Prince Faisal bin Musaid
Faisal Bin Musaid was the nephew of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, ruler of Saudi Arabia beginning in 1964. During his reign as King al Saud also served as his own Prime Minister, making his authority over the Kingdom nearly absolute. Prince Faisal was raised in Saudi Arabia and sent to the United States for his college education, arriving at San Francisco State College in 1966, where he studied English. While he was attending school in California his brother was killed in Riyadh under somewhat murky circumstances involving a protest over a new television station which his Wahhabi beliefs found immoral.
Faisal remained in California, transferring to the University of California Berkeley. He then went to the University of Colorado in Boulder. According to his teachers he was not a particularly good student in terms of academics. In Colorado the Prince developed a taste for alcohol and drugs, and in 1969 he was arrested for selling LSD. He was placed on probation for one year, and after successfully completing the probationary period the charges against him were dropped. He then returned to California after completing his bachelor’s degree.
Faisal next spent time in Beirut and Europe, including a period in what was then Communist East Germany before returning to Saudi Arabia. Upon his return Saudi authorities seized his passport, effectively restricting him from leaving the country, for reasons not announced. He had several run ins with authorities during his travels, usually involving alcohol and drugs, and it is likely that the King ordered him to remain in Saudi Arabia to prevent his having access to either. He was employed as an instructor at Riyadh University.
On March 25, 1975, Prince Faisal joined a delegation of Kuwaiti who were meeting the King at the palace in Riyadh. When King Faisal approached his nephew he bowed his head to facilitate the Prince’s kissing him on the head in accordance with tradition. Prince Faisal drew a pistol and fired three shots, hitting the King in the head twice. The murder took place before television cameras. The King was taken to a hospital but died soon after the shooting. Prince Faisal was held for trial, before a sharia (religious) court on June 18.
Declared sane, the Prince was found guilty of assassinating the King and was sentenced to death by beheading, which was carried out in the public square later that same day. Announcements of the execution on television, radio, and loudspeakers ensured that a large crowd was on hand to witness the Prince’s execution. His motives for killing his uncle have never been disclosed, leading to much speculation in the west.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Mary, Queen of Scots”, by Antonia Fraser, 1993
“Et tu brute? The Murder of Caesar and Political Assassination”, by Greg Woolf, 2006
“The man who started the First World War”, by Tim Butcher, CNN, June 29, 2014
“Who was Jack Ruby”, by Seth Kantor, 1978
“New Scrutiny on John Wilkes Booth”, by Reuters, The New York Times, October 25, 1994
“Gaetano Bresci”, entry, libcom.org
“The Stalking of the President”, by Gilbert King, Smithsonian Magazine, January 17, 2012
“On this Day 1975: Saudi’s King Faisal assassinated”, BBC On This Day, March 25, 1975