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American Assassins: An Alternative Typology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

James W. Clarke
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Extract

Probably no group of political actors is more misunderstood than American assassins. My purpose in this preliminary report is to identify the sources of this misunderstanding and to suggest an alternative interpretation based on a reconsideration of the evidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 81 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

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38 A complete book length manuscript which documents these observations in considerable detail is now in preparation. See Clarke, James W., American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics (forthcoming).Google Scholar

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40 See, for example, United States v. Richard Lawrence (1835)Google Scholar, trial transcript, Niles Register, vol. 48, 1836Google Scholar; United States v. Charles J. Guiteau, Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, Crim. Case No. 14056 (1881), National Archives; and MacDonald, Arthur, ‘The Would-Be Assassin of Theodore Roosevelt’, Medical Times, XLII (1914), 97–101.Google Scholar

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44 See, for example, State of Maryland v. Arthur Herman Bremer, Crim. Tr. Nos. 12376–12379, Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Maryland (July–August 1972); Bremer, Arthur H.. An Assassins Diary (New York: Harper and Row, 1972)Google Scholar; and Clarke, James W., ‘Emotional Deprivation and Political Deviance: Some Observations on Governor Wallace's Would-be Assassin, Arthur H. Bremer’, paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Boston, Mass. (06 1980).Google Scholar

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47 Durkheim, Emile, Suicide (New York: Free Press, 1951).Google Scholar

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49 An unrepentant Oscar Collazo was released from prison on 10 September 1979 announcing his intention to continue the fight for Puerto Rican independence.

50 See, for example, People v. Leon F. Czolgosz (1901)Google Scholar, Courthouse Archives, Erie County, Buffalo, N.Y.; MacDonald, Carlos F., ‘The Trial, Execution, Autopsy, and Mental Status of Leon F. Czolgosz, Alias Fred Nieman, The Assassin of President McKinley’, American Journal of Insanity, LVIII (1902), 369–87Google Scholar; Channing, Walter, M.D., ‘The Mental State of Czolgosz, The Assassin of President McKinley’, American Journal of Insanity, LIX (1902), 233–78Google Scholar; Briggs, , The Manner of Man that KillsGoogle Scholar; Goodwyn, Lawrence, Democratic Promise: The Populist Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976)Google Scholar; and Novak, Michael, The Guns of Lattimer (New York: Basic Books, 1978).Google Scholar

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