officer corps, which ultimately served as the spearhead of rebellion against King
Faisal.
Following destruction of the monarchy, a revolutionary council was established, with General Qasim serving as prime minister and minister of defense,
and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif became deputy prime minister, minister of the
interior, and commander in chief of the army. A three-man Sovereignty Council was created, with representatives from Iraqs three largest ethnic groups:
Muhammad Mahdi Kubbah spoke for Shiite Muslims; Muhammad Najib arRubaI represented Sunnis; and Khalid al-Naqshabandi served as spokesman
for the Kurds. Despite those measures, and announcement of a temporary
constitution on July 27, 1958, an era of political upheaval followed the July
revolution. In March 1959, the New York Times declared Iraq confused and
unstable, plagued by cross currents of communism, Arab and Iraqi nationalism, anti-Westernism and the positive neutrality of President Gamal Abdel
Nasser of the United Arab Republic.
That instability resulted in ultimate triumph for the Baath Party, which led a
coup against President Qasim in February 1963, supported by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency. Party chief Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr seized office as prime
minister, advanced to the presidency and chairmanship of the Revolutionary
Command Council in July 1968, then was replaced by fellow Baathist Saddam
Hussein in July 1979.
Further Reading
de Gaury, Gerald. Three Kings in Baghdad: The Tragedy of Iraqs Monarchy. London: I.B.
Tauris, 2008.
Khadduri, Majid. Independent Iraq, 19321958. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

FALCN, RAMN LORENZO (18551909)

On November 14, 1909, mourners gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for
the funeral of Antonio Ballv, director of the countrys National Penitentiary.
Among those present was Ramn Falcn, chief of the Capital Police, attending with Juan Lartigau, his executive secretary. After the service, as they were
returning to headquarters on Moreno Street, Ukrainian immigrant anarchist
Simn Radowitzky rushed to Falcns carriage and lobbed a homemade bomb

FA L C N , R A M N L O R E N Z O

through the window. Its explosion fatally wounded both Falcn and Lartigau,
both victims dying before they reached the nearest hospital. Arrested at the
scene, Radowitzky described his attack as retribution for the Semana Roja (Red
Week) in May 1909, when Falcns police shot and brutalized striking workers in Buenos Aires. Convicted of murder and sentenced to death, 18-year-old
Radowitzky secured commutation of his sentence to indefinite imprisonment
by proving that he was a minor.
A native of Buenos Aires, born on August 30, 1855, Ramn Falcn was
among the first enrollees at Brazils National Military College, graduating with
honors in 1873. He subsequently served as aide-de-camp to President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, then joined in General Julio Argentino Rocas Conquest of the Desert campaign during 18781879, annihilating native villages
whose land was coveted by wealthy cattle ranchers. As General Roca explained
the campaign: Our self-respect as a virile people obliges us to put down as
soon as possible, by reason or by force, this handful of savages who destroy our
wealth and prevent us from definitely occupying, in the name of law, progress
and our own security, the richest and most fertile lands of the Republic.
On a lighter note, in 1887, Falcn founded the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima
La Plata, today the Western Hemispheres oldest soccer club, still in existence
today. Retiring from the army as a colonel, in 1898, he was elected to Argentinas Chamber of Deputies as a member of the ruling National Autonomist
Party. In 1906, with the outbreak of organized labor unrest, President Jos
Figueroa Alcorta chose Falcn to lead the Polica de la Capital and crush insurgent movements.
To that end, Falcn employed the tactics he had learned in military service, while annihilating aboriginal tribesmen. During the Buenos Aires Tenants
Strike of July 1907, he fielded mounted troops armed with sabers against unarmed protesters, and drove rent strikers from their homes with high-pressure
hoses. On May 1, 1909, members of the anarchist Argentine Regional Workers Federation (FORA) staged a May Day demonstration in the capital, where
Falcns shock troops killed 11 marchers and wounded more than 100. That
incident sparked a general strike, and led in turn to Falcns Red Week of unbridled violence, coupled with anti-Semitic propaganda against Russian Jewish
instigators and enforced censorship of newspaper reports on police brutality.
On Falcns orders, police also shut down FORAs newspaper, La Protesta Humana, and La Vanguardia, published by the Socialist Party of Argentina. Benito
Villanueva, president of Argentinas senate, later intervened to reduce the long
prison terms handed out to demonstrators jailed in May 1909, but President
Alcorta and members of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange staged a rally in the
chiefs support.
Following Falcns assassination, President Alcorta declared a nationwide
state of siege and signed a Law of Social Defense, permitting deportation of

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accused agitators. After winning commutation of his death sentence, Simon

Radowitzky was initially jailed in Buenos Aires, but he escaped briefly in 1911,
with 12 other inmates. Upon recapture, he was transferred to the dreaded National Penitentiary in Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego Province. There,
he endured harassment and brutality allegedly including gang rape by a deputy
warden and three guards, yet persisted in leading inmate hunger strikes and
protest choirs. Anarchist colleagues engineered a second escape in 1918, but
Radowitzky was recaptured 23 days later, punished with solitary confinement
at Ushuaia until January 1921. President Hiplito Yrigoyen released Radowitzky in 1930 and expelled him from Argentina. He participated in the Spanish
Civil War of 1936, then fled to Mexico after the fascist victory in Spain, surviving there as a toy factory worker until a heart attack claimed his life in February 1956.
In Buenos Aires, in November 1943, the Capital Police force was transformed into the Argentine Federal Police (AFP). President Pedro Pablo Ramrez
appointed his son as the chief, and although the force was slowly modernized,
it retained an unsavory reputation. In 1973, returning President Juan Pern
named Alberto Villara member of the right-wing Argentine Anticommunist
Alliance death squadto lead the department. Following Villars assassination
in 1974, the AFP participated in a March 1976 coup dtat that deposed President Isabel Pern, thereafter collaborating with the military junta that tortured
and murdered thousands of Argentineans.
Further Reading
Rock, David. Argentina, 15161987: From Spanish Colonization to Alfonsn. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1987.
Romero, Luis. A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.

FERREIRA DO AMARAL, JOO MARIA

(18031849)
Macau, China, was a hotbed of dissension and conspiracy in 1849. Three hundred years of Portuguese occupation, including importation of opium and African slaves, had primed the native Chinese population for rebellion. Governor
Joao Ferreira do Amaral stoked the fires of animosity in 1849 by imposing new
taxes, expelling Qing dynasty officials from Macau and closing their Customs
house, while simultaneously ceasing rent payments to the Qing government in
Beijing. On August 22, 1849, seven Chinese led by Shen Zhiliang ambushed
the governor outside Macaus Lin Fong Temple, dragging him from his horse
and stabbing him repeatedly, then dismembering him and leaving his head at

FERREIRA DO AMARAL, JOO MARIA

the temples entrance, fleeing with their victims severed limbs into Guangdong
Province.
Joao Ferreira do Amaral was born in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 4, 1803,
the eldest son of a sergeant in the Portuguese Legion who had joined Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812 and lost his life there. Ferreira subsequently
joined the Portuguese navy as a midshipman, advancing to the rank of commander by 1821. That same year, he was wounded in a naval engagement with
Brazilian rebels, requiring amputation of one arm. After the surgery, performed
while Ferreira smoked a cigar, he reportedly tossed his severed limb overboard
with a shout of Viva Portugal!
That incident and other exploits marked Ferreira for further advancement.
By 1839, he was designated Captain of Sea and War (equivalent to full captain in the U.S. or British navies), and a knight fidalgo (son of somebody
i.e., an important person) of the Portuguese Royal household. After serving
as a legislator for Angola in Portugals Chamber of Deputies, Ferreira was appointed to serve as governor of Macau on April 21, 1846. Within a month
of taking office, he imposed a poll tax, property tax, and ground rent on all
Chinese residents of the colony. Protests from Beijing were immediate and
prolonged, ending only when Ferreira expelled Qing officials en masse from
Macau.
Ferreiras assassination prompted demands for retribution from Portugal,
echoed by supporting statements from the U.S., British, and Spanish consulates in nearby Hong Kong. It also triggered the Baishaling Incident, as Chinese imperial troops mobilized on the border separating mainland Guangdong
Province from Macau. On August 25, Second Lieutenant Vicente Nicolau de
Mesquita staged a preemptive strike against a Chinese fort at Baishaling, capturing the garrison of 400 soldiers and 20 cannons with a force of only 36 Portuguese troops. Authorities in Guangdong forestalled further attacks by arresting
and executing Shen Zhiliang. In the process, they also recovered Ferreiras
missing arms and legs, returning them to the Portuguese colonial government.
Guangdong villagers buried Shen under a headstone calling him a fighter for
justice, whereas the Portuguese stamped the seal of their nations royal family on a stone outside the Lin Fong Temple. Perhaps surprisingly, given conditions in the colony, Ferreira was the only one of 189 Portuguese rulers killed in
Macau by their Chinese subjects, during 450 years of colonial rule.
Further Reading
Ng, Maria. Pilgrimages: Memories of Colonial Macau and Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 2009.
Yik-yi Chu, Cindy. Foreign Communities in Hong Kong, 1840s1950s. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

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F O R D, G E R A L D R U D O L P H , J R .

FORD, GERALD RUDOLPH, JR.

(19132006)ATTEMPTED
Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was an easy target for comedians who focused on his seeming clumsinessstumbling as he deplaned
from Air Force One, slicing his golf ball into crowds of spectators, beaning his
tennis partner with an awkward servebut he also incited violent emotions
from some U.S. residents, beginning with his controversial pardon of disgraced
predecessor Richard Nixon, granted one month after his inauguration. Simple
luck appeared to spare him in September 1975, when he survived two assassination attempts within 17 days.
The first attempt occurred on September 5, at Capitol Park in Sacramento,
California. While touring the park, Ford was approached by Lynette Squeaky
Fromme, a follower of imprisoned cult leader Charles Manson (see sidebar).
Dressed in a red flowing robe, Fromme brandished a .45-caliber Colt pistol at
Ford, but Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf grabbed the weapon, jamming
its hammer with the webbing of his thumb. Police later discovered that although the pistols magazine contained four cartridges, the firing chamber was
empty, unloaded by Fromme before she left her motel room. Fromme claimed
that she hoped to speak with Ford concerning Californias endangered redwoods (a recent Manson theme), saying, I stood up and waved a gun for a reason. I was so relieved not to
have to shoot it, but, in truth,
I came to get life. Not just my
life but clean air, healthy water
and respect for creatures and
creation. Prosecuted under
a 1965 statute that made attempted murder of a president
a federal crime, Fromme received a life sentence and was
paroled in August 2009, after
serving 34 years.
Ford was still in California
when the second, more serious
attempt on his life occurred, on
September 22. Sara Jane Moore,
a 45-year-old FBI informant
and bookkeeper for People In
Need (recently created by media
mogul Randolph Hurst, on dePresident Gerald Ford survived two assassination mand from members of the
attempts in September 1975. (Library of Congress) Symbionese Liberation Army

FORD, GERALD RUDOLPH, JR.

who had kidnapped his daughter), fired a .38-caliber revolver at Ford as the
president left San Franciscos St. Francis Hotel. A bystander deflected the shot,
which struck a wall six inches from Fords head and ricocheted to wound a
taxi driver. As Moore explained her act: The government had declared war
on the left. Nixons appointment of Ford as vice president and his resignation
making Ford president seemed to be a continuing assault on America. I didnt
want to kill anybody, but there comes a point when the only way you can
make a statement is to pick up a gun. I do regret I didnt succeed, and allow
the winds of change to start. I wish I had killed him. I did it to create chaos.
Like Fromme, Moore was sentenced to life, paroled in December 2007 after
serving 32 years.
Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14,
1913. His parents separated 16 days after his birth, and divorced when he was
five months old. His mother remarried in 1916, to Gerald Rudolff Ford, and
applied the same name to her son, although her new husband never adopted
the child. In later life, Ford changed the spelling of his middle name to the
more conventional Rudolph and kept the Junior.
Ford graduated from the University of Michigan in 1934, working as a boxing and basketball coach. Yale Law School rejected him in 1935, then reconsidered three years later, after Ford had spent a year of study at his alma maters
law school. He earned his LLB in 1941, was admitted to Michigans bar that
same year, then joined the U.S. Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. Discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1946, he returned to Michigan and entered politics as a Republican, winning the first of 12 congressional
terms in 1948. During 19631964 he served on the Warren Commission, appointed to investigate the assassination of President John Kennedy, and critics of that investigation cite Fords close friendship with FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover to support claims of a whitewash, suggesting that Ford was Hoovers
man on the commission. From January 1965 to December 1973, Ford served
as House Minority Leader.
In October 1973, President Nixon nominated Ford to succeed Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had resigned and later pled no contest to taxevasion charges. The House confirmed Ford on December 6, and Nixon
subsequently resigned in August 1974, leaving Ford as president. He remains the only Oval Office occupant in U.S. history who was never elected
as president or as vice president by the Electoral College. On September 8,
1974, when Ford pardoned Nixon for any and all crimes committed during
his presidency, many observers railed against the appearance of a corrupt
bargain between Ford and Nixon. Ford, for his part, described Nixons humiliation as a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and
on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only
I can do that, and if I can, I must.

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F O R D, G E R A L D R U D O L P H , J R .

THE MANSON FAMILY

The so-called Manson Family was a cult of sorts, including up to 50
members at one time, mostly young drifters and runaways who fell into
the orbit of middle-aged ex-convict Charles Milles Manson between 1967
and 1969. Roaming throughout and beyond California, the family lived
hand-to-mouth, indulged in drug-fueled orgies at Mansons direction,
and listened with rapt attention as he spun predictions of an apocalyptic race war he called Helter Skelter, from the lyrics of a then-popular
Beatles song with the same title. That conflict, Manson said, would climax with annihilation of whites by African Americans, who would then
recognize their own ineptitude and seek his leadership to run the country
they had captured. To precipitate that war, Manson dispatched his blackclad creepy-crawlers on a series of murderous home invasions in 1969,
claiming at least eight lives (some estimates exceed 30 victims, including Mansons own biological father, slain in Kentucky). In various trials,
Manson and seven of his disciples were sentenced to death, those verdicts
commuted to life imprisonment by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. At
the time of this writing, five are still in custody. Defendant Steve Grogan
was released in 1985, after he led police to the remains of murder victim Donald Shorty Shea. Susan Atkins died in prison, from cancer, on
September 24, 2009, and ex-family member Bruce Davis was paroled in
October 2012, after serving 40 years for the 1969 slayings of Shea and
musician Gary Hinman.

Lingering controversy over that pardon, coupled with various domestic and
foreign issues, ensured that Ford would be a one-term president. He agreed reluctantly to seek another term, but floundered in debates with former Georgia
governor Jimmy Carter, despite Carters own missteps in the public eye. On
election day, Ford carried 27 states to Carters 23, but he failed to secure an
electoral majority. Ford remained active in the Republican Party after his defeat, and lived longer than any other U.S. president, dying in December 2006
at the age of 93 years and 165 days.
Further Reading
Bravin, Jess. Squeaky: The Life and Times of Lynette Alice Fromme. New York: St. Martins
Press, 1997.
Brinkley, Douglas. Gerald R. Ford. New York: Times Books, 2007.
Livesy, Clara. The Manson Women: A Family Portrait. Florham Park, NJ: Richard
Marek, 1980.

FOSTER, MARCUS ALBERT

Mollenhoff, Clark. The Man Who Pardoned Nixon: A Documented Account of Gerald Fords
Presidential Retreat from Credibility. New York: St. Martins Press, 1976.
Sanders, Ed. The Family. New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 2002.

FOSTER, MARCUS ALBERT (19231973)

On November 6, 1973, as Superintendent of Schools Marcus Foster and his
deputy, Robert Blackburn, left a school board meeting in Oakland, California,
they were ambushed by members of the radical-leftist Symbionese Liberation
Army (SLA). Foster suffered fatal wounds from hollow-point bullets filled
with cyanide, and Blackburn was struck by a shotgun blast but survived.
Following the murder, an SLA communique accused Foster and Blackburn
of being fascists who wanted all Oakland students to carry identification
cards. In fact, Fosteran African American popular with liberalshad opposed that plan and only grudgingly accepted more moderate plans to track
school enrollees.
A native of Athens, Georgia, born on March 31, 1923, Marcus Foster left
the Jim Crow South with his family, as a child, and attended public schools in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned his bachelors degree from historically
black Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, followed by a doctorate from the
University of Pennsylvania. Between 1957 and 1970, he taught school in Philadelphia, advancing to the rank of principal at Gratz High School, then serving
associate superintendent for community relations until the Oakland Unified
School District recruited him as its new school superintendent. Before departing Philadelphia, he was honored with an award naming him as the person
who had done the most for his adopted hometown.
The early 1970s were a hectic time for schools in California and nationwide.
Those years also witnessed the birth of the SLA, founded after inmate Donald
David DeFreeze, aka General Field Marshal Cinque, escaped from Soledad
Prison in March 1973. A small, strange group, the SLA was led by an African American (DeFreeze), but most of its members were whitethough some
wore blackface makeup, either as a disguise or a display of solidarity with
ghetto residents. Fosters assassination was the SLAs first overt action, followed
in February 1974 by the abduction and apparent brainwashing of newspaper
heiress Patricia Hearst. (Hearst joined in a $10,000 San Francisco bank robbery and was later convicted as a willing participant, despite her claims of coercion.) On May 17, 1974, DeFreeze and four others died in a shootout with
Los Angeles police and FBI agents.
Meanwhile, Oakland police arrested SLA members Russell Little and Joseph
Remiro for Fosters assassination on January 10, 1974. Both were convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment, but the California Court of Appeal overturned
Littles verdict on June 5, 1981. Jurors acquitted him at his second trial, based

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FR ANZ FERDINAND

on statements from surviving SLA members professing his innocence. According to Little, Who actually pulled the trigger that killed Foster was Mizmoon
[Patricia Monique Soltysik]. Nancy [Ling Perry] was supposed to shoot Blackburn, [but] she kind of botched that and DeFreeze ended up shooting him with
a shotgun. Patricia Hearst, testifying at her own trial, named Soltysik and SLA
member Emily Yolanda Harris as Fosters killers. Harris served eight years in
prison for Hearsts kidnapping, and received another seven-year term in 2003,
after pleading guilty to second-degree murder related to an April 1975 bank
holdup. No charges were filed against her in the Foster case.
Further Reading
Bryan, John. This Soldier Still at War: The True Story of Joe Remiro and the Symbionese Liberation Army. London: Quartet Books, 1976.
McCorry, Jesse. Marcus Foster and the Oakland Public Schools. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1978.
McLellan, Vin, and Paul Avery. The Voices of Guns. New York: Putnam, 1977.
Payne, Les, Tim Findley, and Carolyn Craven. The Life and Death of the SLA: A True
Story of Revolutionary Terror. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976.
Spencer, John. In the Crossfire: Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School
Reform. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

FRANZ FERDINAND (18631914)

In some respects, the double murder that ignited World War I may be regarded
as a tragicomedy of errors. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was traveling with his wife, Duchess
Sophie of Hohenberg, from Ilida Spa to Sarajevo, Serbia (now the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina), on June 28, 1914. A six-car motorcade conveyed
them from Sarajevos railway station toward a military barracks, which Ferdinand was scheduled to inspect before proceeding to the town hall. Unknown
to Ferdinand and company, a team of Bosnian Serb assassins lay in wait along
the archdukes route, hoping to kill him as a first step toward severing AustriaHungarys south-Slav provinces and creating an independent Serbia.
The first would-be killer, Muhamed Mehmedbaic,
was armed with a bomb
but did not hurl it as the procession passed his station, at the Mostar Caf.

Vaso Cubrilovi
c,
standing nearby with a pistol and bomb, likewise did noth
ing as his target came and went. The third man in line, Nedeljko Cabrinovi
c,

threw his bomb, but it bounced off the folded convertible roof of Franz Ferdinands car, detonating beneath the next car in line and wounding 20 people.

Cabrinovi
c instantly swallowed a cyanide pill and leaped into the Miljacka River,
but the poison failed to kill him and a furious mob dragged him from the
water, beating him before police arrested him and hauled him off to jail. The
motorcade, meanwhile, sped past assassins Cvjetko Popovic,
Gavrilo Princip,
and Trifun Grabe and reached the town hall without further incident.

FRANZ FERDINAND

After an angry exchange

with Sarajevos mayor, protesting his outrageous welcome
to the city, Ferdinand delivered
his scheduled speech, then announced his plan to visit victims of the mornings bombing
at Sarajevo Hospital. The motorcade left city hall at 10:45
A.M., but Governor Oskar Potiorek forgot to tell Ferdinands
driver, Leopold Lojka, that
hePotiorekwished the procession to travel along Appel
Quay. Lojka turned onto Franz
Josef Street instead, coincidentally passing a delicatessen
where plotter Gavrilo Princip
had stopped to eat after the
bungled ambush. There, Lojka Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinands murder trigtook another wrong turn, then gered the First World War in 1914. (Bettmann/
stalled the car while trying to Corbis)
reverse and change directions.
Princip seized his unexpected second chance, rushing the open car and shooting Ferdinand in the throat, then wounding Duchess Sophie in the abdomen.
Police instantly seized him, but the damage was done. Sophie died en route to
the hospital, and her husband bled to death 10 minutes later.
Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria, on December 18, 1863, the
eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig, nephew of Austro-Hungarian emperor
Franz Joseph I and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. His cousin, Crown Prince
Rudolf, committed suicide in 1889, leaving Ferdinands father next in line for
the throne, but typhoid fever killed Karl Ludwig seven years later, making
Ferdinand the heir presumptive. Far from politics, however, Ferdinands primary passion seemed to be hunting: his diaries listed some 300,000 kills, and
100,000 trophies were displayed at his castle in Konopite, Bohemia (now the
Czech Republic). His political philosophies remain obscure, and proved to be
irrelevant in any case.
Ferdinands assassination is universally regarded as the trigger incident for
World War I. Austria-Hungary quickly declared war against Serbia, setting off
a chain reaction as Serbias alliesthe Triple Entente of France, Britain, and
Russiaresponded with declarations of war against Austria-Hungary. That, in
turn, drove the other Central PowersGermany, the Ottoman Empire, and the
kingdom of Bavariato support Austria-Hungary by declaring war against the

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FR ANZ FERDINAND

Triple Entente. Over the next four years, the global conflict would claim an estimated 16.6 million lives, with countless more wounded or missing.
All of the conspirators in Ferdinands assassination were eventually captured.
Twenty-five defendants faced trial at Sarajevo in October 1914, with 16 con
victed. Danilo Ilic,
Veljko Cubrilovi
c,
and Mihaijlo Jovanovic were sentenced
to death and hanged in February 1915. Two other condemned defendants,
Jakov Milovic and Nedjo Kerovic,
won commutation of their sentences to life
imprisonment and 20 years, respectively. The others receiving prison terms in
cluded Mitar Kerovic (life); Nedeljko Cabrinovi
c,
Gavrilo Princip, and Trifko

Grabe (20 years); Vaso Cubrilovic (16 years); Cvjetko Popovic (13 years);

THE BLACK HAND

The Black Hand was a secret society organized by a group of seven Serbian army officers on September 6, 1901, pledged to unite all territories
annexed by Austria-Hungary that contained significant Serb populations.
(It should not be confused with the Black Hand extortion gangs led by
members of the Mafia and Camorra that preyed on Italian immigrants to
the United States between the 1880s and the 1920s.) The groups first target
was King Alexander I of Serbia, assassinated with his consort Draga Main
in June 1903, by Black Hand founder Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic;
and
several confederates. Five years later, in October 1908, Austria-Hungary
annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, prompting creation of two larger resistance groups. One, called Narodna Odbrana (National Defense), focused
Serbian anger against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the other
Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia)served ethnic Bosnians. Narodna Odbrana
hatched multiple plots to kill the king of Montenegro during 19081909,
but none were successful. The final Black Hand organizationproperly
known as Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Unification or Death)was founded by
10 conspirators on May 9, 1911, gaining an estimated 2,500 members by
1914. Comprised of separate three-to-five-member cells, it required new
members to vow that I, by entering into the society, do hereby swear by
the Sun which shineth upon me, by the Earth which feedeth me, by God,
by the blood of my forefathers, by my honor and by my life, that from this
moment onward and until my death, I shall faithfully serve the task of this
organisation and that I shall at all times be prepared to bear for it any sacrifice. After sparking World War I with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Black Hand was engulfed in the resulting carnage and dissolved
sometime before wars end in 1918.

FRANZ FERDINAND

Lazar Djukic and Ivo Kranjcevic (10 years); Cvijan Stjepanovic (7 years); and
Marko Perin and Branko Zagorac (3 years).
A second trial disposed of four more plotters in March 1917. Muhamed
Mehmedbaic,
who had failed to throw his bomb as planned, received a 15-year
sentence, but was pardoned in 1919. Three Serbian soldiers linked to the conspiratorial Black Hand movementColonel Ljuba Vulovic,
Captain Dragutin
Dimitrijevic,
and Rade Malobabicwere

sentenced to death and executed by

firing squad in June 1917, after paying court costs and fees for the transportation of witnesses.
Further Reading
Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance and Tragedy of Franz
Ferdinand of Austria. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1984.
Cassels, Lavender. The Archduke and the Assassin: Sarajevo, June 28th, 1914. New York:
Stein & Day, 1985.
Dolph Owings, W. A. The Sarajevo Trial. Chapel Hill, NC: Documentary Publications,
1984.
Remak, Joachim. Sarajevo: The Story of a Political Murder. New York: Criterion, 1959.
Smith, David. One Morning in Sarajevo: 28 June 1914. St. Albans, United Kingdom:
Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2008.
Strauss, Roberta. The Desperate Act: The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968.

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G
GADDAFI, MUAMMAR (19422011)
On February 17, 2011, mass protests erupted in Libya against the regime of
Brotherly Leader Muammar Gaddafi, the nations dictator since 1969. The
states brutal response, including alleged importation of Ghanaian mercenaries,
prompted all-out civil war and intervention by elements of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). Officially deposed and stripped of international
recognition by mid-July, Gaddafi fought on from hiding until October 20,
when his troops made a last-ditch stand against opponents from the National
Transitional Council (NTC) in the Battle of Sirte. That morning, NATO aircraft
intercepted a satellite phone call from Gaddafi and fired on his motorcade, two
miles outside of Sirte. With their vehicles disabled, Gaddafi and others sought
refuge in nearby houses, where they were quickly surrounded by NTC soldiers.
Conflicting accounts of Gaddafis demise claim that he was wounded by gunfire
or grenade shrapnel, then captured alive, whereupon he was beaten, stabbed,
and shot at close range, with his body displayed on the hood of a car. Gaddafis
son, Mutassim, died in the same engagement.
Born in Qasr Abu Hadi, near the site of his desperate last stand, in June
1942, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi attended a Muslim elementary school, participated in anti-British demonstrations during the 1956
Suez Crisis, and graduated from the Benghazi Military University Academy in
1966, before pursuing further studied in Europe. He attended Britains Royal
Military Academy Sandhurst, then returned to Libya and joined the armys
engineering corps, rising to the rank of lieutenant in 1969. On September 1
of that year, while King Idris was touring Greece, Gaddafi led a bloodless
military coup dtat that abolished the Libyan monarchy. Assuming the rank
of colonel, Gaddafi proclaimed himself head of state, ruling for the next
42 years under ever-changing titles that included chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, prime minister, secretary general of the General
Peoples Congress, and Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution.
Once in power, Gaddafi ordered evacuation of U.S. and British military bases
in Libya, demanded an increased share of Western oil drilling proceeds from
50 to 79 percent, expelled Italian settlers, and replaced the Gregorian calendar
with an Islamic version, renaming the months to suit himself (August became
Hannibal, July became Nasser, and so on). After a lengthy contemplative

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GADDAFI, MUA M M AR

Rebels killed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in February 2011. (Associated Press)

exile, Gaddafi published The Green Book, dictating his views on Islamic law
and advocating direct rule by Peoples Committees, while he retained power
as head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. Using oil profits
to develop his country, Gaddafi increased Libyas literacy rate from 10 to 90
percent, established equal rights for women and blacks, and added 20 years
to average life expectancy through improved medical care. The reverse side of
that coin included cases of arbitrary arrest and detention under Law 73, which
restricted freedom of expression. Between 1980 and 1987, Libyan agents murdered at least 25 dissident expatriates, and at home, Gaddafi launched repressive campaigns against Libyas Berber minority.
In foreign affairs, Gaddafi sought to unify the Arab states of North Africa as a
single Great Islamic State of the Sahel. To that end, he invaded Chad, fought
a brief war with Egypt, and organized an Islamic Legion to agitate for Muslim
rule as far afield as Lebanon, Syria, Uganda, and Palestine. Gaddafis intelligence service also supported terrorist actions abroad, including various raids
on Israel and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland,

GADDAFI, MUAMMAR

in December 1988. Additionally, Gaddafis World Revolutionary Center near

Benghazi trained Africans who subsequently seized control or led guerrilla actions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Burkina Faso.
Prior to his ultimate downfall, Gaddafi survived at least five other assassination attempts. The first occurred soon after he assumed power in Libya, when
the deposed royal family hatched a counterrevolution plan with Britains Special Air Service. The plot involved liberating 150 political prisoners from jail
in Tripoli, then leaving them to kill Gaddafi, but the United States persuaded
Englands Secret Intelligence Service (SIS; MI6) to cancel the coup on grounds
that Gaddafi was an acceptable anticommunist.
Seven years later, in 1976, Tunisian television reported that a lone assassin had fired shots at Gaddafi but missed his target. French president Valry
Giscard dEstaing plotted Gaddafis death in 1981, collaborating with hostile
Egyptian officials, but once again the United States intervened. Five years later,
possessed of a new attitude, the U.S. Air Force bombed Gaddafis family compound in Tripolis Bab al-Azizia Barracks, in retaliation for the terrorist bombing of a Berlin discotheque that wounded 79 U.S. servicemen.
In 1993, some 2,000 Libyan soldiers from the Berber Warfalla tribe rebelled against Gaddafis regime, claiming discrimination in the ranks, but
they were crushed by the air force (dominated by members of Gaddafis own
Qadhadhfa tribe). Islamic militants attacked Gaddafis motorcade near Sirte,
in February 1996, prompting Gaddafi to blame Britains SIS for the attempt
on his life. Robin Cook, then Englands shadow foreign secretary, officially
refuted that charge, but told reporters, We have never denied that we knew
of plots against Gaddafi. In June 1998, Muslim extremists staged a second attack on Gaddafi, near Dirnah, reportedly wounding him in one arm.
Two months later, David Shayler, a former agent of Britains Security Service
(MI5) claimed that MI6 agents had donated 100,000 toward the latest Gaddafi murder plot.
Further Reading
Forte, Maximilian. Slouching towards Sirte: NATOs War on Libya and Africa. Montreal:
Baraka Books, 2012.
Oaks, John. Libya: The History of Gaddafis Pariah State. Charleston, SC: The History
Press, 2012.
Pargeter, Alison. Libya: The Rise and Fall of Qaddafi. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2012.
Sicker, Martin. The Making of a Pariah State: The Adventurist Politics of Muammar Qaddafi. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1987.
Simons, Geoff. Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie. Oxford: Centre for
Libyan Studies, 2003.

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GANDHI, INDIRA PRIYADARSHINI

(19171984)
On October 30, 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi visited Odisha, on
the Bay of Bengal, and addressed a recent spate of mayhem between Sikhs and
Hindus. I am alive today, she told her audience. I may not be there tomorrow. I shall continue to serve till my last breath, and when I die every drop of
my blood will strengthen India and keep a united India alive. The following
day, at Gandhis home in New Delhi, Sikh bodyguards Beant Singh and Satwant
Singh fired 33 shots at the prime minister, striking her 30 times. Other guards
returned fire, killing Beant Singh, and Satwant Singh threw down his weapon
and surrendered. Gandhi survived to reach the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences at 9:30 A.M., but was pronounced dead following surgery, at 2:20 P.M.
At trial, Satwant Singh and conspirator Kehar Singh admitted plotting Gandhis
murder in retaliation for Operation Blue Star, a military action that routed
Sikh separatists from Amritsars Golden Temple in June 2004, claiming at least
575 lives. Both defendants were convicted and condemned, executed by hanging in Delhi on January 6, 1989.
Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad on November 19, 1917, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias future prime minister. She studied at Britains
Somerville College, Oxford, but left in 1941 without obtaining a degree. After
her fathers death in office, in 1964, she was appointed to serve in Indias upper
house, and joined Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastris cabinet as minister of
information and broadcasting. Shastris sudden death in January 1966, perhaps
by poisoning, allowed kingmaker Kumarasami Kamaraj to install Gandhi as
Indias third prime minister, supporting left-wing economic policies at home
and demonstrating strong leadership in foreign policy, exemplified by Indias
victory in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Gandhi served three terms as prime minister, from 1966 to 1977, when a
prolonged state of emergency (officially declared in June 1975) undermined her
popularity and led to electoral rejection of her regime in March 1977. The victorious Janata Partys home minister, Choudhary Charan Singh, ordered Gandhis
arrest on charges that she had planned or thought of killing all opposition leaders in jail during the Emergency, but her long-running trial failed to produce a
conviction. Opposition leader Jayaprakash Narayan died in October 1979, effectively dissolving the Janata Party, and Gandhi returned to the prime ministers
office with a landslide victory in January 1980, doubling as minister of defense.
Gandhis fourth term in office was plagued by monetary crises that saw the
value of Indian rupees decline by 40 percent against the U.S. dollar, and by
heightened agitation among Sikhs beginning in July 1982. Their occupation of
Amritsars Golden Temple prompted Operation Blue Star, with unofficial estimates of the final death toll running as high as 8,000. That action, in turn, led
directly to the plot that claimed Indira Gandhis life two years later.

GANDHI, MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND

In the wake of Gandhis assassination, anti-Sikh riots swept northern India,

killing at least 2,700 persons over a four-day period. Unofficial estimates of the
death toll topped 20,000, leading Sikh spokesmen to charge genocide, and the
Peoples Union for Civil Liberties cited another 50,000 left homeless. In 2011,
with Human Rights Watch condemning the governments persistent failure to
prosecute any killers from that rampage, WikiLeaks published classified U.S.
diplomatic cables charging Indias National Congress party with complicity in
the massacres. That same year, mass graves were discovered in Haryana, dating
from the 1984 attacks. Sonia Gandhi, widow of Indiras son Rajiv, has led the
Indian National Congress since 1998.
Further Reading
Aguiar, Benny. Indira Gandhi: A Political Biography (19661984). New Delhi: Vitasta,
2011.
Dhar, P. N. Indira Gandhi, the Emergency, and Indian Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Frank, Katherine. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. New York: HarperCollins,
2001.
Gupte, Prane. Vengeance: India after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1985.

GANDHI, MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND

(18691948)
On January 30, 1948, Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi left his home
at Birla House, in New Delhi, to attend a prayer meeting. As he walked with
several companions, militant Hindu activist Nathuram Vinayak Godse accosted
Gandhi and shot him three times in the chest with a .38-caliber pistol. Gandhi
collapsed, gasping, Hay Raam (Oh God!), and bystanders disarmed Godse
and detained him for police. Instead of rushing Gandhi to the hospital, for
reasons still unclear, his entourage carried him home, where he died soon after
arrival. Eleven suspected conspirators were subsequently jailed with Godse,
including his brother Gopal. Nathuram Godse and conspirator Narayan Dattatraya Apte were condemned and hanged together on November 15, 1949,
despite pleas for mercy from Gandhis two sons and Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru. Three other defendantsGopal Godse, Shankar Kishtiya, and Madan
Lal Pahwareceived life sentences, but Godse and Kishtiya were later acquitted by a higher court. Pahwa remained in prison until 1964.
Mohandas Gandhi, later known as Mahatma (Great Soul), was born on October 2, 1869, the son of a high official in Porbandar, British India. His household was religiously divided, with his father a Hindu and his mother a devout
Jain, convinced that every living being has a soul and is potentially divine.

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GANDHI, MOHANDAS K AR A MCHAND

Married at age 13, by local custom, Gandhi graduated from

Samaldas College with marginal grades, then studied law
in London from 1888 to 1891,
when he was called to the bar
of the Inner Temple. Two years
later, hired by an Indian firm in
South Africa, Gandhi relocated
and experienced his first real
clash with racism under that
British colonys strict system of
apartheid.
Immersing himself in the
early civil rights struggle, Gandhi founded the Natal Indian
Congress in 1894 and was
nearly lynched by whites in
Durban, three years later, before he was rescued by the poHindu extremists killed Indian nationalist leader lice superintendents wife. In
Mohandas Gandhi in January 1948. (Getty Images) 1906, he led nonviolent protests against a new law requiring registration of Indian residents, launching a seven-year campaign that saw
thousands of Indians shot, beaten, or jailed for acts of civil disobedience before
racist leader Jan Smuts agreed to a compromise.
Gandhi returned to India in 1915, rising to leadership of the Indian National
Congress (INC) by 1920 and constantly pressing for new demands for native
self-determination. In World War I, he recruited volunteers for Britains Ambulance Corps, while opposing any form of violence and vowing that he personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe. In 1918, he led protests against
compulsory cultivation of indigo at Champaran, and agitated for relief from taxes
after catastrophic flooding in Kheda. The Khilafat Movement of 1919Islamic
protests against the Caliphs declining world statusallowed Gandhi to seek an
alliance with Muslims through foundation of the All-India Muslim Conference.
At the same time, he began the first of many noncooperation campaigns designed to undermine the British Raj, often countered by official violence such as
the Amritsar massacre of May 1919 (379 Indians killed, with 1,100 wounded by
British troops). Convicted of sedition in March 1922, Gandhi received a six-year
sentence but was freed on medical grounds in February 1924.
His next major campaign, in 1930, was an epic march protesting a new tax
on salt. At the same time, the INC declared independence from Britain, but the

G A N D H I , R A J I V R AT N A

decree went unrecognized by London and the world at large. More prison time
followed for Gandhi, marked by hunger strikes in custody, but it remained for
World War II to crack the British Empire, with India winning independence in
August 1947. Almost immediately, sectarian riots between Hindus, Sikhs, and
Muslims claimed an estimated half-million lives, climaxed by partition of the
country and creation of Pakistan as a primarily Muslim state.
Prior to his murder, Gandhi survived several other assassination attempts.
The first, a bombing of his motorcade in Pune on June 25, 1934, wounded
nine persons and remains officially unsolved today, with no surviving record of
police investigation. Ten years later, in May 1944, Nathuram Godse led a group
of 15 to 20 young men who rushed at Gandhi, Godse brandishing a knife, during a prayer meeting at Panchgani. The crowds prevented Godses gang from
reaching Gandhi, who followed his longstanding policy of refusing to press
criminal charges.
Nathuram Godse led another group that obstructed Gandhis passage from
Sevagram to Mumbai on September 9, 1944. Caught with another dagger,
Godse was released again, after uttering threats to kill Gandhi. Eight days before Gandhis actual murder, at Birla House in New Delhi, the Godse brothers
and five others detonated a bomb attached to a podium where Gandhi was
scheduled to speak, but its premature blast caused no damage. Confessions secured by police in that case were responsible for most of the charges filed after
Gandhis slaying on January 28, 1948.
In 1982, Sir Richard Attenborough produced and directed an epic motion
picture charting the life of Mohandas Gandhi. Starring Ben Kingsley, Gandhi
was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won eight, including Best Picture,
Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film
Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design.
Further Reading
Brown, Judith. Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
Fisher, Louis. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
Lelyveld, Joseph. Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. New York:
Vintage Books, 2011.
Wolpert, Stanley. Gandhis Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001.

GANDHI, RAJIV RATNA (19441991)

On May 21, 1991, exprime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi traveled by motorcade from Madras (now Chennai) to Sriperumbudur, for a campaign rally
in support of winning him a second term. As he approached the dais to speak,
suicide bomber Thenmozhi Gayatri Rajaratnam greeted Gandhi and stooped

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to touch his feeta common gesture of respectthen detonated a belt of RDX

(an abbreviation of Research Department eXplosive, formally cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, also called cyclonite, hexogen, or T4) plastic explosive hidden
beneath her dress, killing Gandhi, herself, and 14 bystanders. Rajaratnam was
identified as a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Sri
Lankan separatist group angered by Indias creation of a peacekeeping force in
the island nations civil war. LTTE spokesmen denied responsibility for Gandhis assassination, but Indias Supreme Court blamed the murder on Gandhis
August 1990 declaration that he would disarm the group if he regained the
prime ministers office. Twenty-six LTTE members were subsequently convicted
and sentenced to die as conspirators, but 22 of those capital sentences were
reduced to prison terms on appeal.
Born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on August 20, 1944, Rajiv Gandhi was the
grandson of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and son of former
prime minister Indira Gandhi. He studied at Trinty College, Cambridge, from
1962 to 1965, then for a year at Londons Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, but obtained degrees from neither. In 1966, when his
mother became prime minister, Gandhi joined Indian Airlines as a pilot. He
eschewed politics until June 1980, with the death of his brother Sanjay, who
served their mother as a close advisor and was touted as the next head of the
Indian National Congress (INC) party. Stepping into Sanjays shoes reluctantly,
Rajiv stood for elections to his late brothers parliamentary seat from Amethi,
in Uttar Pradesh, and won with some 200,000 votes. In 1984, following his
mothers assassination, Gandhi led the INC to the greatest landslide victory
in Indian history, himself elected as the nations youngest prime minister, and
INC members claimed 411 of parliaments 552 seats.
Despite that strong beginning, Gandhis tenure was beset by crises. In 1987,
he sent an Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka for the first time, setting in
motion events that led to his eventual killing by Tamil militants. A year later,
he organized Operation Cactus to defeat a coup dtat in Maldives, led by secessionist members of another Tamil group, the Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam. Meanwhile, the Bofors scandal broke, with Gandhi and
several other high-ranking INC members accused of taking bribes to approve
Indias purchase of artillery pieces from Swedens Aktiebolag Bofors-Gullspng.
No charges were filed against Gandhi, but his administration brought pressure
to kill media coverage of the unfolding scandal and thereby tarnished his reputation for incorruptibility and doubtless contributed to his electoral defeat in
December 1989.
Determined to regain his office, Gandhi began campaigning well before new
elections were announced in 1991. A point of strength, as he perceived it, was
his stand on Sri Lanka. Successor V. P. Singh had withdrawn Indian peacekeepers from Sri Lanka in December 1989, after losing 1,100 soldiers and killing

GARCA MORENO, GABRIEL

some 5,000 Tamil civilians, but the violence continued unabated. Investigators
generally agree that Gandhis promise to resume policing of Sri Lanka led directly to his death.
Six months after the assassination, in November 1991, Schweizer Illustrierte
(Swiss Illustrated) magazine published an expos on black money stashed by
15 leaders of various Third World nations. Gandhi was among those named,
accused of hiding 2.5 billion Swiss francs in Zurich. Critics raised the issue in
parliament a month later, but Gandhis name was subsequently expunged from
the record of those proceedings. Another posthumous scandal broke in 1992,
when two newspapersThe Hindu and The Times of Indiaalleged that Gandhi had received cash payments from the Soviet KGB. Russias new government confirmed the payments as an action necessary for the Soviet ideological
interest.
Despite those blemishes to his record, Gandhi holds the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian award, thus far bestowed on 41 recipients (as of 2011).
The list also includes Gandhis grandfather and mother.
Further Reading
Kaarthikeyan, D. R., and Radhavinod Raju. Triumph of Truth: The Rajiv Gandhi AssassinationThe Investigation. Elgin, IL: New Dawn Press, 2004.
Mehta, Ved. Rajiv Gandhi and Ramas Kingdom. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1996.
Nugent, Nicholas. Rajiv Gandhi: Son of a Dynasty. London: BBC Publications, 1991.
Sharma, Rajeev. Beyond the Tigers: Tracking Rajiv Gandhis Assassination. New Delhi: Kaveri Books, 1998.

GARCA Y MORENO Y MORN DE BUITRN,

GABRIEL GREGORIO FERNANDO
JOS MARA (18211875)
Ecuadorian president Gabriel Garca Moreno anticipated danger when he was
elected to a third term in 1875. A staunch conservative and ardent member of
the Roman Catholic Church, he had angered liberal and leftist elements during his 12 years in office, while disgruntling certain office holders through his
opposition to corruption. On August 5, 1875, a priest warned Garca Moreno
that his death was decreed by the Freemasons, who were going to try and
carry out their plot at once. The president acknowledged receipt of previous
similar warnings, telling the priest that his only hope was to prepare himself to appear before God. The next day, August 6, four men attacked Garca
Moreno on the porch of the presidential palace, three firing revolvers, and the
fourthFaustino Rayo, dismissed from a government post by Garca Moreno
for briberystruck the president repeatedly with a machete. The gunshots

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GA R C A M O R E N O, GA B R I E L

only grazed their target, but Rayos blade split the presidents skull and nearly
severed one arm. Soldiers arriving on the scene shot Rayo as he fled, but the
other three conspirators escaped. Peruvian currency found in Rayos pockets
suggested a murder for hire, and although no other plotters were identified, officials declared that Garca Moreno was slain by members of a secret society,
presumably Freemasons.
Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on December 24, 1821, Gabriel Garca Moreno
was the son of an aristocratic Spanish merchant. He studied law and theology
at the University of Quito, preparing himself for the priesthood. He proceeded
to the minor orders and shaved his head in the traditional clerical tonsure, but
friends persuaded him to seek a secular career instead. At graduation from the
university, in 1844, he was admitted to the bar and simultaneously operated as
a freelance journalist, in opposition to the liberal regime of President Vicente
Ramn Roca.
Returning from travels abroad in 1856, Garca Moreno found Ecuadors government in the hands of liberal, anticlerical elements, on the verge of civil
war with strictly religious members of the Conservative Party. Garca Moreno
joined Jernimo Carrin and Pacfico Chiriboga in opposing incumbent president Francisco Garcia Robles, and General Guillermo Franco, commanding
the district of Guayas, sought to seize power for himself, bargaining with Peruvian president Ramn Castilla to trade land for military support. Defeated at
the Battle of Guayaquil, in September 1860, Franco fled to Peru, and Garca
Moreno assumed command of a provisional government in Quito. Similar governing bodies seized control in the provinces of Cuenca, Guayas, Loja, Caar,
and Azuay. That chaos was resolved, and Ecuador reunified, in January 1861,
with Garca Morenos election as interim president. A general election, held
four months later, confirmed him as president for a full four-year term.
Garca Morenos conservatism and outspoken support for the Catholic
Church alienated liberals throughout Ecuador and beyond, but he maintained
iron-fisted control. Vice President Rafael Carvajal Guzmn succeeded Garca
Moreno in August 1865, but lasted only two months before he was replaced
by Jernimo Carrin. The seesaw world of Ecuadorean politics saw Garca
Moreno reelected as president in January 1869, deposed in May of that same
year, then elected once again in August 1869. That year, he drafted a new constitution making Catholicism the nations official religion, welcomed fugitive
Jesuit priests from neighboring countries, and signed a law banning secret societies, which Freemasons viewed as a personal attack on their order. Liberals also condemned his use of Indian slave labor to build new roads and other
public works.
Perhaps anticipating his own murder, Garca Moreno wrote to Pope Piius IX,
seeking a special blessing prior to his scheduled inauguration in August 1875.
That letter read:

GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM

I wish to obtain your blessing before that day, so that I may have the strength
and light which I need so much in order to be unto the end a faithful son of our
Redeemer, and a loyal and obedient servant of His Infallible Vicar. Now that the
Masonic Lodges of the neighboring countries, instigated by Germany, are vomiting against me all sorts of atrocious insults and horrible calumnies, now that the
Lodges are secretly arranging for my assassination, I have more need than ever
of the divine protection so that I may live and die in defense of our holy religion
and the beloved republic which I am called once more to rule.

While prescient, that plea failed to protect him from his enemies.
Further Reading
Berthe, Augustine. Garcia Moreno. London: Burns and Oates, 1889.
Henderson, Peter. Gabriel Garca Moreno and Conservative State Formation in the Andes.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.
Larson, Brooke. Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes,
18101910. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM (18311881)

President James Garfield was scheduled to leave Washington, D.C., for his
summer vacation on July 2, 1881, following a stop to speak at his alma matter, Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Accompanied by sons
Harry and James, he walked to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station on
Sixth Street, where Secretary of State James Blaine and Secretary of War Robert
Todd Lincoln waited to bid him farewell. Also waiting was Charles Julius Guiteau, a failed lawyer and preacher who had dabbled on the fringes of Garfields
presidential campaign, then demanded an ambassadorship as his presumed
reward. Secretary Blaine had personally banned him from the White House
seven weeks earlier, on May 1. Guiteau, deemed insane by his own family, later
claimed that God had ordered him to kill the ungrateful president. He shot
Garfield twice with a .44-caliber revolver, before police seized him. President
Garfield survived until September 19, finally succumbing to infection apparently caused by incompetent medical treatment. Convicted of Garfields murder
in January 1882, Guiteau danced up the gallows steps and saluted spectators
before he was hanged on June 30, 1882.
James Garfield was born on an Ohio farm on November 19, 1831, the
youngest of five children, raised by his mother alone when his father died before Garfields second birthday. He attended Geauga Seminary, then worked
as a teacher before enrolling at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram
College), completing his studied at Williams College. He then returned to the
Eclectic Institute as a teacher, later serving as principal from 1857 to 1860,
campaigning at the same time for Republican abolitionist candidates. That led

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to his election as a state senator, but he stepped down in

1861 to join the Union Army
as a lieutenant colonel, commanding the 42nd Ohio Infantry. In October 1862, while still
on active duty, Garfield won a
seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, then returned to
military campaigning, but still
won reelection to a second
term in 1864.
Garfield finished the war as
a brigadier general and set his
sights on higher political office, but progress took time. In
1880, rather than seek a 10th
term in the House, Garfield negotiated to support Republican presidential hopeful John
Sherman, in exchange for a
President James Garfield was shot by a disgruntled U.S. Senate seat. At the partys
convention, however, delegates
ex-supporter. (Library of Congress)
deadlocked in a three-way split
between Sherman, James Blaine, and former two-term president Ulysses Grant.
Finally, the convention chose Garfield as a dark horse candidate to heal divisions in the party, and he defeated Democratic opponent Winfield Scott Hancock by a perilously narrow margin of 4,446,158 popular votes to 4,444,260,
each candidate carrying 19 states. Garfields victory in the Electoral College
was more decisive, with 214 votes to Hancocks 155. Inaugurated on March 4,
1881, Garfield was shot four months later and died after only 200 days in
office.
A strong advocate of civil service reform, Garfield achieved that goal posthumously, with passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in January
1883. Vice President Chester Arthur succeeded Garfield, then lost the GOPs
(Grand Old Party) 1884 nomination to Jamed Blainewho, in turn, was defeated by Democrat Grover Cleveland. Part of Charles Guiteaus preserved
brain is displayed at Philadelphias College of Physicians, in the Mtter Museum. The remainder, with some of his bones, plus Garfields spine and some
ribs, are housed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Despite the countrys second presidential slaying

GAULLE, CHARLES ANDR JOSEPH MARIE DE

within 16 years, Congress took no steps to mount a special guard over the
president until after the murder of William McKinley, in 1901.
Further Reading
Ackerman, Kenneth. Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A.
Garfield. New York: Avalon Publishing, 2004.
Millard, Candice. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a
President. New York: Anchor Books, 2012.
Peskin, Allan. Garfield. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1978.

GAULLE, CHARLES ANDR JOSEPH MARIE DE

(18901970)ATTEMPTED
Charles de Gaulle once declared, I am France, but many fellow Frenchmen
and outsiders violently disagreed. During a Middle Eastern confrontation, U.S.
president Harry Truman opined that those French ought to be taken out and
castrated. British prime minister Winston Churchill branded de Gaulle one of
the greatest dangers to European peace and a great danger to Great Britain.
When Churchills wife tried to mediate between them, urging de Gaulle not
[to] hate your friends more than you hate your enemies, de Gaulle replied,
France has no friends, only interests.
Born at Lille, in northern France, on November 22, 1890, Charles de Gaulle
reportedly chose a military career at age eight, after suffering alleged traumatic
humiliation when British troops expelled French forces from the upper Nile region. He spent four years at the elite Special Military School of Saint-Cyr, later
serving in both World Wars and emerging from the second as prime minister
of France. De Gaulle resigned that office on January 20, 1946, then returned
with the collapse of the Fourth Republic in May 1958.
During the Algerian Revolution, when de Gaulle served as prime minister
and minister of defense (19581959), then held a term as president (1959
1969), he both encouraged and concealed acts of brutality, including the Paris
massacre of 40-plus Algerian protesterssome reports claim 200in October
1961. Then, in March 1962, he alienated supporters of French colonialism in
Algeria with the vian Accords, pronouncing Algeria an independent nation
in July. That waffling behavior enraged members of a far-right terrorist group,
the Organisation de larme secrte (OAS; Secret Army Organization) and fueled
conspiracies to kill de Gaulle.
In April 1961, a Generals putsch endeavored to depose de Gaulle and establish an anticommunist military junta, but the campaign was thwarted after
five days of fighting in Algiers. The bungled coups ringleadersretired generals Maurice Challe, Raoul Salan, and Andr Zellerwere charged with treason

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GAULLE, CHARLES ANDR JOSEPH M ARIE DE

and condemned, Salan being tried in absentia (captured in April 1962). President de Gaulle granted the rebels amnesty in July 1968, with Challe and Zeller
restored to their former ranks in November 1982.
Meanwhile, the OAS made multiple attempts to kill de Gaulle in France.
Whereas some accounts claim 44 murder conspiracies in all, two in particular stand out. On September 8, 1961, de Gaulle and his wife traveled 150
miles by car from Paris to their country home, La Boisserie, in Colombeyles-Deux-Eglises. At one point on the road, a propane tank packed with 100
pounds of plastic explosive lay concealed under a sand pile, with a canister
containing 15 liters of napalm. Detonated by remote control as de Gaulle
sped past in his chauffeur-driven Citron DS, the bomb spewed burning
gasoline across the highway, but the de Gaulles and their driver escaped
injury.
On August 22, 1962, OAS member Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, a lieutenant
colonel in the French air force, staged another ambush for de Gaulle in PetitClamart, a suburb of Paris. In an eerie replay of the last attempt, de Gaulle and
his wife were en route once more to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, when OAS
thugs sprayed their car with submachine guns, firing 187 bullets. Once again,
the sturdy Citron DS saved its passengers, despite four flattened tires and a
shattered rear window. Two police escorts died in the fusillade, but President
de Gaulles sole injury was a scratch on one finger, suffered while brushing
broken glass from his jacket.
Bastien-Thiry was traveling in England, on OAS business, when his men
botched the ambush. Police arrested him on his return to France, and he faced
trial by court-martial with two accomplices, convened on January 28, 1963.
Bastien-Thirys defense team included Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, a far-right
politician who would challenge de Gaulle for the presidency in 1965, placing

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

In 1971, British author Frederick Forsyth published his first novel, The
Day of the Jackal, depicting a fictional Organisation de larme secrte (OAS)
plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. The plot follows professional killer
Charles Calthrop, known as The Jackal, through the preparation and final
execution of a plan to shoot de Gaulle on Liberation Day (August 25),
in Paris. The Day of the Jackal became a best seller, and was honored by
the Mystery Writers of America with its Edgar Award for best novel in
1972. The story has been adapted for film three times: in 1973, with its
original title and plot; in 1988, as August 1, an Indian political thriller in
the Malayalam language; and in 1997, as The Jackal, wherein a Russian

GAULLE, CHARLES ANDR JOSEPH MARIE DE

mafia boss hires a killer to assassinate the U.S. vice president. A British newspaper, The Guardian, dubbed international terrorist Ilich Ramrez
Snchez The Jackal in 1975, after police raiders found a copy of Forsyths novel in the fugitives London apartment. Twenty years later, a Hebrew translation turned up in the possession of Yigal Amir, right-wing
assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At the time, police suggested that Amir used the novel as a how to manual for murder, though
in fact he used a pistol to kill Rabin at close range, rather than employing
a sniper rifle.

fourth in a field of six candidates. The defense adopted a two-pronged strategy, first claiming that Bastien-Thiry only planned to capture de Gaulle and
hold him for trial on hypothetical charges, simultaneously claiming that his
death would have been justified as payback for the genocide of European residents in newly independent Algeria. Convicted on March 3, Bastien-Thiry was
condemned with codefendants Alain de La Tocnaye and Buisines Prevost. De
Gaulle later pardoned Tocnaye and Prevost, the actual shooters, but BastienThiry died before a firing squad on March 11, 1963.
The OAS dissolved after Bastien-Thirys execution, but some of its members
remained active as terrorists, linked to the murders of Parisian leftists Henri
Curiel in 1978 and Pierre Goldman in 1979, but the last known plot against de
Gaulle was hatched by a group of radical students in Paris. On July 1, 1966
the same day de Gaulle was featured on the cover of Time magazinethe president prepared to leave France for a visit to the Soviet Union. Parked along the
Boulevard Montparnasse, his route to Orly Airport, a car packed with nearly
a ton of dynamite waited to detonate by remote control, but the signal never
came. The would-be bombers, members of a self-styled National Resistance
Council, were arrested the night of June 30, during a robbery intended to raise
money for their flight abroad after they killed the president.
Further Reading
Aussaresses, Paul. The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria,
19551957. New York: Enigma Books, 2010.
Fenby, Jonathan. The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved. New York:
Simon and Schuster, 2010.
Lacouture, Jean. De Gaulle: The Ruler 19451970. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Le Sueur, James. Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics during the Decolonization
of Algeria. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Williams, Charles. The Last Great Frenchman: A Life of General De Gaulle. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

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GAVIRIA CORREA, GUILLERMO

(19622003)
On April 17, 2002, the governor of Colombias Antioquia Department, Guillermo Gaviria Correa, embarked on an 85-mile march against violence that had
plagued his province for years. He was accompanied by Gilberto Echeverri
Meja, an electrical engineer whom Gaviria had named the districts peace
commissioner, with mayors from several towns and roughly 1,000 civilians.
The march began in Medelln, proceeding toward Caicedo, but was stopped
on April 21 by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), who kidnapped Gaviria and Echeverri at gunpoint. Guerrillas held
the two men hostage in a mountain stronghold until May 5, 2003, then killed
bothwith eight other captivesduring a bungled rescue attempt by Colombian soldiers.
The eldest of eight children in a prominent Medelln family, born on November 27, 1962, Guillermo Gaviria Correa earned a bachelors degree from the Colorado School of Mines in 1988, then returned home to work at Cerro Matoso
S.A., mining company located near Montelbano, in the northern Colombian
province of Crdoba. Six years later, President Ernesto Samper Pizano chose Gaviria to head the new Institute of National Roads, supervising construction and
repair of Colombian highways and bridges. Gaviria held that post until he was
elected governor of Antioquia Department, taking office in 2000.
Violence was a critical issue in Antioquia and throughout Colombia at large.
Aside from bloodshed related to the countrys multibillion-dollar cocaine trade,
revolutionary groups such as the FARC and the Ejrcito de Liberacin Nacional
(National Liberation Army) controlled an estimated 30 to 35 percent of Colombia by 1999, operating from secret bases in the Andes to raid villages and
government outposts over an area of some 190,000 square miles. In addition
to focusing on housing, education, nutrition, reforestation, and administrative
transparency, Governor Gaviria launched a Congruent Peace Plan based on
the teachings of nonviolent leaders Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King
Jr., embodied by the Peace Commission formed in 2001. Before his abduction,
he was also elected to preside over the Colombian Federation of Governors.
While a prisoner of the FARC, Gaviria kept a journal that was subsequently
published under the title Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor. One entry,
written as an open letter to his constituents, read:
Dear People of Antioquia:
The trust you placed in me as your Governor obliges me to seek, without rest,
the roads to overcome the pain that the use of violence and injustice cause to our
people. This search has moved me to undertake the Nonviolent March of Reconciliation and Solidarity with the people of Caicedo. With this pilgrimage I invite
you to apply the strategy of nonviolence.

GEGEEN KHAN, EMPEROR YINGZONG OF YUAN

The philosophy of nonviolence brings spirits closer, brings souls closer, brings
human beings closer and will allow us, together, to build true roads to social
transformation. Nonviolence is not simply saying no to violence, because if so it
would end up being confused with passively accepting suffering, injustice and
abuse. Nonviolence is a way to overcome violence, investigating and discovering just means to oppose injustice. Nonviolence is not only about neutralizing all
forms of direct violence, but also all manifestations of structural violence, because
it builds peace through justice and solidarity and helps to prevent future forms
of violence, by offering methods and models of peaceful struggle to those social
groups left out and sacrificed by unbalanced power and systemic maladjustment.
If you are reading this letter it is surely because the FARC were not able to listen or understand my message. If I have been murdered, my spirit will be praying for peace in Colombia. In this case I hope that Anbal, my brother, will take
up the flag I have been carrying to build a new Antioquia.

Gaviria received a posthumous nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in

2004, but the prize went instead to Wangari Maathai of Kenya. In accordance
with Gavirias last wish, his brother sought and won the governors office in
Antioquia, and was named Colombias best governor in 2007 by the national
nonpartisan institute Colombia Lder. Anbal Gavirias noted accomplishments
included a 60-percent reduction in the districts murder rate, construction of
elementary and intermediate schools for an additional 90,000 students, improved housing for 110,000 low-income families, and provision of potable
water to an additional 72 communities.
Further Reading
Gaviria Correa, Guillermo. Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor. Telford, PA:
DreamSeeker Books, 2010.
Len, Juanita. Country of Bullets: Chronicles of War. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 2009.
Roldn, Mary. Cambio de Armas: Negotiating Alternatives to Violence in the Oriente
Antioqueo. In Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War. Washington, DC: United
States Institute of Peace, 2009.

GEGEEN KHAN, EMPEROR YINGZONG

OF YUAN (13031323)
On September 4, 1323, five jealous princes staged a coup dtat against Emperor Geegen Khan, the ninth Grand Khan of the Mongol Yuan Empire. Led
by Tegshi, the adopted son of recently deceased grand councilor Temuder,
the other key participants included Princes Altan Bukha, Bolad, Kulud
Bukha, Ulus Bukha, and Orlug Temur. Geegen Khanalso known by his
birth name, Shidebalahad stopped at Nanpo (in present-day North Korea)
while en route to his summer palace in Dadu (now Beijing), the imperial

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capital. While at Nanpo, the rebels attacked Shidebalas party, killing the emperor and his companion Baiju, recently named to succeed Temuder as grand
councilor.
Born on February 22, 1303, Shidebala was the oldest son of Ayurbarwada
Buyantu Khan, Emperor Renzong of Yuan, who had captured the throne by
devious means. Ayurbarwadas elder brother, Khayishan, had ruled as Klg
Khan, Emperor Wuzong of Yuan, from June 1307 until January 1311, when
terminal illness forced him to confront his own mortality. Ayurbarwada promised that if Khayishan named him successor to the throne, Ayurbarwada would
anoint Khayishans eldest son as crown prince and next in line to rule. When
Khayishan died, however, Ayurbarwada banished his sons to the hinterlands
and purged the court of any loyal adherents to the former emperor. Formally
crowned in April 1311, Ayurbarwada ruled for eight years, dying from natural
causes on March 1, 1320.
Successor Shidebaladubbed Gegeen (enlightened) Khanintended to
continue various political reforms initiated by his father, but he inherited
Grand Councilor Temuder, formerly dismissed for corruption in 1317, but
reinstated by the new emperors powerful grandmother, Empress Targi, upon
the death of her son Ayurbarwada. Temuder quickly ordered the execution
of several persons he deemed responsible for his prior embarrassment, joining Empress Dowager Targi to manipulate and dominate the new teenage
emperor.
Gegeen Khan was chafing under control of his elders by October 1322,
when Temuder died in Dadu. He was married by then, to Empress Sugabala,
but their union produced no children. At Temuders death, influenced by Confucian scholars who had detested the tyrannical grand councilor, Shidebala appointed Baijua man of his own age and a descendant of the honored general
Mukhalito succeed Temuder. Relieved by his grandmothers death near years
end, Gegeen Khan embarked on a more aggressive course of reform that placed
him fatally at odds with Temuders protgs and the traditional Mongol warrior
elite. That conflict led inevitably to his murder and plunged the Yuan Empire
into a decade of chaos.
With the assassination accomplished, ringleader Tegshi asked Yesn Temr,
a great-grandson of Kublai Khan, to assume the throne, and while agreeing,
first annihilated Teghsis faction before taking office as Emperor Taiding of
Yuan. Crowned in October 1323, Yesn Temr Khan ruled as emperor until
his sudden death in August 1328. Son Ragibagh Khan succeeded him, but
was deposed and presumably executed (his body was not found) by rival
Tug Temr in mid-November of the same year. Tug Temr then occupied the
throne as Jayaatu Khan, Emperor Wenzong of Yuan, but died in September
1332, leaving six-year-old Rinchinbal Khan in charge of the swiftly declining
Yuan Empire.

GEORGE I OF GREECE

Further Reading
Brook, Timothy. The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Cambridge,
MA: Belknap Press, 2010.
Twitchett, Denis, Herbert Franke, and John Fairbank. The Cambridge History of China:
Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994.

GEORGE I OF GREECE (18451913)

When Montenegro declared war on Turkey in October 1912, igniting the First
Balkan War, King George I of Greece was determined to salvage his countrys
reputation, soiled by humiliation in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. On November 9, Greek troops liberated Thessaloniki, the nations second-largest city,
from Ottoman troops, prompting George to plan a triumphant victory celebration while the general fighting continued elsewhere for another six months.
On March 18, 1913, while strolling unguarded near the White Tower of Thessaloniki, King George was shot in the back at close range and killed instantly
by Alexandros Schinas, described in press reports as a member of an unnamed
Socialist organization. In custody, Schinas initially refused
to speak, but was forced to undergo examinationsunderstood to mean torturefinally
producing a confused confession that mixed anarchist sentiments with a claim that he
had killed the King because he
refused to give him money. On
May 6, 1913, Schinas fell to his
death from an upper window
of Thessalonikis police station.
Authorities proclaimed his
death a suicide, but some critics suspected he was dropped
by officers. Conspiracy theories
linking Schinas to plotters from
Bulgaria, Germany, or AustriaHungary were never substantiated.
George I began life as a Danish prince, born in Copenhagen on December 24, 1845, the King George I of Greece, shot by an alleged Socialsecond son of Prince Christian ist assassin in March 1913. (Bettmann/Corbis)

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of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glcksburg, later King Christian IX of Denmark. Originally known as Prince Vilhelm (William), he joined the Royal Danish Navy at 17, then was elected king of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863, by
the Greek National Assembly, filling a throne left vacant since King Otto was
deposed by a coup in October 1862. That twist of fate made Vilhelmnow
Georgea king eight full months before his father ascended to the throne of
Denmark. In fact, however, George did not arrive in Athens until October 30,
1863, two weeks before his fathers coronation in Copenhagen.
Georges reign of nearly half a century began with lengthy constitutional debates, climaxed in November 1864 with the creation of a unicameral legislature and institution of Europes first universal male suffrage by secret ballots.
The constitution subordinated royal authority to that of duly-elected officials,
but it failed to eradicate corruption or political infighting, with the result that
between 1864 and 1910 Greece endured 21 elections and 70 government administrations, the longest lasting for 18 months.
On the international stage, George used his relationship with brother-in-law
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Britains King Edward VII) to settle territorial disputes between Greece and Britain. Georges marriage to Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia produced five sons and two daughters, all of
whom married into royal families of Prussia, France, Russia, and Britain, thus
creating an international dynasty. His relationship with Russia served George
well after the Russo-Turkish War of 18771878, when he laid claim to Cyprus,
Epirus, and Thessaly over strident Ottoman objections, seeing those territorial
gains confirmed in 1880. In February 1897, he sent his son, Prince George, to
liberate Crete from Turkish rule, but Greek forces lost that campaign in April.
On February 26, 1898, two men identified only as Giorgis and Karditza fired
rifles at King Georges open carriage, while George, his daughter Marie, and a
groom were returning to Athens from the seaside resort of Phalerum. The groom
and both horses were wounded, while George stood in plain view of the gunmen, brandishing a cane and shielding Marie. The nervous snipers missed their
target and fled, but Karditza surrendered the following day, describing himself
to police as a member of a secret society pledged to kill George in retribution
for Greeces recent military loss to Turkey. Giorgis was captured on February 28,
but no information on the disposition of their case is presently available.
The death of Britains Queen Victoria, in January 1901, left George I as the
second-longest-reigning European monarch, bound by marriage to Victorias
successor, King Edward VII. By 1908, George faced opposition from the Stratiotikos Syndesmos (Military League), a group of army officers who sought to
strip royal family members of their military commissions. The league staged an
abortive coup dtat on August 28, 1909, beginning at the Goudi barracks outside Athens, but loyal troops frustrated the rebellion, whereupon George gave
his support to revision of the Greek constitution.

GOEBEL, WILLIAM JUSTUS

George was succeeded by son Constantine as king, reigning from March

1913 to June 1917, and again from December 1920 to September 1922, replaced in turn by brother George II. The interruption of Constantines rule was
occasioned by Allied propaganda branding him a German sympathizer during
World War I, subsequently repudiated by his overwhelming reelection to resume the throne.
Further Reading
Campbell, John. Modern Greece. London: Ernest Benn, 1968.
Van der Kiste, John. Kings of the Hellenes. Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: Sutton
Publishing, 1994.

GOEBEL, WILLIAM JUSTUS (18561900)

Kentuckys gubernatorial election of 1899 was a bitterly disputed contest. Incumbent governor William Bradley, a Republican, was barred by law from seeking a
second term, prompting his party to nominate Attorney General William Taylor
as its nominee. Democrats nominated state senator William Goebel, and another
Democrat, John Y. Brown, also sought the office without official sanction from
his party. In the November election, Goebel trailed Taylor by 2,396 votes, but
Democrats charged fraud based on 12,040 votes for Brown which, they claimed,
should have gone to Goebel. Democrats in the state assembly arbitrarily invalidated enough votes to give Goebel the victory, and Kentucky was teetering on
the brink of civil war by January 30, 1900, when an unseen gunman fired on
Goebel and two bodyguards at the Old State Capitol, wounding Goebel in the
chest. Sworn in as governor on January 31, Goebel died from his wounds on
February 3.
William Goebel was born in Albany Township, Pennsylvania, on January 4,
1856, to German immigrant parents, moving with his family to Kentucky after
his father returned from military service in the Civil War. Apprenticed to a Cincinnati jeweler after he attended school in Covington, Kentucky, Goebel left
that trade and briefly enrolled Hollingsworth Business College, before dropping out to study law with the firm of exKentucky governor John Stevenson,
then graduated from Cincinnati Law School in 1877. After 10 years in private
practice, he entered politics to seek a state senate seat vacated by James Bryan,
and won the three-way election by a mere 56 votes.
Politics seemed an unlikely choice of careers for Goebel, for various reasons.
Far from genial, he refused to shake hands with any but his closest friends and
impressed many other people as abrasive. Never married, or even linked romantically to a specific woman, he broke the mold for safely settled Bluegrass
politicians. Even his appearance should have worked against him, described
by Kentucky journalist Irvin S. Cobb as reptilian, viewed by others as merely

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contemptuous. Nonetheless, he was a crafty politician, skilled at making

and breakingbargains, collecting nicknames that included King William I,
William the Conqueror, and Boss Bill.
While completing Bryans unfinished term, Goebel launched an investigation of corrupt lobbying practices by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, defeating a bill sponsored by pro-railroad legislators that would have abolished
Kentuckys Railroad Commission. That victory permitted Goebel to run unopposed for a full term in 1889, and he won reelection in 1893 by a three-to-one
margin over his Republican rival. Two years later, after Democratic politicianturned-banker John Sanford used his influence to block Goebel from a seat
on the state supreme court, Goebel penned a newspaper article dubbing his
nemesis Gonorrhea John. When next they met, on a Convington street, the
men exchanged pistol fire, leaving Sanford dead, and Goebel escaped injury.
Acquitted of illegal dueling on a plea of self-defense, Goebel retained his senate
seat and looked forward to achieving higher office.
In 1896, alleging that fraud by county election commissioners had secured
victories for Republican governor William Bradley and president-elect William
McKinley, Goebel wrote and secured passage of the Goebel Election Law and
created a three-member state election commission, appointed by the General
Assemblythen dominated by Democratsto choose county election commissioners. Following the contentious election of 1899 and Goebels assassination, the commission was abolished in 1900.
With Goebels swearing-in and subsequent death, his running mate, Lieutenant Governor John Beckham, assumed the governorship. Suspicion of conspiracy focused on sore loser William Taylor, who exacerbated matters by
fleeing to Indiana, where Republican governor James Mount denied Kentuckys
writ of extradition. Taylor was indicted with fifteen others, but only five alleged conspirators faced trial, and jurors acquitted two of those. Defendants
convicted in three separate trials, all before pro-Goebel Democratic judges, included accused ringleader Caleb Powers (Kentuckys Republican secretary of
state, elected in November 1899), middleman Henry Youtsey, and purported
shooter Jim Howard. Republican appellate judges overturned the verdicts on
Powers and Howard, but both were convicted anew in successive retrials. Republican governor Augustus Willson pardoned both men in 1908, and extended the same favor to fugitive William Taylor in 1909.
Henry Youtsey did not appeal his conviction and resulting life prison term,
but he turned states evidence to testify as a prosecution witness at the various
retrials of his two codefendants, securing their repeatedthough ultimately
futileconvictions. Authorities paroled Youtsey in 1916, and he was pardoned
three years later by Democratic governor James Black. Goebel remains the only
state governor ever assassinated in the United States.

G O N Z L E Z D U B N , E D U A R D O E PA M I N O N D A S

Further Reading
Cobb, Irvin. Exit Laughing. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1941.
Woodson, Urey. The First New Dealer, William Goebel: His Origin, Ambitions, Achievements, His Assassination, Loss to the State and Nation; the Story of a Great Crime. Louisville: Standard Press, 1939.

GONZLEZ DUBN, EDUARDO

EPAMINONDAS (19451993)
As president of Guatemalas five-member Constitutional Court, Eduardo
Gonzlez Dubn was accustomed to threats against his life. The latest had arisen
from the courts conflict with President Jorge Antonio Serrano Elas, who had
suspended the constitution on May 25, 1993, dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court, all in a supposed bid to fight corruption. Gonzlez and his fellow jurists ruled those actions unconstitutional, and Guatemalas army stood
ready to enforce the ruling against the countrys rogue president. In a parallel
and equally dangerous decision, the court had ruled in favor of extraditing
Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Ochoa Ruiz to the United States, where he faced
drug-trafficking charges. Then, on May 31Good Fridayunidentified gunmen killed Gonzlez in his car, outside his home in Guatemala City, as he prepared to leave for work.
Gonzlezs assassination was sadly typical for Guatemala, where the United
Fruit Company and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had conspired to depose President Jacobo rbenz Guzmn in 1954, replacing him with a military
junta and plunging the nation into decades of violence, climaxed by a nearly
endless civil war (19601996) that claimed at least 200,000 lives, with another
50,000 victims disappeared. While wracked by political mayhem from right
and leftincluding ethnic cleansing by the army, random murders by quasiofficial death squads such as the Secret Anti-Communist Army, and guerrilla
actions by 13 November Revolutionary MovementGuatemala also became
a primary channel for Colombian cocaine in transit to the North America and
Western Europe. That traffic, as always, depended on official protection from
high-ranking military officers and officers of the Judicial Police.
President Serrano fled Guatemala the day after Judge Gonzlez was murdered, seeking refuge in Panama, where friendly officials denied multiple requests for his extradition. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Courts four surviving
judges hedged their bets and reversed their decision to extradite Lieutenant
Colonel Ochoa for trial in the United States. Ochoa remains under open indictment, charged by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with using his
own private plane to smuggle a half metric ton of cocaine, valued at $40 million, from Guatemala to Tampa, Florida. Prospects for his successful prosecution are dim.

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Guatemalan police eventually charged three suspectsMario Salazar Lpez,

Marlon Salazar Lpez, and Antonio Trabanino Vargaswith killing Judge
Gonzlez. All three were convicted at trial, but no information is currently
available on their sentencing. Published reports indicate that Mario Salazar
Lpez successfully appealed his conviction, but was arrested again in 2001,
once more with no further data available.
After President Serrano fled the country in June 1993, Vice President Gustavo Adolfo Espina Salguero briefly succeeded him, but his participation in
Serranos so-called self-coup prompted Congress to force Espinas resignation
after just four days in office. Replaced by Human Rights Ombudsman Ramiro
de Len Carpio, Espina spent four years in exile, then returned to Guatemala
in 1997. Convicted of violating the constitution, he received a prison term, but
it was instantly commuted to payment of a small fine. In Espinas absence, in
December 1996, Guatemalas long civil war ended with the signing of a peace
accord between the state and a coalition of hostile groups known collectively as
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity.
Further Reading
Schirmer, Jennifer. The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Shepard, Scott. The Long Road to Justice: Establishing the Rule of Law in Post-War El Salvador and Guatemala. Washington, DC: Storming Media, 1997.

GOULART, JOO BELCHIOR MARQUES

(19191976)
On December 6, 1976, former Brazilian president Joo Goulart died suddenly
at age 57, in Mercedes, Argentina. Authorities blamed his death on a heart attack, but performed no autopsy. An estimated 30,000 mourners attended his
funeral, but media coverage of that service was censored by the military junta
that had deposed Goulart in 1964. Nearly a quarter-century elapsed before
Leonel de Moura Brizola, former governor of Rio Grande do Sul (19591963)
and Rio de Janeiro (19831987 and 19911994) announced his suspicions
that Goulart and another Brazilian president, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira,
had been murdered by the junta as part of a cover terror campaign dubbed
Operation Condor. In January 2008, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published an interview with former Uruguayan intelligence officer Mario Neira
Barreiro, alleging that Goulart was poisoned on orders from Brazilian president Ernesto Beckmann Geisel, with the slaying carried out by agents of Srgio Fleury, head Brazils Department of Political and Social Order.
Joo GoulartJango to his friendswas born on March 1, 1919, at So
Borja, Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a descendant of 18th-century

G O U L A R T, J O O B E L C H I O R M A R Q U E S

Portuguese immigrants from the Azores. His father was a prosperous rancher,
who also served as a colonel in the National Guard. Goulart enrolled early at
the Federal University of Rio Grande do Suls law school, aided by a birth certificate his father falsified, showing his birth year as 1918. While attending that
school, he reportedly contracted a venereal disease that, left untreated, virtually paralyzed his left knee. Graduating in 1939, Goulart was admitted to the
bar but never entered legal practice professionally. Instead, he managed his
fathers extensive land holdings, accruing substantial wealth by the time his
father died in 1943.
Two years later, Goulart accepted an invitation from Protsio Vargas,
brother of retiring president Getlio Vargas, to join the Brazilian Labor Party
(PTB), beginning as a local leader, swiftly rising through the ranks. Elected to
the state assembly in 1947, Goulart backed Getlio Vargass presidential campaign three years later, advancing at the same time to a seat in the Chamber
of Deputies. His service in that body was short-lived, however, as President
Vargas soon appointed him secretary of the interior and justice, with a mandate to reform Brazils archaic prison system. In 1953, Vargas shifted Goulart
to a new position in his cabinet, as minister of labor, helping to suppress a
coup dtat by the right-wing National Democratic Union (UDN).
By February 1954, when Goulart left the cabinet to resume his work in the
Chamber of Deputies, President Vargas was immersed in economic crisis, exacerbated when one of his bodyguards tried to kill UDN leader Carlos Lacerda
on August 5. Vargas called Goulart to his home on August 24, presenting him
with a sealed letter and orders to read it only upon his return to Rio Grande do
Sul. It proved to be the presidents suicide note, and he shot himself soon after
Goulart departed. After considering retirement from politics, Goulart changed
his mind and agreed to run for vice president in 1955, on the PTB ticket led
by Juscelino Kubitschek. Four years later, he was reelected as vice president,
this time under President Jnio da Silva Quadros. For reasons best known to
himself, Quadros resigned his office in August 1961, after serving only seven
months, and Goulart succeeded him.
Goularts liberal policiesincluding a Basic Reforms plan to improve adult
literacy and force reinvestment of foreign corporate profits in Brazilproved
unpalatable to Brazils right-wing elements. Following the pattern of subversion practiced elsewhere in Latin America, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
teamed with the ITT Corporation to organized and finance a coup against
Goularts administration, culminating in his ouster from office at gunpoint on
April 1, 1964. Goulart escaped to Uruguay, leaving Brazil in the hands of a
military dictatorship that set new records for brutality in its long dirty war
against the political left.
Argentine president Juan Domingo Pern invited Goulart to Buenos Aires
in 1973, to help expand the nations export markets, despite opposition from

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right-wing minister of social welfare Jos Lpez Rega. In March 1976, after
far-right terrorists botched a plan to kidnap Goularts son for ransom, Goulart moved 450 miles south of Buenos Aires, to Mercedes, where he died nine
months later.
Today, with the collapse of Brazils military junta, Goulart is widely revered
in his native land. At least 10 schools bear his name, as do streets in at least
15 cities. In November 2008, the government granted amnesty to Goulart and
his widow, entitling Maria Teresa Goulart to restitution of some $372,000 for
her years in exile.
Further Reading
Frank, Andre. The Goulart Ouster: Brazil in Perspective. New York: J. H. Richards, 1964.
Skidmore, Thomas. The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil: 19641985. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1990.
Tavora, Araken. Rehearsal for the Coup. In The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
Vargas, Getlio. Vargass Suicide Letter, 1954. In The Brazil Reader: History, Culture,
Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.

GUERIN, VERONICA (19581996)

On June 26, 1996, Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin was planning a trip
from Dublin to London, where she was scheduled to speak in two days time
at Freedom Forum. Her topic was to be Dying to Tell the Story: Journalists at
Risk. That afternoon, as her car was stopped at a traffic light near Newlands
Cross, on Dublins outskirts, a motorcycle bearing two men pulled alongside.
The pillion passenger drew a .357 Magnum revolver and fired six shots at
point-blank range, killing Guerin instantly, before the bike sped away. Garda
investigators named five members of Dublin mobster John Gilligans syndicate as participants in the murder, aimed at preventing Guerin from publishing an expos on Gilligans activities, and although several (with Gilligan)
were later convicted on various charges, only Brian Meehan and Paul Hippo
Ward faced trial for the slaying, receiving a life prison terms.
A Dublin native, born on July 5, 1958, Veronica Guerin was a sports star in
high school, studied accounting at Trinity College, and spent three years with
her fathers firm before leaving to start her own public-relations company in
1983. During 19831984 she also served as secretary for Irelands Republican
Party, Fianna Fil, and subsequently worked as Charles Haugheys personal assistant during his term as Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland. Another shift
in careers soon followed, in 1990, when editor Damien Kiberd hired Guerin
as an investigative reporter for the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune
newspapers. From 1994 onward, after a series of reports on the Provisional

GUERIN, VERONICA

Irish Republican Army, Guerin

applied herself exclusively to
investigations of the Irish underworld.
That pursuit soon led her
to focus on drug traffickers,
which in turn produced numerous death threats. In October 1994, following publication
of an article on murdered gangster Martin The General Cahill, drive-by gunmen fired
two shots into Guerins home.
Ignoring that incident, she
next fixed her sights on mobster John The Coach Traynor.
On January 30, 1995, one of
Traynors thugs rang Guerins
doorbell, pointed a gun at her
head, then shot her in the leg.
Traynors boss, John Gilligan,
also assaulted Guerin on September 13, 1995, when she Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin, murdered by
confronted him publicly with underworld gunmen. (Associated Press)
questions concerning his lavish
lifestyle with no visible source of income. Gilligan subsequently telephoned
Guerins home, threatening to kidnap and rape her son if she published any
articles about him, but she persevered nonetheless, receiving an International
Press Freedom Awards from the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists in December 1995.
Taoiseach John Bruton attended Guerins funeral, calling her murder a direct attack on democracy. Soon afterward, Irelands parliament passed the
Proceeds of Crime Act and the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, permitting confiscation of money and other assets gained from illegal activities. The Garda
investigation of Guerins murder produced more than 150 felony arrests, culminating in official announcements that drug crimes in Ireland had declined
50 percent in Ireland over the following year.
John Gilligan left Ireland for Amsterdam the day before Guerins murder,
but he was captured in England a year later, while trying to board another
outbound flight with $500,000 in cash. Charged with money laundering, Gilligan lost a three-year extradition fight, then was acquitted in Ireland of ordering Guerins death. A subsequent trial convicted him of smuggling 20 tons of

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cannabis, and he received a 28-year sentence, reduced to 20 years on appeal.

Irelands Criminal Assets Board auctioned off his assets in January 2008.
Veronica Guerin was memorialized with a statue on the grounds of Dublin
Castle, and with addition of her name to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial at Arlington, Virginia. In 2000, the International Press Institute named
her as one of 50 World Press Freedom Heroes for the past half-century. Two
feature films have been based on her life: When the Sky Falls (2000), starring
Joan Allen as reporter Sinead Hamilton; and Veronica Guerin (2003), starring
Cate Blanchett in the title role.
Further Reading
OReilly, Emily. Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter. London: Vintage, 1998.
Mooney, John. Gangster: The Biography of International Drug Trafficker John Gilligan.
Dunboyne, Ireland: Maverick House, 2011.
Williams, Paul. Evil Empire: The Irish Mob and the Assassination of Journalist Veronica
Guerin. New York: Forge Books, 2005.

GUEVARA, ERNESTO CHE (19281967)

On October 8, 1967, Bolivian Rangers directed by U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency asset Flix Rodriguesand, some say, by fugitive Nazi war criminal
Kalus Barbiesurprised a small band of guerrillas at Quebrada del Churro.
In a brief firefight, the soldiers killed two of the group, while wounding and
capturing its leader, Ernesto Che Guevara. Remaining defiant in custody, despite bound hands and a gunshot wound to his right leg, Guevara kicked one
policeman who tried to snatch his pipe as a souvenir, then spat in the face of
Bolivian rear admiral Horatio Ugarteche during an abortive interrogation. On
the morning of October 9, President Ren Barrientos Ortuo ordered Guevaras
execution, a move that U.S. national security advisor Walt Rostow called stupid, but understandable from a Bolivian standpoint. Sergeant Mario Tern
performed the execution in a rural schoolhouse, shooting Guevara nine times
with a semiautomatic rifle to support the fiction that he was killed in battle.
Tern then looted Ches corpse, wearing his watch for years afterward, and an
army doctor severed Guevaras hands and preserved them for fingerprint identification. Officials refused to say if Guevara was cremated or buried at some
still-undisclosed location.
Born in Rosario, Argentina, on May 14, 1928, Che Guevara overcame severe asthma to become a star athlete and member of the Club Universitario
de Buenos Aires rugby team. At the same time, he studied chess, world affairs,
and military history. While studying medicine, during 19501951, he traveled
widely through Latin America on a homemade motorcycle, observing conditions that converted him to revolutionary Marxism and deep-seated suspicion

G U E VA R A , E R N E S T O C H E

of U.S. activities in the region. Licensed to practice medicine in 1953, Che embarked on another epic journey through eight Latin American nations, finding
his way to Guatemala in time for the U.S.-sponsored coup that deposed President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. At the same time, he made his first contact with
members of Cubas July 26 Movement, led by Fidel Castro.
From Guatemala, Che moved on to Mexico City, lecturing on medicine at the
National Autonomous University of Mexico and doubling as a photographer for
the Latina News Agency. He met Fidel and Raul Castro there, in June 1955, and
joined their movement to depose Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Although
Che initially planned to serve as the small armys medic, he soon advanced to
become one of Castros leading strategists and field commanders. Finally, as second in command, he personally executed captured spies, informers, and deserters. Following Castros victory, in January 1959, Guevara played multiple roles
in the new revolutionary governmentsupervising a national literacy campaign, serving as minister of industries, promoting agrarian land reform, acting
as president of Cubas new national bank, training soldiers, and reviewing the
appeals of Batista loyalists sentenced to death by revolutionary courts.
In April 1961, Guevara played a key role in repelling the CIA-sponsored
Bay of Pigs invasion. Published reports also claim that he was instrumental
in bringing Soviet nuclear weapons to Cuba, thereby precipitating the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962. He left Cuba in 1965, tasked with exporting revolution to the world at large. That mission that led him first to the Republic of
the Congo, where he fought with rebels led by future president Laurent-Dsir
Kabila, opposing the national army, CIA contract agents, and South African
mercenaries. From Africa, he moved on to Bolivia in 1966, leading a 50-member
National Liberation Army of Bolivia against the military regime of President
Barrientos.
That campaign claimed his life, but Guevara remains an influentialand
controversialfigure worldwide, nearly half a century after his death. His
writings, including The Motorcycle Diaries (filmed in 2004), remain best-selling
works today. Alberto Kordas photo portrait of Che, titled Guerrillero Heroico (Heroic Guerrilla), has been labeled the most famous photograph in the
world by the Maryland Institute College of Art. World figures ranging from
Susan Sontag and Jean-Paul Sartre to Nelson Mandela have publicly hailed Che
as a freedom fighter and revolutionary inspiration. Conversely, posthumous
critics condemn him for his communist philosophy, his participation in executions, and the alleged role that his revolutionary actions played in strengthening U.S.-backed military dictatorships in Latin America.
Today, Che Guevara is arguably the Western Hemispheres most famous revolutionary, eclipsing Castro himself. His image appears on countless posters,
T-shirts, and other articles of clothing, and his life and death have been commemorated in at least 26 different songs, mostly in Spanish. Che had also been

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portrayed in 14 feature films, by actors including Francisco Rabal (El Che Guevara, 1968), Omar Sharif (Che!, 1969), Michael Palin (Monty Python Live at the
Hollywood Bowl, 1982), Antonio Banderas (Evita, 1996), Miguel Ruiz Das (El
Che, 1997), Alfredo Vasco (Hasta la Victoria Siempre, 1999), Gael Garca Bernal
(Fidel, 2002), Karl Sheils (Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill,
2003), Gael Garca Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004), Jsu Garcia (The Lost
City, 2005), Martin Hyder (The Mark Steel Lectures: Che Guevara, 2006), Sam G.
Preston (The True Story of Che Guevara, 2007), Eduardo Noriega (Che, 2007),
and Benicio del Toro (Che, 2008).
Further Reading
Anderson, Jon. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Castaneda, Jorge. Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1997.
Crompton, Samuel. Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary. New York: Gareth Stevens, 2009.
James, Daniel. Che Guevara: A Biography. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

GUINNESS, WALTER EDWARD (18801944)

On the afternoon of November 6, 1944, two members of the Zionist guerrilla
organization Lohamei Herut Israel (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel)commonly known as the Stern Gang, after founder Avraham Sternambushed
Walter Guinness, 1st Baron of Moyne and British minister resident in the Middle East, outside his home in Cairo, Egypt, killing Guinness and his chauffeur.
The gunmen, Eliyahu Bet-Zuri and Eliyahu Hakim, fled on bicycles but were
soon overtaken by police, with Hakim wounded in an exchange of gunfire.
Stern Gang field commander Yaakov Banai announced that Guinness was killed
to dramatize the Zionist war against British Imperialism, saying: We accuse
Lord Moyne and the government he represents, with murdering hundreds and
thousands of our brethren; we accuse him of seizing our country and looting
our possessions. . . . We were forced to do justice and to fight. An Egyptian
court convicted Bet-Zuri and Hakim of murder on January 11, 1945, and they
were hanged on March 23.
A native of Dublin, Ireland, born on March 29, 1880, Walter Guinness was
the third son of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, whose ancestors established the Guinness brewery in 1759. Educated at Eton, he volunteered for service in the Second Boer War (18991902), where he was wounded and received
the Queens South Africa Medal, being discharged with the rank of captain. In
1907, Guinness was elected to the London County Council and the House of
Commons and as a member of the Conservative Party. Back in uniform for World
War I, he served in Egypt, at Gallipoli, and received the Distinguished Service

G U I N N E S S , WA L T E R E D WA R D

Order for the battle at Passendale, Belgium, ending the war

as a lieutenant colonel. Returning to the House of Commons
as an ardent anticommunist, he
also opposed the postwar Irish
struggle for independence from
Britain.
Guinness served as minister of agriculture from November 1925 to June 1929, then
retired to the family brewing
business after that years defeat
of the Conservative Party. Expanding operations to Canada,
he established British Pacific
Properties in British Columbia
and commissioned the First
Narrows Bridge, spanning Burrard Inlet to link Vancouver
with the Canadian mainland.
In 1938, he was appointed Militant Zionists killed Walter Guinness, British minister of state in the Middle East. (Getty
chairman of the West Indies Images)
Royal Commission, tasked to
investigate labor disputes in the Caribbean and offer advice on administration
of British colonies in that region.
At the outbreak of World War II, Guinness chaired the Polish Relief Fund,
and then was transferred to Cairo as deputy resident minister in August 1942.
There, in April 1944, he reportedly participated in the grilling of Joel Brand,
a member of the Jewish-Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee, who had attempted to negotiate with Nazi SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann for the
exchange of 10,000 trucks for one million Jewish prisoners. At Eichmanns
mass-murder trial, in 1961, Brand testified that Guinness asked him, What
can I do with a million Jews? Where can I put them? Brand was released by
British authorities in October 1944, and joined the Stern Gang team that killed
Guinness the following month.
Fearing British retaliation in the wake of Guinnesss assassination, Jewish leaders in Palestine sought to publicly distance themselves from the Stern
Gang, while still supporting its covert actions. The Jewish newspaper Haaretz,
published in Tel Aviv, declared that Guinnesss slayers have done more by this
single reprehensible crime to demolish the edifice erected by three generations
of Jewish pioneers than is imaginable. In London, Prime Minister Winston

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ZIONISM
Zionism is broadly defined as a national movement for the return of the
Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty
in the land of Israel. Although theoretically dating from the Diaspora of
586 BCE, during the Babylonian occupation of Israel, the organized movement properly began with Joseph Nasi (15241579), a Portuguese Jew
who campaigned for Jewish emigration from the Ottoman Empire. Later
distinguished by many splinter ideologies, Zionism achieved its goal with
foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. Critics condemn the movement as
colonialist and racist, citing statements such as propagandist Israel Zangwills description of Arab-populated Palestine as a country without a people, for a people without a country. Acts of terrorism committed by the
Stern Gang and Irgun Zevai Leumi (National Military Organization in the
Land of Israel) between 1920 and 1948 also tarnished the broader movements reputation. Some critics of Zionism, particularly in the Arab states,
consider it a racist and/or colonialist movement. Some supporters of Zionism counter those arguments by claiming that any opposition to Zionism or Israel constitutes prima facie evidence of anti-Semitism. Meanwhile,
Zionism remains a hot topic for far-right groups worldwide, including
neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups in the United States. Spokesmen
for those organizations spin conspiracy theories involving Jewish world
domination, often referring to the U.S. federal government in Washington,
D.C., as ZOGthe Zionist Occupation Government. In 1983, a farright group called the Orderalso known in German as Brder Schweigen
(Brothers Keep Silent)declared war on ZOG and on America at large,
committing multiple murders and other acts of terrorism before its members were convicted of racketeering in 1986.

Churchill, once a self-described Zionist, told the House of Commons, If our

dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of an assassins pistol, and the labours for its future produce a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany,
then many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained
so consistently and so long in the past.
Despite those comments, Hakim and Bet-Zuri were widely regarded as Zionist heroes. In 1975, Israel recovered their corpses from Egypt in exchange
for 20 prisoners from Gaza and Sinai. The bodies lay in state at the Jerusalem
Hall of Heroism, viewed by thousands including Israels president and prime
minister, then were buried with full military honors at Mount Herzl national
cemetery. In 1982, postage stamps were issued in their honor.

G U N N , D AV I D

Further Reading
Avner. Memoirs of an Assassin: Confessions of a Stern Gang Killer. London: Thomas
Yoseloff, 1959.
Golan, Zev. Stern: The Man and His Gang. Tel Aviv: Yahir Publishing, 2011.
Heller, Joseph. The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 19401949. London: Frank
Cass Publishers, 1995.

GUNN, DAVID (19461993)

On March 10, 1993, pro-life zealot Michael Frederick Griffin joined a group
of protesters outside Floridas Pensacola Womens Medical Services, where
Dr. David Gunn performed abortions. As Gunn arrived for work that morning,
Griffin rushed the doctors car, shouting, Dont kill any more babies, and shot
Gunn three times in the back at close range. Jurors convicted Griffin of murder
on March 4, 1994, resulting in a life prison term.
David Gunn was born and raised in Benton, Kentucky. He survived a childhood case of polio with a severe limp, defying the prediction of physicians that
he would never drive a car or
walk without a leg brace. Motivated by his own experience,
after graduating from Tennessees Vanderbilt University,
Gunn proceeded to study medicine at the University of Kentucky, specializing in obstetrics
and gynecology. A brother later
said Gunns partial disability
determined his course of specialized study: It was something we discussed, Peter
Gunn said. You delivered babies in a seated position. He
couldnt stand for hours and
hours without getting tired.
Dr. Gunn practiced first at
a public hospital in Brewton,
Alabama, choosing the Cotton
State because it had the highest infant-mortality rate in the
United States. By 1983, he
had established his own fertil- A "pro-life" zealot murdered Dr. David Gunn in
ity clinic in Eufala, Alabama. Florida. (Ralf-Finn Hestoff /Corbis)

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Nearby, in Columbus, Georgia, a clinic operated by the Womens Health Network (WHN) lost its elderly physician who had terminated pregnancies, and
executive director Susan Hill sought a replacement. Although raised in the
Church of Christ, with its prohibition against abortions, Gunn agreed to take
over the job, beginning a decade of relentless travel between six WHN clinics
in the South, often driving 1,000 miles per week. Hill described Gunn to reporters as a laid-back 60s kind of guy who didnt like the politics of medicine;
he wanted to help, but at the same time Gunn concealed his new activity from
members of his strictly religious parents and siblings.
Threats began immediately, from protesters outside the clinics Gunn served,
to North Carolinas White Patriot Party, formerly a branch of the Ku Klux Klan,
which issued Wanted posters on Gunn, including his photograph and home
address. Susan Hill recalled, He told me several times that he had been followed from city to city. He would take back roads and choose different paths
to throw them off. He didnt report the threats. None of us did. They happen
all the time. Gunn did prepare himself by carrying three pistols in his car
one in the glove compartment, one beneath the drivers seat, and another in
the trunkbut none of them helped on the day he was shot.
Acquaintances described assassin Michael Griffin as a fundamentalist
Christian and a loner with a bad temper. Two months before the shooting, he
had joined the Pensacola branch of Rescue America, an antiabortion group led
locally by self-ordained minister John Burta self-described former alcoholic
and ex-KKK member who claims that he abandoned the groups racist doctrine
when he became a born-again Christian. Before meeting Griffin, Burt served
as spiritual advisor to a group of zealots that bombed three womens clinics in
1984. Griffin initially told police that he shot Dr. Gunn for God, but at trial

ARMY OF GOD
The Army of God (AOG) is a loose-knit coalition of pro-life Christian
terrorists responsible for various acts of violence since August 1982,
when self-proclaimed members kidnapped Dr. Hector Zevallos and his
wife in Illinois, briefly holding them hostage under threat of death. In
1985, the groups East Coast Division claimed credit for clinic bombings in Maryland and Washington, D.C., which resulted in imprisonment
of Rev. Michael Bray and two accomplices. Rachelle Shelley Shannon,
who shot and wounded Kansas physician George Tiller in August 1993,
also declared herself a member of the AOG. Another self-described member, Scott Roeder, murdered Dr. Tiller in May 2009. The group also
claimed responsibility for Eric Rudolphs lethal 1997 clinic bombings in

G U S TAV I I I O F S W E D E N

Atlanta and Birmingham, along with a blast at a Georgia gay bar. Clayton Waagner, proclaiming himself a member of the AOGs Virginia Dare
Chapter, created an anthrax panic in 2001, by mailing some 500 envelopes filled with harmless white powder to 280 abortion providers nationwide. Paul Jennings Hill, executed in September 2003 for the 1994
Florida murders of Dr. John Britton and his bodyguard, advertised himself before that double killing as a national spokesman for the AOG.
Various researchers disagree as to whether the group has any leadership
structureor, in fact, whether it physically exists, outside the minds of
its fanatical activists. Meanwhile, the AOG, or some unknown person
claiming to represent it, maintains a Web site at http://www.armyofgod
.com. The site praises Paul Hill and Scott Roeder as American heroes,
offers graphic photos of aborted fetuses, and refers interested parties to
Rev. Donald Spitz, reachable via a post office box in Chesapeake, Virginia.

his attorneys claimed Griffin was brainwashed by Burt. No charges were filed
against Burt in Gunns murder, but he received an 18-year prison sentence in
2005, convicted on five counts of molesting a 15-year-old girl at Our Fathers
House, a home for troubled teenage girls and unwed mothers.
Gunns assassination prompted Congress to pass the Freedom of Access to
Clinic Entrances Act in May 1994, imposing federal penalties for any threats or
attacks against womens clinics, obstruction of free access to their facilities, or
stalking of clinic staff members. The statute upholds protesters First Amendment rights to assemble, picket, distribute literature, and shout outside clinics
from a safe distance, as long as no threats are made.
Further Reading
Baird-Windle, Patricia, and Eleanor Bader. Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism.
New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Mason, Carol. Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2002.
Risen, James, and Judy Thomas. Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War. New York:
Basic Books, 1999.

GUSTAV III OF SWEDEN (17461792)

On March 16, 1792, King Gustav III attended a banquet and masquerade ball
at Stockholms Royal Opera House. Before leaving his palace, he had received
an anonymous letter containing a death threat, but Gustav ignored it as routine. Moments after entering the opera house, Gustav was accosted by three

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conspirators wearing black masks: Count Claes Fredrik Horn, Count Adolph
Ludvig Ribbing, and army officer Jacob Johan Anckarstrm. While the counts
distracted Gustav with the greeting, Good-day, fine mask, Anckarstrm shot
him in the back with a pistol containing two balls, five pellets of shot and
six bent nails. Gustav initially survived for nearly two weeks, continuing his
function as head of state until infection claimed his life on March 29. All three
plotters were arrested and confessed in custody. On April 16, Anckarstrm was
sentenced to flogging and confinement in irons, with his right hand severed
before he was beheaded on April 27. Count Ribbing was stripped of his title
and sentenced to death in May 1792, later pardoned and exiled to France. No
record survives of Count Horns sentence.
Gustav was born in Stockholm on January 24, 1746, the eldest son of King
Adolf Frederick. His father died on February 12, 1771, remembered as the
king who ate himself to death with an epic meal including lobster, sauerkraut,
caviar, kippers, champagne, and 14 helpings of his favorite dessert. Gustav was
in Paris when his father died, and did not return until March 25, with his official coronation occurring on March 29. Chafing at the parliamentary reforms
instituted since the death of King Charles XII, in 1718, and personally at odds
with parliaments dominant liberal Caps faction, Gustavplanned a coup with
Finnish nobleman Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten in July 1772. By late August,
their forces had seized control of Sweden, thus ending the nations 54-year
Age of Liberty. Soon thereafter, Sprengtporten abandoned his partnership with
Gustav, complaining that the king had grown so violent and insolent that anything like agreement between them became impossible.
Over the next 17 years, Gustav pressed for restoration of royal autocracy
or enlightened despotism, as he saw itand achieved his goal at last with
passage of the Union and Security Act in 1789. That statute delegated most of
parliaments former powers to the king, including the sole authority to declare
war and make peace. He proved fickle in foreign policy, first plotting to capture
Norway with aid from Russia, then scheming to invade Russias Baltic provinces when the first plan failed. The French Revolution of 17881789 alarmed
Gustav, who feared similar revolts against monarchs throughout Europe, and
he contributed substantial funds toward an abortive plan to reinstate Louis XVI
as king of France.
In terms of domestic policy, while remaining autocratic and restricting freedom of the press, Gustav granted a measure of religious liberty to Jews and
Catholics (Gustav himself was Lutheran). He was a renownedsome said extravagantpatron of the arts and literature, founding several Royal Academies
to promote the arts, culture, and science in Sweden, and built the Royal Swedish Opera in 1782where he would be slain 10 years later.
Gustav was succeeded by his son, 13-year-old Gustav Adolf, with Gustavs brother Charles serving as regent. In 1805, Gustav Adolf joined the

G U S TAV I I I O F S W E D E N

Third Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, with the result that France occupied Swedish Pomerania. A popular rebellion against the young, inept king
prompted Gustav Adolf to abdicate and flee into exile, leaving his uncle in
charge as Charles XIII.
Further Reading
Barton, H. Arnold. Scandinavia in the Revolutionary Era, 17601815. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
Ihalainen, Pasi, Michael Bregnsbo, Karin Sennefelt, and Patrik Winton. Scandinavia in
the Age of Revolution. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2011.

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H
HABYARIMANA, JUVNAL (19371994)
At 8:20 P.M. on April 6, 1994, a Dassault Falcon 50 private jet approached
Rwandas Kigali International Airport. Aboard the plane were Rwandan president Juvnal Habyarimana, the nations three highest-ranking military officers,
the presidents foreign affairs advisor, and his personal physician. Also on board
was Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of Burundi, accompanied by Burundis
minister of communication and minister of public works. As the presidential
jet prepared to land, two surface-to-air missiles struck the aircraft, killing all
nine passengers and three French crewmen.
Juvnal Habyarimana was born on March 8, 1937, in Ruanda-Urundi, a Belgian suzerainty from 1916 to 1924, then a League of Nations Class B Mandate
until 1945, and a United Nations Trust Territory. A member of the dominant
Hutu tribe, Habyarimana was 22 years old during the Rwandan Revolution of
1959, when Hutus killed at least 20,000 Tutsi tribe members (some accounts
claim 100,000), and driving thousands more into exile. Three years later, independence from foreign rule saw Ruanda-Urundi separated into the neighboring sovereign states of Rwanda and Burundi (with a ruling Tutsi majority).
Ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis persisted in Rwanda, and Hutus
dominated the government and army.
Habyarimana chose the military as a path to power, rising to army chief of
staff at age 36. On July 5, 1973, he led a coup that deposed President Grgoire
Kayibanda and his ruling Parti du Mouvement de lEmancipation Hutu (Party
of the Hutu Emancipation Movement). By 1975, Habyarimanas National Revolutionary Movement for Development was Rwandas only legal party, reinforced in 1978 with a new constitution affirming one-party rule. A unique
feature of the revised constitution was the policy of Umuganda, under which
all Rwandans were compelled to work one-half day each week on projects
related to national infrastructure. Passage of the constitution was accompanied by Habyarimanas election to another five-year presidential term, running
unopposed.
Habyarimana initially posed as a friend of both Hutu and Tutsi alike, but
soon dropped that faade, favoring members of his own tribe in Rwanda and
sponsoring Hutu attacks on Burundis Tutsi-run government. Cronyism was
the order of the day, ensuring Habyarimanas reelection as the only presidential

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candidate in 1983 and 1989.

The presidents high-handed
methods evoked pressure from
France (Rwandas primary financial supporter), the World
Bank, and the International
Monetary Fund, seeking relaxation of one-party rule, and in
summer 1990 Habyarimana reluctantly agreed to permit campaigning by opposition parties.
By then, however, it was too
late to avert rebellion. Exiled
Tutsis, organized as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), invaded Rwanda from Uganda
in October 1990, sparking a
civil war that reached a bloody
climax in May 1992, finally
endedat least, for the moA rocket attack killed Rwandan president Juvnal mentwith signing of the Arusha Accords in August 1993.
Habyarimana in 1994. (Getty Images)
That treaty ostensibly shared
official power between Hutus
and Tutsis, but the war had hardened Hutu attitudes toward Rwandas ethnic
minority. Hutu extremists from the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic
claimed that RPF leaders sought to impose a Tutsi monarchy in Rwanda, publicly calling for extermination of Tutsi cockroaches. Ethnic violence escalated
through early 1994, and UN peacekeepers proved unable to stem the bloodshed. In early April, President Habyarimana embarked on visits to Zaire (now
the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Tanzania, before traveling with Burundian president Ntaryamira and his ministers on the journey that climaxed with
their death.
Responsibility for the April 6 rocket attack was never reliably assigned.
Hutu leaders blamed RPF chief Paul Kagame, whereas RPF spokesmen accused President Habyarimana own party, alleging a plot to provoke anti-Tutsi
pogroms. Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda claimed that Franois de
Grossouvrea high-ranking aide to French president Franois Mitterrand
had knowledge of a plot against Habyarimana, an assertion perhaps supported
by de Grossouvres suicide on April 7, 1994.
Whoever was responsible for killing Habyarimana, the assassination triggered the Rwandan genocide of 1994, with an estimated 800,000 to 1 million

H A M I D A D D I N , YA H YA M U H A M M A D

Tutsis slaughtered between April and July. That violence, in turn, led the Tutsi
RPF to renew its offensive against the predominately Hutu government, seizing the capital at Kigali on July 4. Fearing retribution, some two million Hutus
fled the country, leaving the government in Tutsi hands for the first time since
Rwanda achieved independence. RPF leader Paul Kagame assumed the presidency in March 2000 and retains it at the time of this writing.
Further Reading
Dallaire, Romo. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. New
York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
Mamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Prunier, Grard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Straus, Scott. The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.

HAMIDADDIN, YAHYA MUHAMMAD

(18691948)
On February 17, 1948, Muslim reformers in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of
Yemen staged a coup dtat against Imam (King) Yahya Muhammad Hamidaddin in Sanaa, killing the king and three of his 16 sons. Civil war erupted
between loyalists and the rebels, and spokesmen for the League of Arab States
attempted to negotiate a ceasefire. By March 14, the late imams eldest son
Prince Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddinhad retaken the capital from reformist
opponents, and conditions within Yemen were declared normal by March 16.
British colonial authorities in South Yemen (now Aden) recognized Ahmad as
the new and rightful king on April 21.
Yahya Muhammad Hamidaddin was born in Sanaa on June 18, 1869, a
member of the Al Qasimi dynasty that traced its ancestry to Imam Ali, a cousin
and son-in-law of Muslim prophet Muhammad, the first convert to Islam and
ruler of the Rashidun Caliphate from 656 to 661. Yahya succeeded his father
as king in 1904, ruling the area later known as North Yemen, although the Ottoman Turks who occupied the region refused to recognize his authority until
1913, when the Treaty of Daan conceded his status as the spiritual and temporal leader of the Zaydi Shia in Yemen. Under that agreement, Zaydi-controlled
areas were be governed by sharia law, with the Imam empowered to appoint
governors and judges, also collecting taxes, while himself remaining under Ottoman authority.
Late in World War I, the Armistice of Mudrossigned on October 30,
1918transferred control of Yemen from Turkey into British hands. Imam

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Yahya seized that opportunity to proclaim northern Yemen an independent,

formally renamed as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen in 1926. Attempts
at territorial expansion into southern Tihamah and Asir sparked the Saudi
Yemeni War of 1934, settled with the Treaty of Taif in May, establishing the
current boundary line between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Yahyas
border-hopping forced also clashed sporadically with British troops in the
Aden Protectorate.
From 1934 until his death, Imam Yahya on consolidating his authority inside Yemen, suppressing crime, and maintaining a viable government. His regime was the first to send students abroad, and Yahya created the first Yemeni
trading company to expand economic opportunities. Unexpectedly, in light of
later Middle Eastern events, Yemens Jews enjoyed the imams favor and praised
him as a paragon of justice.
Yahyas assassination revealed a rift in his family, as loyal tribesmen rallied to
support Prince Ahmad, while two of his brothersPrince Alabbass and Prince
Alhassandeclared themselves rulers from the capital. Ahmads troops suppressed that rebellion, and another abortive coup by two of his brothers in
March 1956, and a mutual defense pact with Egypt strengthened his regime
in April 1956. Two years later, Ahmad joined the United Arab Republic (Egypt
and Syria) to create a loose confederation called the United Arab States, but
internal dissension dissolved it in September 1961. King Ahmad died in September 1962, succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Muhammad al-Badr, but a
military coup deposed him after nine days on the throne, abolishing Yemens
monarchy.
Further Reading
Dresch, Paul. A History of Modern Yemen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001.
Dresch, Paul. Tribes, Government, and History in Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1994.
Phillips, Sarah. Yemen and the Politics of Permanent Crisis. London: Routledge, 2011.

HAMMARSKJLD, DAG HJALMAR AGNE

CARL (19051961)
On the night of September 1718, 1961, a Douglas DC-6 airliner crashed near
Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), killing all 16 persons on board. One
of those lost was Dag Hammarskjld, Secretary General of the United Nations
(UN), en route to negotiate a ceasefire between UN peacekeepers and troops
led by Moise Tshombe in the Republic of the Congo. Eyewitness reports, describing a bright flash in the sky that preceded the plane crash, spawned multiple official inquiries and fueled persistent claims that Hammarskjld had been

HAMMARSKJLD, DAG HJALMAR AGNE CARL

assassinated, either with a bomb

or a surface-to-air missile.
Dag Hammarskjld was
born in Jnkping, Sweden,
on July 29, 1905, the youngest
son of Prime Minister Hjalmar
Hammarskjld. He studied at
Katedralskolan (The Cathedral
School) in Uppsala, then attended Uppsala University,
where he earned a bachelor
of laws and a masters degree
in political economy. While
working as secretary for a government committee on unemployment, he completed
his doctorate in economics at
Stockholm University.
His studies completed, Hammarskjld joined the Sveriges
Conspiracy theories surround the plane crash that
Riksbank as a secretary in killed Dag Hammarskjld in 1961. (Getty Images)
1936, rising swiftly to serve as
chairman from 1941 to 1948.
Simultaneously, in 1947, he joined Swedens ministry for foreign affairs, and
became its state secretary in 1949. In 1951, he was appointed as vice chairman of Swedens delegation to the UN General Assembly in Paris, promoted
to chairman of the delegation when UN headquarters moved to New York
City the following year. In April 1953, he replaced Norways Trygve Lie as the
UNs Secretary General, and was reelected to a second term in 1957. Widely
regarded as a competent administrator without any political agenda, Hammarskjld sought to ease tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors, negotiated with China for release of 15 U.S. pilots captured during the Korean War,
and established the UN Emergency Force, first fielded during the 1956 Suez
Crisis. June 1960 brought independence to the former Belgian Congo, and unleashed the civil war that would draw Hammarskjld to his death.
Three official inquiries probed the circumstances of the fatal crash at Ndola.
First was the Rhodesian Board of Investigation, convened on September 19,
1961, under British lieutenant colonel M.C.B. Barber. That panel concluded its
proceedings on November 2, 1961, and was followed by two weeks of hearings
before an independent Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, in January 1962. Finally, a UN Commission of Investigation, chaired by Nepalese diplomat and
human rights activist Rishikesh Shaha, probed the crash, later in 1962. None

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of those panels determined a cause for the airliners crash. Two Swedish bodyguards aboard the plane had suffered multiple bullet wounds, but the UNs report deemed their wounds superficial, apparently caused when ammunition
on board the plane detonated while burning. The planes wreckage showed no
signs of foul play, and reports of a flash in the sky were dismissed as inconsistent, possibly occurring after the DC-6 crashed.
Those inconclusive verdicts failed to quash conspiracy theories surrounding Hammarskjlds death. One proposed scenario blamed Belgian and/or
U.S. intelligence agencies, citing their support for the July 1960 secession
of Katanga from the Republic of the Congo, and their evident participation in the murder of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Further
suspicion was raised by the prominent role of British military officers in
the Rhodesian inquiries, suggestive to some critics of a possible whitewash.
Supporting allegations that critical evidence was suppressed or misrepresented, ballistics expert Major C. F. Westell stated, I can certainly describe
as sheer nonsense the statement that cartridges of machine guns or pistols
detonated in a fire can penetrate a human body. Westell based that conclusion on British experiments conducted to see if firefighters faced risks of
being accidentally gunned down while responding to conflagrations at military arsenals.
Long after the fact, in August 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu reported
that letters uncovered by South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission
implicated the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, South African intelligence services, and Britains Security Service (MI5) in the 1961 plane crash. One letter
stated that a bomb in the aircrafts wheel bay had been set to explode when the
landing gear was lowered. Britains Foreign Office rejected that charge, branding the letters in question a product of a Cold War era Soviet disinformation
campaign.
In July 2005, Norwegian major general Bjrn Eggethe first UN officer
to view Hammarskjlds corpse 44 years earlierreported that Hammarskjld
had an apparent bullet hole in his forehead, which was airbrushed out of photos taken at the scene before their publication. Egge further suggested that
Hammarskjld might have been thrown from the wreckage alive, then was
shot while crawling away. Around the same time, a U.S. intelligence officer
stationed on Cyprus in September 1961 reported hearing a cockpit recording from Ndolas control tower. According to that witness, the tape included
sounds of gunfire and an unidentified pilot announcing, Ive hit it. In September 2009, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi called for a new UN investigation of Hammarskjlds death and Patrice Lumumbas murder, but that
request was ignored.
See also: Lumumba, Patrice mery (19251961).

HAMPTON, FRED

Further Reading
Urquhart, Brian. Hammarskjld. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.
Van Dusen, Henry. Dag Hammarskjld: The Man and His Faith. New York: Harper &
Row, 1969.
Williams, A. Susan. Who Killed Hammarskjld? The UN, the Cold War, and White Supremacy in Africa. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2011.

HAMPTON, FRED (19481969)

On November 13, 1969, Chicago police raided the local office of the Black Panther Party (BPP), sparking a shootout that left two patrolmen and one Panther
dead, with seven other persons wounded. In the wake of that battle, the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial titled No Quarter for Wild Beasts, urging that officers approach all Panthers prepared to use lethal force. Three weeks later, at
4:45 A.M. on December 4, 14 officers of the Special Prosecutions Unit, deployed
by Edward Hanrahan, Illinois states attorney for Cook County, staged another
aid on Panther headquarters, killing BPP chairman Fred Hampton and another
party member, Mark Clark. Seven other Panthers were arrested, charged with on
charges of aggravated assault and the attempted murder, held in lieu of $100,000
bail. Crime scene evidence revealed at least 82 shots fired by officers during the
raid, versus one shot fired by Clark as he lay dying on the floor. Hampton was
shot while lying in bed with his
pregnant girlfriend, and Cook
County chemist Eleanor Berman, hired by Hamptons family, found traces of the barbiturate secobarbital in his corpse.
Relatives of Clark and Hampton
sued the city, state, and federal
governments for $47.7 million,
charging a conspiracy to violate the Panthers civil rights.
Federal judge J. Sam Perry dismissed the case after 18 months
of testimony, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed that decision and
ordered a retrial. In 1982, the
defendants settled the claim for
$1.85 million.
Fred Hampton was born in Chicago police executed Black Panther Fred
Summit, Illinois, on August 30, Hampton as he slept, in 1969. (Bettmann/Corbis)

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HAMPTON, FRED

1948, and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. He graduated with honors from Proviso East High School in 1966, then enrolled as a pre-law student
at Triton Junior College in River Grove, Illinois. First active as a leader of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples Youth Council,
he demonstrated natural leadership qualities. Exposure to police racism in his
home environment drew Hampton to the BPP when its Chicago chapter organized, late in 1967. From that base, he negotiated a truce among the citys
largest African America street gangs, including the 30,000-member Blackstone
Rangers. Next came collaboration with the mostly white Students for a Democratic Society, the Hispanic Brown Berets, and the Chinese-American Red Guard
Party. In May 1969, Hampton publicly described that alliance as a rainbow
coalitiona term subsequently appropriated and popularized by Rev. Jesse
Jackson.
Hamptons charisma and achievements quickly made him a target for Chicago police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), collaborating in
illegal harassment of the Panthers under one of the FBIs covert counterintelligence programs (COINTELPRO). FBI documents secured by Senate investigators in 1975 revealed that the bureau engaged in activities ranging from
outlawed wiretaps and anonymous hate-mail campaigns to active promotion
of violence between Black Panthers and other ghetto organizations, provoking
multiple murders in cities from coast to coast. In Chicago, FBI agents first tried
to provoke a shooting war between Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. Failing that, they hired agents provocateurs to infiltrate the Panthers and encourage
criminal activity. One such hireling, William ONeal, later committed suicide
after admitting that he drugged a drink consumed by Hampton on the night of
the fatal police raid.
Other evidence of a set-up and summary execution came from within the
FBI itself. Retired agent Mont Wesley Swearingen, in a 1995 memoir, described
fellow agent Gregg York telling him, We expected about twenty Panthers to
be in the apartment when the police raided the place. Only two of those black
niggers were killed, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. A survivor of the December raid, Panther Harold Bell, recalled the following exchange between uniformed raiders in the apartment:
Thats Fred Hampton.
Is he dead? Bring him out.
Hes barely alive.
Hell make it.
Two more shots rang out, then, and an officer replied, Hes good and
dead now.
Cook Countys Democratic Party declined to endorse Edward Hanrahan for
reelection, but he won the primary without party support, only to lose the general elections. In the 1970s he also lost two gubernatorial bids, and finished his
political career in the 1980s, defeated in a campaign for Chicagos City Council.

HAMPTON, FRED

FBI WAR ON THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY (BPP)

In August 1967, the FBI launched a covert action program to disrupt and
neutralize organizations designated as Black Nationalist Hate Groups.
Although these ranged from the Nation of Islam to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Martin Luther King Jr., agents paid
particular attention to the Black Panthers. In 1968, FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover labeled Panthers the greatest threat to the internal security of the
country. Bureau activities against the BPP included efforts to promote violence between Panthers and other organizations, including rival militant
groups, ghetto street gangs, and white radical organizations. In California alone, during 1969, at least three Panthers were murdered by members of United Slaves, a competing black militant organization founded
and led by an FBI/police informant. Nationwide, through 1970, 34 Panthers died in police shootings, or were slain by fellow party members. In
the case of New York Panther Alex Rackley, tortured and killed in May
1969 as a suspected police informant, it now appears that an actual police spy shifted suspicion from himself toward the innocent Rackley, then
joined in Rackleys interrogation and murder. Other BPP members, such
as Elmer Geronimo Pratt, were framed and imprisoned for crimes they
did not commit, only exonerated decades later. These illegal activities
were fully documented in 1976 by the U.S. Senate Select Committee to
Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities,
accessible online at http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfin
alreportIIIc.htm. Although the FBI supposedly ended its illegal harassment campaigns with Hoovers death in 1972, similar tactics were used
against the American Indian Movement and other groups through the
1980s, and perhaps beyond.

Thirty-five years after Hamptons slaying that same council unanimously declared December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago.
Further Reading
Churchill, Ward. Agents of Repression: The FBIs Secret War against the Black Panther
Party and the American Indian Movement. Boston: South End Press, 2001.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Fred Hampton. FBI Records: The Vault. http://vault
.fbi.gov/Fred%20Hampton.
Haas, Jeffrey. The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010.
Wilkins, Roy, and Ramsey Clark. Search and Destroy: A Report by the Commission of
Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police. New York: Metropolitan Applied Research Center, 1973.

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HAN I, M ARTI N TH EM BISI LE CH RIS

HANI, MARTIN THEMBISILE CHRIS

(19421993)
White faces were not unusual in Dawn Park, a racially mixed suburb of Boksburg, South Africa, in April 1993. Chris Hanichairman of the South African
Communist Party and leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the
armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC)paid little attention to
the white man standing on his street when Hani came home, on the evening
of April 10. The stranger, Polish immigrant Janusz Walu s,
stepped forward as
Hani got out of his car, shooting Hani at close range and killing him instantly.
Walus fled, but was captured nearby. Police traced his pistol to Clive DerbyLewis a member of parliament from the Conservative Party, once described
by the Daily Telegraph as a right-wing extremist and someone who even by
South African standards . . . has acquired over the years a reputation as a rabid
racist. Walus and Derby-Lewis were both convicted of murder and sentenced
to death. In 1995, with abolition of capital punishment, their sentences were
commuted to life imprisonment.
Chris Hani was born in Cofimvaba, a small town in South Africas Eastern
Cape Province, on June 28, 1942. He studied classical and modern literature at
the University of Fort Hare, in Alice, East Cape. Some reports also describe him
as a student at Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. A member
of the ANC Youth League by age 15, Hani participated in protests against the
Bantu Education Act (mandating racially segregated schools), and joined Umkhonto we Sizwe after graduating from the university. At age 20, following arrest
under the Suppression of Communism Act, Hani left South Africa for exile in
Lesotho, then moved on to receive military training in the Soviet Union.
Returning to Africa as a committed Red revolutionary, Hani fought in the
chaotic Rhodesian Bush War of 19641979, wherein five separate militant
groups waged guerrilla warfare against the white minority government led by
Prime Minister Ian Smith. That struggle was ultimately successful, achieving
universal suffrage in Zimbabwe Rhodesia and electing the nations first black
prime minister in April 1979. Hanis reputation for courage under fire marked
him as a prime target for white racists, and he survived several assassination attempts before returning permanently to South Africa in 1990. A year later, he
replaced Joe Slovo as head of South Africas Communist Party, opening negotiations to remove a legal ban imposed on the party in 1950.
Hanis assassination is regarded as a turning point in South Africas history.
Although widespread violence was anticipated, future president Nelson Mandela calmed furious crowds with a nationally televised plea for peace. Political
negotiations continued, resulting in elections that installed Mandela as president in May 1994.
Prosecutors suspected that Hani was slain as part of a conspiracy to subvert peaceful negotiations toward dismantling apartheid in South Africa. In

H A R A L D I V O F N O R WAY

addition to triggerman Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis, authorities also indicted

Gayle Derby-Lewis, Clives wife and a prominent Conservative Party member.
Police also investigated Arthur Kempa columnist for The Citizen, a tabloid
paper published by the racist National Partyfor allegedly providing a hit
list of targets including Chris Hani, Joe Slovo, and Nelson Mandela, but they
filed no charges against Kemp. At trial, jurors acquitted Gayle Derby-Lewis of
participating in Hanis murder.
In April 1999, Janusz Walu s and Clive Derby-Lewis appeared before South
Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission, seeking amnesty for their
crimes. Derby-Lewis admitted personal responsibility, stating that he acted in
defense of my people, who were threatened with a Communist take-over, and
citing tenets of his religion to say that my first duty is to the Almighty God before everything else. We were fighting against communism, and communism is
the vehicle of the Antichrist. Nonetheless, both men also claimed that Hanis
murder was sanctioned by higher-ranking members of the Conservative Party.
The commission denied their plea for amnesty, a decision upheld by the Cape
High Court in 2000. Their latest parole bids were denied in September 2011.
Further Reading
Mali, Thami. Chris Hani: The Sun That Set before Dawn. Johannesburg: Sached Books,
1994.
Suttner, Raymond. Chris Hani: Portrait of a South African Revolutionary. New York:
Ocean Press, 1998.
Waldmeir, Patti. Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New
South Africa. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

HARALD IV OF NORWAY (CA. 11021136)

Claimants to disputed thrones were an endangered species during Europes
Middle Ages, with the threat of homicide increased proportionately by the size
of royal families and promiscuity within an atmosphere where bastardy proliferated. One such target was King Harald IV of Norway, also known as Harald
Gille or Gilchrist (probably from Gylle Krist, servant of Christ). On the night
of December 14, 1136, as he slept in his palace at Bergen, assassins dispatched
by a rival crept into his room and stabbed him to death in his bed.
Details of Haralds early life are vague, with published dates of birth ranging from 1100 to 1103, the location cited in different accounts as either Ireland or the Hebrides (an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, including
51 inhabited islands). In his youth, he became acquainted with Norwegian
merchants and sailors, including Rgnvald Kali Kolsson, a future earl of Orkney and a Norwegian saint. Enamored of the tales they shared, Harald traveled to Norway in 1127, presenting himself as an illegitimate son of the late

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King Magnus III, also known as Magnus Barefoot. Although no documentation

supported that claim, Magnus had died in battle on August 24, 1103, while attempting to conquer the region of present-day Northern Ireland. During that
campaign, Irish chronicles maintain that Magnus was particularly fond of at
least one Irish woman.
Haralds claim naturally disturbed King Sigurd the Crusader, successor to
Magnus and one of three other illegitimate sons (each from different mothers)
left behind at his fathers passing. Confronted with yet another supposed halfbrother, Sigurd commanded Harald to pass an ordeal by fire, which he survived with only minor burns. They struck a bargain then, Sigurd agreeing to
recognize Harald as long as Harald made no claim to the throne while Sigurd
or his son, Magnus, was living. Harald kept his word until Sigurd died in Oslo,
on March 26, 1130, then rallied Norse nobles to declare himself king. Instead
of granting Harald full authority, however, the gathering divided Norway into
rival kingdoms, one each ruled by Harald and Magnus IV.
Peace endured for a time under that arrangement, but jealousy got the better of
Magnus in in 1134. On August 9 of that year, his forces defeated Haralds army at
the Battle at Frlev, in Bohusln, Gtaland, Sweden. Harald fled to Denmark, and
Magnus retreated to Bergen and unwisely disbanded his army. Harrald gathered
more troops and returned to Norway, besieging Bergen in late December, capturing the city on January 7, 1135. Magnus IV was deposed and taken prisoner, his
eyes gouged out on Haralds order, also castrated, with one leg severed. Thereafter
known as Magnus the Blind, he was lodged at Nidarholm Abbey, a Benedictine
monastery on the island of Munkholmen, offshore from Trondheim.
Removal of Magnus did not eliminate Haralds competition, however. Next
in line to covet Norways throne was Sigurd Magnusson Slembe (from slembi,
Old Norse for noisy), yet another supposed illegitimate son of Magnus Barefoot. Sigurd arranged Haralds murder, then reinstated Magnus IV as king. If
he hoped that gesture would improve his status, Sigurd was mistaken. He was
convicted and outlawed for regicide, and blind and crippled Magnus faced
a new challenge from Haralds only legitimate son, Inge Haraldssonalso
known as Inge the Hunchback. Magnus recalled Sigurd to aid him in defending the realm, supported by troops on loan from King Eric II of Denmark, but
Inge defeated their combined force in a naval battle at Holmengr, on November 12, 1139. Magnus died in that engagement, impaled on a spear, and Sigurd
Slembe was captured and executed. Inge I then ruled Norway until his death
from natural causes, in February 1161.
Further Reading
Carlyle, Thomas. Early Kings of Norway. Charleston, SC: BiblioLife, 2008.
Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1991.

H A R R I S O N , C A R T E R H E N R Y, S R .

HARRISON, CARTER HENRY, SR.

(18251893)
On October 28, 1893, deranged Irish immigrant Patrick Prendergast visited the
home of Chicago mayor Carter Harrison Sr. A maid admitted Prendergast and
woke the mayor, who had been napping. As Harrison emerged from his study,
Prendergast drew a revolver and shot him three times, then escaped after firing
a shot at Harrisons gardener. Thirty minutes later, he surrendered to police, delivering a semi-coherent confession. Investigators determined that Prendergast
had worked on the fringes of Harrisons recent election campaign, somehow
deluding himself that he would be appointed as Chicagos corporation counsel
(chief legal officer) when Harrison took office. No appointment was forthcoming, because Harrison had never heard of Prendergast, and the gunman was
not an attorney in any case. Convicted of murder despite an insanity plea and
the best efforts of celebrity lawyer Clarence Darrow, Prendergast was hanged
on July 14, 1894.
A native of Fayette County, Kentucky, born to an affluent family on February
15, 1825, Carter Harrison was educated by private tutors prior to enrollment
at Yale College, where he graduated in 1845. Thereafter, he studied in Europe
from 1851 to 1853, then returned to Lexington, Kentucky, where he graduated
from Transylvania Universitys law school and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
Seeking his fortune in Chicago, Harrison practiced law until 1872, then set his
sights on a political career. Defeated in his 1872 bid for a congressional seat,
he rallied sufficient support to win a place on Cook Countys board of commissioners in 1874. His next bid for Congress proved successful, and he served
two terms, from 1875 to 1879, when he replaced Monroe Heath as Chicagos
mayor. Voters appreciated Harrison enough to reelect him for successive twoyear terms in 1881, 1883, and 1885.
During the final year of Harrisons second term as mayor, in May 1886,
Chicago was rocked by the infamous Haymarket bombing and riot (see sidebar). Without bodyguards, Harrison stood between armed police and anarchists, both sides inflamed by bloodshed, and prevented further violence by
force of personality alone. Harrison did not stand for reelection that year, instead retiring to purchase the Chicago Times, where he also served as editor
from 1891 to 1893.
In 1893, Harrison ran for mayor a third time and won the election, replacing incumbent Hempstead Washburne. At the time, Chicago was hosting the
Worlds Columbian Exposition, a lavish worlds fair opened in October 1892 to
celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbuss arrival in the New
World. The fair was scheduled to close of October 30, 1893, with Mayor Harrison delivering the keynote address, but his murder canceled that appearance
and the expositions closing celebration was converted into a public memorial
service for Harrison.

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HAYMARKET RIOT
In February 1886, managers of Chicagos McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company locked out union workers, prompting a general strike by some
40,000 Windy City laborers in sympathy with those discharged. On May 4,
1886, a demonstration was staged at Haymarket Square, proceeding
peacefully until some unknown person hurled a bomb at police on the
sidelines, killing one officer outright and fatally wounding six others. Police then fired on the crowd, killing four demonstrators and wounding 70
more. Subsequently, eight anarchists were indicted and convicted of conspiracy in the bombing, despite a prosecutors admission that none had
thrown the fatal bomb. All eight were convicted, with seven sentenced
to die, and one received a 15-year sentence. Governor Richard Oglesby
commuted two of the death sentences to life imprisonment, and a third
condemned prisoner committed suicide in jail before the other four were
hanged on November 11, 1887. Six years later, Governor John Altgeld
pardoned the surviving Haymarket defendants, criticizing the conduct of
their trial. The actual bomber remains unidentified.

Carter Harrison was Chicagos first five-term mayor, although his last term
was cut short. His son, Carter Jr., subsequently followed in his fathers political footsteps, serving five terms as mayor in his own right, from 1897 to 1905,
and 1911 to 1915. The younger Harrison hoped for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904, but his party chose Alton Brooks Parker instead, then
suffered a crushing defeat by incumbent Theodore Roosevelt. During his final
term as mayor, Carter Jr. established the Chicago Vice Commission, closing
manybut by no means allof the Levee districts notorious brothels. His
efforts to clean up the Windy City were defeated by the advent of successors
William Big Bill Thompson and Anton Cermak, allied with rival crime syndicates during the era of Prohibition.
Further Reading
Abbott, W. J. Carter Henry Harrison: A Memoir. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company,
1895.
Johnson, Claudius. Carter Henry Harrison I: Political Leader. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1928.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that
Changed America. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003.

H E N N E S S Y, D AV I D C . , J R .

HENNESSY, DAVID C., JR. (18581890)

On the night of October 15, 1890, Chief David Hennessy left a meeting of the
New Orleans Police Board at City Hall and walked to his office on South Basin
Street, accompanied by close friend William OConnor, head of the private
Boylan Protective Police. At 11:00 P.M., they departed from the Central Police
Station, intending to stop at a nearby caf before going to their separate homes.
They dined at Dominick Virgets Oyster House, then said good night and parted,
Hennessy proceeding toward his house on Girod Street. On his doorstep, he
was ambushed, riddled with shotgun slugs from multiple weapons, but still
had strength enough to lurch after the fleeing gunmen, firing several shots
from his revolver. OConnor, hearing gunfire, rushed back to find Hennessy
prostrate and dying. They gave it to me good, Hennessy gasped, and I gave
it back the best I could. Who gave it to you? asked OConnor. With his dying
breath, the chief wheezed, Dagos.
OConnor understood. Chief Hennessy was fingering the Mafia for his assassination, but which Mafia? By 1890, two rival Sicilian clans were engaged
in a struggle for control of the New Orleans waterfront and the Crescent Citys
Italian community. One family, founded by brothers Raffaele and Joseph
Agnello, established itself in the French Quarter following the Civil War, but
rival Joseph Macheca had killed both Agnellos by summer 1872, expanding to
the waterfront with brothers Charles and Salvatore Matranga. There, they ran
headlong into another gang, led by Joseph Provenzano, who enjoyed a near
monopoly on fruit imported from Latin America. Both sides imported gunmen
from their native villages in Sicily, and mayhem ensued in typical Mafia style.
Chief Hennessy had been outspoken in opposing immigrant gangsters, but rumors also circulated that he had supported one side over the other in their internecine struggle.
The question remained: which dagos had murdered the chief ?
David Hennessy Jr. was born in New Orleans, sometime in 1858, three years
before his father went to war as a private in Company G of the 1st Louisiana
Heavy Artillery. In 1868, David Sr. joined the New Orleans Metropolitan Police,
a force of special officers created by carpetbag Governor Henry Clay Warmoth to suppress white mayhem against former slaves andsome saidobstruct voting by loyal (white supremacist) Democrats. In 1869, David Sr. was
murdered by fellow policeman Arthur Gurrin, either in a tavern or a coffeehouse
(according to the Daily Picyune newspaper), leaving his son fatherless at age 11.
He joined the Metropolitan Police as a messenger in 1870, and while still a
teenager captured two notorious thieves, knocking both men unconscious and
dragging them to jail single-handed. The Metropolitan Police dissolved at Reconstructions end, in 1877, replaced by the Crescent City Police under Chief
Thomas Boylan, and Hennessy soon had his own uniform, winning promotion

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to detective at age 20. In 1881, he captured Giuseppe Esposito, a notorious

mafioso, and secured his deportment to Italy for trial and a life prison term.
A year later, Hennessy campaigned for the chiefs office, against Chief of Detectives Thomas Devereaux, but the race took a deadly turn when Hennessy
shot and killed his rival. Charged with murder, then acquitted on a plea of
self-defense, he left the department to join the Boylan Protective Police, and
supervised security at the Worlds Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition
in 18841885. An observer from the New York Times noted that Hennessys
watchmen were neatly uniformed and are a fine-looking and intelligent body
of men, far superior to the regular city force.
Three years later, in 1888, Joseph Ansoetegui Shakspeare won his second
term as mayor, unseating corrupt members of a Democratic political machine
dubbed the New Orleans Ring. He appointed Hennessy as his police chief,
with a mandate to suppress immigrant crime along the waterfront. Best evidence suggests that Hennessy surveyed the scene and reached an agreement
with the smaller, weaker Provenzano family to oust the MachecaMatranga
clan, which he deemed more dangerous. Whether Hennessy himself had a
piece of the action remains a matter of persistent, sometimes heated, speculation. In any case, the rivalry led to his death.
Although not the first Mafia killing on U.S. soil, Hennessys assassination was
the first to rate national headlines. Police initially swept 250 Italian suspects
off the streets, after which Mayor Shoemaker appointed a Committee of Fifty
to investigate the killing on October 18. That body first published a threatening
open letter to the Italian community, then established what the New York Times
described as a system of secret and anonymous denunciation to identify likely
defendants. Meanwhile, a Pinkerton detective infiltrated the local jail, securing a statement from inmate Emanuele Polizzi that named Joseph Macheca and
Charles Matranga as the masterminds of Hennessys murder.
Newspapers took that story and ran with it. A grand jury indicted 19 alleged
conspirators on December 13, including Macheca, Matranga, and four known
members of their gang; the remainder had no police records. Nine went to trial
on February 16, 1891, before Judge Joshua Baker, and although Emanuele
Polizzi did his best for prosecutors on the witness stand, his obvious mental
instability left him discredited. Stranger still, William OConnor refused to testify at all. On March 13, jurors acquitted Macheca and three other defendants,
while failing to reach verdicts on three more. Judge Baker himself directed acquittals of Matranga and his second-in-command, Bastian Incardona, based on
lack of evidence.
Although acquittal should have freed the six defendants, it did not. Spokesmen
for the Committee of Fifty called a mass meeting, heralded in the Times-Democrat
newspaper with an editorial headlined Who Bribed the Jury? Its message: Rise,
outraged citizens of New Orleans! . . . Peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must!

H E N R I O T, P H I L I P P E

William Parkerson, mouthpiece for the Committee of Fifty, met the assembled
mob and demanded that they remedy the failure of justice. An estimated 150
vigilantes marched to the Parish Prison, led by Parkerson, chanting, Kill the
dagos! On arrival, they battered their way inside against feeble resistance from
guards, removing 11 of the 19 defendants indicted for Hennessys murder (including four who had not yet been tried). Parkerson personally led a 12-man execution squad in lynching the 11, urged on by deafening cheer from bystanders.
Reactions to the New Orleans lynching were mixed. In far-off New York
City, a Times headline declared: Chief Hennessy avenged . . . Italian murderers shot down. Mayor Shoemaker told reporters, The Italians had taken the
law into their own hands and we had no choice but to do the same. A national
survey of 100 major newspapers found 42 in accord with the lynching, versus
58 opposed. As in most other Southern lynchings, a grand jury refused to indict the identified killers, proclaiming that so many had joined in the act that
guilt was collective. Italys ambassador protested the murders, prompting an
eventual $25,000 settlement from Congress. Mayor Shoemaker lost his bid for
a third term in 1892, but Charles Matranga fared considerably better. He survived the massacreby hiding under a mattress, he claimedand was later
released, remaining in control of the New Orleans Mafia until he voluntarily
retired in 1922.
Further Reading
Gentile, Joseph. The Innocent Lynched: The Story of Eleven Italians Lynched in New Orleans. San Jose, CA: Writers Showcase, 2000.
Hunt, Thomas, and Martha Sheldon, Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the
American Mafia. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2010.
Smith, Tom. The Crescent City Lynchings: The Murder of Chief Hennessy, the New Orleans
Mafia Trials, and the Parish Prison Mob. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2007.

HENRIOT, PHILIPPE (18891944)

On June 28, 1944, three weeks after the D-Day invasion of occupied France,
members of COMACConseil National de la Rsistance (the National Council
of Resistance)disguised themselves as militia officers to execute Henriot
Philippe, Vichy minister of information and propaganda. Their uniforms persuaded Philippe to open his door, whereupon they shot him, killing him instantly. Unable to identify the assassins, Vichy authorities executed Georges
Mandel, a leading resistance spokesman imprisoned since August 1941, on
July 7, 1944.
Philippe Henriot was born in Reims, 80 miles northeast of Paris in the
Champagne-Ardenne region of France, on January 7, 1889. Raised in a strict Roman Catholic family, he was conservative by nature and joined the Third Republics

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largest right-wing party, the Republican Federation, but soon found even that
groups policies too liberal. In 1932, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Gironde, one of 83 dpartements of France created after the French Revolution in 1790. His campaign speeches were virtually indistinguishable from
those of Adolf Hitler in Germany, coupling anti-Semitism and anticommunism
with attacks on Freemasons and opposition to the French parliamentary system. Henriots constituents agreed with him sufficiently to grant him a second
four-year term in 1936.
At the outbreak of World War II, Henriot joined most of his countrymen in
condemning Nazi Germany, but he changed his tune the following year, working as a propagandist for the collaborationist Vichy regime of puppet leader
Philippe Ptain. Broadcasting over Radio Paris, Henriot praised Germany for
its June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union and waged a bitter war of words
against the exiled Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle from London.
He also frequently attacked resistance activists Pierre Dac (n Andr Isaac) and
Maurice Schumann for their anti-Nazi broadcasts over the British Broadcasting
Corporation. In January 1944, Ptain appointed Henriot as the Vichy regimes
official minister of information and propaganda, earning him scorn among
loyal Frenchmen and their allies as the French Goebbels.
In fact, however, Henriot never enjoyed the power held by Joseph Goebbels
in the Third Reich, and must have known he was a hunted man. In 1943, he
joined the paramilitary Milice franaise, organized that January with German
aid to fight COMAC and other French resistance groups, but no evidence exists that he participated in militia raids. If he was armed, his weapons failed to
save him when his enemies arrived on his doorstep.
Vichy France did not long survive its minister of information and propaganda. Aged Philippe Ptain stepped down as chief of state on August 19,
1944, and France was officially liberated from German control on September 7.
Convicted of treason in August 1945, Ptain was sentenced to die, that sentence later commuted to exile on an island off the French Atlantic coast. Some
1,500 other French collaborators were also condemned, and although many
of those later received amnesty, estimates of traitors executed without formal
trial range from 10,000 to 40,000. A handful of trials for war crimes continued
into the 1980s, and Ren Bousquet, former Vichy secretary general, was assassinated on June 8, 1993, while awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.
Further Reading
Azema, Jean-Pierre. From Munich to Liberation 19381944. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
Levendel, Isaac. Not the Germans Alone: A Sons Search for the Truth of Vichy. Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University Press, 2001.
Neiberg, Michael. The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944. New York: Basic
Books, 2012.

HENRY III OF FRANCE

HENRY III OF FRANCE (15511589)

The summer of 1589 found King Henry III of France embroiled in one of his
countrys seemingly endless religious wars, ongoing since 1562 between Catholics and Protestants. Henry, although a staunch defender of the Roman faith,
had moderated since his election as king of heavily Protestant Poland in 1573,
and was accordingly expelled from Paris by Catholic zealots in December 1588.
On August 1, 1589, Henry camped with his army at Saint-Cloud, west of Paris,
preparing to retake his capital the following day. That night, Jacques Clment
a fanatical Dominican lay brother from Burgundyentered Henrys field headquarters, posing as a friendly messenger. Presented to the king, he stabbed Henry
with a dagger, then was cut down on the spot by royal bodyguards. Henry died
early the next morning, his death proclaimed an act of God by Catholic enemies, who briefly considered canonizing Clment as a saint.
Henry was born Alexandre douard de France on September 15, 1551, third
son of King Henry II and the clear favorite of his mother, Catherine de Medici,
who doted on him and called him Precious Eyes well beyond childhood.
At age nine, the year after his fathers death, Catherine made Alexandre the
Duke of Angoulme and Orlans. Four years later, she changed his given name
to Henri, and in 1566 appointed him Duke of Anjou. That lavish attention,
on top of Henrys superior athletic ability, prompted animosity from his elder
brothers. Sickly Francis II succeeded to the throne at age 15, in July 1559, then
died in December 1560. Brother Charles, tubercular and probably insane, propelled France into its first War
of Religion against Huguenot
(Calvinist) Protestants in 1562,
declining steadily in health and
mental state thereafter until his
death, at age 23, in May 1574.
Henry III brought baggage
of his own to the throne, as
he succeeded Charles. An ardent leader of French troops
against the Huguenots, credited with defeating Protestant
forces in battle at Jarmac (March
1569) and Moncontour (October 1569), he had also helped
plan the St. Bartholomews Day
massacre of August 1572, although he did not personally
join in the resultant slaughter of at least 2,000 Huguenots King Henry III of France, stabbed to death by a
(some accounts place the death Dominican priest. (Bettmann/Corbis)

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toll as high as 70,000). Still, at age nine, Henrythen Alexandrehad flirted with
Protestantism himself, refusing to attend mass and haranguing his sister Margaret
to abandon Catholicism. Mother Catherine took him in hand, but he had earned a
reputation at court as un petit Huguenot, and the moderation of his religious bigotry
from 1573 onward counted against him with his Catholic subjects.
Another strike against Henry was the persistent rumorstill debated by
historiansof his supposed homosexuality or bisexuality. Some modern researchers refute that claim with reference to Henrys many famous mistresses,
including Italian courtesan Veronica Franco, Louise de La Braudire du
Rouhet, Rene de Rieux de Chteauneuf, and Marie van Kleef, countess of
Beaufort. In retrospect, it seems that Henrys religious and political opponents
may have branded him as homosexual based on his dislike of hunting, deemed
effeminate and thus a handy weapon to assail his reputation.
As successor to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, elected by the Polish
Lithuanian Commonwealth in September 1573, Henry ruled only briefly, distracted by warfare in France. He did not arrive in Poland for his coronation
until 1574, then left again that June, on learning of Charles IXs death. Warned
that he could not retain the Polish throne unless he returned by May 12, 1575,
Henry let the deadline pass and was accordingly deposed.
Meanwhile, in France, he was crowned on February 13, 1575. Fifteen
months later, he angered French Catholics by signing the Edict of Beaulieu,
which granted Huguenots the right of public worship throughout France, except in Paris and at court. Pressure from a newly formed Catholic League of
France forced him to backpedal in September 1577 with the Edict of Poitiers,
restricting open Protestant worship to the suburbs of one town in each judicial
district. Even that reversal failed to satisfy Catholic League founder Henry I,
Duke of Guise, who invaded Paris on May 12, 1588, forcing Henry III to flee.
The Duke of Guise did not live to enjoy that triumph, however. On December 22, 1588, Henry I spent the night with mistress Charlotte de Sauve,
a secret member of Catherine de Medicis female spy network, the Flying
Squadron. Next morning, summoned to meet the king at his Chteau de Blois
in the Loir Valley, Henry I was ambushed and stabbed to death by the kings
bodyguards, while Henry III stood watching. Henry Is brother, Louis II, cardinal of Guise, was slain in identical fashion on Christmas Eve, so outraging the
Catholic League that zealot Jacques Clment embarked on a path of personal
vengeance. At his death, Henry III was succeeded by Henry IV.
Further Reading
Freer, Martha. Henry III, King of France and Poland: His Court and Times. London: Hurst
and Blackett, 1858.
Major, J. Russell. From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles, and Estates. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

HENRY IV OF FRANCE

HENRY IV OF FRANCE (15531610)

Religious strife continued to inflame French politics and society after the assassination of King Henry III in 1589. Twenty years after that event, Catholic
zealot Franois Ravaillac claimed a divine vision commanding him to persuade Henry IV that all Huguenot Protestants must be converted to Catholicism. Over the next 12 months, Ravaillac failed in three attempts to gain a
royal audience, finally deciding that Henry must die after he had launched an
invasion of the Spanish Netherlands. On May 14, 1610, Ravaillac attended
the coronation ceremony of Marie de Medici in Paris. When traffic stopped
the royal coach on Rue de la Ferronnerie, he rushed forward and stabbed
Henry to death. Rescued from a lynch mob by police, Ravaillac was drawn
and quartered on May 27, a process that included flaying with pincers and
dousing with molten lead, after which Ravaillac was torn limb from limb by
horses. Surviving members his family were exiled, forbidden thereafter to use
their surname.
Born at Pau, in the Basque kingdom of Navarre, on December 13, 1553,
Henri de Bourbon was baptized as a Catholic in infancy, but was raised as
a Protestant by his Calvinist mother, Queen Jeanne dAlbret. As a teenager,
fought with Huguenot troops against Catholic forces in the Wars of Religion,
then succeeded to the throne of Navarre with his mothers death, on June 9,
1572. Two months later, he ranked as a prominent target of Catholic assassins
during the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, but Henry escaped thanks to a
timely warning from his new bride, Margaret of Valois, a daughter of massacre
instigator Catherine de Medici. Survival came with a price, as Henry was compelled to live with his wife and mother-in-law as a Catholic at the royal court
in Paris, but he escaped in February 1576 and rejoined Protestant forces in the
continuing religious warfare.
As the legitimate son of Antoine de Bourbon, Henry became legal heir to the
French throne in 1584, upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother of
reigning King Henry III. However, following Henry IIIs assassination in August
1589, the powerful Catholic League contested Henry of Navarre succession, proclaiming his cousin Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, the rightful king. That gesture
was futile, since Henry III had imprisoned Charles in 1588 and the cardinal remained in custody until his death, but Henry of Navarre was still forced to fight
for his kingdom, supported by troops on loan from Queen Elizabeth I of England. He laid siege to Paris in May 1590, but had failed to take the city by September, when Catholic reinforcements arrived. During the siege, an estimated
40,000 to 50,000 Parisians died from starvation and related diseases.
The religious war dragged on until July 25, 1593, when Henry followed
the advice of his mistress, Gabrielle dEstres, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, by converting to Catholicism. He pacified Protestant critics by saying
that Paris is well worth a Mass. Crowned on February 27, 1594, he waited

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four years before issuing the Edict of Nantes, granting substantial rights to Huguenots and finally ending the French Wars of Religion.
Despite his widespread popularity in France, Henry faced multiple assassination attemptssome accounts claim 20before the one that finally ended
his left. Details of most attempts are lacking, but we know that Pierre Barrire,
an Orlans boatman and soldier of the Catholic League, planned to kill Henry
in August 1593. Betrayed by a Dominican priest to whom he had confessed
his plan, Barrire was arrested on August 27 and executed four days later, by
breaking on the wheel prior to dismemberment.
Jean Chtel, the 19-year-old son of a cloth merchant, crept into Henrys private quarters on December 27, 1594, and attacked him with a knife, slicing the
kings lip. Captured at the scene and convicted of lse majest (injured majesty), Chtel received the prescribed punishment: the hand with which he
struck his king was burned with molten lead, sulfur and wax, before he was
dismembered while alive. Under interrogation, Chtel had described his education by Jesuit priests at the Collge de Clermont, which was subsequently
closed and confiscated as further punishment for the assault.
Punishment for Henrys assassination also extended beyond the slayer. In
January 1611, an acquaintance of Franois Ravaillac, Maddame Jacqueline
dEscoman, accused Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, Duke of pernon,
of complicity in Henrys murder. Although she was swiftly imprisoned for life,
modern historian Philippe Erlanger claims a link between the duke and Ravaillac through the dukes mistress, Charlotte du Tillet. Erlanger suggests that
du Tillet and Henrys own mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac dEntragues,
planned the assassination.
Further Reading
Baird, Henry. The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre. New York: Charles Scribners Sons,
1886.
Holt, Mack. The French Wars of Religion, 15621629. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005.

HEUREAUX LEBERT, ULISES (18451899)

On July 26, 1899, General Ulises Heureaux Lebert, president of the Dominican
Republic, visited Moca to discuss the countrys current economic crisis with
prominent businessmen. As he prepared to leave the meeting, at 4:30 P.M.,
two gunmen stood waiting. One, 54-year-old Ramn Arturo Cceres Vasquez,
was the son of a politician murdered by Heureauxs order 21 years earlier. The
other, 16-year-old Jacobito Lara, was the son of a Dominican revolutionary.
Drawing revolvers, they both fired at Heureaux, who fumbled with his own
pistol but could not draw it, since an old war wound crippled his hand. At least

H E U R E A U X L E B E R T, U L I S E S

one bullet struck Heureaux, killing him instantly, although reports disagree as
to whether he was shot in the head or the heart. Another round missed and
killed an elderly beggar standing nearby. Both gunmen escaped in the confusion, aided by accomplices.
Ulises Heureaux, widely known as Lilis, was born in Puerto Plata on October 21, 1845, to a Haitian father and a mother from Saint Thomas, raised to
be fluent in English, French, and Spanish. He was 16 when Spain annexed the
Dominican Republic, and joined in the fight to regain independence, rising
to become a primary lieutenant of General Gregorio Lupern. That rebellion
was victorious in 1874, but governing the new republic proved to be a dicey
proposition. Multiple revolutions rocked the island nation, with Heureaux in
the thick of the action. In April 1876, he led a revolt that installed Ulises Francisco Espaillat Quiones as president for a brief six-month term, forced out by
a superior governing junta. Two more presidents rose and fell during the last
two months of 1876, before four-time president Buenaventura Bez Mndez
returned for a fifth time, on December 26.
Another coup deposed Bez in March 1878, and Heureaux helped overthrow the next two Dominican presidents within six months. It was during
that year that Heureaux arranged the murder of Manuel Cceres, an influential aide to President Bez, and thus lit the slow fuse for his own assassination two decades later. Gregorio Lupern finally attained the presidency
in December 1879, but he preferred life on his Puerto Plata tobacco plantation, delegating much of his authority to Heureaux in Santo Domingo.
Fernando Arturo de Merio succeeded Lupern in September 1880, but Lupern threw his substantial support behind Heureaux at the next election,
in September 1882.
Dominican politics remained volatile, but Heureaux faced only one minor
insurrection during his first two-year term as president. Following Luperns
advice and example, Heureaux stepped aside in 1884, succeeded by Francisco
Gregorio Billini. Billini resisted Heureauxs attempt to persist in the role of
puppet-master, declaring an amnesty for political prisoners, whereupon Heureaux spread rumors that Billini was conspiring to restore unpopular President
Cesreo Guillermo. The fabricated scandal forced Billinis resignation in May
1885, succeeded by more pliable Vice President Alejandro Woss y Gil. He, in
turn, resigned on January 6, 1887, ceding the presidents office once more to
Heureaux.
During his second term, Heureaux faced a rebellion in the Cibao Valley region, led by rival Casimiro de Moya, but suppressed the insurrection ruthlessly. In 1888, he exiled mentor Gregorio Lupern, presumably fearing his
influence with Dominicans who might resent Heureauxs strong-arm rule if
encouraged to rebel by a popular icon. Heureaux also established a network of
secret police to monitor signs of unrest, and he set about looting the country

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for personal profit, prompting one observer to remark that the separation between the presidents private means and state finances was vague, fluid and almost non-existent. The combination of kleptocracy and extensive borrowing
from European creditors drove the Dominican economy into crisis, slipping
toward bankruptcy over the next decade.
Mindful of growing discontent, Heureaux resigned on February 27, 1889,
then grew restive and reclaimed his office from acting president nine weeks
later, on April 30, retaining power thereafter until his own death. Before
the final act, in July 1894, he faced an insurrection plot described by the
New York Times as particularly daring and well-planned. The ringleader,
a general named Bobadilla, was arrested with 10 cohorts and shot with his
friends looking on, before Heureaux contemptuously pardoned the rest.
The Times referred to innumerable other plots against Heureaux before he
was finally killed, leaving the nation $35 million in debta sum 15 times
its annual budget.
Far from being punished, assassin Ramn Cceres Vasquez survived to become vice president under Carlos Felipe Morales, and was elevated to the presidents office when Morales resigned in December 1905. Perhaps ironically,
Cceres was himself assassinated on November 19, 1911, by rebels who ambushed his car in Santo Domingo.
Further Reading
Moya-Pons, Frank. Dominican Republic: A National History. New Rochelle, NY: Hispaniola Books, 1995.
Rodman, Selden. Quisqueya: A History of the Dominican Republic. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1964.
Wucker, Michelle. Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

HEYDRICH, REINHARD TRISTAN EUGEN

(19041942)
On May 27, 1942, members of the Czech resistance trained in Britain ambushed a German staff car passing through the Liben suburb of Prague, carrying SS-Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the dreaded Geheime
Staatspolizei (secret state police, or Gestapo). Jozef Gab c ks submachine gun
jammed, and Heydrich spotted him, commanding his chauffeur to stop the
car. When Heydrich stepped out with pistol in hand, Jan Kubi hurled a bomb
whose explosion wounded both Heydrich and Kubi. Kubi escaped on a bicycle, and Gab c k shot Heydrichs driver in the leg, to prevent him giving chase.
Heydrich was taken to Na Bulovce Hospital, where he slipped into a coma on
June 2 and died two days later.

H E Y D R I C H , R E I N H A R D T R I S TA N E U G E N

Reinhard Heydrich as born

in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, on
March 7, 1904, the son of a
prominent opera singer and
composer. His first two names
derive from characters in the
operas Amen, written by his
father, and Richard Wagners
Tristan und Isolde. A talented
violinist from his youth, Heydrich inherited both his familys
love for music and his fathers
German nationalism. An excellent student and athlete, he
was nonetheless bullied for his
high-pitched voice and rumors
of Jewish ancestrythe latter doubtless contributing to
Heydrichs pathological antiGestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich, killed by Czech
Semitism in later life.
resistance fighters in 1942. (Corbis)
Although too young to fight
in World War I, Heydrich joined
a paramilitary unit at age 15, in February 1919, to recapture Halle from communist demonstrators. Soon afterward, he joined an overtly anti-Semitic group,
the National German Protection and Shelter League, organized to fight Judaism
throughout Germany. Heydrich joined the navy in 1922 and was sent to the German Imperial Naval Academy in April 1924, advancing to the rank of ensign, but
was discharged in April 1931 for conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentlemanspecifically, breaking his engagement with one woman to marry another.
Soon after leaving the navy, Heydrich joined the new counterintelligence division of Heinrich Himmlers Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron, or SS), becoming a Nazi Party member at the same time. By December 1931 he had
attained the rank of SS-Sturmbannfhrer (major), having survived a background check that deemed him of German origin and free from any colored
and Jewish blood. In summer 1932, Himmler named Heydrich to lead the
renamed Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, or SD), terrorizing opponents of
would-be German chancellor Adolf Hitler. Hermann Gring founded the Gestapo in 1933, then ceded control to Himmler the following year. Himmler
placed Heydrich in charge of the secret police in April 1934, and his SD was
declared the official Nazi intelligence service two months later. After joining in
the June 1934 purge of rival Sturmabteilung (Storm Detachment) Brownshirts,
Heydrich stood among the highest leaders of the new Third Reich.

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Heydrichs various duties included orchestration of the 1936 Summer Olympics for use as a Nazi propaganda tool, and leadership of a new Reich Main Security Office, created after the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.
In August 1940, he was named as chief of Interpol, a selection that prompted
the U.S. FBI to sever contact with the international police agency. In 1941, he
ran the Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) campaign, under which some 7,000
persons endangering German security vanished without a trace. In September 1941, Heydrich was named Deputy Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia (parts of Czechoslovakia annexed by Germany in 1939), where he became
known as the Butcher of Prague for his ruthless tactics. Perhaps most critically, he chaired the Wannsee Conference of January 1942 (see sidebar), where
Nazi leaders met to sketch the outlines of Hitlers Final Solutionsystematic
extermination of Jews within German-occupied territory.
Although Nazis used Heydrichs assassination for propaganda purposes, Hitler himself blamed Heydrich for his own demise, saying, Since it is opportunity which makes not only the thief but also the assassin, such heroic gestures
as driving in an open, unarmoured vehicle or walking about the streets unguarded are just damned stupidity, which serves the Fatherland not one whit.
That a man as irreplaceable as Heydrich should expose himself to unnecessary
danger, I can only condemn as stupid and idiotic.
Still, reprisals were made. Heydrichs killers sought sanctuary at a church in
Prague, but a traitor in the Czech resistance betrayed them and they committed

WANNSEE CONFERENCE
On January 20, 1942, 15 senior officials of the Third Reich met in the
Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss mechanics of the genocidal program Adolf Hitler termed the final solution to the Jewish question.
Schutzstaffel (SS) General Reinhard Heydrich chaired the meeting and
presented an agenda calling for all Jews from Europe and French North
Africa (present-day Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) to be relocated in
German-occupied parts of Eastern Europe. Their destination, though not
plainly stated in the minutes of the conference, would be a series of extermination camps in Poland, including Auschwitz, Belzec, Chalmno,
Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Calculations made at the conference
and recorded by SS-Obersturmbannfhrer (lieutenant colonel) Adolf Eichmann included removal of 15,153,468 identified Jews from regions
under Nazi control or earmarked for future conquest, including England,
Ireland, and Switzerland.

HITLER, ADOLF

suicide to avoid capture. Various supporters were also executed, including

Bishop Gorazd (n Matej Pavlk) of the church where they were found. Hitler
also ordered the execution of 10,000 randomly selected Czechs, then changed
his mind and targeted the villages of Lidice and Leky, believed to be hotbeds
of resistance. On June 10, 1942, all male inhabitants of Lidice above the age of
16 were executed, along with all but four of Lekys women. Thirteen thousand others were deported to concentration camps. Eighty-one children from
Lidice were gassed at the Chelmno death camp, with a handful preserved for
Germanization.
Further Reading
Cowdery, Ray. Reinhard Heydrich: Assassination! Lakeville, MN: USM, Inc., 1994.
Dederichs, Mario. Heydrich: The Face of Evil. Drexel Hill, PA: Casemate, 2005.
Gerwath, Robert. Hitlers Hangman: The Life of Heydrich. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.
MacDonald, Callum. The Killing of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich. New York:
The Free Press, 1989.

HITLER, ADOLF (18891945)ATTEMPTED

Few historical figures have inspired more heated passions than Adolf Hitler,
dictator of Germanys Third Reich (19331945) and architect of the Holocaust
that claimed at least 10.3 million civilian lives during World War II. Revered by
millions of fascists, bitterly detested by tens of millions more worldwide, Hitler
was a natural target for assassination throughout his tenure as Germanys head
of state. Published accounts cite 39 specific attempts to kill Hitler, with vague
references to several more. A plot to kill Hitlerdescribed, but never actually
namedwas also central to Geoffrey Households novel Rogue Male, published
in 1939 and filmed in 1941 as Man Hunt.
The basic details of Hitlers early life are well known. He was born at Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, on April 20, 1889, moving to Germany with
his family at age three. His performance in school deteriorated after his fathers death, in 1903, and he quit two years later, gravitating to Vienna with
dreams of becoming an artist. Although failing at that, he devoured reams of
anti-Semitic propaganda prior to military service in World War I, where he was
wounded and gassed in two separate battles. Following the war, he plunged
headlong into paranoid far-right politics and rose through the ranks of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party to become its supreme leader.
Historians claim four attempts to kill Hitler before he took office as Germanys chancellor in January 1933, including bungled shootings in Munich
(July 1921), Leipzig (1923), Munich (March 15, 1932), Straslund (June 1932),
and Nuremberg (July 30, 1932). Enemies also tried to poison Hitler at Berlins

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Hotel Kaiserhof in 1930, but

further details are lacking.
Eleven more attempts on
Hitler during 1933 alone are
vaguely documented but include two specific cases: an unidentified Nazi Sturmabteilung
(Storm Detachment, or SA)
member tried to shoot Hitler
in Obersalzberg, and Karl Luttner was arrested on March 4
for plotting to kill Hitler with a
bomb at a rally in Kningsberg.
In June 1934, Hitler accused
SA leaders Ernst Rhm and Julius Uhl of scheming to kill him,
using that excuse to launch a
purge of the SA known as the
Night of the Long Knives,
during which at least 83 traitors to the Nazi Party were
Adolf Hitler survived 39 attempted assassinations annihilated. Today, most histoduring his time as dictator of Germanys Third rians agree that the conspiracy
Reich. (Photos.com)
chargesand, perhaps, allegations of rampant homosexuality
within the SAwere fabricated by SS leader Heinrich Himmler to remove his
competition in the party.
Other incidents from 1934 include two vague reports of plots by unidentified would-be assassins, and two more substantial attempts. Josef Beppo
Rmer, a member of the far-fight paramilitary Freikorps Oberland, was arrested
for plotting to kill Hitler and spent the next five years in Dachaus concentration camp. In February 1942, the Gestapo jailed him again, for abetting the
enemy, and he was executed in September 1944. Another 1934 plot, hatched
in Berlin by Dr. Helmut Mylius and several others, was also discovered before
the would-be assassins could strike.
David Frankfurter, a German rabbis son who had emigrated to Switzerland,
returned to Berlin in 1935, hoping to meet Hitler by chance and kill him.
When no opportunity materialized, Frankfurter went back to Switzerland and
murdered Nazi activist Wilhelm Gustloff on February 4, 1936. Initially sentenced to 18 years in prison, Frankfurter was pardoned in 1945 and moved to
Palestine.
Helmut Hirsch, a Jewish student and member of the Black Fronta group
of German expatriate anti-Naziswas arrested on December 20, 1936, for

HITLER, ADOLF

conspiring to bomb Nazi headquarters in Berlin, presumably killing Hitler in

the blast. Convicted at trial, he was executed on June 4, 1937.
Published accounts say that various migr groups in Britain, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland plotted to kill Hitler during 1937 and 1938, but none
of those plans reached fruition. On November 26, 1937, Gestapo agents arrested mental patient Josef Thomas in Berlin, charging that he planned to
shoot Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Gring. During the same year, an
unidentified SS officer reportedly tried to kill Hitler during a rally at the Berlin Sportpalast.
Alexander Foote, a British subject and Soviet spy, reportedly investigated
the feasibility of killing Hitler in April 1938. Although he was able to approach
Hitler in the Fhrers favorite Berlin restaurant, he did not follow through on
the plan and was not discovered, subsequently fleeing from Britain to the USSR
in March 1947.
Also in 1938, during the Sudetenland crisis with Czechoslovakia, conspirators led by Major F. W. Heinz of the Brandenburg Regiment, abandoned plans
to arrest Hitler, in favor of assassination. Their plan collapsed when Hitler flew
to meet British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in Munich.
Yet another plot from 1938 linked several high-ranking German military
officers and diplomats in a plan to kill Hitler if Germany went to war with
Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland. Britains capitulation on that issue frustrated the plot, but its organizers went on to play key roles in subsequent conspiracies against Hitler.
Maurice Bavaud, a Swiss theology student who spoke no German and
had never fired a gun in his life, bought a pistol and traveled to Germany
in October 1938, hoping for a chance to kill Hitler. He made his attempt at
the Field Marshals Hall in Munich, on November 9, 1938, and was arrested
at the scene. He was executed by guillotine at Pltzensee Prison, May 14,
1941.
Colonel Noel Mason-MacFarlane, military attach to the British embassy in
Berlin, reportedly suggested several plans for killing Hitler during 19381939,
but all were rejected by London. Johann Georg Elser set a bomb to kill Hitler
at Munichs Brgerbrukeller beer hall, on November 8, 1939, but Hitler left
the building 13 minutes before the explosion, which killed eight others. Franz
Halder, chief of the German General Staff, reportedly carried a pistol to one
meeting with Hitler in 1939, intending to shoot him, then decided against it at
the last moment.
Following the German conquest of France in 1940, two plots were hatched
against Hitler in Paris. That July, Oberleutnant Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier planned to shoot Hitler during a victory parade through the city, but lost their nerve. Around the same time, Field Marshal
Erwin von Witzleben hatched a plan to arrest Hitler in France, but that scheme
also fell through, leaving him to join a more elaborate plot in 1944.

227

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HITLER, ADOLF

German attorney Nikolaus von Halem, from Oldenberg, plotted Hitlers death
in 1941, but cohort Joseph Roman was arrested and named him under torture,
sending von Halem to prison, where he was executed on October 9, 1944.
Military plots against Hitler proliferated in 1943 and 1944, as German forces
suffered critical defeats on various fronts. A group led by General Karl Hubert
Lanz planned to strike in February 1943, when Hitler visited Poltawa in the
Ukraine, but a change in the Fhrers itinerary foiled the plan. The same sort
of glitches foiled two more plots organized around Smolensk, in the USSR,
during March 1943. Captain Rudolf von Gersdorff planned to kill Hitler with
a suicide bomb on March 13, at an exhibition of captured Russian weapons in
Berlin, but he was unable to get past Hitlers bodyguards. German nobleman
Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst also volunteered as a suicide bomber, planning to kill Hitler during a troop inspection in East Prussia on November 16,
but an Allied air strike deprived him of transportation.
Wehrmacht officer Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzins was the next volunteer for a suicide strike against Hitler, in January 1944, during an inspection of new army uniforms, but postponement of the meeting foiled his plan.
Another soldier, Eberhard von Breitenbuch, took a concealed pistol to a military briefing with Hitler at the Berghof in Bavaria, on March 11, but SS guards
barred him from the room where Hitler met with higher-ranking officers.
By July 1944, military conspirators led by Eastern Front veteran Claus von
Stauffenberg were committed to eliminating Hitler. After one accomplice, General Helmuth Stieff, failed to succeed with a bomb at a uniform exhibition at
Klessheim castle near Salzburg, on July 7, von Stauffenberg decided to do the
job himself. He brought a bomb to Obersalzberg on July 11, then refrained
from detonating it because top Nazis Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler
missed the meeting. Nine days later, his bomb detonated on schedule, during
a strategy meeting at Hitlers Wolfs Lair near Rastenber, East Prussia (now
Ketrzyn, Poland). The blast killed four persons, but a heavy oak table spared
Hitler from serious injury.
Following that botched attempt, conspirator Friedrich Fromm panicked
and named his associates in futile attempt to save his own life. Von Stauffenberg and three other leading plotters were quickly arrested and executed by firing squad on July 21. Von Stauffenbergs older brother was convicted in August
and executed by slow strangulation. Before investigation of the plot was finally
concluded, some 20,000 suspected resistance members were either executed
or shipped off to concentration camps. Friedrich Fromm was discharged from
the army in September 1944, then sentenced to death for cowardice and shot
on March 12, 1945.
The last known plot to kill Hitler was allegedly conceived by Albert Speer,
Germanys minister of armaments and war production, in early 1945. Speer
later testified that he planned to drop a canister of poison gas into the air-intake

HITLER, ADOLF

system of Hitlers bunker in Berlin, but a high wall around the access hatch
foiled his plot.
Adolf Hitler married his longtime mistress, Eva Braun, in the same bunker as Soviet troops advanced through Berlin, on April 28, 1945. Two days
later, the couple reportedly committed suicide and their corpses were burned
by loyal officers. Some conspiracy theorists, however, still contend that Hitler
faked his own death and escaped to South America, along with other Nazis
such as Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, and Klaus Barbie.
Further Reading
Fest, Joachim. Plotting Hitlers Death: The Story of German Resistance. New York: Holt
Paperbacks, 1997.
Hoffmann, Peter. The History of the German Resistance, 19331945. Montreal: McGillQueens University Press, 1996.
Kershaw, Ian. The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitlers Germany, 19441945.
New York: Penguin Books, 2011.
Kershaw, Ian. Hitler, 18891936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Kershaw, Ian. Hitler, 19361945: Nemesis. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.
Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

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I
IDIARTE BORDA, JUAN BAUTISTA
(18441897)
On August 25, 1897, Uruguayan president Juan Idiarte Borda attended a
church service at Montevideos cathedral on Constitution Square. As he left
the church, Idiarte was shot and killed by Avelino Arredondo, a member of a
dissident faction within Idiartes own Colorado Party. Curiously, the newspaper
El Da had erroneously named Arredondo as a participant in a previous attempt
on Idiartes life, in April 1897. Arrested at the murder scene, Arredondo was
convicted and imprisoned, but attempts to locate more conspirators proved
fruitless.
Juan Idiarte Borda was born and raided in Mercedes, Uruguay, to affluent
parents of Basque origin. As a teenager, his talent with the clarinet led relatives to think he would pursue a musical career, but his fathers death in 1860
placed him prematurely in charge of the familys cattle ranch at age 16. Three
years later, Idiarte and his brother, Peter, joined in a revolution against the ruling National Party, led by Venancio Flores, which sparked a civil war in Uruguay and ended with Flores assuming the presidency. Idiarte emerged from
that conflict as a lieutenant and parlayed his renown into a new political career,
supporting reforms deemed radical at the time.
In 1879, Idiarte left Mercedes for Montevideo and won election to parliament. He served until 1886, when personal conflicts with President Mximo
Benito Santos Barbosa encouraged Idiarte to leave the country, settling for eight
years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He returned to Uruguay in February 1894,
seeking the office vacated by retiring president Julio Herrera y Obes. Three
weeks of voting and riotous senate debate climaxed on March 21, when Idiarte edged out interim president Duncan Antonio Stewart Agell by a margin of
47 ballots.
From the outset of his term as president, opponents charged Idiarte with electoral fraud. Jose Battle y Ordonez, editor of El Da in Montevideo, was among
Idiartes harshest critics, publishing charges of vote rigging and corruption that
encouraged violent dissent against Idiartes regime. In March 1897, members
of the White Party led by Aparicio Saravia rebelled against the Colorado Partys
government, sparking another civil war. In April, while alighting from a carriage
at his home, Idiarte was accosted by would-be assassin John A. Rabecca, who

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IGE, JA MES A JIBOL A IDOWU

pressed a pistol to the presidents neck but did not fire. Idiartes family took the
incident as a warning from the White Party, but the president refused to back
down from his enemies.
Political struggles continued after Idiartes assassination, as Juan Lindolfo
Cuestas succeeded the murdered chief of state. By September 1897, White
Party forces controlled most of the Uruguayan countryside, and Aparicio Saravia was ranked as the countrys second most powerful figure when Jose Batlle
y Ordonez ascended to the presidency in 1903. Savaria died from wounds suffered in battle, in September 1904, and his party did not long survive him.
President Batlle held office until 1907, and the Colorado Party ruled Uruguay
without interruption until 1959.
Further Reading
Bethell, Leslie. The Cambridge History of Latin America, Vol. 5, c. 18701930. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Lpez-Alves, Fernando. State Formation and Democracy in Latin America, 18101900.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.

IGE, JAMES AJIBOLA IDOWU (19302001)

On the night of December 23, 2001, unknown assassins invaded the home of
James Bola Ige, Nigerias minister of justice, in the Bodija district of Ibadan,
Oyo State. Proceeding to the bedroom, they killed Ige with multiple closerange gunshots, then fled the residence. Various suspects were arrested and
charged with complicity in the slaying, but all were acquitted at trial. Despite
speculation of official complicity and/or cover-up, the assassination remains
unsolved today.
James Ige was born in Zaria, Kaduna State, in north-central Nigeria, on September 13, 1930. His parents, members of the Yoruba tribe, moved to Ibadan
in 1943, where Ige completed grammar school and studied at the state university. From there, he proceeded to University College London, earning a law
degree at age 26, and was called to the bar 1961, with admission to Londons
Inner Temple. Rather than practice in London, he returned to Nigeria that
same year and established the fledgling law firm of Bola Ige & Company. Fluent in all three of Nigerias major languagesYoruba, Ibo, and HausaIge cast
himself as a reformer, winning designation as a senior advocate of Nigeria for
distinguished legal service.
At the same time, he became immersed in politics. Under the First Nigerian
Republic (October 1, 1963January 16, 1966), Ige joined the Action Group
(AG), a party formed in 1951 to mobilize Western Nigerians to prevent domination of their district by a rival group, the National Council of Nigeria and
the Cameroons. At the time, AG founder and former premier of Western Nigeria Obafemi Awolowo faced dissension in the ranks, with deputies Samuel

IGE, JAMES AJIBOLA IDOWU

Akintola and Olusola Olaosebikan vying for endorsement as Awolowos political heir. That rivalry ended with Akintolas assassination during the military
coup that ended the First Republic in January 1966.
Nigerias new ruler, General Yakubu Jack Dan-Yumma Gowon, named Ige
as commissioner for agriculture for Nigerias western region, operating from
the capital at Ibadan. A year later, that region was abolished, subdivided into
Lagos State and Western State, with Ige serving the latter from Ibadan. There,
he befriended army commander and future president Olusegun Obasanjo,
while dividing his time between official duties and antiracism campaign sponsored by the World Council of Churches.
General Murtala Ramat Mohammed led a successful coup against Gowons
regime on July 29, 1975, and proclaimed himself head of state, with Obasanjo
as his second-in-command. Ige, still loyal to Obafemi Awolowo, joined his
newest vehicle, the United Party of Nigeria (UPN). Following General Mohammeds assassination in 1976, General Obasanjo assumed control and laid the
groundwork for establishment to Nigerias Second Republic in 1979. In October of that year, Ige won election as the governor of Oyo State, serving one
term before he lost a reelection big to Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo in 1983.
Ige contested that election, but left office in October, when the courts ruled
against him. Olunloyo, in turn, was deposed three months later by another
military coup.
The leaders of that uprising detained Bola Ige for two years, on charges of
misappropriating UPN funds, but he was liberated in August 1985, following
yet another coup, led by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Returning to
legal practice with a sideline in writing, Ige shunned further political activity
until May 1999, when a new constitution established Nigerias Fourth Republic
and institution of sweeping democratic reforms. (A short-lived Third Republic
had been virtually stillborn during 1993.) Ige ran for president, representing
a new Alliance for Democracy, but lost the race to Olusegun Obasanjowho
then appointed Ige first as minister of mines and power (19992000), then as
minister of justice and attorney general. On the eve of his assassination, Ige
was earmarked to serve as Africas representative on the United Nations International Law Commission.
Some Nigerians blamed President Obasanjo for Iges assassination, although no clear motive was advanced beyond assertions that he may have
uncovered deep-seated government corruption and planned to expose it.
Calls for establishment of an independent truth commission have thus far
been ignored.
Further Reading
Ahworegba, Prosper. The Nigerian 100: The Most Influential Nigerians of All Time. Dartford, United Kingdom: Xlibris, 2008.

233

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INEJIRO ASANUMA

Banjo, Ayo, ed. Bola Ige: Passage of a Modern Cicero. Lagos, Nigeria: Bookcraft, Ltd.,
2003.
Mohammed, Abubakar. Chief Bola Ige and the Destabilization of Nigeria. Zaria, Nigeria:
Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training, 1999.

INEJIRO ASANUMA (18981960)

On October 12, 1960, Inejiro Asanuma, head of Japans Social Democratic Party
(SDP), attended a debate among parliamentary candidates at Tokyos Hibiya
Hall. During those proceedings, 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi leaped onto the
stage and attacked Inejiro with a short sword (wakizashi), fatally wounding
him in full view of the audience and reporters. Police subdued Otoya and soon
identified him as a member of a right-wing, ultranationalist group, collectively
known in Japan as uyoku dantai. On November 2, Otoya hanged himself from
a light fixture in his cell at a juvenile detention facility, using a rope made from
torn and knotted sheets. He left a message written on the wall in toothpaste:
Seven lives for my country. Ten thousand years for His Imperial Majesty, the
Emperor!
Inejiro Asanuma was born in
the Chiyoda district of Tokyo,
on December 27, 1898. His
mother died in childbirth,
leaving Inejiro to be raised
by his father until his fathers
death from cancer left him orphaned. Inejiro joined one of
Japans many uyoku dantai in
the 1930s, supporting the military regime of General Hideki
Tojo. In 1936, he was elected
to a seat in the National Diet,
but dissatisfaction with the
course and conduct of the ensuing World War II led Inejiro
to retire from politics in 1942,
returning after the cessation
of hostilities as a left-wing activist promoting socialism. He
also attempted to block legislation in the Diet that established
Japanese politician Inejiro Asanuma, stabbed be- a treaty of mutual cooperation
fore a live audience in October 1960. (Getty and security between Japan
Images)
and the United States. In 1959,

INEJIRO ASANUMA

he faced a storm of condemnation after visiting the Peoples Republic of China,

where he denounced the United States as the shared enemy of China and
Japan. Many fellow SDP members chastised him for briefly affecting a Zhongshan suit like that worn by Chinas Chairman Mao Zedong, but in death Inejiro
was rehabilitated, his murder cast as a campaign issue in 1960.
Socialists depicted young assassin Otoya as a cats paw of monopolistic capitalist forces, specifically referring to the ruling Liberal Democrats led by Premier Hayato Ikeda. Even Otoyas suicide became a political issue, as acting SDP
chairman Saburo Eda told reporters, The fact that an important criminal was
able to commit suicide exposes the utter irresponsibility of the authorities in
charge. Meanwhile, a still photo of the assassination, snapped by photographer Yasushi Nagao, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the World Press Photo
Award for 1960.
Although the SDP failed to carry the 1960 elections, Otoya Yamaguchi
emerged as a martyr for the rabid uyoku dantai. Neo-fascists presented his parents with a burial coat, kimono, and belt, then escorted his corpse to a memorial service. Fifty years later, in October 2010, they still celebrated his murder
of Inejiro, in a ceremony convened at Hibiya Park on the assassinations golden
anniversary.
Further Reading
Inejiro Asanuma Assassination Footage 1960. Dailymotion. http://www.dailymotion
.com/video/x66vpe_inejiro-asanuma-assassination-foota_news.
Siniawer, Eiko. Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists: The Violent Politics of Modern Japan,
18601960. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008.
Zelizer, Barbie. About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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J
JACKSON, ANDREW (17671845)
ATTEMPTED
On January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson attended the funeral of South
Carolina congressman Warren Davis at the United States Capitol. Afterward, as
Jackson left the building from the East Portico, unemployed British housepainter
Richard Lawrence aimed a pistol at Jackson, but the weapon misfired. Bystanders, including legendary frontiersman (then congressman) Davy Crockett, disarmed Lawrence, with some accounts claiming that Jackson used a cane to strike
his would-be killer. In custody, Lawrence raved incoherently, blaming Jackson
for his unemployment and claiming that heLawrencewas King Richard III
of England (deceased for 350 years). At trial in April, prosecuted by Francis Scott
Key, Lawrence was found insane and committed to an asylum where he died in
June 1861.
Aside from the first attempted U.S. presidential assassination, Jackson had
also experienced the first attack on an U.S. president, two years earlier. On
May 6, 1833, he sailed aboard the USS Cygnet from Washington to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to lay the cornerstone for a monument to George Washingtons
mother. Stopping along the way near Alexandria, Jackson was accosted and
punched by Robert B. Randolph, earlier dismissed from the navy for embezzlement by Jacksons order. Again, bystandersthis time including author Washington Irgingcaptured Jacksons assailant, but the president declined to press
charges in that case.
Born at some uncertain point on the border between North and South Carolina, on March 15, 1767, Andrew Jackson was the son of Scot-Irish colonists. In
later life, he referred to rumors that his Mother . . . [was] held to public scorn
as a prostitute who intermarried with a Negro, and [that his] . . . eldest brother
[was] sold as a slave in Carolina, but no such claims were ever substantiated. He
joined a local militia during the American Revolution, at age 13, and was captured
by British troops with one of his brothers, scarred by a saber in captivity when he
refused to shine a redcoat officers boots. That experience, coupled with another
brothers death in battle, left Jackson with a bitter hatred of England at wars end.
Despite his own erratic education, Jackson later taught school, studied law,
and was admitted to the bar in North Carolina, practicing along the frontier.
He was a delegate to North Carolinas constitutional convention in 1796 and
won election to Congress that same year. In 1797, he advanced to the U.S.

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JACKSON, ANDREW

Senate, but resigned after a year in office. Appointed to the Tennessee Supreme
Court in 1798, he held that post until 1804, simultaneously operating a plantation run by slaves and serving as a general in the state militia. During the War
of 1812, Jackson initially waged rural campaigns against hostile Native American tribes, then secured fame by defeating British troops in the Battle of New
Orleans, ironically fought two weeks after the United States and Britain made
peace with the Treaty of Ghent. Two years later he was back in action, leading
troops against more hostile tribesmen in the First Seminole War.
Tennessees legislature sent Jackson back to the U.S. Senate in 1822, and two
years later he ran for president against three fellow members of the DemocraticRepublican Party: John Quincy Adams, William Harris Crawford, and Henry
Clay. Jackson won the popular vote, with 151,271 ballots to 113,122 for Adams,
and also shaded Adams by a margin of 15 votes in the Electoral College, but still
had only 99 votes, with 131 required for victory. Under terms of the Twelfth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives decided
the election, choosing Adams over Jackson in a move that many observers denounced as a corrupt bargain.
Jackson resigned from the Senate in October 1825, but rebounded three
years later with another presidential campaign, this time unseating incumbent
Adams with a decisive electoral margin of 178 to 83. He won reelection in
1832 with an even more decisive edge, receiving 219 electoral votes versus
49 for National Republican Party nominee Henry Clay, and seven for William
Wirt, representing the Anti-Masonic Party.
Jacksons eight years in office were marked by successive bitter controversies. He paid off Americas national debt in 1835the only such accomplishment by any presidentthen saw the country plunge into severe depression
two years later, increasing the debt tenfold. His reliance on the spoils system
prompted charges of cronyism and corruption, and his dismantling of the national bank caused financial speculation and manipulation to proliferate. His
relentless campaign of Indian removal amounted, in effect, to ethnic cleansing
of Native Americans from land desired by whites, claiming the lives of some
4,000 Cherokees alone on the long Trail of Tears from the Deep South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). On his last day in office, Jackson admitted
two lingering regrets: that he had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang
John C. Calhoun. Tuberculosis claimed the former presidents life at his Tennessee plantation, on June 8, 1845.
Further Reading
Brands, H. W. Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. New York: Anchor Books, 2006.
Meacham, Jon. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Random
House, 2008.
Wilentz, Sean. Andrew Jackson. New York: Times Books, 2005.

J A C K S O N , W H A R L E S T, S R .

JACKSON, WHARLEST, SR. (19301967)

At 8:00 P.M. on February 27, 1967, Wharlest Jackson left his job at the Armstrong Rubber Company plant in Natchez, Mississippi, driving home through
a downpour of rain. As local secretary of the local National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working at a factory infested by Ku
Klux Klan (KKK) members, Jackson routinely checked his pickup truck for bombs
and evidence of sabotage, but this night the weather discouraged his normal
precautions. On Minor Street, a few blocks from his home, an explosive charge
detonated in the pickups cab, demolishing the vehicle and killing Jackson instantly. The crime remains officially unsolved today.
Wharlest Jackson was a Natchez native, born on December 7, 1930, and
raised under Mississippis system of strict racial segregation, enforced by police
brutality and vigilante mayhem. He served in the Korean War and subsequently
joined the NAACP to fight discrimination, despite numerous murders of civil
rights activists throughout the Magnolia State in the 1950s and 1960s. In August 1965, fellow Armstrong employee and NAACP activist George Metcalfe
was crippled for life by a car bomb outside the factory. Two years later, with
the movement gaining ground, Jackson was offered promotion to a formerly
white position at the plant, earning an extra 17 cents per hour for his wife and
five children. Exerlena Jackson begged her husband not to accept the new job,
but he dismissed the dangers involved as a price of progress.
Although no one has been charged with Jacksons murder, FBI spokesmen
place the blame on a KKK faction known as the Silver Dollar Group, whose
members identified themselves with silver dollars minted in the year of their
birth. The splinter group drew its members from various larger Klan groups in
Mississippi and Louisiana, frustrated by advances in civil rights for African Americans and the old Klans inability to hold the color line. Aside from Wharlest
Jacksons slaying, Silver Dollar Klansmen are suspected in George Metcalfes
near-fatal car bombing; in the July 12, 1964, disappearance of black victim Joe
Edwards in Ferriday, Louisiana; and in the arson slaying of Frank Morris, also in
Ferriday, on December 10, 1964. Edwards was apparently selected as a random
target, because he worked as a porter at a motel where the Klansmen gathered.
Morris was accusedfalsely, as it appearsof making sexual advances to white
women who patronized his shoe-repair shop. All of those cold cases remain
open and subject to future prosecution if sufficient evidence is ever found, but
most identified members of the Silver Dollar Group are now deceased.
Further Reading
Davis, Jack. Race against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
Newton, Michael. The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
2010.

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JA MES I, KING OF SCOTS

Wharlest Jackson Case. The Civil Rights Cold Case Project. http://coldcases.org/
cases/wharlest-jackson-case.
Whitehead, Don. Attack on Terror: The FBI Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. New York:
Funk & Wagnalls, 1970.

JAMES I, KING OF SCOTS (13941437)

Scotland was in turmoil in the latter months of 1436. Allied with France in
an ill-conceived war against England, King James taxed the estates of Scottish
nobles to support his army, and was nearly arrested in October by opponent
Sir Robert Graham. In February 1437, James and his queen, Joan Beaufort,
sought refuge at the Blackfriars monastery outside Perth. On February 21,
the kings traitorous cousin, Sir Robert Stewart, admitted Graham and a small
group of assassins to the monastery. Servants warned James in time for him to
hide inside the monasterys sewer, but its exit was blocked and the assassins
killed him there. Queen Joan, though wounded, managed to escape. In May,
the leading conspiratorsGraham, Walter of Atholl, and Walters grandson
Robert Stewartwere publicly tortured to death.
James I was the youngest son of King Robert III, born at Dunfermline in July
1394. Both of his brothers died while he was still a child, Robert in infancy, and
David under vague circumstances while detained at Falkland Palace by Robert
Stewart, Duke of Albany. Despite his exoneration by parliament, tradition has it
that Steward ordered David
starved to death. Prince James
experienced his first personal
clash with hostile Scottish nobles in February 1406, when he
fought a skirmish with Archibald
Douglas, Duke of Touraine, and
was forced to hide on Bass Rock,
off the Scottish coast. Rescued
in March, he sailed for France,
but English pirates captured his
ship on March 22 and delivered
James to King Henry IV of England as a hostage. Robert III
died 12 days later, as James settled in for a strange 18-year
captivity.
Life could have been worse
for a medieval prisoner. At HenTraitors murdered James I, King of Scots, in 1437. rys court, James received a firstclass education, served with
(Getty Images)

J O H N PA U L I I

British troops in battle against France during 14201421, and married the Earl
of Somersets daughter in 1424. Meanwhile, long-winded negotiations for his
release dragged on, encompassing exchange of other prisoners. Murdoch Stewart, son of the Duke who allegedly killed Jamess brother, had been captured in
1402 and was finally exchanged for Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland,
in 1416. He rushed home to succeed his father as Duke of Albany and governor of Scotland, while James awaited payment of 40,000 for his release in April
1424. That ransom was obtained by raising taxes, a circumstance that brought
James back to Scotland with one strike against him in the public mind.
Formally crowned on May 21, 1424, James anticipated the hostility of nobles
allied with the Duke of Albany. In March 1425, James arrested Murdoch, two
of his sons, and 25 of their allies on charges of treason. Murdoch, his sons, and
a fourth defendant were convicted in May, executed by decapitation at Stirling
Castle. Others detained by James at various times included Alexander of Islay,
Earl of Ross (1428), Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas (1431), and George
II, Earl of March (1434). Each in turn was freed upon payment of ransom,
which James used for the construction of Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian.
Such treatment of his adversaries, coupled with ever-increasing taxation,
encouraged rebellion against James I. His ill-conceived alliance with France
against England, meanwhile, renewed hostilities across the border. James besieged the English outpost at Roxburgh Castle in August 1436, but suffered an
embarrassing defeat. Two months later came the attempt to arrest him, leading
ultimately to his murder.
Jamed II, only seven years old at his fathers death, ruled as best a child can
under the guidance of Archibald Douglashis first cousin and the same earl
imprisoned and ransomed by his father in 1431. Archibald died in June 1439,
and James II literally turned the tables on his keepers in November 1440, seizing and executing successor William Douglas and his brother during a banquet
in Edinburgh. Sporadic family feuding continued until August 1460, when
James II died in an attack on the same Roxburgh Castle that had broken his fathers spirit 24 years earlier.
Further Reading
Balfour-Melville, Evan. James I, King of Scots. London: Methuen, 1936.
Brown, Michael. James I. Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press, 2000.
Magnusson, Magnus. Scotland: The Story of a Nation. New York: Grove Press, 2003.
Traquair, Peter. Freedoms Sword: Scotlands Wars of Independence. London: HarperCollins, 1998.

JOHN PAUL II (19202005)ATTEMPTED

On May 13, 1981, while blessing visitors to St. Peters Square in Vatican City,
Pope John Paul II was shot four times and critically wounded by Turkish assassin

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J O H N PAU L I I

Mehmet Ali Agca,

who previously murdered journalist and human rights activist Abdi Ipeki in Istanbul, on February 1, 1979. A member of the ultranationalistic Grey Wolves organization, Agca
this time was captured at the crime
scene and an accomplice, Oral elik, fled without joining in the attack. Convicted of attempted murder in July 1981, Agca was pardoned, at the popes
request, by the Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2000; he was then
extradited to Turkey for trial in the Ipeki murder and two 1970s bank robberies. Turkish authorities released him on January 18, 2010.
Pope John Paul II was born Karol Jzef Wojtya in Wadowice, Poland, on
May 18, 1920, rising through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church to become that institutions second-longest serving pontiff and the first non-Italian
pope since Adrian VI died in 1523. Between his election as pope in 1978 and
his death in April 2005, John Paul II visited 129 nations in pursuit of a universal call to holiness. He also beatified 1,340 people and canonized 483 saints
both figures exceeding the totals for all preceding popes combined. Perhaps
fittingly, John Paul II was, himself, beatified on May 1, 2011.
Mehmet Agca
s attack on the pope was not the only attempt to kill John Paul II.
On May 12, 1982, Belgian lawyer and Catholic priest Juan Mara Fernndez
y Krohn, ordained in 1978, tried to stab the pope with a bayonet in Fatima,
Portugal. Reports differ on whether the pope was wounded, but if so, the injuries were not severe. At trial, Fernndez announced his opposition to changes
imposed on Catholicism by the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and further
claimed that John Paul II was a covert Soviet agent corrupting the Vatican. Sentenced to six years in prison, Fernndez served three, then was deported to
Belgium (by which time he had left the priesthood).
Another plot against the pope was hatched in 1994 by Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and his mentor, Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed. The popes assassination, scheduled to be carried out by
a suicide bomber on January 15, 1995, during a papal motorcade through
Makati, in the Philippines, was part of a global plan that included bombing of
12 airliners in flight from Asia to the United States, and crashing a 13th aircraft into the Virginia headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Yousef trained a score of terrorists for their roles in the Bojinka ( big noise)
plot, but it was scuttled after an apartment fire in Manila exposed one of the
groups cells.
Multiple conspiracy theories still surround Mehmet Agca
s attempt to kill
Pope John Paul II. Agca
contributed to that confusion with his ever-changing
stories, prompting prosecutor Antonio Marini to tell reporters that Agca
has
manipulated all of us, telling hundreds of lies, continually changing versions,
forcing us to open tens of different investigations. One theory linked the Grey
Wolves and the CIA to NATOs covert Operation Gladio, encompassing a
host of criminal activities designed to keep right-wing governments in power

J O H N PA U L I I

by promoting an atmosphere of tension through terrorist actions blamed on

leftist revolutionaries.
Another popular theory blamed the murder attempt on communists, including the Soviet KGB, East Germanys ministry for state security, and/or the
Bulgarian secret service. In that scenario, the pope was targeted for supporting
Solidarity, a noncommunist labor movement led by Lech Waesa in the popes
native Poland. KGB director Yuri Andropov had earlier issued a memorandum
to Russian schoolteachers, reading in part: The Pope is our enemy. . . . Due
to his uncommon skills and great sense of humor he is dangerous, because he
charms everyone, especially journalists. Besides, he goes for cheap gestures
in his relations with the crowd, for instance, [he] puts on a highlanders hat,
shakes all hands, kisses children, etc. . . . It is modeled on American presidential campaigns. . . . Because of the activities of the Church in Poland our
activities designed to atheize the youth not only cannot diminish but must intensely develop. . . . In this respect all means are allowed and we cannot afford
sentiments.
The pope himself had a different view of the matter. On June 26, 2000, he
released the long-suppressed Third Secret of Fatima, last in a series of supposed visions or prophecies delivered by the Blessed Virgin Mary to three Portuguese children in 1917. Noting that his brush with death occurred on the
64th anniversary of Marys supposed first appearance, John Paul II published
the allegedly divine message foretelling an apocalypse and calling for repentance. Perhaps ironically, former Trappist monk Laurence James Downey had
hijacked an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to London on May 2, 1981one day
before the pope was shotdemanding among other things that John Paul II
reveal the third secret of Fatima. Instead, he received a five-year prison term
for air piracy.
Further Reading
Henze, Paul. The Plot to Kill the Pope. New York: Macmillan, 1985.
Sterling, Claire. The Time of the Assassins: Anatomy of an Investigation. New York: Henry
Holt, 1983.
West, Nigel. The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGBs Plot to Kill the Pope.
New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

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K
KABILA, LAURENT-DSIR (19392001)
On January 16, 2001, while meeting with one of his top advisors, LaurentDsir Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was
shot by one of his bodyguards. Other guards killed the shooter, Rashidi Kasereka,
as he tried to flee the scene. Kabila was rushed to Kinshasas hospital, where
he died on January 18. Son Joseph Kabila succeeded his father on January 26,
describing the assassination as the first move in an abortive coup. Police named
a cousin of Kabila, Colonel Eddy Kapend, as the coups ringleader, charging
him and 135 others with conspiracy. A military tribunal convicted Kapend and
89 other defendants, exonerating 45. Kapend and 25 others were sentenced to
death, but execution was deferred, sending them to prison with the 64 other
convicted defendants who received prison terms ranging from six months to
life. Observers of the proceedings differ in their opinions concerning the guilt
of those convicted.
Laurent-Dsir Kabila was a member of the Luba tribe, born at Baudoinville in the former province of Katanga, on November 27, 1939. His affluent
parents sent him abroad to study in France and Serbia, followed by graduation from Tanzanias University of Dar es Salaam. When Belgium granted independence to the Congo, in June 1960, Kabila was a member of the General
Association of the Baluba People of Katanga, allied with Patrice Lumumba in
conflict against rival Moise Tshombe. Lumumba won election as the DRCs first
prime minister, but was assassinated in September 1960. Five different prime
ministers held office in the next 12 months, before Cyrille Adoula managed to
complete a three-year tenure. Under Adoulas regime, in 1962, Kabila served as
cabinet chief for Minister of Information Ferdinand Tumba, while also being a
member of North Katangas provincial assembly.
Kabilas longtime adversary, Moise Tshombe, took office as prime minister in
July 1964, beginning a new round of conflict and violence. Kabila joined the
Conseil National de Libration, organizing revolution in the eastern Congo,
where he was assisted during 1965 by Che Guevara. Guevaras diaries indicate
his disappointment in Kabila as a revolutionary, noting his habitual distraction,
tardiness in joining various guerrilla actions, and failure to supply agreed-upon
support. Although Kabila possessed genuine qualities of a mass leader, Guevara found him sadly lacking in revolutionary seriousness.

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K A B I L A , L AU R E N T- D S I R

That judgment aside, Kabila persevered in his war against Tshombe and his
successors, fighting on after the DRC was reborn in October 1971 as the Republic of Zaire. Leading a new Peoples Revolutionary Party (PRP), armed and
bankrolled by Chinese communists, Kabila established a stronghold in South
Kivu Province, declaring it a breakaway Marxist state, growing wealthy over
time from the proceeds of smuggling, extortion, and robbery. Kabila disappeared without a trace in 1988, leaving the PRP to flounder and disband. He
was presumed dead for eight years, then resurfaced in November 1996, at the
helm of a new Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, leading attacks on the regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko with backing from
Rwanda and Uganda.
The campaign was successful, forcing Mobutu into exile by May 1997,
whereupon Kabila proclaimed himself president, suspended the constitution,
and changed the countrys name back from Zaire to the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. Abandoning his former hard-line Marxism, Kabila offered concessions to foreign investors, but critics denounced him as corrupt, declaring that he had simply revived the former South Kivu kleptocracy on a larger
scale. Complaints of despotism and human rights violations proliferated. By
1998, Kabilas former allies in Uganda and Rwanda had established yet another revolutionary groupthe Congolese Rally for Democracyto depose
him. So began the Second Congo War, with Kabila seeking new allies in Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Despite insertion of United Nations peacekeeping forces, that war was still ongoing at the time of Kabilas assassination.

SECOND CONGO WAR

The Second Congo Waralso called the Great War of Africaembroiled
troops from nine African nations, plus 20-odd irregular guerrilla bands,
between August 1998 and July 2003. It ranks as the deadliest war in African history, with an estimated death toll of 5.4 million (extended through
2008 to include victims of war-related starvation and disease). Millions
more were driven from their homes and native countries, into foreign exile.
The initial conflict involved attempts by neighboring Burundi, Rwanda,
and Uganda to unseat Congolese president Laurent Kabila, once their ally
in another war against his predecessor. Under siege, Kabila formed new
alliances with Angola, Chad, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, whereas Sudan
joined the ranks of his opponents. Despite a ceasefire and establishment of
a transitional government in 2003, sporadic fighting continued, and international aid groups logged 1,000 deaths per day from war-related causes.

K A D Y R O V, A K H M A D A B D U L K H A M I D O V I C H

Conspiracy theories surround Kabilas murder. Critics of the trial that followed his assassinationincluding Mwenze Kongolo, who served as Kabilas
minister of justiceclaim that those convicted of plotting to slay Kabila are
scapegoats. Some investigative journalists believe the plot was orchestrated by
former child soldiers from South Kivu. Others point to agents of UNITA, the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which had been at war
with the Angolan government since 1961. Yet another theory claims Rwandan
soldiers were involved, claiming that Colonel James Kabarebe, commander of
Rwandan forces inside the DRC, announced Kabilas death with the remark,
Good news from Kinshasa. Our boys did it.
See also: Lumumba, Patrice mery (19251961).

Further Reading
Autesserre, Sverine. The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Ngolet, Franois. Crisis in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Laurent Kabila. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A Peoples History. London:
Zed Books, 2002.
Trefon, Theodore. Congo Masquerade: The Political Culture of Aid Inefficiency and Reform
Failure. London: Zed Books, 2011.

KADYROV, AKHMAD ABDULKHAMIDOVICH

(19512004)
On May 9, 2004, during a parade commemorating victory over Nazi German
in World War II, a bomb exploded at the Dinamo football stadium in Grozny,
capital of the Chechen Republic. The blast killed President Akhmad Kadyrov,
two of his bodyguards, the chairman of the Chechen State Council, and at least
a dozen others (some reports say 30-plus). Another 56 persons were wounded,
including Colonel General Valery Baranov, commander of Russian forces in
Chechnya, who lost a leg in the explosion. Investigators determined that the
charge had been planted inside one of the stadiums concrete pillars, during
recent repairs. The crime remains officially unsolved.
Akhmad Kadyrov was born to Chechen parents at Karaganda, in the Kazakh
Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), on August 23, 1951. When he was
six years old, his family returned to Chechnya, then known as the Chechen
Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). Kadyrov began formal
study of Islam in 1980, at Mir-i-Arab Madrasah in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, continuing at Uzbekistans Tashkent Islamic University through 1986. By the early
1990s he was back in Chechnya, leading his own Islamic Institute in the town
of Kurchaloy.

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K A D Y R O V, A K H M A D A B D U L K H A M I D O V I C H

Following dissolution of the

Soviet Union, former Russian
air force general Dzhokhar Dudayev led a rebellion against
the ChechenIngush ASSR Supreme Soviet, on September 6,
1991, declaring Chechen independence from Russia. By November, Russian troops had
occupied Grozny. The country
split in June 1992, with civil
war erupting. Akhmad Kadyrov soon emerged as a prominent military leader against
Russian forces and their allies,
winning appointment in 1995
as chief mufti (interpreter of
Islamic law) for the fledgling
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Before the Khasavyurt Accord
ended the war in August 1996,
fighting had claimed an estimated 20,000 military lives,
Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, killed in a while killing at least 50,000
2004 bombing. (AFP/Getty Images)
civilians.
The cessation of formal hostilities brought no true peace to Chechnya. Grozny lay in ruins, and chaos
reigned in the countryside, with local warlords establishing virtual fiefdoms. In
the face of economic collapse, ransom kidnapping quickly emerged as source
of income, with 1,300 abductions reported between 1996 and 1999. Nominal
authorities in Grozny declared a state of emergency in 1998, but open fighting continued. In July of that year, at Gudermes, 50 people died in a battle
between the Chechen National Guard and Muslim guerrillas. In March 1999,
after Russian general Gennady Shpigun was kidnapped from Groznys airport
(found dead a year later), Moscow planned a new invasion of Chechnya. War
resumed in September 1999, after Chechen Muslims invaded Dagestan, then
were chased back into Chechnya by Russian forces.
Despite his deep-seated belief in Islam, Chief Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov opposed Wahhabism, the ultra-fundamentalist creed espoused by most of
Chechnyas Muslim militias. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War, he
shocked his coreligionists by switching sides and offering support to Russian occupation forces inside Chechnya. Chechen separatist leader Aslan

KAHANE, MEIR

Maskhadov immediately dismissed Kadyrov as chief mufti, but Kadyrovs

turnaround gained points for him in Moscow. When Russian troops secured
nominal control of Chechnya in July 2000, President Vladimir Putin named
Kadyrov as acting head of state. Voters selected him as Chechnyas first president on October 5, 2003.
Kadyrov was succeeded by Sergey Abramov, a Moscow-based executive of
Russian Railways, who served as acting president from May to August 2004,
when Putin replaced him with Alu Alkhanov, a career policeman who fought
for Russia in the First Chechen War. In February 2007, Putin demoted Alkhanov to serve as Russias deputy minister of justice, replacing him with present
incumbent Ramzan Kadyrov, a one-time Chechen rebel.
Further Reading
Greene, Stanley. Open Wound: Chechnya 19942003. London: Trolley Books, 2004.
Smith, Sebastian. Allahs Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005.

KAHANE, MEIR (19321990)

On November 5, 1990, controversial rabbi and politician Meir Kahane delivered a speech in a lecture hall at Manhattans Marriott hotel, on Lexington Avenue. As he prepared to leave, shortly after 9:00 P.M., a gunman disguised as an
Orthodox Jew approached Kahane and shot him in the neck at close range with
a .357 Magnum revolver. Fleeing on foot, the assassin tried to commandeer
a taxi cab outside the Marriott, then shot off-duty policeman Carlos Acosta,
when Acosta tried to arrest him. Though gravely injured, Acosta returned fire,
striking his assailant in the face. Captured soon afterward, the killer was identified as El Sayyid Nosair, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Egypt, residing in
New Jersey. At his murder trial, in December 1991, jurors acquitted Nosair of
killing Kahane but convicted him of assault, possession of an illegal firearm,
and the unrelated shooting a U.S. Postal Inspection Service agent. He received
a sentence of 7 to 22 years in prison.
Martin David Kahane, more commonly known as Meir, was born in
Brooklyn on August 1, 1932, the son of an Orthodox rabbi and member of
the Revisionist Zionism movement led by Zeev Jabotinsky. A frequent visitor
to the Kahane home, Jabotinsky had trained Jews in military tactics since his
1919 discharge from the British army, advocating creation of a Jewish state
based on the British imperial model. He died in New York, in August 1940,
while visiting a paramilitary self-defense camp run by Betar, a revisionist
youth group he founded in Latvia 20 years earlier. Meir Kahane was a member
of Betar, and joined in protest demonstrations against British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin, who restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine after World

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K AHANE, MEIR

Controversial rabbi and politician Meir Kahane, assassinated in November 1990. (Associated Press)

War II. At age 15, Kahane was arrested for lobbing eggs and tomatoes at Bevin,
upon his arrival at New Yorks waterfront.
Kahane pursued an Orthodox education at the Yeshivah of Flatbush
(Brooklyn) and the Brooklyn Talmudical Academy, before receiving his rabbinical ordination. A bachelors degree in political science followed, from
Brooklyn College, after which he studied law, earning a JD and an LLM. At
26, he was a rabbi for a synagogue in Queens, but sparked rebellion when he
tried to install a partition separating men from women in the congregation.
Politics dominated Kahanes life from the late 1950s onward. An ardent anticommunist, he joined the far-right John Birch Society, but wife Libby later
claimed that he only infiltrated the group as an informant for the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. In 1968, he founded the Jewish Defense League
(JDL; see sidebar), pledged to protect New York Jews from overt acts of
anti-Semitism. Clashes with neo-Nazis ensued, and the organization grew
quickly, with membership exceeding 15,000. By then, the JDL had branched
out into terrorism, focusing primarily on hostile Arab targets in the United
States and Russian embassies or other symbols of Soviet anti-Semitism.
Kahane immigrated to Israel in 1971, declaring his intent to focus on Jewish education, but the lure of politics proved irresistible. Between scores of
arrests for public demonstrations, he found time to found the Kach (This is

KAHANE, MEIR

the Way) Party, espousing an ultranationalistic platform subsequently dubbed

Kahanism. In 1980, arrested for the 62nd time, Kahane drew a six-month
sentence for plotting armed attacks on Palestinians in retaliation for the deaths
of Jewish settlers. A year later, Israels Central Elections Committee banned him
from public office on grounds that Kach was a racist party, but the Supreme
Court overturned that ban, with a suggestion that the Knesset pass a law excluding racist parties from future elections. That law was passed in 1985, but
in the meantime, Kach won its first Knesset, occupied by Kahane.
Kahane set the tone for his legislative tenure by refusing to take the standard oath of office, insisting that a verse from Psalms be added, stating that
biblical law superseded any statutes passed by the Knesset. His various legislative proposals focused on expulsion of Arabs from Israel, revocation of Israeli
citizenship for non-Jews, and criminalizing sex or marriage between Jews and
Gentiles. A virtual pariah in the Knesset, many of whose members boycotted
his speeches, Kahane still rallied public support among conservative workingclass Jews. The new ban on racist parties and candidates barred Kahane from
seeking a second term in 1988, and this time the Supreme Court affirmed his
exclusion from office.

JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE (JDL)

Founded by Meir Kahane in 1968, the JDLs stated goal is to protect
Jews from anti-Semitism by whatever means necessary. Spokesmen
claim that the group maintains a strict no-tolerance policy against terrorism and other felonious acts, and that unequivocally condemns terrorism, but the JDLs history suggests otherwise. FBI files record 18 acts
of domestic terrorism committed by Jews between 1980 and 1985all
but three involving JDL members. In 1986, a report from the U.S. Department of Energy stated that For more than a decade, the Jewish Defense League ( JDL) has been one of the most active terrorist groups in
the United States. . . . Since 1968, JDL operations have killed 7 persons
and wounded at least 22. Thirty-nine percent of the targets were connected with the Soviet Union; 9 percent were Palestinian; 8 percent were
Lebanese; 6 percent, Egyptian; 4 percent, French, Iranian, and Iraqi;
1 percent, Polish and German; and 23 percent were not connected with
any states. Sixty-two percent of all JDL actions are directed against property; 30 percent against businesses; 4 percent against academics and academic institutions; and 2 percent against religious targets. In 2001, the
FBI formally labeled the JDL a right-wing terrorist group.

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K APODISTRIAS, IOANNIS ANTONIOS

El Sayyid Nosair was finally punished, after a fashion, for Kahanes murder.
In 1993, FBI agents arrested Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and others for participation in an elaborate conspiracy that included bombing New Yorks World
Trade Centers and an abortive plot to liberate Nosair from prison. The indictment included Kahanes assassination as a part of that conspiracy, and Nosair
was convicted with the others at trial, receiving a sentence of life without parole plus 15 years. In 2002, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee reported
that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had paid for some of Nosairs legal expenses in 1991.
Further Reading
Breslauer, Daniel. Meir Kahane: Ideologue, Hero, Thinker. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen
Press, 1986.
Friedman, Robert. The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane, from FBI Informant to Knesset
Member. New York: Lawrence Hill, 1990.
Kahane, Meir. The Story of the Jewish Defense League. New York: Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, 2000.
Rosenthal, Richard. Rookie Cop: Deep Undercover in the Jewish Defense League. Wellfleet,
MA: Leapfrog Press, 2000.

KAPODISTRIAS, IOANNIS ANTONIOS

(17761831)
Greek governor Ioannis Kapodistrias woke early on Sunday, October 9, 1831,
to attend a church service in Nafplio. Bodyguards and aides counseled against a
public appearance, citing hostility over the recent arrest of rebel leader Petrobey
Mavromichalis, but Kapodistrias dismissed their concerns. As the governor approached the church of Saint Spyridonas, he was met by his enemys brother,
Konstantinos Mavromichalis, and nephew Georgios Mavromichalis. Konstantinos drew a pistol and fired at Kapodistrias but missed with his single-shot
weapon, then drew a dagger and stabbed the governor in the stomach, while
Georgios pulled his own pistol and delivered a fatal head shot. Bodyguards shot
and killed Konstantinos at the scene, whereupon a furious mob seized his body
and tossed it from a cliff into the Argolic Gulf. Gregorios fled to the French
embassy, then surrendered days later to face trial for treason. A court-martial
condemned him, and he was shot by a military firing squad.
Ioannis Kapodistrias was born on February 11, 1776, to a noble family
on the Ionian island of Corfu, ruled from Venice at the time. He studied law,
philosophy, and medicine in Italy, establishing a medical practice on Corfu at
age 21. Two years later, when Russian and Turkish forces occupied Corfu in
1799, the invaders chose Kapodistrias as director of their military hospital. In
1802, he founded Corfus National Medical Association, offering medical care
to residents throughout the island.

KAPODISTRIAS, IOANNIS ANTONIOS

Although of royal descent, Kapodistrias was a dedicated liberal and democrat. He entered politics at age 25, as chief minister of state for the Septinsular
Republic, established under nominal Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands, with native nobles in charge. A Byzantine Constitution, imposed by
the sultan at Constantinople in 1800, loosely governed the seven-island republic until 1807, when French forces regrouped and recaptured the Ionian
Islands, dissolving Ottoman rule. Two years later, Kapodistrias volunteered
for Russias diplomatic service under Czar Alexander I, and was dispatched
to Switzerland Russias unofficial ambassador in November 1813. There, he
helped begin the process of restoring Switzerlands federal regime, dismantled
by Napoleon Bonaparte a decade earlier, and secured for himself a six-year
term as Russias foreign minister, beginning in 1816.
Kapodistrias retired from Russian service in 1822, settling in Geneva for
the next five years, though he continued to support the cause of Greek independence from Ottoman rule. That long struggle climaxed with victory in
April 1826, and the following year, a new Greek National Assembly chose Kapodistrias in absentia as the first governor of independent Greece. In January
1828, Kapodistrias arrived on the Greek mainland for the first time in his life,
proceeding to the capital at Nafplio.
During his three years and nine months in office, Kapodistrias built rural
schools and the first modern Greek university, reorganized military forces scattered during conflict with the Turks, and established the nations first quarantine system to end epidemics of cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever. He
introduced potato cultivation, to enhance Greek agriculture, and created foundations to employ young women, while introducing modern currency in the
form of the Greek phoenix. Such sweeping changes inevitably sparked opposition in some quarters, including certain wealthy merchant families and rebellious inhabitants of the Mani Peninsula, with its capital at Areopoli, where
Petrobey Mavromichalis ruled in the style of a feudal warlord. The imprisonment of Petrobey, in 1831, provoked assassination in return.
Kapodistrias was briefly succeeded by his younger brother, Augustinos, but
his six-month term as governor proved chaotic. He left office in March 1832,
with three successive governing councils attempting to salvage the First Hellenic Republic between April 1832 and February 1833. They accomplished
nothing, beyond demonstrating the futility of government by committee, and
thereafter ceded power to King Otto, establishing a 114-year monarchy.
Further Reading
Clogg, Richard. A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002.
Sergeant, Lewis. Greece in the Nineteenth CenturyA Record of Hellenic Emancipation
and Progress: 18211897. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1897.

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K A P U U O, C L E M E N S

KAPUUO, CLEMENS (19231978)

On March 27, 1978, two unidentified gunman killed Clemens Kapuuoa
shopkeeper, school teacher, paramount chief of the Herero people, and leader
of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA)in Katutura, a segregated black
township of Windhoek, capital of South African administered Namibia. The
killers struck as Kapuuo stood talking with friends, then escaped in the confusion following his murder. Fellow members of the DTA, engaged in a campaign
for Namibian independence, blamed South African officials for Kapuuos assassination. White police, in turn, blamed members of SWAPOthe South West
Africa Peoples Organizationwhom they claimed were put off by Kapuuos
political moderation. The crime remains officially unsolved today.
Clemens Kapuuo was born in the Okahandja district on March 16, 1923,
four years after South Africa assumed control of the former German SouthWest Africa as a League of Nations mandate. He graduated from St. Barnabas
Anglican Church School in Windhoek, then qualified as a teacher with studies
at Viljoensdrif, in the Orange Free State, and at the Stofberg Memorial School
(founded in 1907 to train black teachers, presently Groenpunt Correctional
Centre for offenders aged 18 to 21). During 1944 and 1945 he taught at elementary schools in Waterberg and Karibib, then returned to St. Barnabas as an
English instructor in 1946. From 1950 through 1953, Kapuuo served as president of the South West Africa Teachers Association.
Education led Kapuuo into tribal politics as a founding member of the South
West Africa National Union (SWANU), in 1958. Now Namibias oldest political
party, the SWANU drew most of its members from Kapuuos own Herero tribe,
whereas SWAPO (founded two years later) was dominated by Ovambo tribesmen. Kapuuo retired from teaching in 1960, to serve as deputy and designated
heir to aging Herero chief Hosea Kutako. To support himself, Kapuuo ran a
shop in Windhoeks Old Location (now Hochland Park), and led opposition to
South Africas forced removal of blacks to Katuturatranslated from Otjiherero as The place where we do not want to livein 1961.
Three years later, the Herero Chiefs Council tried to divorce itself from
politics, withdrawing from SWANU and directing Herero activists into a new
National Unity Democratic Organization (NUDO), led by Mburumba Kerina.
Himself a founding member of both SWANU and SWAPO, Kerina soon quarreled with the council over policy matters and with Kapuuo. In 1966, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed a complaint filed by Ethiopia and
Liberia, challenging South African rule of Namibia, but the panel reversed
itself five years later, issuing a toothless advisory opinion declaring South
Africas continued administration of the territory to be illegal. South Africa
ignored that judgment, while SWAPOs military armthe Peoples Liberation
Army of Namibiaconducted a guerrilla war against white rule from 1966
onward.

KARUME, SHEIKH ABEID AMANI

Following the ICJs unenforceable ruling of 1971, Kapuuo led NUDO into
a new National Convention, joining SWANU, SWAPO, and other groups in a
united front against South African rule of Namibia. Two years later, the United
Nations undercut Kapuuo by declaring SWAPO the sole legitimate representative of native Namibians. That decision shattered the National Convention in 1974, and Kapuuo and NUDO joined in the Turnhalle Constitutional
Conference of 19751977, laying the groundwork for eventual Namibian
self-government.
South African authorities used Kapuuos assassination as an excuse to purge
SWAPO. On May 4, 1978, white troops launched Operation Reindeer, a sixday invasion of neighboring Angola that killed more than 1,200 SWAPO members in base camps at Chetequera and Dombondola. South African spokesmen
justified the attacks with a list of criminal incidents blamed on SWAPO, including the murder of Clemens Kapuuo.
Many Hereros still reject that theory. In January 2002, Herero paramount
chief Kuaima Riruako accused South Africas former apartheid regime of planning and executing Kapuuos assassination. According to him, Kapuuo was
killed by colonial imperial capitalists especially the South African regime and
their cohorts. I am saying this because even today the inquest on his death is
not clear. Let us be honest. The very same people who are refusing to find out
who killed Kapuuo, gave him a state funeral.
Further Reading
Leys, Colin, and Susan Brown, Histories of Namibia: Living through the Liberation Struggle. London: Merlin Press, 2004.
Wallace, Marion. A History of Namibia: From the Beginning to 1990. London: C. Hurst
& Co., 2011.

KARUME, SHEIKH ABEID AMANI (19051972)

On April 7, 1972, members of Zanzibars Umma Partyformed nine years
earlier by disaffected Arab socialists opposed to the ruling Afro-Shirazi Party
(ASP)set off to arrest President Abeid Karume in Zanzibar Town. Their plan
was to seize Karume, take him to Radio Zanzibar, and force him to proclaim
their chosen candidate at the islands next president. The ill-conceived plan
was doomed, however, by inclusion of a party member named Humudi in
the kidnap party, whose father had been killed by state authorities. At sight of
President Karume playing bao (a board game) with some friends at party headquarters, Humudi shot Karume nine times at close range, killing him instantly.
Fifty-seven suspects were charged with treason following Karumes murder,
34 of whom were convicted.
Sheikh Abeid Karume was reportedly born at Mwera, Zanzibar, on August 4,
1905, though some natives of the island refused to believe it, insisting that he

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was a foreigner, possibly born in Uganda. That confusion may have arisen from
his widespread travels as a sailor, early in his life, achieving knowledge of the
world by experience, in lieu of formal education. Upon returning to his homeland, he entered politics as a member of the ASP, allied (and later merged)
with the Tanganyika African National Union. Britain controlled Zanzibar at
that time, but granted independence to the island in December 1963. In the
countrys first election, the ASP won a slim majority of the popular vote, but
the Arab-dominated Zanzibar Nationalist Party closed ranks with the mostly
African Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party to claim victory under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
On January 12, 1964, with Karume traveling on the African mainland,
members of the Umma Party and ASP rebelled in Zanzibar, led by ASP member John Okello. They deposed the sultan and declared Zanzibar a republic,
with a Revolutionary Council in charge. To Okellos surprise, the council chose
Abeid Karume as president, while naming Umma Party leader Abdulrahman
Mohamed Babu as prime minister (later vice president). Okello was shuffled
aside and left for the Congo, where he was jailed several times, then vanished
forever after being seen with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, in 1971.
Hassan Nassor Moyo, a member of Karumes cabinet, described the president as a man who loathed discrimination, working tirelessly to unite the islands
28 separate ethnic groups. Karume chose an Arab, Salum Rashid, as the Revolutionary Councils First Secretary, thus extending an olive branch to the deposed
regime, but subsequent events suggest that he did not go far enough to please Abdulrahman Babu or the Umma Party. Sixteen attempts to overthrow the government were logged between 1964 and Karumes eventual death, eight years later.
Following Karumes murder, 57 defendants were charged with treason, held
for trial in a curious proceeding where Attorney General Wolfgang Dourado
served as both prosecutor and defender of the accused. Chief Justice Ali Haji
Pandu, presiding at the trial, also displayed an apparent conflict of interest, admitting that 15 of the defendants were his personal friends and former classmates. The trial produced 35 convictions, and 23 defendants were acquitted
of all charges. Babu, named as the plots mastermind, was sentenced to death
with the other 34 convicted prisoners, but all of the death sentences were later
commuted to various prison terms. Babu and 12 others served the longest sentences, released in 1978 under an amnesty declared by President Julius Nyerere.
Karumes death proved disastrous for the Umma Party that hoped to replace
him. With most of its leaders in prison, the party soon dissolved, leaving the
ASP stronger than ever. Karumes son, Amani Abeid Karume, served as principal secretary in the ministry of finance (19711974), principal secretary in
the ministry of planning (19741978), and principal secretary in the ministry
of communications and transport (19781980), and finally spent a decade as
president, from November 2000 to November 2010.

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Further Reading
Burgess, G. Thomas. Race, Revolution, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar.
Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009.
Petterson, Donald. Revolution in Zanzibar: An Americans Cold War Tale. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 2004.

KENNEDY, JOHN FITZGERALD (19171963)

At 12:30 P.M. on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy ( JFK) was
fatally wounded by rifle fire while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza
in Dallas, Texas. Governor John Connally, riding in the same open limousine,
suffered multiple wounds from one bullet but lived to recover. At 1:15 P.M.,
a gunman shot and killed Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit, several miles from
Dealey Plaza. Thirty-five minutes later, officers arrested a suspect in that shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald, subsequently charging him with President Kennedys
murder at 11:26 P.M. Oswald denied all charges and declared that he was being
set up as a patsy. At 11:21 A.M. on November 24, during Oswalds televised
transfer to the county jail, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald
in the basement of Dallas police headquarters, in full view of numerous detectives and television cameras. President Lyndon Johnson appointed a special
commission to investigate the
Kennedy assassination on November 29, 1963. Its 888-page
report, published on September 27, 1964, with 26 volumes
of supporting evidence, declared that both Oswald and
Ruby acted alone, compelled
by psychological motives, and
that they had no connection to
each other.
John KennedyAmericas
35th president and the fourth
to die by violencewas the eldest living son of a wealthy and
powerful Massachusetts family, wholly dominated by patriarch Joseph Patrick Kennedy
Sr. Born in Brookline on May
29, 1917, he graduated from President John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee HarHarvard University and served vey Oswald while riding in a motorcade in Dallas,
with distinction in the U.S. Texas, in 1963. (John F. Kennedy Library)

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Navy during World War II, in the Pacific theater. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1946, he served six years there, and seven in the Senate, before
emerging from a close and highly controversial White House race in 1960, as
the countrys youngest elected president. He also generated more public controversy than any president since Franklin Roosevelt, based in equal parts on
his religion (Roman Catholic), his civil rights initiatives for African Americans,
a failed invasion of Cuba in April 1961, a subsequent standoff with Russia over
missiles planted on that island, and his aggressive war against organized crime.
By 1963, as he began campaigning for a second term, there was no shortage of
potential enemies who wished him dead.
Murder of a U.S. president was still a state offense, equivalent to any other
murder, in November 1963. Dallas police emerged as seeming bunglers for
their handling of the case, from misidentification of the alleged murder rifle
detectives first described it as a 7.25-mm German Mauser; it was, in fact, a
6.5-mm Italian Mannlicher-Carcanothrough sensational press conferences,
to having their prime suspect gunned down live on national TV. Some other
agency would have to build a case, although if Oswald was a lone assassin,
there would be no trial.
There were problems, as well, with local handling of the presidents body
and analysis of his wounds. Physicians at Parkland hospital recorded three
wounds: one in front of Kennedys throat, described as an entrance wound; another in his back, five to six inches below the neck, with no projectile found
and no exit point; and a massive, obviously fatal wound at the right rear of
Kennedys skull. Texas law required that autopsies of murder victims be performed within the state, unless the crime occurred on federal property, yet Dallas Countys district attorney and medical examiner agreed to removal of the
corpse, at the demand of JFKs widow and President Lyndon Johnson. Kennedys autopsy was performed at Marylands Bethesda Naval Hospital (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), by Dr. George Burkley, then a rear
admiral in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. He concluded that two shots struck
Kennedy, both from the rear, with neither projectile recovered.
Meanwhile, a single nearly pristine rifle bullet had been found at Parkland
Hospital, in Dallas, lying on a stretcher in the area where JFK and Governor
Connally were delivered for emergency treatment. No one could determine
which stretcher, but it was initially assumed that the slugtoday known as
Warren Commission Exhibit (CE) 399must have come from Kennedys
body, falling out of his shallow back wound, perhaps during cardiac massage.
That view changed radically in months to come, as we shall see.
J. Edgar Hoovers Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seemed to jump the
gun with its pronouncement of a single shooter in the Kennedy assassination.
At 3:01 P.M. on November 22, eight hours and 25 minutes before Lee Oswald
was accused of killing Kennedy, Hoover wrote a memo to his assistant directors,

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saying, I called the attorney general at his home and told him I thought we
had the man who killed the president down in Dallas, at the present time.
On November 24, shortly after Oswalds death, another Hoover memo stated:
The thing I am most concerned about, and so is Mr. [Deputy Attorney General Nicholas] Katzenbach, is having something issued so that we can convince
the public that Oswald is the real assassin. On November 26, Hoover wrote to
Assistant FBI Director Alan Belmont, Just how long do you estimate [completion of a final report] will take? It seems to me we have all the basic facts now.
President Johnsons blue-ribbon investigative commission, chaired by
Chief Justice Earl Warren, included Allen Dulles, former director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA); John McCloy, former president of the World Bank;
Kentucky senator John Cooper; Georgia senator Richard Russell Jr.; House Majority Leader Hale Boggs; and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford. Evidence
appended to the commissions final report included testimony or depositions
of 552 witnesses, plus more than 3,100 exhibits. Even so, critics found much
challenge in the panels two-lone-gunmen verdict, complaining that testimony
from inconvenient witnesses was censored or ignored, that photographic evidence was altered prior to publication, and that unpublished portions of those
records were initially sealed for 75 years (to 2039) by order of President Johnson (later changed to 2017 under the JFK Records Act of 1992).
Examples of discrepancies in the commissions findings include a false denial of Jack Rubys longstanding ties to organized crime in Chicago, Dallas, and
elsewhere; omission of testimony from 51 witnesses who reported shots fired
at JFKs motorcade from a grassy knoll in front of the presidents car, rather
than the book warehouse behind the limousine, where Oswald was employed;
preoccupation with irrelevant trivia, filling pages with biographical data on
Oswald, Ruby, and their parents, wholly unrelated to JFKs murder; a complete
failure to investigate Kennedys outspoken enemies in the Mafia, right-wing extremist circles, and the Cuban exile committee; publication of selected frames
from a home movie of the shooting, filmed by witness Abraham Zapruder,
with the frames rearranged to show Kennedys head snapping forward, rather
than backward, on impact from the fatal head shot; and a magic-bullet theory advanced to explain how one virtually undamaged projectile could produce most of the wounds suffered by JFK and Governor Connally. Commission
member Allen Dulles, whose own CIA was suspected by some of plotting the
presidents death, encouraged suspicion of a cover-up in a comment concerning the Warren Commissions voluminous records, quoted in declassified minutes of a closed hearing. Nobody reads, he said. Dont believe people read in
this country. There will be a few professors that will read the record. The public will read very little.
As it happens, he was wrong. From 1965 until the present day, a nonstop
stream of books and articles dissecting Kennedys assassination have dissected

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the commissions findings, evidence, and items it ignored, hypothesizing various conspiracies. A smaller, but no less ardent body of literature defends the
commissions work and final judgment. Confusion over the original forensic
evidenceincluding reports of an entry wound in Kennedys throat, the fact
that FBI marksmen could not hit any target with Oswalds cheap Italian rifle
until they braced its telescopic sight with special shims, and the disappearance of JFKs preserved brain from the National Archivesonly increased the
clamor for full disclosure.
The Warren Commissions most controversial finding was its claim that a
single shot inflicted one of Kennedys wounds and all of those suffered by Governor Connally, a claim quickly derided by critics as the magic-bullet theory.
Ignoring medical reports of a shallow back wound with no exit path, the panel
decided that the Dallas stretcher bullet, CE 399, struck Kennedy in the back
of his neck and passed out the front (where an entry wound was reported at
Parkland Hospital), then angled downward to penetrate Connallys back, shatter a rib and exit from his torso, smash bones in his wrist, then bury itself in
his thigh, afterward dropping onto the hospital stretcher. Aside from its proposed erratic flight pattern, CE 399 itself challenged the single-bullet theory. It
was found to weigh 158.6 grains (10.28 grams), whereas new, unfired 6.5-mm
bullets leave the factory assembly line weighing 159.8 to 161.5 grains, with an
average weight of 160.844 grains. Fragments found in Connallys wrist alone
weighed 2 grains. Additionally, CE 399 was barely marked by firing, undeformed by smashing ribs and other bones, bearing no characteristic markings
of passage through fabric, human flesh, or blood. Still, the single-bullet theory
was essential to discrediting reports of a second gunman, firing from in front
of JFKs motorcade.
In February 1968, at request of the Attorney General Ramsey Clark, four
physicians met in Washington, D.C., to review the original JFK autopsy records, photos, and X-rays, as well as clothing, films, motion pictures, and
bullet fragments. Their confirmation of the Warren Commissions findings
that Kennedy was struck by only two shots, both fired from behind him
predictably failed to mollify critics of the commissions 1964 report. Indeed,
the panels finding of metallic fragments along the higher bullet trail through
JFKs neck, seemed to further weaken the Warren Commissions magic-bullet
scenario.
Original commission member Gerald Ford, now president, tried once more
to still that criticism in 1975, with creation of the presidents commission on CIA
activities within the United States. Launched in response to CIA assassinations
abroad, and mind-control experiments at home, the new panelchaired by
Vice President Nelson Rockefellersought to disprove claims that JFK had been
murdered by CIA agents or rogue agency associates. Once again, the 1963 autopsy was reviewed, in addition to films of the assassination taken by witnesses

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at Dealey Plaza. And once again, the panel confirmed Warren Commission findings, reporting that there was no evidence to support the claim that President
Kennedy was struck by a bullet fired from either the grassy knoll or any other
position to his front, right front or right side. . . . No witness who urged the
view that the Zapruder film and other motion picture films proved that President Kennedy was struck by a bullet fired from his right front was shown to
possess any professional or other special qualifications on the subject.
Again, predictably, critics were unconvinced.
A year later, spurred by unending controversy, Congress created the House
Select Committee on Assassinations, to reopen investigation of Kennedys death
and the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King. Three years later, based chiefly on
acoustical evidence, the panel found a high probability that at least two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy, but that the grassy knoll shooter
had missed, leaving Oswald in effect the lone assassin. The Committee failed
to identify the second gunman or any potential conspirators, reporting that
the Mafia and Cuban exile organizations were not involved as groups, but
that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual
members may have been involved in the conspiracy. That verdict, in turn,
produced mocking outcries from supporters of the Warren Commission, and a
new round of conspiracy literature.
Leading suspects in potential JFK assassination plots include:
The CIA, or some rogue element within it. Threatened with dismantling
by JFK after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961, pledged to continuance
of covert wars in Cuba, Central America, and Southeast Asia, the agency
had its own man on the Warren Commission, ideally placed to suppress
evidence. Several authors spin persuasive circumstantial webs linking
Oswald to the CIA, and Jack Ruby was a known participant in agencysponsored offensives against Fidel Castro.
The FBI, a long-shot contender for assassination per se, but clearly guilty
of suppressing evidence concerning its contacts with Oswald and Ruby
prior to November 1963. Agent James Hosty in Dallas admittedly destroyed notes of his pre-assassination interviews with Oswald, as well
as a note delivered to his office by Oswald shortly before JFKs murder.
J. Edgar Hoover personally despised both Kennedy brothers for their personal behavior, their liberal politics, and their insistence that the FBI belatedly engage in prosecution of high-ranking mobsters (some of whom
were the directors personal friends). It was also widely rumored that JFK
would celebrate his reelection by replacing Hoover with a younger successor, more amenable to the administrations goals.
Right-wing extremists, including violent segregationists such as the Ku Klux
Klan (KKK), White Citizens Council, and similar groups, bankrolled by

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ultraconservative oilmen who feared the repeal of lucrative tax loopholes

threatened by Kennedy if he won a second term. Known associates of Lee
Harvey Oswald included members of the paramilitary Minutemen and the
neo-Nazi National States Rights Party (NSRP), both linked to covert CIA
training of Cuban exile groups attempting to depose Fidel Castro. Despite
his outspoken leftist sympathies, Oswald curiously shared an office with
those right-wing activists in New Orleans. NSRP member Joseph Milteer
predicted the events of JFKs assassination to a colleague two weeks in advance, saying that the president would be shot during a motorcade, with a
nut blamed for the crime. Secret Service agents took the claim seriously
enough to cancel Kennedys Miami motorcade on November 19then
sent him on to Dallas, where the same scenario played out.
Anti-Castro Cuban exiles, infuriated by the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion,
armed and financed by the CIA, acting in league with mobsters who
mourned the loss of their Havana casinos after Castros rise to power. Exile
groups such as Alpha 66 and Omega 7 have been linked to countless acts
of terrorism, ranging from individual murders to bombings of commercial
airliners in flight. In April 1963, a flier circulated among Cuban exiles in
Miami read, in part: Only through one development will you Cuban patriots ever live again in your homeland as freemen . . . if an inspired Act of
God should place in the White House within weeks a Texan known to be
a friend of all Latin Americans. Conspiracy theorists cite that pamphlet as
a reference to Texas native Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded JFK.
Fidel Castro, understandably concerned and angered by the hundreds of
reported attempts to assassinate him, sponsored by the CIA, the Mafia, and
Cuban exile groups. In this scenariodenied by Castro and the Cuban
government, flatly dismissed by House investigators in 1979Fidel retaliated with a hit on JFK. Alleged supporting evidence includes Lee Oswalds
outspoken (but contradictory) support for Castro, including fabrication of
his own one-man Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans.
Organized crime, a nexus for several conspiracy theories, supported by
claims that two Mafia leaders confessed to the crime late in life. Aside
from losing its Havana gambling revenues in 1959, the Mob had worked
hard to elect JFK in 1960, at the behest of his former-bootlegger father,
then found its leaders betrayed when the president-elect named brother
RFK to serve as attorney general (at their fathers insistence). Bobby
launched wholesale prosecution of high-ranking gangsters and corrupt
labor leaders, including Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa (who threatened the lives of both Kennedys on multiple occasions). The Mafia was
also entwined with CIA efforts to kill Fidel Castro, assisted in training of
Cuban exiles, and employed KKK members who despised the Kennedy

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regime as muscle in Southern states. Prime suspects in the JFK assassination are New Orleans mafioso Carlos Marcello and colleague Santo Trafficante, from Tampa, Florida. Jack Ruby worked for Marcello in Dallas,
and had visited Trafficante in Cuba, during 1959. Both mobsters denied
involvement in the crime when questioned by the House Select Committee on Assassinationsbut both allegedly admitted their key roles in the
murder to underworld associates, before their deaths in the 1980s.
It remains to be seen whether the final release of Warren Commission files
in 2017 will resolve the nagging questions that surround President Kennedys
death. One thing seems fairly certain: controversies will continue.

INFAMOUS WEAPONS
Famous weapons are prized by collectors. Dallas police returned Jack Rubys revolver to his family, sparking a 28-year legal contest that climaxed
with a court order awarding custody to brother Earl Ruby. He sold it for
$220,000, but police in Washington, D.C., seized the gun when its buyer
offered to show it to Speaker of the House Thomas Foley. He regained it
through litigation in November 1993. He subsequently had Earl Ruby
fire 100 shots from the .38 and offered to sell the spent casings for $2,500
apiece.
Police also returned Lee Oswalds rifle to his widow. It was later purchased by the National Archives, along with the revolver that allegedly
killed Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit on November 22, 1963.
The derringer used to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln may be
viewed in the basement museum of Fords Theatre, in Washington, D.C.
The bullet removed from Lincolns head during his autopsy was kept by
the U.S. War Department until 1940, then passed to the Department
of the Interior. Today, it resides at the National Museum of Health and
Medicine in Washington, D.C.
The pistol used to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 was presented to the priest who administered last rites to the archduke and his
wife. It vanished when he died in 1926, then reappeared in 2004, whereupon it was donated to the Vienna Museum of Military History.
The rifle allegedly used to kill Dr. Martin Luther King in April 1968
remains in storage at the Shelby County Court, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Jerry Ray, brother of convicted assassin James Earl Ray, brought multiple
lawsuits to reclaim the weapon, but all were dismissed on grounds that
the rifle was voluntarily abandoned near the murder scene.

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Further Reading
Adams, Don. From an Office Building with a High-Powered Rifle: One FBI Agents View of
the JFK Assassination. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2012.
Anson, Robert. Theyve Killed the President!: The Search for the Murderers of John F. Kennedy. New York: Bantam Books, 1976.
Benson, Michael. Whos Who in the JFK Assassination: An A to Z Encyclopedia. New York:
Citadel Press, 2003.
JFK Assassination Records. National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk.
Meagher, Sylvia. Accessories after the Fact. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
Posner, Gerald. Case Closed. New York: Random House, 1993.
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.
National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report.
Waldron, Lamar. Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination. Berkeley,
CA: Counterpoint Press, 2008.

KENNEDY, ROBERT FRANCIS (19251968)

At 12:10 A.M. on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) claimed victory over two major rivals in Californias Democratic presidential primary. He
still trailed Vice President Hubert Humphrey by 168 delegate votes, but hoped
to make up the difference and win nomination at the partys convention in Chicago, two months later. Kennedy addressed a crowd of cheering supporters at
the Ambassador Hotel, in Los Angeles, then prepared to exit with his entourage
through the hotels kitchen. There, he was accosted by gunman Sirhan Bishara
Sirhan, who emptied his .22-caliber pistol before he was subdued and disarmed. Three bullets struck Kennedy, and other bullets wounded five bystanders. All except the senator would live: despite extensive surgery, Kennedy died
26 hours later, at Good Samaritan Hospital. Sirhan was convicted of murder
in April 1969 and received a death sentence, commuted to life imprisonment
three years later, when Californias Supreme Court ruled capital punishment
cruel and unusual under the states constitution.
Robert Bobby Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1925, a younger brother of future president John Fitzgerald Kennedy
( JFK). World War II interrupted his studies at Harvard, but he graduated in
1948 and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1951. Following the family tradition of public service, he worked as an attorney for the
Justice Departments Internal Security Section in 19511952, then served as
a federal prosecutor in New York, before joining Senator Joseph McCarthys
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Pursuit of communists took a
backseat to management of his brothers political campaigns in the mid-1950s,
but Kennedy rejoined the committee to investigate labor racketeers under
new chairman John McClellan, developing an unexpected zeal for prosecuting mobsters. In 1961, at their domineering fathers insistence, JFK appointed

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Bobby as U.S. attorney general, with a mandate to hunt mob bosses nationwide. Following brother Johns assassination, longtime rival Lyndon Johnson
demoted Bobby, then fired him from the Justice Department, whereupon RFK
pursued and won a U.S. Senate seat from New York state in November 1964.
By March 1968, when Johnson declined to seek a second term, Bobby was a
leading voice against the war in Vietnam, and a front-runner for the looming
presidential race.
The second Kennedy assassination within five years appeared to be an
open-and-shut case. Sirhan had been literally caught red-handed, with the
smoking pistol in his fist, surrounded by eyewitnesses and television cameras.
Investigators found his diary, filled with wild, semi-coherent rants denouncing Kennedy over the candidates remarks supporting IsraelSirhan was a
Jordanian expatriateand endlessly repeating RFK Must Die! His attorneys
broached the topic of a guilty plea in February 1969, hoping for life imprisonment, but Sirhan then dismissed the lawyers, telling Judge Herbert Walker,
I will ask to be executed. At trial, a month later, Sirhan admitted shooting
Kennedy with 20 years of malice aforethought. Jurors took his word for it,
convicting him and recommending death.
And yet, there were significant discrepancies in what appeared, at first, to be
a flawless case.
To start, the pistol seized from Sirhan held eight cartridges, but witnesses
reported hearing 13 shots or more. Although that could easily be written off to
panic of the moment, there remained the awkward count of bullets logged by
FBI agents, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and Associated Press
(AP) photographers. Eight bullets struck the shootings victimsthree for Kennedy alonebut annotated crime scene photographs and notes clearly identify
at least five other bullet holes in door frames and ceiling panels. The frames
and panels were quickly removed and destroyed, allowing prosecutors to claim
that the bullets observed by detectives were nail heads, but contemporary
notes and statements contradict those claims. One AP photo showed two uniformed patrolmen pointing at a bullet hole, circled by a pencil mark, in the
door frame; the officers also told prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi that they saw a
bullet in the hole. FBI agent William Bailey saw another bullet in the double
doors central divider. Hotel waiter Martin Patrusky described watching policemen dig a bullet out of that divider, and carpenters who later removed the
door frame reported similar finds.
Another problem arose from Kennedys wounds. Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi reported that all of the shots that struck Kennedy came
from behind him, with the fatal head shot behind his right ear fired no farther
than one inch away from his skull. Meanwhile, unanimous eyewitness testimony and the TV tapes confirm that Sirhan stood in front of Kennedy, never
getting closer than three to four feet from his target. Even if Kennedy turned

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from the first shots, as prosecutors suggested, Sirhans gun was never close
enough to scorch his skin with powder burns at anything approaching skintouch range.
A third problem involved the murder weapon itself. On June 11, 1968,
LAPD criminalist Dewayne Wolfer test-fired Sirhans supposed revolver and reported a ballistic match to the bullets removed from Kennedys body. Wolfer recorded the weapons serial number as H18602but in fact, the serial number
of Sirhans revolver was H53725. Questioned about the strange discrepancy
later, Wolfer called it a simple clerical error. By then, however, both revolvers had been melted down for scrap metal, so Wolfers test results could never
be confirmed.
In 1973, world-renowned criminologist Dr. Herbert Leon MacDonell examined bullets from the Kennedy crime scene, reporting in a sworn affidavit that
the slug from Kennedys neck (Exhibit #47) could not have been fired from
the same gun as Exhibit #54, removed from kitchen survivor William Weisel.
The following year, at a public hearing, Dr. Lowell Bradford, state criminologist for the California Division of Criminal Investigation, agreed with MacDonells findings. In 1975, a court-appointed panel of seven ballistics experts
convened to review the evidence, and although newspapers ran their decision
under headlines reading RFK Second Gun Theory Ruled Out, the panels report actually said that the question of a second shooter was more open than
before. Subsequently, researcher Rose Lynn Mangan discovered that Exhibit
#47, which should have had the coded designation TN31 etched in its base,
actually bore the etching DWTN. From that, she speculated that at least one
crime scene bullet had been switched with a slug from some other shooting,
accidentally or by design.
Another suggestion of evidence suppressed involves reports of a young
woman clad in a polka-dot dress, allegedly seen running from the Ambassadors kitchen area on June 5, saying, We shot him! We shot him! Witness
Sandra Serrano stopped the woman and asked what she meant, to which the
still-unidentified female replied, We shot Senator Kennedy! Several other
witnesses reported seeing the same person, including an elderly couple who
met her in a parking lot behind the hotel and reported her suspicious behavior
to LAPD officer Paul Sheraga. He, in turn, issued an all-points bulletin (APB)
for the young woman, described as well-built, with dirty blond hair and a
crooked or funny nose, wearing a white dress with blue or black polka-dots.
Stranger still, reports later surfaced of the same woman, or her virtual twin, loitering around the Ambassador days before the assassination, with a man who
resembled Sirhan.
Despite Sheragas APB on the mystery woman, investigators quickly abandoned their search for her and devoted unusual energy toward persuading
eyewitnesses that she did not exist. Sandy Serrano bore the brunt of what she

K E N N E D Y, R O B E R T F R A N C I S

called aggressive bullying LAPD sergeant Hank Hernandez, memorialized in a

38-minute audio recording that includes the following exchange:
Hernandez: I think you owe it to Senator Kennedy, the late Senator Kennedy,
to come forth, to be a woman about this. If he, and you dont know
and I dont know whether hes a witness right now in this room
watching what were doing in here. Dont shame his death by keeping this thing up. I have compassion for you. I want to know why.
I want to know why you did what you did. This is a very serious
thing.
Serrano: I seen those people!
Hernandez: No, no, no, no, Sandy. Remember what I told you about that: you
cant say you saw something when you didnt see it.

Sergeant Hernandez was assigned to Special Unit Senator, an LAPD task

force formed specifically to investigate Kennedys murder. Commanding the
team was Lieutenant Manuel Pena, who had retired from the department in
November 1967, then returned to head the RFK investigation. Author and exFBI agent William Turner subsequently discovered that Pena had left LAPD
seven months before Kennedys slaying to attend a special training unit at
CIA headquarters in Virginia. FBI agent Robert LaJeunesse that Pena, prior
to his recent hiatus from LAPD, had also worked in South America with CIA
agent and torture instructor Daniel Mitrione. Turner obtained further confirmation from Penas brother, a high-school teacher, who casually mentioned to
television newsman Stan Bohrman how proud Manny was of his services for
the CIA over the years. Another sometime CIA employee assigned to Special
Unit Senator was Enrique Hank Hernandez, placed in charge of polygraphing witnesses.
If there was a second gunman in the hotel kitchen, who might it have been?
Several witnesses reported that a uniformed security guard stood behind Kennedy during the shooting, and that he drew his pistol from its holster. One
witness went further, stating that the guard fired his gun, striking the senator. Suspicion ultimately focused on Thane Eugene Cesar, a part-time private
guard who was present in the Ambassadors kitchen that night, photographed
at the scene, and whose clip-on necktie lies beside Kennedys out-flung hand in
a famous photo taken in the shootings aftermath. Cesar freely admitted drawing his gun in the kitchen, but insisted that it was a Rohm .38-caliber revolver,
and that he never pulled the trigger. Under questioning by LAPD, Cesar admitted owning a .22-caliber revolver, and showed it to Sergeant P. E. OSteen
on June 24, 1968. In a later interview, however, Cesar claimed he sold the
.22 before Kennedys murder. William Turner traced the guns buyer in 1972 and
retrieved the bill of salebearing Cesars signature and the date September 6,
1968. The revolver itself was found decades later, identified by its serial number

267

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K E N N E D Y, R O B E R T F R A N C I S

(Y13332), but was never test fired for comparison with the crime-scene bullets. Cesars odd, seemingly pointless lie fueled conspiracy theories, although
journalist Dan Moldeaan outspoken proponent of a Mafia conspiracy behind the JFK assassinationclaimed in 1995 that Cesar took a polygraph test
years after the fact and passed with flying colors. (Those tests are inadmissible in most U.S. courts, based on uncertain reliability.)
Controversy over details of the second Kennedy assassination continues to
the present day. In 2004, an audio recording of gunfire from the hotel kitchen,
taped by Polish freelance journalist Stanislaw Pruszynski, surfaced and was
analyzed by a team under audio technician Philip Van Praag, who reported
sounds of 13 shots fired in the space of five seconds. Although skeptics dismissed those findings, concurring views were logged by forensic audio specialists Wes Dooley and Paul Pegas of Audio Engineering Associates in Pasadena,
California, forensic audio and ballistics expert Eddy B. Brixen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and audio specialist Phil Spencer Whitehead of the Georgia
Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2008, assassination eyewitness
John Pilger reiterated his longstanding belief in a second kitchen gunman. Another witness to the slaying, Nina Rhodes-Hughes, told CNN in April 2012
that FBI agents had twisted her original statement, reporting the sound of
eight shots. I never said eight shots. I never, never said it, Rhodes-Hughes
insisted. There were more than eight shots. There were at least 12, maybe 14.
And I know there were because I heard the rhythm in my head.
Potential motives for a plot behind the RFK assassination mirror those suggested in his brothers case, with the added incentive of forestalling any reinvestigation of the Dallas murder. Intimates of RFK contend that he had promised,
if elected, to use his authority as president pursuing answers to the nagging
questions still unanswered from November 1963. Whoever set the stage in
Dallas, it is argued, had the most to fear from another Kennedy presidency. So,
too, would major mobsters, still recovering from persecution (as they saw it)
suffered in the years when Bobby Kennedy was the attorney general.
Aside from CIA involvement in the Los Angeles murder investigation, BBC
reporter Shane OSullivan produced a near-confession of sorts in November
2006. On the networks Newsnight program, he identified three men photographed at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968, as agents of the CIAs JMWAVE operation in Miami, Florida, headquarters of covert action against
Cuban leader Fidel Castro. OSullivan identified them as Chief of Operations
David Morales, Chief of Maritime Operations Gordon Campbell, and Chief of
Psychological Warfare Operations George Joannides. The program also aired
an interview with Robert Walton, attorney for the late David Morales, who
quoted his client as saying, I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch
[JFK] and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard.
Some students of the RFK assassination suggest that Sirhan may have been
used by the CIA as a brainwashed or hypnotized Manchurian candidate

K H O Y S K I I S G E N D E R O G L U , FATA L I K H A N

gunman. As evidence, they cite Sirhans consistent claims that he has no memory of the assassination or its immediate aftermath, bolstered with odd writings from his diary that include disjointed phrases like pay to the order of,
interspersed with ravings that Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before
5 June 68 and my determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more the [sic]
more of an unshakable obsession. A psychologist and hypnotist, Dr. Eduard
Simson-Kallas, spent 35 hours studying Sirhan in prison, during 1969, and
came away convinced that the convicts amnesia was legitimate.
Evidence also suggests at least a coincidental link between Sirhan and elements of organized crime. Prior to Kennedys murder, Sirhan worked for a time
at a race track owned by a mob associate, and one of his defense attorneys at
trial, the late Grant B. Cooper, also represented mafioso John Rosselli in a 1968
card-cheating scandal at the Los Angeles Friars Club. In that case, Cooper was
found in possession of stolen grand jury reports and fined $1,000. After his
conviction and death sentence, Sirhan complained that Cooper was crooked;
he had Mafia and CIA connections. More specifically, Sirhan alleged, Cooper
was picked to make sure I was convicted and sent to my death, and Cooper
complied because they were planning to kill him.
Kennedys death in 1968, for all intents and purposes, ensured victory for
presidential hopeful Richard Nixonbankrolled, as we know today, by illegal
campaign donations from the Teamsters Union, organized crime, and reclusive
billionaire casino magnate Howard Hughes. All that followed after, from escalation in Southeast Asia to the Watergate scandal and Nixons near-impeachment,
may arguably be seen as results of the kitchen ambush in Los Angeles.
Further Reading
Kaiser, Robert. R.F.K. Must Die!: Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination. New York: Overlook Press, 2008.
Melanson, Philip. The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy
and Cover-Up, 19681991. New York: S.P.I. Books, 1994.
Moldea, Dan. The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
OSullivan, Shane. Who Killed Bobby?: The Unsolved Murder of Robert F. Kennedy. New
York: Union Square Press, 2008.
Turner, William, and John Christian. The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: The Conspiracy and Coverup. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

KHOYSKI ISGENDER OGLU, FATALI KHAN

(18751920)
In 1920, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) launched Operation
Nemesis, named after the Greek goddess of retribution, as a campaign to eliminate Turkish officials deemed responsible for the Armenian Genocide begun
in 1918, which would claim an estimated 1.8 million lives by 1923. The first

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