Giuseppe Zangara

Giuseppe Zangara (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was an Italian-born American man who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's inauguration. During a night speech by Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago, and injured four bystanders.

Zangara, who pled guilty and refused to appeal, was executed in Florida's electric chair slightly over a month later.

Early life

Zangara was born on September 7, 1900, in Ferruzzano, Calabria, Italy, to farmers Salvatore and Rosina Zangara. Except for his entry and discharge dates, no records remained of Zangara's military service, Zangara later claimed that in 1923, he had made plans to assassinate King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III during a visit to Naples, buying a service revolver for this purpose, but that he relented after receiving a letter by his uncle Vincent Cafaro, who offered to let him move to his home in the United States.

On August 23, 1923, Zangara, accompanied by Cafaro, immigrated to the United States via the USS Martha Washington,

Assassination attempt

thumb|Zangara after his arrest in custody of Dade County Sheriff Dan Hardie (left) and Miami Police Officer Lestron G. "Red" Crews (right) holding the pistol used by Zangara

On February 15, 1933, Roosevelt was giving an impromptu speech at night from the back of an open car in the Bayfront Park area of Miami, Florida, where Zangara was working the occasional odd job and living off his savings. Zangara, armed with a .32-caliber US Revolver Company revolver he had bought for $8 () at a local pawn shop, joined the crowd of spectators, but as he was only tall, he was unable to see over other people and had to stand on a wobbly bench, where Lillian Cross was already standing for a better view. Zangara got on the bench to get a clear aim at his target from 25 feet away.

Lillian Cross saw Zangara's pistol, quickly transferred her purse from right to left hand, and then pushed up and twisted Zangara's shooting arm. As he fired shots, Cross reported that Zangara continually attempted to force her arm back down but she "wouldn't let go." Five people were hit: Mabel Gill (seriously wounded in the abdomen); Margaret Kruis of Newark, New Jersey, (minor wound in the hand and a scalp wound); New York detective/bodyguard William Sinnott (superficial head wound); Russell Caldwell of Miami (flesh wound on the forehead); and Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing on the running board of the car next to Roosevelt. Cross had powder burns on her right cheek. A Secret Service agent, Bob Clark, had a grazed hand, possibly caused by the bullet that struck Cermak. The intended target, Roosevelt, was unharmed.

Roosevelt cradled the mortally wounded Cermak in his arms as the car rushed to the hospital; after arriving there, Cermak spoke to Roosevelt and, before he died 19 days later, allegedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb: "I'm glad it was me, not you." The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said.

Aftermath

Zangara confessed in the Dade County Courthouse jail, stating: "I have the gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents first and next all capitalists." police did not believe that Zangara, a registered Republican, held any particular political beliefs, as he told them that he was "in favor of assassinating all presidents, kings, and prime ministers", voicing a desire to kill Benito Mussolini and Edward VIII. Psychiatrist Sandor Lorand, who examined Zangara, stated that his anti-authoritarian beliefs were not rooted in anarchist ideology, but rather Zangara's hatred for his father.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. As he was led out of the courtroom, Zangara told the judge: "Four times 20 is 80. Oh, judge, don't be stingy. Give me a hundred years."

Cermak died of peritonitis 19 days later, on March 6, 1933, two days after Roosevelt's inauguration. Zangara was promptly indicted for first-degree murder in Cermak's death. Because Zangara had intended to commit murder, the fact that his intended target may not have been the man he ultimately killed was not relevant as he would still be guilty of first-degree murder under the doctrine of transferred intent.

Zangara pleaded guilty to the additional murder charge and was sentenced to death by Circuit Court Judge Uly Thompson. Zangara said after hearing his sentence: "You give me electric chair. I no afraid of that chair! You one of capitalists. You is crook man too. Put me in electric chair. I no care!" Under Florida law, a convicted murderer could not share cell space with another prisoner before his execution, but another convicted murderer was already awaiting execution at Raiford. Zangara's sentence required prison officials to expand their waiting area for prisoners sentenced to death and the "death cell" became "Death Row".

Execution

After spending only 10 days on death row, Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933, in Old Sparky, the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Zangara became enraged when he learned no newsreel cameras would be filming his final moments. His final statement was "Viva l'Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere! ... Push the button! Go ahead, push the button!"

Conspiracy theory

While accounts focus on Cermak and the other victims being random casualties of an attempt to assassinate Roosevelt, a conspiracy theory emerged sometime before 1999, asserting that Zangara was a hired killer working for Frank Nitti, who was the head of the Chicago Outfit crime syndicate. John William Tuohy, author of numerous books on organized crime in Chicago, after reviewing Secret Service records, described in detail in a 2002 article his interpretation of how and why Cermak was the real target and the relationship of the shooting to the rampant gang violence in Chicago. The theory is enhanced by numerous researchers, citing their analysis of court testimony, asserting that Cermak had directed an assassination attempt on Nitti less than three months earlier.

The conspiracy theorists suggest that Zangara had been an expert marksman in the Italian Army 16 years earlier, who would presumably hit his target, though they sidestep any issues about Zangara's health since his time in the war, his short stature requiring him to stand on a jostled chair, his experience being with a rifle rather than with a pistol from a great distance, and his own statements regarding his target.

Raymond Moley, who interviewed Zangara, believed he was not part of any larger conspiracy, and that he had intended to kill Roosevelt.

In popular culture

In a 1960 two-part story line titled "The Unhired Assassin" on the TV series The Untouchables, actor Joe Mantell played the part of Giuseppe "Joe" Zangara. This episode, while depicting Zangara's story throughout, focuses mostly on Nitti's plan to kill Cermak with an initial (fictionalized) attempt in Chicago that is foiled by Eliot Ness and his agents at the end of part one. In part two, another attempt is made using a contract hitman, an ex-Army rifleman in Florida, which again fails thanks to Ness. Suddenly, Zangara's failed, and unrelated, obsession with killing Roosevelt unintentionally achieves Nitti's goal. This two-part story was later edited together as a feature-length movie retitled The Gun of Zangara. In the 1993 reboot of The Untouchables, the episode "Radical Solution" has actor David Engel portraying Zangara.

Zangara plays a significant role in the background provided for Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel The Man in the High Castle (as well as the subsequent Amazon original series). This alternate history novel, set after an Axis victory in World War II, bases the point of divergence on the premise that Zangara succeeded in assassinating President-elect Roosevelt on February 15, 1933, in Miami. Eric Norden's 1973 alternate history novel The Ultimate Solution also uses this point of divergence. A similar Zangara-is-successful premise is used in the GURPS Alternate Earths role-playing game's "Reich 5" alternate universe.

Max Allan Collins' 1983 novel True Detective, first in his Nathan Heller mystery series, features Zangara's attempted assassination of Roosevelt, positing it as an actual attempt on Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. The novel won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover from the Private Eye Writers of America.

In the original 1990 Off-Broadway production of Assassins by Stephen Sondheim, Zangara was played by Eddie Korbich. In later productions, he was played by Paul Harrhy in London's West End (1992 premiere) and Jeffrey Kuhn on Broadway (2004 premiere). Appearing in several songs from the musical, the Zangara character has a major solo in the number "How I Saved Roosevelt".

In HBO's 1998 biopic Winchell, moments after the assassination attempt, Walter Winchell leaps onto the running board of Miami's Police Chief's car, asking for an interview with Zangara, thereby getting at exclusive story for the New York Daily Mirror.

The 2011 fantasy noir novel Spellbound by Larry Correia features Zangara's attempted assassination of Roosevelt. Zangara is magically enhanced in a plot to inflame bigotry and curtail the civil rights of the magically gifted protagonists of the Grimnoir Society. Instead of using a small-caliber handgun, Zangara is made into a living cannon or bomb and kills nearly 200 onlookers, including Cermak, and cripples Roosevelt.

Charlaine Harris' fantasy Western Gunnie Rose Series is set in a world in which Zangara succeeded in assassinating Roosevelt, and the United States fractured into several different successor states.