Letter to the Editor

I find myself once again finding fault with “The Way I See It” column by Ellis Knox. In his column “The Left leaning press”, July 5, 2018, Mr. Knox made a false statement. He has learned well from right leaning news sources. Like in most of his columns, he produces alternate, untrue ‘facts’. He said ‘All the President’s assassinated[,] but one[,] were shot by lefties.” In fact there have been four Presidents assassinated, and eleven attempted assassinations or known plots. Historian James W. Clarke has suggested that even though most American assassinations were politically motivated, and carried out by rational persons, not all attacks were undertaken for political reasons. Several attackers were deemed insane or mentally unstable. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilks Booth, a Southern sympathizer. In today’s standards he probably would be considered a patriot by his conservative, Confederate brothers. James A. Garfield was killed by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled lawyer. During his trial he was assessed as mentally unbalanced. William McKinley was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and died on Sept. 14, 1901. John F. Kennedy was gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marxist and ex-Marine. So that means of four Presidents assassinated, one was killed by a conservative, Southern sympathizer, one was killed by a mentally unstable lawyer, one was killed by an anarchist, and one was killed by a Marxist (Communist).

Let’s carry this further. There have been eleven assassination attempts/plots on US Presidents. On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson was attending a funeral for Congressman Warren Davis. Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot him with two different derringers, each of which misfired. Lawrence was tried for the attempted assassination but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot at while about to give a speech in Milwaukee. During his speech, Roosevelt said, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” He survived the attack, and the bullet remained in his body until his death in 1919. The shooter, John F. Schrank, was found insane. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shot at five times while at a speaking engagement in Miami. Bricklayer Giuseppe Zangara fired the shots wildly, wounding four and killing Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Zangara was found guilty of murder and executed on March 20, 1933. He was a radical socialist. On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationals attempted to kill President Harry Truman to bring attention to the case for Puerto Rican independence. The President and his family were staying at the Blair House across from the White House and the two attempted assassins, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, tried to shoot their way into the house. Torresola killed one and wounded another policeman while Collazo wounded one policeman. Torresola died in the gunfight. Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death which Truman commuted to life in prison. An attempt was made on Richard Nixon by Samuel Byck, an unemployed former tire salesman, who tried to hijack a plane out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport to crash it into the White House. His plans were foiled. He shot the pilot and co-pilot and eventually shot himself. Political orientation was not indicated. Jerald Ford escaped two assassination attempts, both by women. First on September 5, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a gun at him but did not fire. She was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president and sentenced to life in prison. The second attempt on Ford’s life occurred on September 22, 1975 when Sara Jane Moore fired one shot that was deflected by a bystander. Moore was trying to prove herself to some radical friends with the assassination of the president. She was convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison. On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot in the lung by John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley hoped that by assassinating the president, he would earn enough notoriety to impress Jodie Foster. He also shot Press Secretary James Brady along with an officer and a security agent. He was arrested but found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to life in a mental institution.

President George H.W. Bush was not in office when sixteen terrorists plotted to kill him with a car bomb while he was at a speaking engagement at Kuwait University. Kuwaiti officials found the bomb and arrested the would-be assassins. President Bill Clinton escaped a bombing attempt in November 1996 while visiting the Philippines for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The Secret Service was able to divert his motorcade. It was later revealed that terrorist Osama bin Laden was behind the plot. Robert Pickett, an accountant from Evanston, Ind., shot at the White House when the president was inside. President George W. Bush was unharmed. A Secret Service officer shot Pickett, who was later sentenced to three years in prison. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was arrested and charged with the attempted assassination of President Barack Obama near the National Mall. Obama was not at the White House at the time. The Idaho man said he believed Obama was “the devil” and had to be “taken care of.” Ortega-Hernandez associated with the Occupy movement. Of these eleven attempted/known planned assassinations, three were by individuals deemed insane, one was a disgruntled worker, two were religious terrorists, one was a member of a murderous cult, one was a radical, one incident was committed by Puerto Rican patriots, one was an accountant from Indiana, one was a radical socialist, and one was a possible socialist from Idaho.

This shows that the facts stated by Mr. Knox are just figments of his imagination and should always be checked for accuracy just like any statements made by President Trump. It is hard to be fooled when you make up the ‘facts’. To fact-check this subject go to https://www.snopes.com/factcheck/democrat-shooters-list/ . I would also like to point out that when Mr. Knox says the left uses the media to spread false statements he is being a hypocrite because this is exactly what he uses this publication for on a regular basis.

Michael Laing

Camp County