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Assassination

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Image of Lincoln being shot by Booth while sitting in a theater booth.
Depiction of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln shown in the presidential booth of Ford's Theatre. From left to right: assassin John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris, and Henry Rathbone.

Assassination is murder by a sudden or secret attack, often for political reasons, particularly when the victim is a prominent political figure.[1] A person who commits an assassination is called an assassin.[2]

Etymology

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Masyaf Castle in Syria, an important Nizari Ismaili fortress.[3]

The word assassin was used in medieval Europe for the Nizari Ismailis. European forms of the word were based on variants of the Arabic ḥašiši (plural ḥašišiya), pejorative terms used for the Nizaris by their opponents. Crusaders and other European observers encountered these terms in the Levant and adopted them as names for the group.[4]

Medieval European writers later associated the Nizari fedāʾīs with hashish. Modern scholarship has found no evidence that hashish or another intoxicant was used to motivate them to carry out killings; contemporary Muslim sources that used the related pejorative terms did not accuse the Nizaris of using the drug.[5] By the 14th century, assassin had become a common noun in European languages meaning a murderer.[5]

Use in history

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Ancient to medieval times

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In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Ramesses III was killed during the harem conspiracy. A 2012 forensic study of his mummy found a deep wound across the throat and concluded that he was murdered during the conspiracy.[6]

In ancient India, the Arthashastra, written about 300 BC, discussed covert warfare, including the use of secret agents to kill enemy leaders.[7] In China, Jing Ke attempted to assassinate King Zheng of Qin in 227 BC; the episode is recorded in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian.[8]

Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC, by conspirators including Brutus and Cassius.[9]

During the medieval Alamut period (1090–1256), Nizari Ismaili fedāʾīs were sent on missions against prominent enemies of their community, including assassination missions.[10]

Modern history

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18th-century depiction of the assassination of William the Silent by Balthasar Gérard on July 10, 1584

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, European jurists began to argue against assassination in war and foreign policy. Balthazar Ayala, Alberico Gentili, and Hugo Grotius were among those who addressed the practice, contributing to the development of a norm against international assassination.[11]

In the United States, four presidents were assassinated between 1865 and 1963: Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.[12]

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo. The assassination set off a chain of events that culminated in World War I by August 1914.[13] During World War II, Operation Anthropoid was planned in the United Kingdom and carried out by members of the Czechoslovak forces against Reinhard Heydrich, who died following the attack in 1942.[14]

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948.[15] Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City on February 21, 1965,[16] and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.[17]

Late 20th century to present

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Indira Gandhi's blood-stained sari and belongings at the time of her assassination

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by two Sikh members of her security detail.[18] Her son, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by a bomb at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, India, on May 21, 1991.[19]

On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when their aircraft was shot down near Kigali. Their deaths were followed by the systematic mass killings that became the Rwandan genocide.[20] Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 by Yigal Amir, an Israeli who opposed the Oslo Accords.[21]

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005. The United Nations subsequently established an international commission to investigate the assassination.[22]

In 2022, a man attempted to assassinate Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner by pulling the trigger of a loaded pistol near her head, but the weapon did not fire. In 2025, Fernando Sabag Montiel was convicted of attempted aggravated homicide and sentenced to ten years in prison; Brenda Uliarte was sentenced to eight years as an accessory.[23]

On September 10, 2025, American conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.[24]

Political and military uses

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Military and foreign policy

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Assassination has been used as an instrument of foreign policy, although a norm against international assassination developed over time. Political scientist Ward Thomas traced the development of that norm and argued that great powers historically prohibited political assassination in part because the prohibition reinforced their position relative to state and non-state actors.[25] Warner R. Schilling and Jonathan L. Schilling found that decisions to use assassination for foreign-policy purposes are susceptible to bias, particularly when assessing the likely successor to the targeted person.[26]

During the Vietnam War, the Phoenix/Phung Hoang program coordinated American and South Vietnamese operations against the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong. U.S. government records state that Provincial Reconnaissance Units acting on intelligence produced through the program conducted operations to capture members of that infrastructure and also killed people during those operations.[27] The program's characterization as an assassination program has been disputed; a later CIA historical study noted that critics described it that way while stating that assassination was not its declared purpose.[28]

Insurgent groups

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Assassination has also been used by non-state armed groups. During the Irish War of Independence, the Squad, associated with Michael Collins, targeted British intelligence personnel. On Bloody Sunday in November 1920, members of the IRA killed British intelligence officers and others in Dublin.[29]

During the Troubles, the Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out the Brighton hotel bombing in October 1984, targeting British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and members of her cabinet during the Conservative Party Conference. Thatcher survived, while five people were killed.[30]

In Spain, the Basque separatist organization ETA killed Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco in a bombing in Madrid on December 20, 1973, and claimed responsibility for the attack.[31]

In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped Aldo Moro, a former prime minister and president of the Christian Democratic Party, on March 16, 1978. Moro was killed on May 9 after 55 days in captivity.[32]

Behavioral research

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A 1999 study by Robert A. Fein and Bryan Vossekuil examined 83 people known to have attacked or approached to attack prominent public officials or public figures in the United States between 1949 and 1996. The authors found no single profile of an attacker. They concluded that attacks and near-lethal approaches generally developed through a process of thinking and action. Motives identified in the study included notoriety or fame, attention to a perceived problem, revenge, a desire to be killed, political change, financial gain, and attempts to establish a special relationship with the target.[33]

A later review of research on attacks against public figures reported that 44 percent of the subjects in the Fein and Vossekuil study had a history of serious depression or despair. Among 73 subjects whose mental state at the time of the principal incident was analyzed, 25 percent of attackers and 60 percent of near-lethal approachers were delusional. The review noted that serious mental disorders did not prevent subjects from carefully planning attacks and cautioned against relying on mental illness alone to explain such behavior.[34]

Methods

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Carcano Model 38 owned by Lee Harvey Oswald
Derringer used by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln

Assassinations and assassination attempts have involved firearms, explosives, bladed weapons, and poisons. A 2004 review of research on attacks against public figures in the United States reported that, among 74 incidents examined in an earlier study by Robert Fein and Bryan Vossekuil, handguns were used in 51 percent, rifles or shotguns in 30 percent, and knives in 15 percent.[35] The 1914 plot against Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria involved both methods: Nedeljko Čabrinović carried out an unsuccessful bomb attack before Gavrilo Princip later shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.[36]

Poison has also been used or considered in assassination plots. In its 1975 investigation of United States assassination plots against foreign leaders, the Church Committee found that U.S. government officials had initiated and participated in plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. Plans considered by the CIA included poison cigars and poison pills.[37]

Bulgarian dissident and BBC journalist Georgi Markov was attacked in London in 1978 and later died. A postmortem examination found a small pellet in his thigh that had contained a poison believed to be ricin. The BBC later reported that the KGB had developed an umbrella capable of injecting ricin pellets.[38] In 2006, former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko was deliberately poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210. The public inquiry into his death found that he ingested the fatal dose while drinking tea and concluded that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun had administered the poison.[39]

Targeted killing

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Predator unmanned combat aerial vehicle; a type of aircraft used in targeted-killing operations

There is no single agreed definition of targeted killing in international law. Legal scholar Nils Melzer defines it as the intentional, premeditated, and deliberate use of lethal force against an individually selected person who is not in the physical custody of those carrying out the operation.[40] The legality of a targeted killing depends on the circumstances and the legal framework that applies. Melzer distinguishes between operations governed by law-enforcement standards and those governed by the law of armed conflict.[40]

The relationship between targeted killing and assassination is disputed. Gary D. Solis distinguishes targeted killing from assassination for political purposes and argues that some targeted killings may be lawful under the law of armed conflict.[41] Legal scholar Mary Ellen O'Connell has argued that the definition of targeted killing also describes assassination and that the term "targeted killing" came into use to convey a perception of legality.[42]

A prominent case involved Anwar al-Awlaki, a United States citizen who was killed in Yemen in September 2011. The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel had prepared legal analysis addressing the lawfulness of targeting al-Awlaki, and the memorandum later became the subject of litigation seeking its disclosure.[43]

Countermeasures

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Secret Service agents responding during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981

Protective measures against assassination include close physical protection, advance security planning, threat assessment, and the collection and analysis of intelligence about potential attackers. In the United States, systematic presidential protection developed after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. The United States Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for protecting the president in 1902.[44]

The Secret Service has instructed agents responding to an immediate threat to shield the person being protected and move that person away from danger as quickly as possible.[45] Preventive measures also include protective-intelligence investigations and assessments of individuals who may pose a threat.[46] The Secret Service also uses counter-surveillance and intelligence analysis to identify possible threats before or during protective operations.[47]

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ↑ "Assassination Definition & Meaning". Merriam-Webster.
  2. ↑ "Assassin Definition & Meaning". Merriam-Webster.
  3. ↑ Willey, Peter (December 15, 2007). "Isma'ilism xv. Nezari Isma'ili Monuments". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. XIV. pp. 205–208.
  4. ↑ Daftary, Farhad (December 15, 2007). "Isma'ilism i. Isma'ili Studies". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. XIV. pp. 172–176.
  5. 1 2 Daftary, Farhad (December 15, 1999). "Fedāʾī". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IX. pp. 468–470.
  6. ↑ Hawass, Zahi; Ismail, Somaia; Selim, Ashraf (December 17, 2012). "Revisiting the harem conspiracy and death of Ramesses III: anthropological, forensic, radiological, and genetic study". BMJ. 345: e8268. doi:10.1136/bmj.e8268.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  7. ↑ Boesche, Roger (January 2003). "Kautilya's Arthasastra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India". The Journal of Military History. 67 (1): 9–37. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006.
  8. ↑ Hill, Emily M. "The Contingency of China's Imperial Unity: Assassins Attack the First King of Qin" (PDF). Association for Asian Studies.
  9. ↑ Strauss, Barry (2015). The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-6879-7.
  10. ↑ Daftary, Farhad (December 15, 1999). "Fedāʾī". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IX. pp. 468–470. doi:10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_9728.
  11. ↑ Thomas, Ward (Summer 2000). "Norms and Security: The Case of International Assassination". International Security. 25 (1): 105–133. doi:10.1162/016228800560408. JSTOR 2626775.
  12. ↑ "Appendix 7: A Brief History of Presidential Protection". National Archives and Records Administration. August 15, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Today in History - June 28". Library of Congress.
  14. ↑ "Assassination - Operation Anthropoid 1941-1942". Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. June 7, 2006.
  15. ↑ Hardiman, David (2003). Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas. Columbia University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-231-13114-8.
  16. ↑ "Record of the Week: Malcolm X Protests at DOJ". National Archives and Records Administration. February 12, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Tennessee: The Lorraine Motel". National Park Service.
  18. ↑ "Indira Gandhi assassinated". United Press International. October 31, 1984.
  19. ↑ Coll, Steve (May 22, 1991). "Bomb kills India's ex-premier Gandhi". The Washington Post.
  20. ↑ "Outreach Programme on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the United Nations". United Nations.
  21. ↑ "The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process". Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
  22. ↑ "Letter dated 20 October 2005 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council". United Nations. October 20, 2005.
  23. ↑ "Argentine court convicts attackers of opposition leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for murder attempt". Reuters. October 8, 2025.
  24. ↑ Schoenbaum, Hannah; Richer, Alanna Durkin; Sherman, Mark; Tucker, Eric. "Conservative activist Charlie Kirk assassinated at Utah university". Associated Press.
  25. ↑ Thomas, Ward (Summer 2000). "Norms and Security: The Case of International Assassination". International Security. 25 (1): 105–133. doi:10.1162/016228800560408. JSTOR 2626775.
  26. ↑ Schilling, Warner R.; Schilling, Jonathan L. (Fall 2016). "Decision Making in Using Assassinations in International Relations". Political Science Quarterly. 131 (3): 503–539. doi:10.1002/polq.12487.
  27. ↑ "Memorandum From the Director of Central Intelligence (Helms) to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)". Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
  28. ↑ Finlayson, Andrew R. "The Tay Ninh Provincial Reconnaissance Unit and Its Role in the Phoenix Program, 1969–70". Center for the Study of Intelligence.
  29. ↑ Connell, Joseph E. A. Jr. "100 Years Ago: Bloody Sunday". History Ireland.
  30. ↑ "Matters of State". RTÉ. April 7, 2014.
  31. ↑ "Memorandum From the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon". Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. December 21, 1973.
  32. ↑ "Aldo Moro". Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy.
  33. ↑ Fein, Robert A.; Vossekuil, Bryan (March 1999). "Assassination in the United States: An Operational Study of Recent Assassins, Attackers, and Near-Lethal Approachers". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 44 (2): 321–333. doi:10.1520/JFS14457J. PMID 10097356.
  34. ↑ Meloy, J. Reid (2011). "Approaching and Attacking Public Figures: A Contemporary Analysis of Communications and Behavior". Threatening Communications and Behavior: Perspectives on the Pursuit of Public Figures. National Academies Press. doi:10.17226/13091.
  35. ↑ Meloy, J. Reid; James, David V.; Farnham, Frank R.; Mullen, Paul E.; Pathe, Michele; Darnley, Brian; Preston, Louisa (2004). "A Research Review of Public Figure Threats, Approaches, Attacks, and Assassinations in the United States". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 49 (5): 1086–1093. doi:10.1520/JFS2004102. PMID 15461116.
  36. ↑ "Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Introduction". Library of Congress.
  37. ↑ United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (1975). Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (PDF) (Report). U.S. Government Printing Office. S. Rep. No. 94-465.
  38. ↑ "BBC World Service Media Pack" (PDF). BBC. p. 11.
  39. ↑ Owen, Robert (January 2016). The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into the Death of Alexander Litvinenko (PDF) (Report). Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 184–192.
  40. 1 2 Melzer, Nils (2008). Targeted Killing in International Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953316-9.
  41. ↑ Solis, Gary D. (2007). "Targeted Killing and the Law of Armed Conflict". Naval War College Review. 60 (2): 127–146.
  42. ↑ O'Connell, Mary Ellen (2022). "Targeted Killing". Elgar Encyclopedia of Human Rights. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  43. ↑ "New York Times Co. v. DOJ, No. 13-422, 13-445". United States Department of Justice. April 21, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Appendix 7: A Brief History of Presidential Protection". National Archives and Records Administration.
  45. ↑ "Chapter 8: The Protection of the President". National Archives and Records Administration.
  46. ↑ Annual Report FY2022 (PDF) (Report). United States Secret Service. 2022. pp. 16–17.
  47. ↑ Annual Report FY2022 (PDF) (Report). United States Secret Service. 2022. pp. 16–17.

Further reading

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  • Ayton, Mel (2017). Plotting to Kill the President: Assassination Attempts from Washington to Hoover. Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-61234-856-8.
  • Clarke, James W. (2018). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-52317-2.
  • Porter, Lindsay (2010). Assassination: A History of Political Murder. Overlook Press. ISBN 978-1-59020-348-4.
  • Trenta, Luca (2024). The President's Kill List: Assassination and US Foreign Policy since 1945. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-3995-1949-6.
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