On this day in history 1933, president-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt was giving an impromptu speech from the back of an open car in the Bayfront Park area of Miami, Florida, where Giuseppe Zangara, a mentally unstable bricklayer, was living, working the occasional odd job, and living off his savings. Zangara joined the crowd, armed with a .32-caliber pistol he had bought at a local pawn shop.
Being only five feet tall, he was unable to see over other people, and had to stand on a wobbly folding metal chair, peering over the hat of Lillian Cross to get a clear aim at his target. After the first shot, Cross and others grabbed his arm, and he fired four more shots wildly. He missed the president-elect, but five other people were hit, including Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing on the running board of the car next to Roosevelt. Anton Cermak died the next day. (This information re-edited from Wikipedia)
Here’s my question; FDR was in a wheelchair and Giuseppe STILL could NOT hit the guy? It’s not like FDR could jump out of the way of the bullets. Reportedly Cermak said, Better me than you Mr. President. Mine would have been, WTF, really, you couldn’t hit the lame, sitting duck.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)