“Well he would, wouldn’t he?” THE CRIME: On 8 July 1961 Minister of War, John Profumo, 46, encountered a naked, wet and embarrassed Christine Keeler, a 19-year-old good-time girl, at a cottage on the Cliveden estate of Lord Astor. Keeler’s friend, Stephen Ward, had a standing invitation to use the swimming pool. The next day… Read More »
“Let me alone! I know where this came from” THE CRIME: Richard Lawrence became the first known person to attempt to assassinate an American president. Born in England around 1800, he worked as a house painter and it is believed that the fumes from the chemicals sent him mad. By the early 1830s he was… Read More »
“Now we must shoot you” THE CRIME: In February 1917 Russia suffered its first revolution of the year. On 2 March Tsar Nicholas abdicated. The following month, on the night of 16 April, the revolutionary Lenin arrived at the Finland Station in Petrograd from Switzerland, aboard a sealed train. The popularity of the Bolsheviks increased… Read More »
“Long live sacred Germany” THE CRIME: After D-Day in 1944 the number of Germans plotting against Hitler increased. Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg — a colonel —was the only officer among them and the only one with regular access to Hitler so he agreed to carry out Hitler’s assassination, code-named Operation Valkyrie. It… Read More »
“I think that was an assassination attempt, don’t you?” THE CRIME: Conservative Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to become British prime minister when she defeated the incumbent Labour leader James Callaghan on 3 May 1979. In autumn of 1984 the Conservatives arrived in Brighton on the south coast of England for their annual conference.… Read More »
“They can never nail me for it. The weapon is gone” THE CRIME: Sven Olof Joachim Palme joined the Social Democratic Party in Sweden, becoming head of its youth section in 1955 when he was 28. Three years later he became an MP and in 1963 joined the cabinet for the first time. On 1… Read More »
“If they hit me in the head, I’m a goner anyway” THE CRIME: Benigno”Ninny” Simeon Aquino, Jr was the charismatic, leading opposition politician during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. On 8 May 1980 Aquino travelled to America for treatment for his heart ailment. In the spring of 1983 Aquino decided to return… Read More »
“Honey, I forgot to duck” THE CRIME: On 29 March 1981 a weird loner called John Hinckley arrived in Washington on a Greyhound bus and checked into room 312 of the Park Central Hotel on 18th and G streets. The next day, his 70th in office, Reagan arrived at the Washington Hilton hotel at 1.45pm… Read More »
“Now it’s on to Chicago and let’s win there” THE CRIME: When his brother was elected president in 1961, Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General. Kennedy remained in his job under President Johnson for ten months but resigned to become senator from New York. On 16 March 1968 Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency. Bobby… Read More »
“Mr President, you certainly can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you” THE CRIME: Undoubtedly the most written about assassination in history, John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s death is still hotly debated more than 45 years later. On 21 November 1963, facing a battle for re-election, a need to raise campaign funds and to mend fences with local… Read More »