Episode 216 - 101 Things to Do in Jail

They had the motive, the weapon, and the perfect vantage point—until they didn’t. This week, we’re looking at the history-altering moments that didn't happen. We explore the thin line between a tragedy and a "near miss," diving into the strange stories of high-stakes targets who escaped by the skin of their teeth. Whether it was a stroke of sheer luck, a mechanical fail, or a target who was just too stubborn to go down, these are the plots that crashed and burned at the finish line.

Research links below!

Famous American Trials - "Biographic Sketch of Lewis Powell"
Smithsonian - "Lewis Thornton Powell"
Lincoln Conspirators - "Lewis Powell's Life in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida"
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination - "Lewis Powell"
EBSCO - "Lewis Powell"
All That's Interesting - "Lewis Powell, The Lincoln Assassination Co-Conspirator Who Stabbed The Secretary Of State"

The New York Times - "Bremer Diary Details Effort to Kill Nixon"
The New York Times - "To Save America's Lost Children"
The New York Times - "Now, Arthur Bremer Is Known"
The New York Times - "Article Says Nixon Schemed to Tie For to Wallace Attack"
"An Assassin's Diary" by Arthur Bremer
Justia - "Bremer v. State"
1819 News - "Arthur Bremer's sentence ends May 15 on anniversary of shooting former Gov. George Wallace"
WSFA 12 News - "George C. Wallace attempted assassin free after 53 years" (YouTube)
TIME - "The Nation: The Making of a Lonely Misfit"

Speaker 1: Yeah, their arrivals unspeakable. I'm not doing they did want.

Speaker 2: It's the living.

Speaker 1: You gotta worry about.

Speaker 2: Something. If I couldn't keep them there with me whole,

at least I felt that I could keep their skeletons.

Hi and Welcome to the Bad Taste Cry Podcast. My

name is Rachel. I'm VICKI. How are you guys. We're

back again. I feel like I did that way weird

you did? You know what? I was just going with it.

I thought it was the vibe you were bringing to

the functions. I guess it is there now and like

two seconds, they've taken us, but I don't enjoy it.

Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Well we are here again. We've trudged

through the snow.

Speaker 2: God, it's like a blizzard out there. I'm so tired

of looking up from my office window and seeing it's

snowing outside. Horrible. My five year old keeps asking, is

winter all done? And I'll say that's how I feel

to We'll cry together where it's like winter forever. Yeah, yeah,

until God, winter never Christmas.

Speaker 3: Oh the Jesus Allegory lion, yes, which you know what

I gotta tell you? The lion, the witch and The

Wardrobe is so back in the day when I was

a god fearing Christian. As a child, my church had

a library and there is a VHS of an animated version.

Speaker 2: I love it. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I've seen it many times.

Speaker 3: That was my all time favorite. And they I think

I have since gotten rid of the library. I don't

believe it's there anymore.

Speaker 2: But they sold. They were selling a bunch of stuff

at like a church garage sale, and my mom bought

it for me, and I own the original h copy,

like in the plastic like frame pace that is, it's

like on display in my media show. I can't I

can't watch it. I don't have a VHS player. Who

does It's like the original copy that I watched as

a child library Probably I don't know. I don't smell

my it smelled my VHS states. I'm sorry, so sorry.

I'm so sorry. Well, we have a great show for

you today. It is your first time listening, a special

hello to you. We are going to head over to

the newsroom. Let's go there watching today. We had fifty

this week. Our news comes from the BBC where they

are talking about a diamond studded faberge egg locket that

was stolen by a man in New Zealand at Partridge

Jewelers a pear tree. Thirty two year old man. I

don't know that it names him in the article, but

he's stole this egg. Okay.

Speaker 3: It was valued at thirty three and eighty five New Zealand,

New Zealand dollars. Is about it's just over nineteen thousand

dollars American.

Speaker 2: Geez okay necklace the thing okay, he stole it, uh

huh by swallowing it. Get the fuck out of here, sir.

Police have recovered it. It was recovered it, okay. So

it's that was recovered in a quote natural manner and

now he sh it out. Medical intervention was not required.

Speaker 1: Ha.

Speaker 3: They just came up some xlax and had him sit

on an evidence but he was arrested. The necklace itself

has sixty white diamonds and fifteen blue sapphires and opens

to reveal an eighteen carrot gold miniature octopus.

Speaker 2: What that was not the animal that I was expecting.

That's kind of kun though. So it is named the

octopussy egg Stopped because it was inspired by the nineteen

eighty three.

Speaker 3: James Bond movie Octopussy, which centers on an elaborate Faberge

egg heist.

Speaker 2: That's right, yes, so he had to steal it by

swallowing it. They have gotten it back. It's he has.

Speaker 3: He is being monitored like he has undergone medical care

and is being Yes, they are going to gross return

the egg to Faberge the company.

Speaker 2: Okay, hopefully they'll rinse it first.

Speaker 3: This is also not the first time this guy has

been charged with theft. He was also charged with allegedly

stealing an iPad from the same.

Speaker 2: Jewelry store, Oh my God.

Speaker 3: And taking cat litter and flea control pop products worth

one hundred dollars New Zealand from a private Address'd liked dollars.

The iPad's stealing it's expensive, well New Zealand dollars.

Speaker 2: That's probably I don't know, between fifty to eighty dollars

American anyway. So moral of the story is what is

the moral of the story?

Speaker 3: I mean, don't swallow something you're stealing because you're gonna

have to poop it out later.

Speaker 2: For cop good Yeah, that's a good moral. But also

maybe not even for cups. Maybe just in general, you'll

have to poop it out later.

Speaker 1: You know.

Speaker 2: That's a good metaphor for life. Don't swallow your problems

because shit will come out. Oh true, it's so true.

We're gonna head over to switch it up. Change go

to Netflix Kill Netflix Kill. Where we are talking about

untold shooting guards. So I've talked previously that Netflix was

doing this series of untold, uh, sort of documentary shorts

and a series of train Wreck documentary shorts. Oh like

poop Cruise Untold, Yes, God, yes, Untold was. So the

Untold series tends to focus on something sports related. Oh, yeah,

that's right. We did, like Brett Farb and stuff.

Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is another one of those. It's untold

shooting guards. It looks at the two thousand and nine

incident where Washington Wizards basketball Washington Wizards You're welcome, teammates

Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittington drew firearms during a heated

locker room argument, and sort of the things that happen afterwards.

Speaker 2: When you're supposed to keep the guns in the locker. Yes, stupid, Yeah,

it's it's crazy. They talk crazy. They talk a lot

about the history of these two guys how they sort

of both came to the team. There's always this team

dynamic that happens and people take when you're on a

in like a team sport, there are people who tend

to take on certain roles like within that team, you

know what I'm saying, there's always sort of the leader type.

There's somebody who's maybe the more mem sage person like

the wise, you know, teaching sort of personality like, there's that,

So they talk about the team dynamics. I'm the personality

higher and.

Speaker 3: This this is definitely one of those that it had

to do with sort of a gambling dispute and this

sort of mature, cheesemo like challenging me. You know, I

told you I was going to bring a gun with

me and here it fucking is type of thing. Everything

that happened to their careers afterwards because they were both

like suspended I'm pretty sure they were was suspended from

the NBA while the investigation was taking place, and then

there were like charges file against some of them and

it became a very like yeah, who, like oh, split

split second decision sort of ruined everything for a lot

of people.

Speaker 2: That's sad.

Speaker 3: Yeah, uh, this is definitely one of those crossovers between sports,

which I know is not necessarily your favorite topic, not necessarily,

but this one is interesting because of this dispute. I

definitely would recommend it. The Untold series has done a

really really good job, and again for you, specifically for

somebody who like does not really you're not really a

sports person, you really enjoy it.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like accessible, it's very accessible, and it yes,

it is about sports, but oftentimes these unto old documentaries

are like I don't have to be like no, they're

more about the controversy or like a good thing that

happened than about like because a lot of that stuff

just going about my head. So that's that's good to know.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely check them out. They've done a

really really good job.

Speaker 2: I will.

Speaker 3: This is that part of the show where we say

content may not be appropriate for all listeners. May what

are we talking about today, Rachel?

Speaker 2: We are talking about assassinations or attempted assassinations. Okay, yeah, yes,

so little of both, little of bullets. So assassinations. Assassination

is a long word that has the word ass in

it twice. Thank you, So there's that. Thank you for

that You're welcome. The real reason, that's it, That's why

I picked it. The real reason I picked this topic, shockingly,

has very little to do with our current political climate,

which you'd kind of think it would, and everything to

do with the political climate from over two centuries ago

at the highlight of America's first Civil War.

Speaker 3: I honestly spoiler alert, I spoiler I did give some

thought to covering the one of the attempted assassins on

Donald Trump. Yeah, and I was like, I do not

want to There's a big part of me that was like,

I do not even want to touch that with a

ten foot pole.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So we will not be talking about any of

that today. No, we will not, fully, I like, beautiful

but on another podcast, Yeah, not this one, not today.

I can't handle it. I agree. I agree. That's why

I was like, no, it's not about today. Let's be real,

Like there's a lot peach from right, like, there sure

is not an uncommon thing. Unfortunately, sure not. It's sure not. Yea,

I wish it were more common. Okay, Rachel, you might

ask civil war assassinations, are you covering the death of

Abraham Lincoln? And to that, I say, kind of, yeah,

but I'm actually deciding to zero in on a different

murder plot, one that was thankfully not successful as obviously

the Lincoln one was. Yes, while he's on the penny, Yes,

if it had been our country today might look completely different,

for better or worse. Right, Yeah, I agree, I agree.

Today's assassination is not the famed and mustachioed villain John Wilkspooth,

but instead his friend and co conspirator Lewis Powell. Okay,

I've never even heard of that guy. You might say

I hadn't either. Picture. It was a cold December night

and I had settled in smacking my weed pen and

reading about you. I thought you were talking about a

time in the past, and I was like, God, this

same was just it sounds like this is happening right now.

It was earlier in the week, it was past. It's

happening here. It's December and it's cold. Why was I

reading about US history? I'd k honestly. The Lincoln assassination,

I feel like, is talked about so much in like

school and pop culture, like it's a big when you're

going there. In history, it's like a bit, it's like

a section, And let's be real.

Speaker 3: It's even bigger here because Abraham Lincoln was from Illinois,

right link.

Speaker 2: I made so many Lincoln crafts in school, and so

he's kind of a big deal in the state of Illinois.

Kind of our guy. He's kind of the guy the guy. Yeah. Yeah. So,

like I figured I knew all there was to know

about it, So I was kind of looking into it

and I saw this name, and I'm like, who is that?

And it turns out there was a lot more going

into that assassination than like a disgruntled actor. Okay, power

in the president. Okay, So just in case, let's talk

about what is kind of the surface level story of

the assassination of Lincoln, kind of the elementary school version

of what happened, and then we'll go into what really happened. Okay.

The year was eighteen sixty five and the play Our

American Cousin was performing at the Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.

President Abraham Lincoln, fresh off the heels of the Union's victory,

which of course led to the end of the Civil War,

was probably feeling quite victorious. He even wore his fancy hat.

He sure did. He was always wearing that fucking hat.

That hat wore him. He was tall as fuck. He well,

he had marphan syndrome. That's what they think. They also,

this is a fun fact, doesn't come up anywhere else.

Abraham Lincoln was not a white guy. So he was

actually So there is a little known like own ethnic

group in America called Melungeon. So it's like, you know,

like Cajun is like a mix of Haitian and Native

American and African American and Caribbean American. It's all and

it's its own ethnic group. So in the Appalachian Mountains,

Malungion is like a lot of black settlers who had

like freed enslavement and had like wound up in that area.

The white people who were there and the Native American

tribes that all kind of all of that, like I

don't want to say interbreeding, but like intermarrying and everything

created a new ethnic group called Malungion. And Abraham Lincoln

was like one hundred percent. Oh interesting. So there's some

pictures where I look back and I'm like, he kind

of looks like like an African American man like in

some and I'm like he kind of was, huh, And

that like kind of explains like his features. Yeah, isn't

that interesting? Interesting? So now that's something you know. He's

also dead. I didn't know that either. I thought he

was still spoiler alert the guy on the penny not

when not alive anymore?

Speaker 1: Is he?

Speaker 2: Okay? No, dead as hell. So he's just on the

heels of this victory at war, so he's probably feeling

pretty good. And the press was following him around everywhere.

So a lot of things that you have to do

as presidents. You have to go to shit, so you

gotta make it a period. You've got to make a

public appearance. He almost didn't go because he so earlier

in the day he was hanging out with like they

were all hanging out with their friends, and his wife,

Mary Todd Lincoln, who's an interesting character in and of herself,

had a bad headache and was like, I don't want

to go to this play. And he almost didn't go,

but then he was like, Okay, if you want to

go home, you can, but I said I would go,

so I have to go, and it would kind of

look bad if you weren't there, Like sure, And this

is one of those stories where as a girl, I'm

always like, let her go home, but like he was

nice to his wife. Yeah, that you have to say that, abuney,

he was nice to his wife. Side note as a

headache girly myself, I shudder to imagine living in a

time without my beloved a leave liquid gells. These sponsor

us headache remedies at the time, in the eighteen sixties,

because I was like, what opioid would she do or not?

That's so. One of the most popular things was to

soak a sponge in vinegar for some reason and opium,

apply it topically to your forehead, so that probably it

sounds like you would get uncomfortably high and smell like

a salad and then still have a fucking headache. Why

would that work? Also blood letting? Yeah, of course it leeches. No,

I don't want leeches. I get a headache thinking about

a leech upon my body. So no, thank you. So

poor Mary had to suck it up and go to

the fucking place, sure for fox sake. During the show,

right after intermission, famous actor John Wilkes Booth approached Abes

box teeny tiny little murder weapon in his waistcoat, all

secret like his security. ABE security that being men such

as John Parker, who is the head of his security,

and Charles Forbes, who was like his. Uh I read it,

I wrote little bitch, so like his like guy. Okay,

they fucked off and went drinking. This is true Abe security.

All of the people who were supposed to be like,

you know, watching him were down the street fucking drinking.

Love that. Bet they didn't make that mistake a second time. Oh,

I bet they didn't. I bet they didn't. Well too late, Yeah,

exactly exactly, I know. Yeah, they literally ditched. Isn't that crazy?

So there was only one outside of the box, so

Booth and his mustache were able to access Abes box

without much pushback. Although given the fact that at the

time Booth was such, he was very, very famous. He

was a household name at that time, which I think

a lot of people don't know. I saw a comedian

say like, imagine Owen Wilson like shooting Obama, and it

was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. I mean, oh,

I guess that would be a big deal because I

just thought he was like a stage actor. But he

was a very famous stage actor, hugely famous, okay, so

he there would be almost no way that they would

have been like no, you can't see the president. They

would have been like, absolutely, come on in, right, because

it was really common like it was. The theater was

a lot less. I'm a theater kid, so I'm like,

why are you guys talking during the show. It was

a lot less. It was more of a social affair

than like, and I mean that's why he was there,

to be like, look, how wonderful all right? Yea. So

to have John Williks Booth there would have been a

great publicity sure, And it was kind of so and

like he was so famous that even though the two

had never like met, Abe had gone to see his

plays before and had remarked like that dude's a fucking

good actor and had recommended him for shit, yeah, like

had recommended him for other plays. Was like, oh is

John Willke's gonna be in at that? Dude is fucking

good in his mustache. Have you seen that mustache? Yeah?

So Booth slipped into Lincoln's box. There was the guy outside.

He ended up giving him a note. It wasn't anything

like creepy. It was just kind of like, I'm here

to see mister Lincoln. He was like, go on in.

So like Booth had actually like gone in before and

like drilled a whole is so that he could like

peek in because he assumed that there would be like

mad security. But he actually was just kind of able

to waltz right in Wow. We didn't have to do

like none of the planning that. Yeah, he just waltz

right in Wow. So he knew the play, being a

theater kid, being a nerd, he knew the play. So

he waited until he knew there would be a big

laugh and it said I just find this like kind

of eerie that Lincoln thought the joke was super funny

and was like laughing his ass off, so he waited

for the cover of sound, got up, pulled out his

teeny tiny little derringer, and shot Abraham Lincoln in the head.

He then shouted a word that was probably freedom, but

they're not sure. He has diaries and stuff, but he

also lied a lot and made shit up, so who

knows what he's saying. Probably it was like that was

loud dick, And then he jumped onto the stage. A

hanging caught his foot and he broke his leg like

an idiot, and then landed on the stage shouted more

stuff that was like glory to the South. Yeah, glory

to the Confederacy. And then people tried to stop him.

He ran out the door and would be caught and

killed himself on April the twenty six, which was about

two years, two weeks after the murder. Okay, so he

runs out into the night and then try right, he

ends up getting gang busted at a farm. Yeah, so

that's the story we know, right, But it might surprise

you to learn that this gunpowder plot was originally it

was actually a backup plan. The original plan, forged by

Booth and a couple of his besties slash cronies, was

a lot more complex, and if it had worked out,

it would have been fucked up. That does not surprise me,

only because we only ever know half of well that's

half of history, is what they put in textbooks, right,

like right, So that doesn't surprise me. I'm interested to know,

but it does not surprise surprised me, just because I

was like, I had just never heard of it, It

had never occurred, such a simple thing.

Speaker 3: They're also not necessarily focusing on the dying, the people

dying part of history to like, oh, traders, you know what.

Speaker 2: That's true. Yeah, that's true. That's very true, unless you're us,

and then we have like were seeking it out. Tell

me more about it. So originally they had there was

like this whole gang of Booth and like some of

his friends were kind of disgruntled Confederate hoes. Okay, so

that was the whole reason, which obviously we know Booth

was a Confederate, he had served in the Confederate Army.

He was pro slavery, he was pro succession, he was

pro like woo woo the South, and that's why he

killed Lincoln. But instead of it just being I hate

that guy, I want to kill him, they wanted to

reform the government. Okay, so this would have been not

the first attempted but another attempted insurrection. That's what they

wanted to do. So their plan was to kill or

or at least dispose or indispose key figures of government

and hopefully destabilize the government. And then their plan kind

of just to take it over, well not even to

take it over, but just they really hoped that their

fellow Confederates would take it over. So they were like,

here's your chance. Okay, you got it. I see you

got it. So my guy who I found really interesting.

Lewis Powell. His job was to kill the current Secretary

of State, which was a man named William H. Seward. Okay,

so that was part of their thing, is they were

going to destabilize the president, the Secretary of State, and

a couple other people, and then they figured then it

would all be the United States of the South, and

then it all just kind of fall into place. Hoorayh

you know, a couple of brainiacs over here. So Lewis

Powell went to the Secretary of State, William H. Stewart,

William H. Seward. I keep wanting to say, Steward, it's

like pissing off my mouth. You can do it, I

believe in myself. So he Seward was at home his

home on Lafayette Square. He was kind of having a

rough time of the poor Secretary of State. He had

been thrown from his carriage. He'd had like a little

carriage accident, which I feel like had to have happened

like every Oh, I'm sure then, I'm sure. Horses just

like running around. I hate horses so much.

Speaker 3: And you got a couple more steps to get out

of than you do like a car. Yeah, And that's

just asking more steps equals more.

Speaker 2: I'm very accident. Someone who frequently falls down the stairs,

you are correct, who you've never fallen in your life,

don't even go there. So he was kind of like bedrotting,

being like, ouch, ouch, my poor body, I've been thrown

from my carriage. So powellkind of snuck over to Seward's

house and instead of so, I kind of laughed when

I saw the picture of the Abraham Lincoln murder weapon.

If you're not familiar with guns, a darringer is a tiny,

tiny little gun, okay, and like fit in the palm

of your hand. It's like it looks like when you

watch old Western movies and the girl has a gun,

and it's like, look at my tiny little ladylike pistol

that I slipped in my lacy garden. I imagine it

like the gun from Men in Black. Yes, that's what

I had, a tiny gun. Like really this Lewis Powell

was like, I'm actually not with that, and he carried

an eighteen fifty eight Whitney revolver which was fucking huge

and a bowie knife. Okay, So he was like, actually,

I'm not doing that. So Seward's butler answered the door,

and this is all happening on the same date and

during the same time as Booth is entering the Ford's theater. Oh,

this is what I found really interesting about it is

this is all like coordinated, correct, supposed to happen at

the same time kind of thing. That was what they wanted.

They wanted it to be this big destabilizing event for

the country. So then they're like, wow, well none of

that shit worked out. I guess we should just be

the South. Yeah. Well that God, that takes so much

like planning and coordinating. That's what was surprised. That's crazy,

super surprising. So this is the casualness of the eighteen hundreds.

All of this is gonna sound ridiculous. You're just gonna

have to bear with me, Okay, So Lewis Powell told

uh so, this was the Secretary of State's like lead,

but his like maitre d or whatever. So he was like, hello,

welcome to the home of the Secretary of State. What

can I do be for? And he's like, oh, I

was just passing by the doctor in town and he

gave me some medicine to give to him, so I

have to give it. And he was like that's great,

give me the medicine. He goes, not so fast, bitch.

The doctor told me specifically that I have to show

him how to apply it because it's like real technical

you haveably wouldn't understand. Okay. Major D is probably like

what do you mean? I just imagine being French. He

was not French like I imagine because he's a Major D.

That seems like very like French girl, I love.

Speaker 4: It, Like, oh, do me what I know about the medicine.

So he was like, I mean, okay, yeah, so I'll

go ahead upstairs. I'm not even gonna come with you. Bye.

Speaker 2: People were so so dumb, and right after a war

people were liter isn't killing them? You guys so used

to being like come on it, like whatever, yes, let's

just kill me. I don't make enough job with the

money at this job. Yeah, probably, So he's uh, he's

like going up the stairs, la la la, and then uh.

One of Seward's sons, who was the Assistant Secretary of State,

Fredrick W. Seward, was like, uh, who are you And

he's like, oh, let me let me just reiterate. I

have some medicine for your dad, and I'd love to

give it to him real hard. I was like, that's

a weird way to say that. Why would you say

it like that? So he's like, no, uh, maybe you

can come back like tomorrow because he's sleeping. Okay, get

out of my house. Yeah. And then Seward's daughter, who

was like what is all of this racket? Sure she

was she probably had a headache and was putting a

vinegar opium sponge to her dome and was like, did

you guys shut the fuck up. I'm trying to enjoy

my opium. I'm literally I'm lost in the sauce. So

uh Fanny uh funny name emerged from his room and said,

oh no, he he just woke up. Glad you're here.

He just woke up, no problem. Oh you're so how good? Vidia? Yeah?

Oh hey? And so now because he the major d

had been like, yeah, he's up at the third floor,

but hadn't told him like which room, yeah, because this

was a huge house, right. But so now since she

came out of the room, he was like, that's where

he is. Okay, good information for me to know. Sure,

give him this medicine. I want him to feel better.

Of course, so he was like okay, for sure, well,

it just kind of sounds like a bad time. I

think I'll go aha. He like turned back around, tried

to uh. He pointed the gun between Frederick's eyes the sun. Yeah,

fired and it missed fired. Oh didn't go off. So

he was like, hey, this is why you pack a

big gun. Couldn't do this shit with the derringer, turns

it around, clubs him on the head with it. The

maitre d is like, oh sockery, blue murder and starts

raising the alarm and sees the son get hit in

the head. He runs out of the house and is

like everybody pale. Sure. Fanny, who had gone back into

her father's room, la, la la, Hey do you want

to be what is all that commotion? She opened the

door and he shoves her and runs to the bed,

pulls out his knife, remember the bowie knife, and starts

stabbing seward around the neck and head. Oh shit, so

this is an immediately super violent attack, right. However, like

many people saved by modern medicine, he had hurt himself

so bad that he was wearing like a big like

neck bandage. Oh yeah, splint yeah, it was right where

his jugular was and prevented the knife good severing his

because that done Actually yeah, oh they dude. I I

didn't go into it because it's really not relevant, but

I read all of the details about like what they

did with Abraham Lincoln when he was shot and these

hoes no, not a thing, no different. It was pretty

sad because like, he was shot in the head, in

the back of the head. They got him and got

whatever they got. But it was just like they kept

describing it like, well, he's quiet and he's breathing, so

he you know, he's probably fine. He's probably fine. We're

just gonna let him lay down, yeah, And I was

like no, no, And then they kept the doctor kept

going in the room and he would take out like

a big blood clot from his head and then be like, well,

that relieved the pressure, so he's probably doing really good. Yeah.

I was like, he's not. Yeah, medicine's gone. It's come

a long way. Crazy. Oh my god, has it though? Yeah?

It has. So when he recovered, he did end up

having a seward. Lincoln never recovered. When the Secretary of

State recovered, he had scars and shit. He ended up

being okay because he had all of those bandages. Yeah,

Lewis Powell, who I haven't really mentioned much about him,

was nineteen at the time. They were all like nineteen twenty.

They were all super young, yeah, and was in like

the prime of his life, super physical. And this is

like an older man who's fallen off of his carriage, right,

and he couldn't some good job. It's crazy, right, So

people started, people started running in. His other son, the

one who hadn't been clubbed, and a soldier who was

like on his detail. Which why he wasn't answering the

door is an excellent question that we don't have the

answer to. So they were all they all came and

were kind of involved in a big scuffle with Powell.

They received stab wounds but ended up being okay. It

was all sort of superficial. Powell sensing that this is

kind of going south, no pun intended. He probably would

have loved it if it would have gone south. He's

like one thing about me, I love the South, love

it there, great place. He was running out, runs into

a guy from the State Department, ends up stabbing him

in the back. Oh my god, he's for some reason

during the fight screaming I'm mad, I'm mad, which I

don't know if he meant as like I'm crazy, I

could have been angry. He was like going nuts, I

don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, and then he uh dipped.

So he now on this same time, same date of

April fourteenth. So that's Lewis Powell attempting to kill a

secretary of State and fucking up. So he's run off

into the darkness after stabbing many people with his big knife.

So there's another guy, George Adzerot. So his job was

to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. Was staying at like

an inn called the Kirkwood House in Washington. So his

plan pretty straightforward was, Hey, go to the hotel where

he's at and shoot him until he is dead. He

was like, I can handle that. I got it. Yeah,

I got it, no problem. So he actually is kind

of clever about it. He ends up renting the room

that's like right above Johnson's I feel like it would

be pretty easy to figure out where he was staying. Sure, Washington,

DC is mad small, and it was probably even mad

smaller in the day, so I'm sure he just like

asked the maid like, where's he staying? Okay, I want

the room right above that, why don't ask me shit?

Shut up? So then so on April fourteenth, at the

same time the rest of all this stuff is happening,

he's like, Okay, I've got my gun, I've got my knife,

I'm ready, ready to do this. Now what I'm gonna

do is I'm gonna He's like, I got this master plan.

I'm gonna go to the hotel bar because Andrew Johnson's

been staying here, so I want to know like when

he's going to be back, because he's not here right now.

So I just want to figure that out. So he's like, Okay, bartender,

over drinks, let's talk about it. And the bartender was like, sure,

for sure, over many drinks, got many drinks, oh got

and many drinks. Oh oh so too many drinks. What

ended up happening was, as many of us have done,

he got too drunk, went to another hotel and went

to bed. Yeah, I've done that. Literally did that. He

literally did not. And what's even funnier is earlier that day,

John Willis Spooth, who seemed to be like the man

with the plan, he was kind of like there wasn't

like an official leader of their little like killability racist

people gang. But I think if it would have been

it would have been him, because he was like the

famous sure you know, sure he had even gone and

like left a note for Andrew Johnson was like hey, like,

don't want to disturb you. Are you at home? What

time are you think going to be at home? So

he was like this is hey, Nope. But so I

almost wonder if he was a little worried, like is

this guy gonna be drunk and forget what we're supposed

to be doing. Let me make sure that he's here.

But it just didn't pan out. Okay. So then so

back to booth. He's just killed the president, he's fleeing

the Ford's Theater. Sure he crosses. There's a big bridge

in Washington, DC that takes you, like to Maryland. Okay,

so he went there, and again this is just people

not paying attention. They had rules about like the bridges

you weren't supposed to cross after nine pm. But he

was such like a slippery biscuit that he was like,

I'm supposed to be everywhere because I'm very handsome and famous,

and he was like, my mistake, Please have fun in Maryland.

Here's your complimentary tope, back then Harold the drunk guy,

I was able to also make it across, and they

eventually rendezvoud. They then met because again Booth had a

broken leg.

Speaker 3: Yeah, oh right, yes, that's right. So was he on

foot or was he on horse?

Speaker 2: He was on foot. They were all on foot.

Speaker 3: Oh god, I don't want to say that poor guy

because he killed the president. But there's I feel a

little bad for him running across the broken leg.

Speaker 2: So there's a little bit. So remember how I said

earlier that Booth has diaries, but he makes shit up.

He said that he had tried to like get on

a horse afterwards, like steal a horse, and he had

like kind of fallen and broken his leg. But people

who were at the theater were like, no, it kind

of looked like he hurt himself when he fell down,

Like he was like, but he didn't want to admit

to that. He didn't want to admit to okay. And

there was also stuff It was actually of funny where

like people have differing thing like accounts of what he

yelled after he killed Lincoln, because once he got on

the stage, he also was like victory for the Confederate.

He said some kind of like semper fi bullshit, but

like he didn't say the whole phrase. Sure ste people

were like, it sounded like he only said the beginning

of that Latin phrase, which doesn't really make any sense.

Diary who was like, I said the whole thing and

everybody thought it was so good. Sure and I and

everyone clapped right exactly exactly. So they regardless, he had

a broken leg, so they like a femur, broken femur.

So they went to the famed in a bad way

doctor Samuel A. Mud, which if you ever hear like

his name is Mud, it's because of that guy, because

she helped the guy who killed the president. So he

splintered his leg and was like, all right, have have fun,

bye bye bye, and made a pair of crutches for him.

Oh nice, which I just think I think that's so funny.

So they were like, okay, we gotta go. So they're fleeing.

They were kind of going from like Confederate sympathizer to

Confederate sympathizer. So they went to this one area and

then they were in the Zekaia Swamp for five days

until they could finally cross the Potamic River. And everywhere

they went they weren't necessarily tell them, telling them like, hey,

we just killed a president, but they were like, we

don't like that guy, and we do like the Confederacy.

So that's how they were able to find sure people

to help. Right, this was obviously ramping up, as in

this like about a week time they're escaping. This is

ramping up to be this enormous manhunt. As you can imagine,

this is a huge, big fucking deal. So there's already

not only federal troops but mobs of civilians who know

that he did it, who are looking for him. Yeah,

so they are being chased to fuck. There is a

reward out. So at the time it was fifty thousand

US dollars, Now it would have been about one million,

twenty seven thousand and sixty five dollars. Yeah, sound for Booth,

sounds about right, and then twenty five each for the

other guys. Yeah. So what ended up happening to Booth

and Harold was they were on April twenty six. They

were at a farm of a Confederate sympathizer and then

soldiers came figured out where he was at, surrounded the barn,

and they were like, we are gonna like big set

you on fire, like, we're not even gonna let you

come out. Wow, We're just gonna fucking bur so, Like,

what's the plan, real barn burner, Booth, mister theater kid went,

I will not be taken alive. And they were like,

uh huh, so now the barn's on fire, okay, because

we still set it on fire, and Booth was like, no, no,

I'm not gonna do that. So he grabbed his gun.

He's probably a little fucking dumb darreinger and was like, Okay,

I'm gonna go in like a firefight. He was like

so excited. But little did he know that police Sergeant

Boston Corbett had been going around the back seats, snuck

up on him and shot him right in the back

of the head. Wow, it was said. Now again I

don't know, but it was said that he purposefully aimed

for the same spot where Lincoln was shot. Certainly makes

for a good story, yeah, exactly. Whenever it's like a

little too narrative, I'm like, yeah, I mean, certainly makes

for a good story. What it's fine, I'll believe that too.

Booth told the soldier who they also like, you shot

him in the head. This is the eighteen hundreds. They're like,

let's give him some water. I'm like, it's gonna do what.

It doesn't really matter if he's hydrated, right, magic water

it yeah, magic magic. He said, tell my mother, I

die for my country, and then as all of them

are like trying to kind of tend to him, he

called everyone useless and then he died. Oh great, okay,

that's a fun way to go out. So initially the

sergeant who shot him did get arrested because they were like,

bring him in alive, and he was like, no, I'm

going to shoot this guy. But he was released and,

as you can imagine, was kind of considered a folk hero, right. Yeah.

Of course from then on. Of course, so Lewis Powell,

unlike the other two, was kind of like lost in

the weeds. He was not able to find his way

to the waypoint until April seventeenth, like three days after

so he was kind of like hiding. So he ended

up being arrested on April seventeenth at a co conspirator's house.

This was also a big deal because one of the

co conspirators was what a woman, Oh my god, Mary

Surat was like a big She owned like a bar

and in and would like let them like come and

like be like you should kill the president and was

like I'll help you boys. Yeah, I love you know,

being praysed. Yes, what I was gonna say exactly. So

many many people were arrested in connection to this. Sure,

it's like a big, big long list, like to the

person who like apparently was the owner of the horse

that booth stole and said he broke his leg on it. Yeah,

like they really wanted to just get everybody in jail, sure,

and will mostly dead. I have a little picture. This

is the execution of Lewis Powell, Mary Sarat, David Harold,

and George Azarat. Okay, actually see, I know it's little tiny,

all of these hanging people. Okay, isn't that crazy? Like

that's the actual scaffold and it's very old time. It

was a seven week trial and over three hundred and

sixty six people testified, because I mean you can imagine

all the people at the theater. That's a lot of

people to testify. Almost four hundred people. Oh my god,

what a dress. They really wanted to make sure. They

wanted to make sure they got that guy, and like

this is fast because the exit the assassination was April fourteenth.

By June thirtieth, all defendants were found guilty. Wow, so

everybody was found guilty of something. As I just showed you.

Mary Lewis Powell, David Harold, and George Azerad were sentenced

to death by hanging everybody. Most of the main people,

including the bartender or the doctor I'm sorry. Samuel Mudd

whose name is mud Forever, were sentenced to life in prison.

So even just for splinting his leg, he got life

in prison. I'm not saying it's wrong, but like that's crazy.

That's crazy, which is pretty crazy. So they were also

the four main conspirators who I just mentioned were all

hanged in the old Arsenal Penitentiary on July seventh. To

her fame, Mary Serat was the first woman officially executed

by the United States government. Oh wow, which is pretty crazy.

I mean, go women, I guess for women and wrongs.

I just found it so interesting that, like I feel

like in school, it's just like this guy was an

actor and he liked a slavery y, so he killed

the president the end. I had no idea, it was

like plot, right, this whole thing Now, was it a smart,

well thought out subplot. No, yeah, no, government's kind of complicated,

and you can't just assume that someone will step up

and be like, you know what, I love slavery, let's

have more of that. Yeah, what's the point? So it

was dumb, but it was very interesting to know that

there was this whole plot behind the scenes that like

we never really knew about the royalty some of you

probably know, right, Yeah, no, no, but that was the

unexpectedly long winded plot to re Confederate America that did

not fucking wank interesting the end.

Speaker 3: So you proposed this, and I thought, I do. For me,

like the time period in history that I am most

interested in is sort of the sixties to seventies.

Speaker 2: That for a lot of reasons, that's cool. I'm very

interested Nashbury in the I hate Ashbury.

Speaker 3: In the counterculture, but I'm also really interested in how

things were working out politically at that time.

Speaker 2: And that was a wild time. It was crazy. My

hyperfixations as well, I tip my had to. So I thought,

why don't we travel back to a time when assassinations

were a dime a dozen the seventies?

Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so we are going to talk about a

man named Arthur Bremer. Oh and his many plans. Oh,

my gosh, many many plans.

Speaker 2: This guy.

Speaker 3: Was an interesting fellow, Okay. So Bremer is a Milwaukee,

Wisconsin native, and was born in August nineteen fifty. He

was one of four sons and a half sister in

his family. But their home life was like less than

I don't oh, I mean they talk about them being

in this sort of working class south Side. Honestly, it

sounded to me like it was a sort of nineteen

fifties standard working class home where likely the parents were

arguing the kids got hit like yep, that kind of

shit absentee father, Yeah, emotionally. In an interview with The

New York Times, and I'll say a lot of my

research comes from our old articles from the New York Times,

Cool Bremmer's brother Roger said of the family dynamic quote,

he hated my ma. He never liked her. However, he

said that he thought his brother had respected their father,

who was known, as are many of his neighbors, as

a man who takes some pleasure in shooting pool and

drinking beer in the noisy taverns of the South Side.

But they'd fight too, he added. Brummer was described as

a solitary teenager who never a good sign. Yeah, who

didn't have many friends despite being active and playing sports

like he played football, he was a wrestler.

Speaker 2: Usually that's like you have a huge friend group and

it is at least like puts you into contact with

other people have similar interests. Right.

Speaker 3: No, even with that, he was just like a solitary guy.

His post secondary education wasn't much to ride home about either.

He attended a technical school for a semester before dropping

out and just kind of went into the workforce instead

of doing the school thing, which also was not that uncommon.

Speaker 1: Then.

Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, it was a lot more trades, like a

lot like yeah, that kind of thing. So, like I said,

instead of going the school route, Grummer entered the workforce,

starting as a bus boy at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Unfortunately,

after a few years of service there, Bremer was demoted

and banished to the kitchen because customers were complaining about

the weird guy who talked to himself and marched around

the dining room in time to like the music that

was playing in the speakers. Oh no, no, they're just

like there for.

Speaker 2: A nice meal. And he's just like, you know, that's weird. Yeah,

that's concerning. So they put him in the kitchen, go

back where nobody can see. What is it with Tina.

Tina's not good with the customers. I'm great with the customers. No, yeah,

So they managed him to the kitchen. He was not

happy about this. He's kind of upset.

Speaker 3: So he decided to take his complaint to the programmed

planner for the Milwaukee Commission on Community Relations WOW, whose

name is Fred Blue Junior. And he was claiming discrimination,

and Fred Blue Junior investigated his claim and dismissed it.

Speaker 2: Okay, in his right. It was like to be fair, bro,

you were talking to your Yeah. In his rite up

of the investigation, he said, quote, mister Brummer is a

young man who is rather withdrawn, appears to bottle of anger,

but will sometimes let it go. I assessed him as

bordering on paranoia at the same time conscientious in doing

his job. He has little communication with his family, very

much needs a friend. Also professional help in talking and

talking with him. Suggested that if there are times he

would like to talk to come to my office or

call me and age for the New York Times. So

even in his They were like, this.

Speaker 3: Guy he was this is like not long after high school, right,

so he's still younger, and he's just like, ye.

Speaker 2: Help, maybe tell this guy so, And then they didn't.

He gets this report back, they dismiss his complaint.

Speaker 3: Bremmer obviously was not a fan. I'm sure he was

not super happy with that to let that explosive anger out.

He quits his job, okay, and he picks up part

time work as a janitor at an elementary school, honest work.

Bremer was picked up by police in late late nineteen

seventy one. Yeah, he was picked up by police in

late nineteen seventy one for parking in a no parking

zone and carrying a concealed weapon. God damn, Now, why

would these two things be connected. They walked up to

his car to be like, you're parked in a no

parking zone and they'd see.

Speaker 2: This gun just like sitting on the fucking seat of

the car. Idiot. Yeah. So, in the course of his detainment,

he was evaluated by a corner court appointed psychiatrist, probably

a good idea. He found him sane enough for trial.

Oh no, okay, which is going to be a consistent

theme because these psychiatrists, even later on, are like, we

are not necessarily going to comment on whether we think

he is mentally ill, but we will tell you where

think he's We think he's sane enough to stand trial,

Like understands the making a very big distinction, right, Yeah,

because that's that's the thing that we've talked about it

several times on the podcast. I think is like the

legal definition of insanity, right, It's very interesting. It's not

about like is this guy crazy, It's like, does he

recognize what he's doing is wrong?

Speaker 3: Yeah, And although like mental health services were not where

they were then totally where they needed to be, then,

like there were a lot of times where somebody could

have intervened at some point, and I think things might

have ended differently. I'm not saying that's the only reason,

but far.

Speaker 2: I agree, Yeah, somebody should have talked to that guy

and taken his gun away. I agree, I agree, But

they were like give guns to everybody, let's no.

Speaker 3: So he paid a fine and was released. It was

a fine of like thirty eight dollars or something, which

was thirty eight dollars in the late sixties, oh, which.

Speaker 2: Is probably like ten million dollars to no, I mean

not that much, but you know, more eleven million.

Speaker 3: So he was released. He would, however, have another run

in with police about a month later for disorderly conduct.

Things started to look up for Bremmer when he met

sixteen year old Joan Pemrick.

Speaker 2: He's like.

Speaker 3: Nineteen twenty. Just for perspective, Joan jon She was a

hall monitor at the same elementary.

Speaker 2: School where he worked. Okay.

Speaker 3: The two began dating during the holiday time, and bremerwood

drop by the house occasionally, but after just a couple

of months, Joan decided she didn't want to see him anymore.

She was like, there's something kind of off about this.

Sheep's marching in my house. Something got off about him.

This is again from the New York Times quote. He

was driving me up a wall. He'd cross examined me.

He'd asked me what I meant every time I said anything.

Then he'd ask me why I never asked him questions.

Speaker 2: He was weird. Despite Joan breaking things off, Brehmer was

persistent and continued to call her at home until her

mother made it clear she didn't want to see him.

Shortly after their breakup, Bremer went to Casanova Guns Incorporated

and purchased a Charter Arms thirty eight caliber revolver to

replace the one police had taken when he was arrested.

Oh yeah, you know.

Speaker 3: And then after this whole breakup and everything, things honestly

just like spiral downward for him. He decided to quit

his job. In January in nineteen seventy two, he went

purchased a second gun, a nine millimeter Browning automatic pistol.

Speaker 2: Yeah, snap, buying guns. Stop it.

Speaker 3: Things are not going great for Rummer. So not long

after all of this is happening, Brummer starts keeping a diary,

which I'm like, you're telling. As you're telling, you're sorry,

I'm like, this must be an assassin thing where they're like,

we need to document.

Speaker 2: There needs to be people need to know why I

wanted to kill that. But I'll tell you.

Speaker 3: In his case, the manuscript he hoped would become a

best seller, thus making him famous.

Speaker 2: They all do.

Speaker 3: This is the overarching theme with Brummers. He really wanted

the fame. He wanted his name to be known everywhere. Yeah,

but of course he needed a big name in order

to achieve the fame that he won it. Yeah, so

he decided to assassinate Richard Nixon. Oh, while he was

doing campaign stops in and around Wisconsin. Okay, now again,

Richard Nixon is like one of these sweet spots for me,

where like I find the whole Watergate thing very fairy.

It's like my niche research topic.

Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, like that is one of those things.

So I saw Nixon was involved in this, and I

was like, what, I'm there. Yeah.

Speaker 3: So he traveled to Ottawa to meet Tricky Dicky on

a campaign stop on April thirteenth, nineteen seventy two. Bremmer

went out into the city.

Speaker 2: So weird, here's this April thirteenth, Mind is April fourteenth? Ooh,

that's gross. Stop it weird, eil. So Bremer went onto

the city in a suit with a vote Republican sticker

on it, with the intent to kill Richard Nixon, but

as detailed in his diary and in the New York Times,

he felt like security was far too tight and he

isn't able to get close enough to pull his revolver out.

Speaker 3: Okay, this is from his diary, he said, quote he

passed me six times and he's still alive. In a

different entry, he said quote just another goddamn failure. I

may wear wolf now changed to a wild man. I'm

tired of writing about what I've failed to do. I'm

traveling around like a hobo and nothing has happened. Can't

kill Nixi boy. If you can't get close to him

again and again, I am as important as.

Speaker 2: The start of World War two. This will be among

the best red pages since the scrolls in those caves.

Oh my god, dude, yeah, shut up. Yeah, He's like,

I'm important, but can't kill Nixie boy if you can't

get close enough. We all don't like Nixy, but must

we kill? Must we? So he gets his sort of opportunity,

doesn't Yeah, it's not to manage it. He's like, fuck,

this sucks.

Speaker 3: Takes a ten day break from writing in his diary.

Speaker 2: You know what, mental health break. We love that. We

love the self care.

Speaker 3: When he picks it up, back up, His intention is

now focused on somebody else. Alabama governor and Democratic presidential

candidate George Wallace. Oh okay, now Wallace.

Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with he sounds really

famous George Wallace at all.

Speaker 3: So he was the longest serving governor in Alabama state

history and the longest serving governor from the Democratic Party. Wow,

which sounds great until you remember that he's from Alabama

and he was a big time segregationist God damn. Although

he did soften on this position by the late seventies, sophonistic,

but like he was pro Jim Crow during civil rights.

He gave this, you might remember. I'm sure you've seen

the video of this. He had this nineteen sixty three

inaugural address address where he says the now famous line

segregation now, segregation tomorrow forever.

Speaker 2: That's George. Why, I know that guy kind of beats

ship a bad start. I do not feel sorry for

this guy at all. Yeah. So it's like he is

an attempted assassinations bomber.

Speaker 3: So this is who he goes after now. According to

Bremer's diary, he was watching the movie A Clockwork Orange,

Oh Boy when he changed his mind to focus on Wallace,

even though he internally like was not convinced that he

was a big enough target.

Speaker 2: He was like, I mean, it's like better than Yeah.

Speaker 3: So this is This is what he says in his

diary about it, quote, I would have done better for

myself to kill the old g Man, Hoover and death.

He lays with presidents. Hoover, however, got buried in Bama

for being great. He Wallace certainly won't be buried with

the snobs in Washington. I won't even rate a TV

and terrhibition in Russia or Europe, when the news breaks,

they never heard of Wallace. If something big and non

flirs up, I'll end up on the bottom of the

first page in America. You know, a storm in some

country we never heard of, kills ten thousand people, big deal.

Pass the beer and what's on TV tonight?

Speaker 2: Wow, dude, this guy's fucking nuts something He's something. Yeah. Wow.

I include a lot of the diary entries because it's

things like this so funny.

Speaker 3: Now to your point, like you always kind of gotta

take a grain assault with some of these entries and

the things that they put in there. But so, I mean,

this is literally him.

Speaker 2: Just like fighting it for the public eye. Oh yeah,

it's like they're trying to make thoms and this specifically,

he was like absolutely, yeah, this is gonna be in

history books.

Speaker 3: The day after writing that entry, Bremmer went to the

library where he checked out sirhan by Aziz Shihab and

rfkmus by Robert Blair Kaiser, which are both books on

the RFK assassionate assassination by Sirhan Sirhan, which is also

a very interesting thing and like.

Speaker 2: Why couldn't they have taken rfkjun.

Speaker 3: Well and the potential that Sirhan Sirhan may not have

actually you know what I mean, Like, there's.

Speaker 2: A lot around that. That's a whole le and I.

Speaker 3: Encourage you to look into it because it's very interesting.

After some more writing and a bit more planning, Bremer

left Kennedy's What'd you say? Nothing bad ever happens to

the Kennedys Never. Bremer leaves for Silver Lake, Michigan, where

he went to the Wallace campaign headquarters and offered to

volunteer for the campaign. Later in the week, he went

to a couple Wallace rallies in Michigan. On May thirteenth,

police responded to reports of a suspicious man sitting in

his car for an extended period of time with.

Speaker 2: The gun in a no parking zone outside of the

National Guard Armory. Idiot.

Speaker 3: When they went up to him, he he was like,

He's like, my name is Arthur Bremer. I'm just waiting

for the rally to start, like I'm a big Wallace fan.

I really want to get seats in the front row.

Like that's what I'm waiting for.

Speaker 2: Are you giving the name dumbhore?

Speaker 3: And so he did it on the rally and apparently

had ample opportunity to shoot Wallace, but he did not

do to. He talks it in his journals about there

were some like snabby fifteen year olds standing by he

didn't want to break glass, Like there were these things that.

Speaker 2: Were like every there's way with him, yeah, like besides

the obvious.

Speaker 3: The next day, Bremmer followed Wallace to his next campaign

stop in Maryland. Okay different, Yeah, he was like, fuck

now I have to drive to Literally, he was like,

I have to drive to Maryland. He at this point

is living out of his car, like yeah, so he

drives to Maryland. The first rally took place in Wheaton, Maryland,

to a crowd giving far less than a warm reception.

Like these people fucking hated him. Oh, many were like republicanville.

Many were heckling with a few like rowing tomatoes. So

instead of oh wait, I forgot he was an asshole? Yeah,

instead of like if it was a more positive rally.

He'd like go out into the crowd and shake people's hands.

Speaker 2: He was like, I'm not fucking doing that. Stay at podium.

Instead of doing that.

Speaker 3: He just left, which took an opportunity away from Bremer

in that moment. So he followed him to the next

campaign stop in Laurel, Maryland, where another rally took place

I believe on the same day. This was a much

more like friendly crowd, okay him, and following his speech,

Wallace descended to shake hands with his supporters against the

advice of the Secret Service detail guys, and in the

mass of the crowd, Bremmer pushes his way through to

the front, where he shoots at Wallace, fully emptying his

gun before being tackled. There is footage of this, like

this happened on TV and I will show you later,

but yeah, this happened on TV and there's full last

footage of this happening.

Speaker 2: So he pushes his way through, he shoots at Wallace,

empties his gun.

Speaker 3: Wallace was hit four times, immediately falling back in shock.

Speaker 2: He's he lost like a.

Speaker 3: Pint of blood just out. Yeah, there were a few

bystanders that were hit, including State Trooper Captain E. C. Dothard,

who was acting as Wallace's personal bodyguard, Dora Thompson who's

a campaign volunteer, and Secret Service agent Nick Zarvos. All

of the bystanders survived. However, agent Zarvos, he was shot

in the neck and his speech was severely impacted, but

he did survive. Poor guy Bremmer meant to shout a

catchphrase he carefully chose. He's gonna walk up and say

a penny for your.

Speaker 2: Thoughts, get the but he forgot come up with a

horrible line and then you can't even remember, right, Yeah,

fuck you.

Speaker 3: Wallace is not cut out for this point, No, clearly not.

While this was in rushed to the hospital. He survives.

For shots, he survives. Unfortunately, one of the bullets lodged

in his spine and he was permanently paralyzed from the

waist down.

Speaker 2: I will tell you that does bring a tiny little

smile to my face. I'm just saying, oh God, yeah.

Speaker 3: So he's permanently paralyzed. Well, that's but survives, I mean, okay, Bremmer.

Speaker 2: Obviously this crowd of people immediately tackled Oh right, take

it into custody.

Speaker 3: That they detained Bremmer, they search his car. It was

described as a hotel on wheels. Well, yeah, this is

from Time quote In it, they found blankets, pillows, binoculars,

a woman's umbrella, a tape recorder, a portable radio with

police band, an electric shaver, photographic equipment, a nineteen seventy

two copies copy of writer's yearbook, the RFK assassination books

we talked about earlier yep, and a Browning nine millimeters

semi automatic pistol okay. In the investigation following the attack,

his apartment was also searched, which they found Wallace campaign buttons,

a Confederate flag, boxes of shells, high school old high

school themes themed you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, okay,

pornographic magazines, black panther literature, tax forms giving his nineteen

seventy one income as one thousand, six hundred and eleven dollars,

a booklet entitled one hundred and one Things to Do

in Jail, and various newspaper clippings, including one of the

difficulty of providing security for campaigning politicians, me.

Speaker 2: When I'm innocent. Things to do with jail top it right? Now?

Common through this casualty for later. Okay, it's just some

light reading out at the airport.

Speaker 3: They also obviously found notebooks containing like random notes and

scribbles about things. Later later report this is so fucking standard.

Later reports claim that Nixon, who will.

Speaker 2: Show up at our story the second time, plotted with

political operative E. Howard Hunt, who does come up later

in the whole Watergate situation. Yeah, I know, he does

to secretly break into Bremer's apartment and plant campaign literature

for rival candidate George McGovern. What he was like, let's

get the McGovern stuff in there. They'll link it to

Democrats and McGovern's campaign.

Speaker 1: Yo.

Speaker 2: Nixon is the sneakiest motherfuckers. My god, damn, he was

trying to frame everybody. I just I love so much

the idea of like Nixon sitting at home, like I

don't know, eating a Charles to chew, and people are like,

oh my god, this horrible thing has happened a political guy.

That guy just got shot four times, and he's like

everybody else is like oh my god. And he's like, uh, fortuitous,

yea what if? Plan?

Speaker 1: A option rue?

Speaker 2: So he was like, let's get over there and plan

this govern break.

Speaker 3: But like immediately after this happened, because federal government.

Speaker 2: The FBI would over there. The FBI, Yeah, went to

the apartment to secure it immediately, and so so they

couldn't get it. Yeah, they couldn't get it. By the

time they want to go that they couldn't get him. Dang,

that's just like funny. That shouldn't be surprising out of

nowhere doing something like every crime. I'm just imagining, like

a little old lady gets mugged on the corner and

they're like throwing like like papers on her. Yes, yeah,

tell them the burglar voted for my opponent.

Speaker 3: So Bremer's child began on July thirty first, nineteen seventy two,

in Upper Marlboro, Maryland's birthday. His defense team argued that

Bremer had schizophrenia and was legally insane at the time

of the shooting. I could see that they read huge

portions of his dire into the record and attempts to

prove their case. The prosecution, of course, had their own

psychiatrists who claimed that Brember was probably sane during the attack,

although all three presented at trial did admit he was

a schizoid personality and mentally ill. Although not extreme enough

to not understand his conduct. That's where that line was drawn,

where they're like, yeah, he needs help, like he knew

what he was doing at the time that this was happening.

Speaker 2: It is very interesting, it is. But frankly, he has

all these journals where he's planning his assassinations, and it's

hard to say I didn't know what I was doing

when you literally planned it out. Yeah, that's the thing.

I don't know. See, I don't necessarily agree with the

way that it's set up, but I agree that this fault.

They weren't wrong to not go with the you know

what I mean, right, But then he should have been institutionalized.

I like, yeah for podcasts, Yes, I agree.

Speaker 3: The trial lasted only five days before the jury was

sent to deliberate, with the journals pretty much being a

central part of their decision. The jury foreman would later say,

if he can write something like this, he must be coherent.

Speaker 2: Oh well, I know, which, I'm like, Well, you know

they deliberated for ninety minutes. Oh wow before return. Well

it was on tape. I know, I know. It's just

that's such a short amount of time. Yeah, twenty seconds.

Speaker 3: The deliberated came right back ninety minutes before returning a

guilty verdict verdict on four counts of assault with intent

to murder, four counts of use of a handgun during

a crime of violence, and unlawful transportation of a handgun

because he crossed state lines. Uh huh.

Speaker 2: For this, he received sixty three years in prison. Okay.

Speaker 3: When asked if he had anything to say, Bremmer said, quote, well,

mister Marshall mentioned that he would like society to be

protect did from someone like me. Looking back on my life,

I would have liked it if society had protected me

from myself. Oh that's all I have to say at

this time.

Speaker 2: That's kind which kind of breaks my heart up to

it's like, wow, God damn. He really like and that's

the thing he needed help. Yeah, I'm not saying.

Speaker 3: That's the that's where I land on it because I'm

just like, and again, like there were opportunities for people

to be like, maybe we need to give you these

resources again, different time, Right, the whole mental health thing

was viewed very differently in it's just yeah, there weren't Yeah, yeah,

society really fucked him on this one.

Speaker 2: But I I back when you said when he was

working at that place, and the guy who evaluated him

was like, he really needs a friend. That broke my

little heart. I know. I yeah.

Speaker 3: So a few months and one appeal later, brember sentence

was reduced from sixty three to fifty three years Now,

there were a few interesting things that came to light

during the trial and that like happen in the aftermath

of him being arrested and being sentence. The stuff first,

Bremmer claimed that the portion of the journals that was

presented at trial was only half of his writings.

Speaker 2: He's like, you didn't even get the best bits.

Speaker 3: He In his journal, he wrote, quote, Hey, world, come here.

I want to talk to you if I if I

don't kill if I don't kill myself, I want you

to pay through the nose, ears, and belly button for

the beginning of this manuscript. The first pages are hidden

and will preserve a long time if you don't pay

me for them. I got no reason to turn him over,

understand punk.

Speaker 2: Oh my god, dude, he's so lame now he wasn't lying. Yeah.

Speaker 3: They do eventually find this portion of the journal in

a suitcase, wrapped in plastic and stashed in a Viaduct.

Speaker 2: They like got problem.

Speaker 3: Yeah, these writings are how they found out about his

earlier plans to kill Nixon, Like that was all included

in these writings and other fantasies about killing other people

who had wronged him in some way. The portions that

were used during trial were published as a book in

nineteen seventy three called An Assassin's Diary. Wallace himself continued

on in politics following the attack. Like I said, he

was the longest serving governor in Alabama, and that continued

after he was attacked. So he was elected the governor

of Alabama two more times, serving until nineteen eighty two,

and then whileas died in September nineteen ninety eight, Bremmer

was remanded into custody at the Maryland Correctional Institution. Although

in the very beginning of his detention he had just

gotten to a bunch of fights, like at the very beginning,

got a ton of time in solitary, it seems after

a little bit things sort of chilled out for him.

After There's even one employee who described him as compliant

and unobtrusive. Now, unfortunately, Bremer declined any mental health evaluations

or treatment and during later parole hearings, there was psychological

testing that would deem him a risky release. Bremer, however,

served thirty five years of his sentence before being released

on parole in November two thousand and seven, which required

electronic monitoring, a requirement to stay away from politicians, elected officials,

potential like you know, people campaigning whatever. He completed his

parole was released as a free man on May fifteenth,

twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2: Day before my birthday.

Speaker 3: May fifteenth, this year, this year twenty five. Yeah, what

exactly fifty three years to the day of him shooting Wallace?

Speaker 2: Why would they let him go? He served as time.

That's stupid. He served as time. He did his parole.

He didn't have any parole violations. He's a free man.

Speaker 1: Wow.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's trash. Yeah.

Speaker 3: Now, I will say, if any of this sounds familiar

to you at all, you were either alive when it happened,

which is all I'm saying old, or you might have

caught some references to him to Arthur Bremmer. In popular media,

He was the inspiration for various plays in movies, right,

including being referenced in the popular film Forrest Gump. Oh However,

probably the most well known of these references is likely

the nineteen seventy six film Taxi Driver.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Although I've never seen this movie, Bremer and his journals

were the inspiration for a character in the film named

Travis Bickle as played by Robert de Nirol, inspired by Bremer.

Speaker 2: Yep. This is also significant because Taxi Driver would serve

as inspiration for the later assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan

by John Hinckley Junior. Another one that I wish could

go in the assassinations folder. Yeah, not attempted assassination folder.

You could see my.

Speaker 3: Paintings from him, and John Hinckley Junior said he thought

the assassination would impress Jodie Foster, who appeared in the

film and appeared in the film Taxi as a child.

Like a weird assassination circle, like a very weird one. Yes,

that's freaky. Yeah, that's that's the story of Arthur Bremmer. He,

as far as I'm awares, living happily quiet life in Maryland.

Speaker 2: I don't think he's left the state. He's just out there.

You know what the fuck? That's a crazy story. That's crazy.

Isn't that crazy? That was a good one. Thank you.

Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you things are bad.

Speaker 2: Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression, everybody losing

their job. All right, folks. That has been our episode.

That was so much fun. That was a little bit

of history sometimes. Yeah, do you have any final thoughts

before we finish out? Taxi Driver is a weird movie.

Speaker 3: I need I need to watch it. I feel like

people have suggested to me. I think for this reason,

like the fact that it's based off of Arthur Bremmer,

and like, and.

Speaker 2: That's so funny you said Forrest Gump. I was thinking

about Forrest Gump because there's a there is a part

where they talk about it, because he talks about somebody

shooting RFK. Yeah, and then and he talks about other guy. Yeah,

it's it's like a passing refuge. I remember that. But

that's so weird.

Speaker 3: Because it would have been happening in the time period

during the movie.

Speaker 2: But I'm like, I think I know exactly the part

where he talks about it. Oh my god, No, I

have to go home and watch Forrest Gump and cry

and have a panic attack. That December day yay, so

nice and cozy under all my tears. Yeah. Literally, it's Fred.

Speaker 3: Just wanted to a shp oh man now, he said,

I'm Gary Sonise.

Speaker 2: Anyway. Uh.

Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this episode, you can find more just

like this at bad Taste podcast dot com. Our sound

and editing is by tiff Fullman. Our music is by

Jason Zakschewsky The Enigma.

Speaker 1: Yay.

Speaker 3: This has been the Bad Taste Crime podcast. We will

see you in two weeks, probably in the New Year.

I think this is what comes on the New Year.

Speaker 2: Happy New Year.

Speaker 3: I don't know if the other one does or not,

who knows, but whatever, Happy New Year. It's new year now, okay,

goodbye bye.

Speaker 2: Along the Highway. I think the way that people washed

over West Town you nothing, Yeah I did. That was

so cute. I'm hitting puberty. Congratulates