Just 2 Seconds (58 page)

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Authors: Gavin de Becker,Thomas A. Taylor,Jeff Marquart

BOOK: Just 2 Seconds
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645.
Date: February 22, 1974
Target: President Richard Nixon
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Details: Samuel Byck shot his way onto a Delta jet at the Baltimore-Washington Airport. He intended to hijack the plane, force the pilots to take off, and then crash the plane into the White House to kill Nixon. He killed a security guard and the crew, before police shot and wounded him. He then killed himself. He was armed with a .22 revolver and a gasoline bomb in a briefcase.

646.
Date: September 5, 1975
Target: President Gerald Ford
Location: Sacramento, California
Details: Two men were arrested for theft in Santa Barbara. A grand jury on October 20 indicted both men in a plot to kill Ford. The plan was for one man to blow up a street sewer as the other shot Ford. Police found the written plan in a parked car at the airport.

647.
Date: July 4, 1976
Target: Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
Location: Glassboro, New Jersey
Details: A man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Rockefeller with a cyanide bullet. He also reportedly plotted to kill Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and U.N. Delegate Patrick Moynihan.

648.
Date: August 17, 1977
Target: King Juan Carlos I
Location: Majorca, Spain
Details: Police discovered and defused a bomb under an overpass to be used that day by the King and Premier Adolfo Suarez.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

649.
Date: April 10, 1978
Target: President Jimmy Carter
Location: Lebanon, Missouri
Details: A stolen car, driven by a man who planned to kill Carter, broke down on the highway. He pulled a gun on a tow truck driver and demanded to be towed to Washington. The hostage was traded for an FBI agent, who disarmed the man. He reportedly planned to shoot Carter or stab him with scissors. He was upset over the Panama Canal Treaty.

650.
Date: May 5, 1979
Target: President Jimmy Carter
Location: Los Angeles, California
Details: An alert and intuitive Secret Service agent observed a suspicious looking man about 50-feet from the President, who was giving a speech. The agent detected a gun in the man's back pocket that turned out to be a starter pistol. Raymond Lee Harvey was arrested and explained that he was supposed to fire into the air, at which point two men with rifles would shoot the President. Soon after, a man named Oswaldo Espinoza was also taken into custody. He admitted going with Harvey to the roof of the Alan Hotel the night before and firing the starter pistol "to test how loud it was." Espinoza substantiated Harvey's story that two other men with Hispanic names, armed with rifles, had stayed in the hotel. Police found three rounds of live ammunition in a room that had been registered to a man named Umberto Camacho, who had just checked out.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

651.
Date: 1979
Target: Shah of Iran's sister
Location: Beverly Hills, California
Details: Over 1,000 student demonstrators of Persian ancestry marched a mile above Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, to reach the home of the Shah's sister. There, they overturned a sheriff's squad car and set fire to the ivy surrounding the Shah's sister's home. About 25-30 police officers and State Department bodyguards held off the mob. Some of the Shah's relatives were reportedly evacuated down a slope behind the house.
(3-STARS: Protector action during the attack favorably influenced safety/survival.)

652.
Date: October 19, 1980
Target: President Ferdinand Marcos
Location: Manila, Philippines
Details: A bomb was planted in the Philippine International Convention Center, moments before Marcos was to address a group of American tour operators. The perpetrator is said to have carried a suitcase full of explosives into the crowded room without being stopped by security. The bomb exploded causing 20 injuries, but no deaths.

653.
Date: 1981
Target: Ron Reagan Jr. (President Reagan's son)
Location: New York, New York
Details: FALN members reportedly developed a plot to kidnap President Reagan's son and trade him for their imprisoned members. Secret Service agents learned of the reported plot through an imprisoned FALN member and increased protection for the President's son. According to the informant, the plan was to kidnap Reagan at the Joffery Ballet, where he was a member of the dance troupe. FBI agents placed the suspects under surveillance, raided the group's safe house, and arrested the FALN members.

654.
Date: December 19, 1981
Target: Mayor Jane Byrne
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Details: Bodyguards for Byrne became suspicious of a man who was acting strangely and repeatedly asking about Byrne's arrival at a housing project she was scheduled to visit. They searched the man's briefcase and found a .32 revolver, 18 extra rounds, and newspaper clippings about Sadat's assassination.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

655.
Date: July 31, 1983
(Newton-John)
Target: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Singer Olivia Newton-John
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Michael Perry began stalking actress Olivia Newton-John in 1980. He told his psychiatrist Newton-John was evil and should be killed. At each of several trips to her home in California, he was detected and turned away by security personnel. He also spoke of killing O'Connor. On July 19, he murdered his parents, his nephew, and two cousins, shooting them all in the eyes. At the murder scene, he left a list of people he intended to kill, including Newton-John and O'Connor. He was at large for two weeks, eventually coming to police attention when arrested in an unrelated matter. At that time, he was staying in a hotel room a few blocks from the Supreme Court. He is currently on death row in Louisiana.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

656.
Date: July 20, 1983
Target: Prince Charles and Princess Diana
Location: London, England
Details: An IRA member was supposed to plant explosives in a bathroom next to the royal box at a Dominion Theater concert. The plot reportedly failed due to tight security.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

657.
Date: October 22, 1983
Target: President Ronald Reagan
Location: Augusta, Georgia
Details: An armed man raided a country club and seized five hostages, including two presidential assistants. Reagan and Secretary of State George Schultz were playing golf on the course at the time. The Secret Service undertook an emergency evacuation of the president by helicopter. Later the hostages were released without harm.
(1-STARS: Management of the incident immediately after the attack favorably influenced safety/survival.)

658.
Date: July 19, 1984
Target: Presidential Candidate (Senator) Gary Hart
Location: San Francisco, California
Details: Secret Service agents wrestled a man armed with a .22 revolver to the ground when he tried to enter the St. Francis Hotel, the same hotel where Sara Jane Moore fired shots at President Ford in 1975.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

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