Long history of attacks on Congress

Alleged plots by a country club bartender to poison Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and by an Ohio man to bomb the Capitol are just the latest in a long line of attacks or plots against members of Congress.

Since 1789, the Congressional Research Service reports that there have been 21 attacks on serving lawmakers. Before Boehner, the most recent was a 2011 shooting in Arizona that seriously wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed six other people.

Seven members have been assassinated while serving in Congress, including Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Ga.), who was aboard an airliner shot down by the Soviets in 1983, and most famously, Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y.), shot in a hotel kitchen while campaigning for president in 1968. 

Here are seven notable examples of attacks, including the plot against Boehner that was foiled by police.

 

Shot by the Ku Klux Klan

The first member of Congress to be assassinated was Rep. James Hinds (R-Ark.).

Hinds, a northerner who moved to Arkansas after the Civil War, was killed on a country road in that state in 1868 by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

After he was denied passage on a ferry because of his political views and support for civil rights, Hinds stopped in a village to ask for directions, according to the book Killing Congress by political scientists Nancy Marion and Willard Oliver.

He was riding his horse to a political event in rural Arkansas in support of Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential campaign.

George Clark, a local Democratic leader and member of the Ku Klux Klan, gave him directions.

After riding down the road, Hinds turned around to find Clark following him with a shotgun. Clark rode up, exchanged pleasantries with Hinds and then shot him.

 

Bombing by a bootlegger

There were so many bombings in Chicago in 1928 that the primary that year became known as the “Pineapple primary,” after the pineapple-like explosive devices.

The home of Sen. Charles Deneen (R-Ill.) was bombed by bootleggers — this was during prohibition — in one of the high-profile attacks that year. Deneen, known as a reformer, was not home at the time and no one was hurt.   

The Chicago Tribune recounts that the general election that year turned out to be peaceful, in contrast to the primary, after Al Capone agreed to the crime commissioner’s request to stop the violence until after the election. 

 

Shooting in the House Chamber

Four Puerto Rican nationalists, shouting “Viva Puerto Rico libre” rained bullets onto the House floor from the gallery in 1954.  

One member used his tie as a tourniquet to assist one of the wounded, while Rep. James Van Zandt (R-Pa.), a Navy veteran, ran upstairs and helped capture one of the shooters. 

Five members were shot, but all recovered from their wounds. There is still a bullet hole in the ceiling of the House chamber from the event.

 

Jonestown

Rep. Leo Ryan (D-Calif.) traveled with a group of staff and press to Jonestown, Guayana in 1978 to investigate a religious cult known as the People’s Temple.

Jackie Speier, then a staff member and now a member of Congress from California, recounts that “pandemonium” broke out during the visit when some members of the cult wanted to leave with Ryan and return to the United States. 

As the delegation was at the airstrip preparing to leave, along with some defectors from the cult, a disguised member opened fire, along with a separate group of cult members who had followed Ryan’s delegation.

Ryan was killed, along with three journalists and a defecting member of the People’s Temple. Speier was shot five times but recovered. 

Shortly thereafter, hundreds of members of the cult died in the Jonestown Massacre. Many willingly drank Flavor-Aid poisoned with cyanide, but there were also children who were fed it. 

 

 Knife-wielding woman in Kennedy’s office

 A woman burst into the office of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1979, wielding a knife and shouting incoherently. Kennedy was running for president at the time, and the woman was wrestled to the ground by a Secret Service agent. 

Kennedy was inside an inner office and said later that he was unaware of the disturbance, according to an Associated Press story. 

After the woman was removed, Kennedy proceeded across the hall to lead a Judiciary Committee hearing. 

 

Anthrax 

Along with a wider array of mailings that ended up killing five people, Sens. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) were sent anthrax in 2001.

Inside the envelope delivered to Daschle was a message: “You cannot stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is Great.” 

Congressional offices were evacuated, but no members or staff were infected. The mailings launched a massive FBI investigation that was only closed in 2010. The final conclusion was that the attacks were carried out by Bruce Ivins, an Army scientist who committed suicide in 2008. 

 

Boehner’s bartender

Authorities in Ohio say Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) former bartender tried to poison the GOP leader because he thought the Speaker was the devil.

Michael Hoyt, the bartender, had been fired from the Wetherington Country Club, and was indicted on charges that he tried to kill Boehner. Authorities arrested Hoyt after he called 911 and told them of his plot.

In the words of the criminal complaint: “Hoyt told the officer that he was Jesus Christ and he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola.”