12. The Crank Behind the First Assassination Attempt on a US President
By the time he made it to the White House, Andrew Jackson’s reputation as a very dangerous man to rile had been well established. So well established, in fact, that only a nutjob would try to assault him. However, America never had a shortage of nutjobs, and one of them became the first to attempt a presidential assassination by taking a shot at Jackson.
Richard Lawrence, a house painter, was in the habit of angrily muttering to himself about Andrew Jackson. On January 30th, 1835, he was seen sitting in his shop, cackling to himself, before suddenly getting up and exiting, with the exclamation: “I’ll be damned if I don’t do it!” “It” was killing Jackson, which Lawrence tried to do by ambushing the president outside the Capitol building.