9. The President Who Almost Beat His Would-Be-Assassin to Death
By the time he was elected president, Andrew Jackson’s dangerous reputation had been so well established, that only a crazy person would try to assault him. However, America never had a shortage of crazy people, and one of them became the first to attempt a presidential assassination when he went after Jackson. Richard Lawrence, a house painter, often muttered angrily to himself about Andrew Jackson. On January 30, 1835, witnesses saw him cackle to himself as he sat in his shop before he suddenly exclaimed “I’ll be damned if I don’t it!“, got up, and exited. “It” was to kill Jackson, which Lawrence tried to do when he ambushed the president outside the Capitol building.
Lawrence waited behind a pillar, and when Jackson passed by, took a shot at his back. The pistol misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol and tried another shot, only to get another misfire. By then, Jackson had realized what Lawrence was up to, and was understandably pissed off. Although he was 67-years-old at the time, pretty old by the day’s standards, an enraged Jackson fell upon the much younger Lawrence, and proceeded to bludgeon him with his cane. Bystanders probably saved the would-be assassin from getting pummeled to death when they intervened to restrain the president, and hustled Lawrence off to the safety of prison.