Squeaky Fromme & Other Assassins - Episode 41

Summary

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The Musers The Podcast

Episode 41: Squeaky Fromme & Other Assassins

Date: April 29, 2026
Hosts: George Dunham, Craig "Junior" Miller, Gordon Keith
Theme: Exploring presidential assassination attempts in U.S. history, with signature Musers wit and insightful banter

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Main Theme Overview

In this episode, the Musers (George, Junior, and Gordo) dig into the bizarre and chilling history of presidential assassinations and assassination attempts in the United States. Catalyzed by a recent attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the conversation spirals through both well-known and obscure incidents, examining everything from Andrew Jackson’s cane-wielding fury to John Hinckley Jr.’s Jodie Foster obsession. The Musers combine fascinating research, vivid storytelling, and their trademark humor, peppered with personal recollections and even a jaw-dropping piece of true crime memorabilia.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Listener Mailbag (02:07–06:53)

• Babysitter Car Ride Dilemma
  • A listener (Jennifer) revisits a past episode about the awkwardness of dads driving home babysitters and hilariously offers the simple solution: have moms do it.
  • “She says, I can't believe you three gents couldn't come up with that easy fix. ...Craig, you can now use my easy solution.” – Gordon Keith (04:29)
• UAP/Alien Theories and Human Evolution
  • Listener Chris recommends Greg Braden’s book Pure Human, raising the idea that future, post-human beings may be responsible for UAP sightings.
  • “Braden suggests these UAPs ... could be our own descendants, future humans returning to our timeline because they’ve lost that essence of what makes us human.” – Gordon Keith (06:02)

Recent Assassination Attempt as Topical Launchpad (08:42–09:54)

• Recent Incident:
  • Over the weekend, an attempted attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner (with Donald Trump in attendance), addressed by the hosts as a chilling reminder of the ongoing threat of political violence.
  • “It’s a fascinating topic. The topic of presidential assassinations. We’ve had four in our country. Can you name the four presidents?” – Gordon Keith (09:00)

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Segment Highlights (Timeline Included)

History of Presidential Assassinations (09:54–12:58)

• The Four Assassinated Presidents:
  • Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), John F. Kennedy (1963).
  • Notably, only JFK died immediately; Garfield and McKinley died from infections days or months later due to poor medical practices.
• Reagan: The Sole Survivor
  • Ronald Reagan is the only president shot and survived (1981).
  • “He becomes the only president that we’ve had that survived the gunshot wound.” – Gordon Keith (24:33)

Memorable Moment (13:16–14:11)

• Recalling Reagan’s Shooting:
  • The hosts share vivid personal memories of where they were when they heard President Reagan had been shot.
  • “He came in and interrupted the assembly and he said, ‘I have an announcement to make. President Reagan has just been shot.’” – Craig Miller (13:21)

The Hinckley-Reagan Story: Obsession, Hollywood, and Dallas Ties (15:21–29:34)

• John Hinckley Jr.: A North Texas Connection
  • Hinckley's background as a Dallas native, his obsession with Taxi Driver and Jodie Foster, and stalking her at Yale.
  • Hinckley bought his gun in Dallas at Rocky's Pawn Shop.
• Obsession Manifest
  • The Musers read portions of Hinckley’s disturbing pre-assassination letter to Jodie Foster:
    • “Dear Jody, there’s a definite possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. …As you well know by now, I love you very much.” – Gordon Keith (20:30–21:25)
• The Attempt Itself
  • Six shots fired in 1.7 seconds; Reagan was hit by a ricocheting bullet but survived. Secret Service, police, and James Brady also wounded.
• Aftermath and Surprising Epilogue
  • Hinckley found not guilty by reason of insanity, institutionalized for decades, released in stages (2016–2022).
  • Now writes songs on YouTube; “He tweeted, ‘Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance.’” – Gordon Keith (29:12)
  • “I just don’t want to hear that message from him. Sorry, dude.” – George Dunham (29:20)

The First Assassination Attempt: Andrew Jackson (31:16–37:40)

• Richard Lawrence (1835): The King Richard III Wannabe
  • Attempted to assassinate Andrew Jackson; both pistols misfired due to humidity.
  • Jackson responded by beating him with his cane; Davy Crockett helped tackle Lawrence.
  • Prosecutor: Francis Scott Key.
• Shared Fate With Hinckley
  • Both Lawrence and Hinckley were committed to the same mental institution: “Government Hospital for the Insane (later St. Elizabeth’s).” – Gordon Keith (37:27)

Teddy Roosevelt: The Bulletproof Bull Moose (38:28–43:21)

• The 1912 Chicago Attempt
  • Roosevelt shot while running for a third term as a former president; bullet slowed by overcoat, metal glasses case, and a doubled 50-page speech in his pocket.
  • Despite his injury, Roosevelt speaks for 90 minutes before seeking medical attention.
  • “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” – Teddy Roosevelt as paraphrased by Gordon Keith (41:34).

Other Notable Attempts and Oddities (43:28–50:01)

• FDR’s Attempted Assassination
  • 1933: Gunman misses FDR, kills the mayor of Chicago, injures five bystanders, is executed (44:03).
• Richard Nixon & the 747 Plot
  • 1974: Samuel Bick planned to crash a 747 into the White House; shot pilots before being stopped (44:45–45:56).
• Gerald Ford: Targeted Twice by Women
  • Squeaky Fromme (Manson Family), thwarted by a gun that wouldn't fire (48:14).
  • Sarah Jane Moore, attack interrupted by a Vietnam vet (49:16).

True Crime Show & Tell: Squeaky Fromme’s Letter (50:26–53:41)

• A Chilling Artifact
  • Gordon reveals he received a letter from Squeaky Fromme (Manson Family member & attempted assassin of Gerald Ford) addressed to his radio alter ego, Ribby Puls.
  • Excerpts:
    • “Myself, I’m well and still learning to be still. To override killjoy thoughts whenever they are aimed against me and clearly serve no purpose. …To let the big God mind do more of the thinking.” – Gordon Keith reading Squeaky Fromme (52:01–53:16)
  • The Musers are stunned: “I would think you would have that framed!” – Craig Miller (51:44)

Reflections on Division and Violence (54:37–55:57)

• Sobering Takeaways
  • Musers warn about romanticizing political violence and stress voting as the true method for change.
  • “It would be the worst possible thing for the United States if our sitting president ... is murdered. ...the chance of, especially these days, our country descending into complete and total chaos after an event like that ... it could be catastrophic.” – Craig Miller (55:24)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I have a letter here from Squeaky Fromme ... written by the hand that attempted to assassinate your own. Wow. Creepy.” – Gordon Keith (53:49)
• “Jackson ... pulls out his walking cane, raises it above his head, and charges the assassin.” – Gordon Keith (35:34)
• “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” (as Teddy Roosevelt) – Gordon Keith (41:34)
• “If our sitting president ... is murdered... the chance ... our country descending into complete and total chaos ... is catastrophic.” – Craig Miller (55:24)
• “We see ourselves as so civilized ... look at the history of just insane behavior by American citizens...” – George Dunham (55:57)

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Easily Navigable Timestamps

• 02:07–06:53 – Listener Mailbag: Human awkwardness and UAPs
• 09:00–12:58 – Presidential assassinations: Facts, trivia, and medical mishaps
• 13:16–14:11 – Where were you during the Reagan shooting?
• 15:21–29:34 – John Hinckley Jr.: Obsession and aftermath
• 31:16–37:40 – Andrew Jackson's brush with death; cane justice
• 38:28–43:21 – Teddy Roosevelt: Bullet-proofed by a 50-page speech
• 43:28–50:01 – More wild plots: FDR, Nixon, Ford, and the Manson Family
• 50:26–53:41 – Show & Tell: The Squeaky Fromme letter
• 54:37–55:57 – Reflection on the present day and lessons learned

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Tone & Style

• The Musers’ mix of historical research, lived memory, and irreverent humor runs throughout.
• Frequent asides, playful jabs, and running jokes about each other’s eccentricities (e.g., “four costume changes a day”).
• Striking blend of thorough preparation and conversational digression, making for an accessible yet in-depth exploration.

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Summary

This episode is a tour-de-force of presidential true crime, weaving well-known historical events, personal recollections, and oddball facts together with the Musers' authoritative-yet-playful tone. Standout features include rare details about assassins' personal lives, a genuine letter from infamous would-be-assassin Squeaky Fromme, and a thoughtful coda reflecting on the dangers of modern political division. The Musers manage to educate, entertain, and unsettle in equal measure—a must-listen for fans of history, politics, and the unique energy of Dallas radio’s legendary trio.

Transcript

[Craig Miller]

So you're our ballistics guy. Are all bulletproof vests made of 50 page speeches?

[Gordon Keith]

No. No. Hey there. Welcome to the Musers the podcast. Another episode. This is episode 41.

[George Dunham]

I'm Gordon Keith George Dunham.

[Craig Miller]

I'm Craig Miller.

[Gordon Keith]

That's right. Three guys have been doing a job together for a long time and we're doing this job. We're going to do it right, darn it, the right way. We're very excited because we now have merchandise. We've had so many of our podcast listeners ask about merchandise and we now have it. You can go to themusers.com that's on your Internet web computer box that you have. You can go there and you can get T shirts, there's mugs, tumblers. There's also penance. And you know, we are the only podcast that supports penance.

[George Dunham]

Yes.

[Gordon Keith]

And as far as we know, we're the only podcast that you can actually get a pennant of that podcast with the podcast logo on it. It's a great thing to hang up in your room. It's wonderful. Themusers.com you know, I was out and

[Craig Miller]

about this weekend and everybody that I saw out in public was wearing some kind of Muser's merch. A T shirt, a sweatshirt, everybody.

[George Dunham]

It's huge.

[Gordon Keith]

It's huge. We're almost sold out, but there's still a few more left. If you, if you act now, if you act now. There is a tremendous sense of urgency that I'm trying to impart to you.

[George Dunham]

Oh yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

So go and pick up some Muser's merch. And the first person who bought merch on our website. Do you know that? I don't know if you guys know the stat.

[George Dunham]

I don't think so.

[Gordon Keith]

I'll give you a hint. In his previous job he was known as number eight.

[George Dunham]

No way.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Yeah. Troy Aikman, last week's guest.

[George Dunham]

Truly no way. Troy went to the website and got user mot.

[Gordon Keith]

He had an assistant do it.

[Additional Guest or Producer]

I don't know.

[Gordon Keith]

Perhaps he had an assistant do it. Okay, before we get into this very special edition of the Musers the podcast, we do want to look into our Muser's mailbag. Hit the theme song. We don't have a theme song.

[Craig Miller]

Let's get one. We should get a mailbag theme song.

[Gordon Keith]

Maybe we will award one of these to the P1 podcast, Muser of the week. What do we call it?

[Craig Miller]

Muser letter of the week.

[Gordon Keith]

Letter of the week thing. All right, first one comes to us from.

[Craig Miller]

By the way, I Want a theme song for this segment, and I want it to be set to the theme of Hawaii 5o.

[George Dunham]

It's the first tune that came to mind.

[Gordon Keith]

Isn't that a violation of something?

[George Dunham]

Probably.

[Craig Miller]

Maybe.

[George Dunham]

But maybe the greatest theme song ever. Why not just copy it?

[Craig Miller]

It's the user's mailbag. We're getting lots of mail. The user's mailbag.

[Gordon Keith]

He's already written it over here. Writes itself really better than AI first one comes to us from Jennifer. She says, longtime listener, and I'm going back and listening to all of your episodes and enjoying them one by one, which we encourage people to do. Go back in the library. I just got done with episode 29, which was entitled Appreciation of Women, and you guys made me crack up. When you were talking about taking home the babysitter and the uncomfortableness of dad taking home a teenage babysitter and how awkward that is and dad scooching over as far as he can get from her.

[George Dunham]

Yes. What do you say? Do you want to talk?

[Gordon Keith]

Too much conversation.

[George Dunham]

You don't want to appear.

[Gordon Keith]

You don't want to appear unfriendly, but you certainly don't want to appear too friendly. She said it brought back many memories from my teenage years of silent rides with awkward dads. As a recovery babysitter myself, I removed all of that from my husband once we had kids. I simply became the driver to take the babysitter home. It never put my husband in an awkward position and the car ride was never riddled in silence.

[George Dunham]

That's the play. Yeah.

[Craig Miller]

Why haven't families thought of this before?

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know.

[George Dunham]

I think we eventually got to that after maybe I made some complaints of, hey, this, we've got to do something else. Have her parents come pick her up or something because this is just too weird.

[Gordon Keith]

Have.

[George Dunham]

Then all of a sudden I'm looked at. Oh, really? Why is it weird?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, why?

[George Dunham]

I mean, it's just.

[Gordon Keith]

I'm not saying it is weird. There's nothing I. Wait, wait. What were you thinking was making you weird? I wasn't thinking. There's nothing. Nothing in my mind. There was nothing in my mind. I swear.

[George Dunham]

He guys in such a no whim.

[Gordon Keith]

She says, I can't believe you three gents couldn't come up with that easy fix. And she said, craig, you can now use my easy solution. So here's an example of a listener giving back to us.

[Craig Miller]

Great. He thank you for that.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Unless she's already in college. Then maybe give her a ride home.

[Craig Miller]

Come on.

[George Dunham]

I'm Just saying. She's not like, 15.

[Gordon Keith]

Just.

[George Dunham]

It's not as uncomfortable. You can have an adult conversation.

[Gordon Keith]

Stop making things weird. And then this one comes to us from P1 Chris. He wants to talk about our UAP theories. We talked about aliens during our space episode that we had. And he said, I recently read a book that I think you'd really find thought provoking. It's called Pure Human by Greg Braden. Greg Brady. No, I remember him. He is a scientist known for bridging modern science with ancient wisdom. And he had a crush on his stepsister, Marcia. Wait, wait. Whoa. Maybe you were right. He said, the basic premise is kind of alarming. We might literally be the last generation of true, unaltered humans. Braden argues that as AI gene editing and implanted tech keep advancing, we're on a path to becoming something more highly hybrid than human. And in the process, we're losing the things that actually make us human, like empathy and intuition, the ability to love and forgive. And so Braden suggests that these UAPs, these unidentified anomalous phenomenon. Na. Is it Na or Naom?

[Craig Miller]

Phenomena.

[Gordon Keith]

Phenomena. Phenomena. Could be our own descendants, future humans returning to our timeline because they've lost that essence of what makes us human. So they're coming back to study pure human to see how they can recapture it for themselves. And Braden argues that the year 2030 is the tipping point for modern humanity.

[Craig Miller]

Interesting.

[Gordon Keith]

That's when we replace our biology with external technology and tips us into this downward slope of the soulless state that he attributes to these visiting future beings.

[Craig Miller]

Interesting theory.

[Gordon Keith]

It's an interesting idea. Yeah.

[George Dunham]

I don't know, man. I just.

[Gordon Keith]

I just like Froot Loops and. Okay. George is going to his happy place, his safe space, right now.

[Craig Miller]

I'll talk about it with you.

[Gordon Keith]

So I'm going to say that Jennifer is our P1 letter of the week.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

Even though solution, she doesn't. Now that we have merch, are we going to send merch to anybody?

[Craig Miller]

No, let's not go that far. Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

Let's not go crazy. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co host, Megan Kleinenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really stake their claim, and they want to

[Craig Miller]

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[Gordon Keith]

Hosting the World cup on home soil comes with its pressures. We're just really excited. Just as the People are the U.S. soccer podcast presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

[George Dunham]

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[Gordon Keith]

Okay, the topic this week is very relevant because over the weekend we had an incident that happened at the White House Correspondents Dinner in which a man who I guess was trying to assassinate someone. It's not clear, he hasn't written specifically as to who was his target.

[George Dunham]

Sounds like his goal is a group

[Gordon Keith]

of people, but basically this was an ATT on the administration and the presidency. The presidential administration who Donald Trump was inside the room at the correspondence dinner. This guy rushes. You know, the facts are still being discovered because we're recording this shortly after the incident. But he gets past some security and he eventually was apprehended. And no one was shot. Thank goodness. No one was killed. Shot and killed. There was a law officer who was shot in the vest, but fortunately his vest saved his life. So it's a fascinating topic. The topic of presidential assassinations. We've had four in our country. Can you name the four presidents? I know you can name two that have been killed by an assassin's bullet in our nation's history.

[Craig Miller]

I know James Garfield because I used to live on Garfield street, so I learned a lot about him. Jfk, of course. Abraham Lincoln, of course.

[Gordon Keith]

Abraham Lincoln was the first one. 1865 and Garfield in 1881. JFK at 63. Yeah. And McKinley, 1901. They all were killed. Now, only one of them, Kennedy was the only one that died immediately. You know, you think of Abraham Lincoln getting shot in the back of the head. He would have passed away immediately, but he actually lived for about nine hours. He was taken to a house, I think across the street, and he never regained consciousness, but he died later. The other two guys, McKinley and Garfield, the ones that most people don't remember, they both died of infection, basically, after the gunshot. After receiving the gunshot wound. They didn't really die from the gunshot wound, but the complications from it.

[Craig Miller]

Where were they shot? What part of the body?

[Gordon Keith]

I think in the Torso.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. McKinley died eight days after the shooting from gangrene. Do you call it gangrene or gangrene? I always say gangrene.

[Craig Miller]

Gangrene is the Eagles defense.

[George Dunham]

That is the Eagles defense. That's how I know it.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, that's what I say. Gangrene.

[Gordon Keith]

That's how you know it. So he dies eight days after the shooting. Now, Garfield died much later. He died over two and a half months after he was shot from infection because the lead doctor and his medical team wouldn't use clean instruments when probing the wound. And he gets horribly infected and he dies of that.

[Craig Miller]

That's terrible.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, Yeah, I started watching that Death by Lightning. Have you guys seen any of that?

[Gordon Keith]

No, I've heard it's good.

[George Dunham]

I've watched the first couple episodes. It's really good. Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

Leading up to that point, and as I started going back and researching presidential assassination attempts, it's shocking to me that only of the ones who did not die, those four that did die of gunshot wounds, only one president has been shot and survived, which was Reagan.

[George Dunham]

Reagan.

[Gordon Keith]

Well, I remember that day in 1981. Yeah. I was a kid during that time, and, man, that was on 24 hours a day in our household. My parents watching news coverage of that.

[Craig Miller]

Now, that's shot and survived as a sitting president.

[Gordon Keith]

As a sitting president, right. Yeah.

[Craig Miller]

Because Trump, when he was shot, we've

[Gordon Keith]

had two former president shot, and they were both former presidents shot on the campaign trail to run again. Do you know who those two were? Of course. Trump being one.

[Craig Miller]

I don't.

[Gordon Keith]

We're going to get to it.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

Because it's a wild story.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

Of the other former president who was going to run for president again and got shot.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

But yes, two former presidents have been shot while on the campaign trail to run again.

[Craig Miller]

Do you guys remember where you were when you heard the Reagan assassination attempt? News? I was In a school assembly in high school in Oklahoma City. And I can't remember what we were in there for. It was some assembly and every class was in the auditorium. And I remember his name was Father Vermillion.

[Gordon Keith]

And he came in, boy, that's a made up name from like an 1880s Victorian novel.

[Craig Miller]

He came in and he interrupted the assembly and he said, I have an announcement to make. President Reagan has just been shot. And the whole assembly went. There were gasps and a couple screams probably. He made it sound like shot and killed. And then I think he went into. He's been taken to a hospital or something. So we're going to adjourn the assembly. And I think they sent us all home because it happened. That sounds right. If I'm not mistaken, in my timeline. Middle of one or two in the afternoon.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, something like that. We had just been released, if you were in any sort of sport. And I was a sophomore and I was on the golf team, so we had just. We were just let out. My mom gave me a ride home and we heard it on the radio.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[George Dunham]

And it was a Monday because I do believe the national championship game was that night.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[George Dunham]

Because didn't Reagan say, all in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia than ever playing the.

[Gordon Keith]

I think that's an old WC field line though, isn't it?

[George Dunham]

Yes, I think he did steal it, but yeah. And I remember going home and watching the coverage and watching live as they think it was Dan Rather pronounced as secretary. His press secretary, James Brady had died

[Gordon Keith]

because he was the most severely injured.

[George Dunham]

Yes.

[Gordon Keith]

And I just remember that footage of seeing Brady, he was laying face down on the pavement on that sidewalk, which, oddly enough outside the hotel where Donald Trump was. The attempt on his life happened over this past week. It's the same hotel. So they need to stop taking presidents to that hotel.

[Craig Miller]

Yes.

[George Dunham]

And just from what I remember, that was really close. I mean, Reagan literally dodged a bullet. I mean, it hit him, but just another centimeter and he doesn't make it.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. So the. Let me get to my Reagan thing. I had that later in the stack, but we.

[Craig Miller]

Sorry to jump it.

[Gordon Keith]

We can move it up if you want to. We jumped around because there's a lot of stuff in the. In the Reagan attempt that has to do with where we podcast from Dallas, Texas, because John Hinckley Jr. The attempted assassin, was from here. Graduated high school from Clayton Kershaw High School, Highland Park. Matthew Stafford.

[Craig Miller]

They will one day rename it Kershaw Stafford High School.

[Gordon Keith]

Yes, they should and he bought his gun at Rocky's Pawn Shop here in Dallas. So how crazy is that, that we've had two presidential assassination attempts, one of them successful, that have Dallas ties? I know. Creepy, very creepy. And John Hinckley, they say he was a normal kid when he was at Highland Park High School. Very unassuming, quiet. His sister was really, really popular. She was like a head cheerleader, was older than him, so he kind of lived under her shadow. But she was very, very popular. He was just kind of blended into the woodwork and didn't go crazy until later. He. After he graduates high school, he goes to Texas Tech and was a student there off and on. Tried to be a Red Raider for about seven years and then ultimately just said ass. I.

[George Dunham]

There's a lot of Red Raiders that do that.

[Gordon Keith]

But one of his times where he's taking a break from going to Tech, he moved out to Hollywood because he wanted to be a songwriter. And so he tried to be a songwriter out there. And he wrote these letters back to his family detailing all his woes and just, you know, misfortune and always begging him for money. But he told them often about this girlfriend that he had. Her name was Lynn something. I can't remember her last name. So he's always talking about her in the letters. Turns out she was a complete fabrication who lived only in his mind.

[George Dunham]

Oh, boy.

[Gordon Keith]

He. While he's out in Hollywood, he sits in a theater one night and watches the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese film. Right.

[George Dunham]

I've never seen that, by the way.

[Gordon Keith]

You haven't seen it? It's kind of creepy. Anyway, De Niro plays this Vietnam bet who's alienated from society, who then gets infatuated or has this, this weird relationship with this 12 year old

[Craig Miller]

sex worker

[Gordon Keith]

played by Jody Foster. And that's really what launched Jodie Foster's career. She'd been in other things before, but that was a huge movie for her. And John Hinckley Jr. Sees this film and he really identifies with De Niro's character, Travis Bickle. And so he gets obsessed with Travis Bickle, starts dressing like him, talking like him, keeping a diary just like Bickle did. And he also develops the obsession with Jodie Foster, the actress who played the character that Travis Bickle was interested in. So that starts that thing must have

[George Dunham]

freaked out Jodie Foster.

[Gordon Keith]

Absolutely. Because by the time the Reagan assassination Attempt happens in 1981, she's at Yale University. She eventually goes to Yale University because she kind of quits Hollywood Decides I want to go to college because she had been a child actor and had never had a normal life, and she wanted this normalcy. So she goes to Yale. Well, he, because he's obsessed with her, reads that she goes to Yale. So he asks his parents, hey, listen, I really want to take a creative

[Additional Guest or Producer]

writing class at Yale. Y' all.

[Gordon Keith]

Send me some money. So he moves up to Connecticut, and I think he takes the writing class, or there's different reports of whether he actually enrolled or not. But he starts writing her these letters and poems and notes, and he doesn't just mail them to her, he slips them under her door.

[George Dunham]

Whoa.

[Gordon Keith]

She ignores them because she's like, just don't give it oxygen. Just ignore him.

[George Dunham]

Well, that's one thing they get in your mailbox, but the slip under her door.

[Craig Miller]

But she's a star. She probably gets notes and things all the time.

[Gordon Keith]

So she just kind of throws them away or puts them aside, doesn't engage with them. Well, that just makes him get more intense. And he starts sending more and more to her. Then he starts calling her. So he'd call her on the phone.

[Additional Guest or Producer]

You know, this is.

[Gordon Keith]

I'm the one who sent you all these letters. He's doing that. So she eventually turns it over to the dean and says, I don't know who this guy is. He gets this idea that he is going to impress her. And this is the famous line from the Reagan assassination, is doing something to impress Jodie Foster. Because that is the exact reason that John Hinckley Jr. Used for doing what he did. So he gets on a bus on. I think this is in LA, gets on the bus, and then travels to Washington, D.C. in March of 1981. He gets a hotel room, and he writes Jody Foster one last letter. Should I read it?

[George Dunham]

Oh, God, sure.

[Gordon Keith]

Dear Jody hit Ashok in farewell, just like the Ken Burns Civil War documentary. Dear Jody, there's a definite possibility that

[Additional Guest or Producer]

I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. It's for this reason I'm writing you this letter now. As you well know by now, I love you very much. Over the past seven months, I've left you dozens of poems, letters, and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple times, I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. Besides my shyness, I honestly did not wish to bother you with my constant presence. I know the many messages left at your door and in your mailbox were a nuisance, but I felt it was the most painless way for me to express my love to you.

[George Dunham]

Do you think this is a Confederate soldier or Morgan Freeman?

[Gordon Keith]

It's kind of the love hybrid, yes.

[Additional Guest or Producer]

I feel good about the fact that you at least know my name and know how I feel about you. And by hanging around your dormitory, I come to realize that I'm the topic of more than a little conversation. However full of ridicule it may be, at least you know that I always love you, man. Jody, I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever.

[Gordon Keith]

But he says that he's going on with this plan, and he can't wait any longer to, quote, impress you.

[George Dunham]

So did she get that before the attempt or found it after?

[Gordon Keith]

He didn't mail it, he left it in his hotel room and then walked over to the Hilton there in Washington, D.C. and lie in wait for Reagan. And when Reagan finished his speaking engagement, he comes out. Hinckley opens fire with this.22 pistol. So he chooses this very small caliber for his weapon, which that no doubt helped this situation because it was a very small bullet. So he opens fire. He fires six times in 1.7 seconds. So he basically just unloads. Crazy. Doesn't really re aim, you know, reacquire target or anything like that. He's just pulling the trigger as fast as he can. First bullet hits James Brady in the head, the White House press secretary. And he's the one that's seen face down on the concrete out there on the sidewalk. The second shot hits a police officer. The third shot misses. But the fourth one hits the Secret service agent, Tim McCarthy, who was the guy who threw himself in front of Reagan to take the bullet. The fifth bullet hits the armored glass of the limousine. And then the sixth bullet was the one that ricocheted off the side of the limousine and hit Reagan in the chest under his arm. As Reagan was being pushed into the back of the open door of the limousine for his protection, the bullet bounced off the limousine and then went up under his arm, kind of in the armpit area and into his chest. And Reagan didn't know that he had been hit. They're in the limousine, speeding away, and Reagan is thinking that he broke a rib or something when he landed, like on the transmission hump or something in the car, you know, something in the landing. And they didn't know he was hit until he started coughing up blood.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

And they Went, of course, straight to the hospital. And they say that by the time they got him there, he was minutes from death.

[Craig Miller]

Wow. I didn't realize that.

[Gordon Keith]

And he had some very famous lines, of course, in that Reagan way that he had. I'm sure George knows them all.

[George Dunham]

I hope you're all Republicans.

[Gordon Keith]

He said that to the doctors before he gets operated on.

[Craig Miller]

Great line.

[Gordon Keith]

And then what did he say to Nancy?

[George Dunham]

I forgot the duck.

[Additional Guest or Producer]

Yeah, sorry, honey. I forgot to duck.

[Gordon Keith]

But Reagan lives and becomes the only president that we've had that survived the gunshot wound.

[George Dunham]

You know, I was a kid in high school and Craig was, too. And you were even younger than us. I remember being really just upset. I didn't think he. We just knew that he was in surgery, and I didn't think he was going to make it. And I was. I was totally bought into the whole Reagan thing. And, you know, I've learned more since in the last 40 years. What is that? But he was.

[Gordon Keith]

Learned more.

[George Dunham]

Well, back then. Yeah. Back then, as a kid, you looked up as the president of. My God, that's our president.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Kids wanted to be. Grow up to be presidents.

[George Dunham]

And it was really upsetting.

[Craig Miller]

Am I not mistaken, did Hinckley get released in the last few years? Is he a free man?

[Gordon Keith]

No, you're correct. He is now a free man. Yes. I thought he got released in. I thought they denied it again now. Okay, so James Brady, by the way, just to follow his story, the guy that was shot in the head and was permanently disabled, the left side of his body was paralyzed. And went on to advocate for gun control. And people may know the name Brady Bill. That's named after James Brady. He died from his injuries 33 years later. And when he died, they listed on his death certificate, homicide, 33 years after.

[Craig Miller]

So how could Hinckley, just for that crime, how could he be walking the streets now, much less the attempt on a president?

[Gordon Keith]

Because he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

[Craig Miller]

So he's been under psychiatric care for 40 years until he was released.

[Gordon Keith]

Until he was released, yes. He was in. Not in prison, in a mental Hospital, in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. And yeah, the judge ruled in 2016 that he was no longer a threat to himself or others. He was released from that psychiatric care. Now, he had a lot of conditions when he was released in 2016. He had to live full time with his mom. He had to work at least three days a week, and he had to record his browser history work.

[Craig Miller]

Who's gonna hire him?

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know. That's a tough one, isn't it? You want him to be the hostess at your casual dining facility.

[Craig Miller]

Right?

[Gordon Keith]

But then fast forward. He also, by the way, could not contact the Reagan, Brady, or Foster families. Another condition of his release. And he couldn't watch or listen to violent media. He couldn't access pornography, and he couldn't speak to the press.

[Craig Miller]

I wonder if Jody Foster ever talked about how weird that must be, knowing he's out there again.

[Gordon Keith]

Glad you asked that. She only addressed it once. Well, she only addressed the assassination and the whole Hinckley thing once. And she wrote a piece for Esquire, I think, way back in the 80s, 80s, and wrote this. And, you know, I mean, poor Jodie Foster. She's traumatized by all this, and she hates that her name's tied up with this madness because of this insane dude. And, yeah, I'm assuming she was against him being released. I know that the Reagan family was divided on it. There were some of Reagan's kids who felt like, well, the process worked. He served time in the mental facility. We believe in getting mental help for people who need it. His daughter, Reagan's daughter, did not want any of that. Said this guy to be locked up for forever.

[George Dunham]

Absolutely.

[Gordon Keith]

But, you know, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity based in part on several experts. And they had. He had a whole litany of mental conditions that they diagnosed him with one of them because he thought that he was an amalgamation of Travis Bickle and John Lennon. He felt he was both of those people.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

He had just a mess of disorders. Anyway. Well, he was released fully in June of 21. No, September of 2021. Unconditional release. That's when it was ruled on. And he was fully released in June of 2022. And he did an interview with CBS at that time, expressed remorse for his actions, apologized to the Reagan and Brady families, as well as Jodie Foster. And then he said, go listen to my songs on YouTube. And he has a YouTube channel and songs up there.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

And then when there was that attempted assassination on Trump on the campaign trail where he was hit in the ear with a bullet, Hinckley tweeted, now the fully sane Hinckley. Right. No longer an amalgamation of Travis Bickle and John Lennon and all this. He's fully recovered.

[Craig Miller]

He's got access to social media.

[Gordon Keith]

He tweeted, violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance.

[Craig Miller]

Oh, okay. All right.

[George Dunham]

So still, I don't want to hear that message from him. Sorry, dude.

[Gordon Keith]

As hard as I do. I don't want to hear it. He quotes John Lennon.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

He's. He's not John Lennon anymore. But here's my message of peace.

[Craig Miller]

It's still swimming around.

[Gordon Keith]

It's still in there. It's still knocking around.

[George Dunham]

So bizarre.

[Gordon Keith]

So, yeah. Wow. And he wrote a letter. Here's a copy of the letter that he wrote to one of our broadcast friends, Mike Reiner and the kzw. He wrote a letter to them because when you're in jail, that's all you do is you just respond to letters because you're so bored.

[George Dunham]

He asked about the Rangers rotation or what.

[Gordon Keith]

He says, hey, I remember KZW used to be the station I listened to while living on McKinney and Big D. So you guys can be the official John Hinckley information station.

[Craig Miller]

Because they wrote him.

[Gordon Keith]

They wrote him and then he wrote them back. He said, I want to tell you a few things. Number one, I like new wave music. Especially devoid since I co wrote a song on their new album. The song is called I Desire and I want you to play it 58 times each day.

[George Dunham]

That's heavy rotation there.

[Gordon Keith]

And then he said, I also listened to the song Heroes by David Bowie when I was stalking Carter and Reagan. The other part of the story is that he originally was stalking Carter.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

But then he had the election and then Reagan becomes president. And then he just turned his attention to Reagan. He said it got me in a strange mood. So that was his amp up music.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

That he played and listened to. And then he said that he wished that he didn't make Rocky's Pawn Shop so notorious. He said, I could have bought the gun anywhere. But he said Dallas is still my favorite city. And I plan, I plan a some. I plan to go there when I get out of the hospital.

[George Dunham]

So he could be here now.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, it could be. Do you know the first and that

[George Dunham]

Shoddy will get the Cowboys back in a Super Bowl.

[Gordon Keith]

First presidential assassination attempt. 1835. It's Andrew Jackson, seventh president and he

[George Dunham]

is chase after the guy or something.

[Gordon Keith]

Yes. This is crazy. Okay. Andrew Jackson is 67 at this time. So that's old back then.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

And I guarantee you Andrew Jackson led a hard life.

[George Dunham]

Oh yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

A lot of drive throughs. He hit a lot of drive throughs and didn't take care of his health. Probably smoked. The guy that tried to shoot him was Richard Lawrence, who is an unemployed house painter.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

The guy was born in England around 1800. His family comes to America when he was 12. They lived in Virginia. Described as a nice, normal guy. But then his behavior starts getting weird around November of 1832. At that time, his personality and outward appearance changes dramatically. He grew his mustache long. That was the first thing he did. He used to dress conservatively, and now he starts buying these expensive flamboyant outfits, which he would change three or four times a day. He would have four costume changes a day. He would stand in the doorway of his home for hours and gaze into the street. He began to believe that he was King Richard III, who died in August of 1485.

[Craig Miller]

Got a lot of red flags here.

[Gordon Keith]

The neighborhood kids would jokingly address him as King Richard, which pleased him.

[Craig Miller]

They were his loyal subjects.

[Gordon Keith]

He didn't realize they were making fun of him.

[George Dunham]

Behold, I'm here to leadeth the team.

[Gordon Keith]

He starts, that's your old English.

[Craig Miller]

It sounded like.

[Gordon Keith]

Sounded like from the Deep south, though.

[George Dunham]

It was King Henry from the State Farm commercial.

[Gordon Keith]

Oh, sorcery. So he starts getting paranoid. He gets hostile towards others. He threatens to kill a maid. He gets verbally and physically abusive to his family and his sisters. He starts becoming a nightmare. So at his trial, after the assassination attempt, they start describing his bizarre behavior. They said that several people testified that he would engage in nonsensical conversations with himself.

[Craig Miller]

That sounds like you.

[George Dunham]

I know I'm gonna write some of these things down. I've seen some of these.

[Gordon Keith]

Others stated that he would degenerate into laughing and cursing fits.

[Craig Miller]

That sounds like you. Plus, add in all your costume changes every day.

[George Dunham]

You have cussing Tourette's all the time.

[Gordon Keith]

So weeks leading up to the assassination, this guy starts watching President Jackson. And he was often seen sitting at his print shop muttering to himself.

[Craig Miller]

That's you.

[Gordon Keith]

I don't own a print shop.

[Craig Miller]

You sit in your typewriters.

[George Dunham]

You got typewriters?

[Gordon Keith]

So the day of the assassination, January 30, 1835, he is seen sitting at his paint shop with a book in his hand while laughing. And then suddenly, he stands up, slaps the book closed and says, I'll be damned if I don't do it.

[Craig Miller]

What was he reading?

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know. I don't know. So later that same day, he goes, you have President Jackson, who's attending this funeral at The Capitol. The U.S. capitol. It was the funeral for a South Carolina representative. So Lawrence, the assassin originally planned to shoot Jackson as he entered the service, but he couldn't get close enough to him. So by the time Jackson leaves the funeral, Lawrence the assassin had found this hiding place behind A pillar. And where Jackson would pass by.

[George Dunham]

There was no Secret Service back then, was there?

[Gordon Keith]

I guess not, no.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, we've been around for 60 years as a country, and no attempts yet.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, this is our first attempt. So, as the President walks by Lawrence, he steps out, points his first pistol at the President's back, and he fires and it misfires. Well, that gets the attention of the President. So Andrew Jackson turns around, pulls out his walking cane, raises it above his head, and charges the assassin. Okay.

[George Dunham]

I've seen a drawing of this.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, it's a famous drawing.

[George Dunham]

Yes.

[Gordon Keith]

You've seen it?

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

So Lawrence then pulls out another pistol and points it at Jackson and pulls the trigger as Jackson is running at him with this cane, pulls the trigger, and it misfires again. And later, they calculated the odds. It was like one in, I don't know, 200,000 or one in 2 million. Something crazy high that both of these things would malfunction. But that allows for the President to then beat the holy hell out of his assassin with a walking cane.

[Craig Miller]

He did.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

As he's doing this, members of the crowd jump on Lawrence and tackle him to the ground. One of the members of that crowd did it particularly well. Davy Crockett, the Tennessee Congressman, really was the guy who tackles the assassin of Andrew Jackson after Andrew Jackson had beat

[Additional Guest or Producer]

him with a walking.

[George Dunham]

I don't think I'd heard that before.

[Gordon Keith]

Isn't that crazy? So Lawrence goes to trial, and you know who the prosecuting attorney was that was prosecuting this crime?

[George Dunham]

No.

[Craig Miller]

Sam Houston.

[Gordon Keith]

I'll give you a hint. He later went on to write a hit song for Carl Lewis, the famous runner.

[Craig Miller]

Oh. Francis Scott Key.

[Gordon Keith]

Francis Scott Key indeed was the prosecuting attorney.

[Craig Miller]

Wow. What an insane story. Everything about it.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, completely crazy. And it was all because he thought that he was Richard iii and he felt like Andrew Jackson was doing something with the banks that was going to make it to where he wasn't going to be repai his money as Richard iii.

[Craig Miller]

Huh.

[Gordon Keith]

Jeez. And he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, just like John even

[George Dunham]

worked way back then.

[Gordon Keith]

And he was sent to the Government Hospital for the Insane, which was later renamed St Elizabeth's Hospital, where John Hinckley spent his time.

[George Dunham]

What the heck?

[Gordon Keith]

Wow.

[Craig Miller]

Really?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

No idea. That defense was around in the 1830s. I just figured he got hung.

[Craig Miller]

He used to be called the Government Hospital for the Insane, but to soften it, they called it St. Elizabeth's for the Crazy.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, well, yeah, they missed it on the last part. Yes. And they later looked at his weapons, and they were particularly notable. They were vulnerable to moisture, and it was a very humid day, and that contributed to the misfires that happened to save the President's life that day.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

Had no idea about any of that stuff.

[George Dunham]

No. Especially the Davy Crockett thing.

[Gordon Keith]

So we mentioned that there was another president other than Donald Trump who was running for president again and was shot on the campaign trail.

[George Dunham]

I think I may know who it is.

[Gordon Keith]

Who is it?

[George Dunham]

Was it Theodore Roosevelt?

[Gordon Keith]

Teddy Roosevelt?

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

Yes.

[George Dunham]

Okay. This.

[Gordon Keith]

Who in a lot of ways was the biggest badass to ever be president. I mean, his. If you look at his personal life, I mean, he was like a total he man and amazing.

[George Dunham]

Top heavy, but yes.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Had the stupid mustache and the little glasses. He was out John Lennoning John Lennon with the glasses, but yeah. So October 14, 1912. Teddy Roosevelt, he's running for what would have then been an unprecedented third term under the Bull Moose Party, which is another confusing party.

[George Dunham]

Such a great name.

[Gordon Keith]

So I thought they were non consecutive terms, but I guess this was a third consecutive term he was running for. Maybe it just says an unprecedented third term. I thought he had been out. Anyway, we'll track that down.

[George Dunham]

Maybe that was before we had a rule.

[Gordon Keith]

You couldn't do that. That information wasn't available to this reporter at the time of the reporter. That's okay. You're rolling.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, we changed that after fdr, right?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Because it used to just be a tradition set by George Washington. He said, I don't think that any guy should be president more than two terms. And so everyone kind of honored that. Then Teddy Roosevelt, of course, runs for this and then doesn't win it, but FDR does. FDR elected four times World War. So, okay, that's George going into Norm MacDonald. So October 14, 1912, Teddy Roosevelt set to give a speech at the Milwaukee auditorium there in Wisconsin. And there he crossed paths with a mentally ill saloon owner named John Shrank. Could you have named the attempted assassin of Teddy Roosevelt?

[George Dunham]

There's no way.

[Craig Miller]

No, but you have to be right, though, because if this were consecutive, he'd be a president at this moment that we're talking about.

[Gordon Keith]

Yes, exactly. So Schrank had become convinced that Teddy had assassinated William McKinley in 1901.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

And so Schrank waited with the crowd, and when Roosevelt appeared, he fired at Roosevelt with a Colt revolver that he had. So his aim was true. The bullet hits Roosevelt in the chest, but it passes through Roosevelt's thick overcoat, his eyeglasses case, which I think was made of metal. And then it hit his 50 page speech that the President had had taken and doubled over and tucked inside his pocket. So that slows the bullet down as it enters Roosevelt's chest.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

But Roosevelt is shot in the chest in front of this whole crowd and he shouts, don't hurt him. Don't hurt him. Because they're all attacking Shrank at this point. He yells, what did you do it for? Asking? Shrank, Shrank. Doesn't say anything. And so Roosevelt orders him, you know, to be taken away. And then Roosevelt insists on continuing his speaking engagement as planned. They're all like, no, Mr. President. Former president. Still call him Mr. President. Yeah, he says. Roosevelt says to the crowd, friends, I'll ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I've just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose. Everyone goes crazy. Roosevelt then unbuttons his vest to show his bloody shirt. And then he says, fortunately I had my manuscript. I was going to make a long speech and there's where the bullet went through and it probably saved it from going into my heart. So aides are then after he says this, aides are saying, hey, let's get you to the hospital. He says, no, no, I want to keep speaking. I'll give an abbreviated version of this 50 page speech with the bullet in his chest, with him bleeding from the bullet.

[George Dunham]

He's our all time badass.

[Gordon Keith]

And he says, I'll just, I'll make some quick remarks. He then goes on to speak for 90 minutes.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

To the crowd until he finally agrees to go see a doctor.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[George Dunham]

You think his press secretary has given him the signal? Like, come on, just speed it up.

[Gordon Keith]

Blood in your boots. There's blood in your boots now let's go ahead, let's keep it going. In the end, Schrank pleads guilty. He lived out the rest of his days in a state asylum. So also he guys eventually gets into an insane asylum. Teddy Roosevelt loses his bid for reelection. But he had a memento from that event because they didn't take the bullet out, it remained in his body until he died in 1919.

[George Dunham]

Whoa.

[Craig Miller]

So you're our ballistics guy. Are all bulletproof vests made of 50 page speeches?

[Gordon Keith]

No, no, it's not the way it works. Yeah, we have the. You mentioned the Roosevelt one, which ended up. I didn't even remember this. So a guy tried to kill Teddy Roosevelt in 1933, missed Roosevelt, but killed the major FDR or did I say

[George Dunham]

Teddy tried to kill Frank?

[Gordon Keith]

Teddy? No, I've switched to the other Roosevelt here. Teddy Roosevelt. I'm sorry. Franklin Roosevelt.

[Craig Miller]

Somebody tried to kill him. I don't remember this.

[Gordon Keith]

In 1933, someone tries to kill FDR and misses him. Guy gets off five shots, misses him, but kills the mayor of Chicago.

[Craig Miller]

I don't remember that.

[George Dunham]

I think that's why I knew that growing up in Wheat, because it happened in Chicago. Part of our Illinois history.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, yeah. Injured five bystanders, too. And he said that he just hated all officials and everybody who is rich. And he was found guilty and he was executed.

[Craig Miller]

Whoa.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

That's the one that we just looked at, the crazy picture where they apprehended him and they had one guy on one side of him and then one guy was holding a pistol on him.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah, for the picture.

[George Dunham]

It's a very crazy picture.

[Gordon Keith]

More recent crazy ones. I didn't know about the guy who tried to assassinate Richard Nixon with a 747.

[George Dunham]

What?

[Gordon Keith]

Samuel Bick was his name. He was denied a small business loan from the government dude from Philadelphia. And he got focused on Nixon. He thought that basically Nixon was responsible for him not getting a small business loan. So on February 22, 1974, he had a plan to crash a 747 into the white House.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Sound familiar?

[Craig Miller]

It's very. 9 11.

[Gordon Keith]

I know it. He said that he hoped to. He was going to force the pilot to buzz the White House. And as they got towards the White House, he was going to shoot the pilot and then try to grab the controls and steer it into the White House. That is his plan. Ridiculous plan, horrible plan. Yet the guy actually got onto an airplane and shot both the pilot, I think, and the co pilot.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[Craig Miller]

In air.

[Gordon Keith]

No, it was before they'd even taken off. Yeah. He forced his way onto this Delta flight and demanded the pilots try to take off. And they were trying to reason with him, and he shot them both.

[Craig Miller]

How are they going to get airborne then to execute his plan?

[Gordon Keith]

I know he didn't seem like he thought that out. Then he grabs a passenger, demands that the passenger that she fly the plane.

[Craig Miller]

Wow. This guy's crazy.

[Gordon Keith]

So some cops hear this, they rush towards the plane, and one officer fired at him through the airplane window, which I don't even know if you can get through those with a bullet. But then Samuel Bick. Oh, he issued his own judgment to himself.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah. He realized at that moment his plan was not going to work.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

He realized around that time.

[George Dunham]

Yeah.

[Gordon Keith]

The White House that he didn't have enough contingency plans to cover. All right. And then you had the story of Bill Clinton. Also had a plane crash at the White House. I'd forgotten this. Oh, yeah. Of a suicidal man that crashed right outside the Clinton's window.

[Craig Miller]

I remember that.

[Gordon Keith]

And then there was another one where a dude fired, I think, a couple dozen rounds at the White House from out in front of the White House at Clinton when Clinton was in office. That happened. And then you had Clinton, who was traveling in Manila in 1996, and a guide in the motorcade. So Clinton's about to head over this bridge, and one of his Secret Service or one of the military people driving with the motorcade hears something over the radio. And he recognizes it as some kind of code words. He could only make out the word bridge. It was in another language. Hear the word bridge and marriage, which was a code word for assassination, and realizes that the bridge they're about to travel on was loaded with explosives. And he diverts the motorcade.

[Craig Miller]

I remember that, too. That's wild.

[Gordon Keith]

Bin Laden was behind.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, I completely forgot who started that whole thing. Yeah. Whoa.

[Craig Miller]

Remember from our childhood, George, the squeaky from attempt on Gerald Ford to ask about it.

[George Dunham]

He had several attempts on him, didn't he? And that was one of them.

[Craig Miller]

And he was only president for like a year and a half.

[Gordon Keith]

I know. Yeah. Ford. Ford was hated by women, apparently, because the only two presidential assassination would be assassins that were women. Both tried to kill Gerald Ford within a couple weeks of each other.

[Craig Miller]

Really?

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

What was the other one's name?

[Gordon Keith]

The other one was a woman named. I'm certainly glad you asked me that, George. Okay. Sarah Jane Moore.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

And she had a.38 caliber. The squeaky from one that you're talking about that happened in September of 1975. And she, of course, famous from the Manson family. And you may have seen her in the Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She's the one who took care of the old man out at Spahn Ranch. She was his, I guess, kind of lover or hand angel. I don't know what.

[George Dunham]

She was the one where Tarantino again, twist history and totally changes it around a little bit.

[Craig Miller]

That was a good movie.

[Gordon Keith]

But she goes to see Gerald Ford and she has a.45 caliber weapon, a pistol. She pulls the trigger. The gun doesn't fire. The Secret Service agents tackle her. She's saying at the time, it didn't go off. It didn't go off. Can you believe it? It didn't go off as they're tackling her. And she wanted to kill Gerald Ford to make a statement about the environment.

[Craig Miller]

Yeah.

[George Dunham]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

So then 17 days after that, Gerald Ford was leaving a conference in San Francisco, and a woman, the aforementioned Sarah Jane Moore, had the.38 caliber pistol, and she was hoping to spark a revolution. She fires the gun. But a Vietnam veteran named Oliver Sipple noticed the gun at the last second, lunged at her, and I guess knocked it off course and saved Ford's life. Sipple said, I'm not a hero. I'm a live coward. It's probably the scariest thing that's ever happened to me in my whole life. Like, dude, man, cut yourself some slack here. Dude, man saved a.

[George Dunham]

President Trump did say that in the 60 Minutes interview. He said, this has been going on in our country for a long, long time.

[Gordon Keith]

Oh, yeah. And I have not even gotten to the half of all this. There's so much. I mean, you almost do two episodes on this. There was the Trump forklift assassination attempt, which I didn't even remember that. So North Dakota guy stole a forklift and got into the presidential motorcade, and his plan was to overturn the presidential limo with a forklift so he could get at Trump.

[George Dunham]

Wow.

[Gordon Keith]

Something happened in 2017. It's crazy. It's insane. But you mentioned Gerald Ford and you mentioned Squeaky Frome. And I brought a little show and tell for the podcast here. I have a letter here. Giorgio, look who that's from.

[George Dunham]

Well, it's to Ribby Pulse, I guess.

[Gordon Keith]

Yeah. Which is a character that I did on radio, have done on radio for many years.

[Craig Miller]

It's Ribby Pulse, by the way. But people say Pulse.

[Gordon Keith]

People say Pulse. And there's a letter that I have here, mailed in May of 1996 to ribby pulse. It came to our radio station and it was delivered to me, since I'm good friends with. With Ruby Paltz was given to me return address. Lynette Frome from the Shawnee Prison.

[Craig Miller]

I don't remember.

[George Dunham]

I don't remember that either. You've been holding out on us.

[Gordon Keith]

I have a letter here from Squeaky Frome.

[Craig Miller]

Are you kidding me?

[Gordon Keith]

Assassin. Attempted assassin of Gerald Ford.

[George Dunham]

Have you told us that before?

[Gordon Keith]

I don't know if I have.

[George Dunham]

I don't think you have.

[Gordon Keith]

But I had. I didn't even remember it until I was going through a few boxes a couple months ago, and I found this. I'm going, holy hell. I have a letter from Manson family member presidential would be assassin. Squeaky From.

[Craig Miller]

I would think you would have had that framed and hanging in your wall.

[George Dunham]

I would say the same thing. Yes. Hanging in his living room above the fireplace.

[Gordon Keith]

I was about to put it in the shredder two nights ago, and then I realized we were doing this episode, and so I pulled it out for you guys. She writes, dear Ribby.

[Craig Miller]

She wrote, hold on, I need to process this.

[George Dunham]

She wrote it thinking he's a real

[Gordon Keith]

guy, because the only thing I can assume she heard the mug chat. One of our listeners wrote her a letter as Ribby in order to provoke a response so that I would get a very confusing question mark raising letter from Squeaky Frohm.

[Craig Miller]

Okay, that makes a little more sense.

[Gordon Keith]

Says Ribby. What an interesting name. Will you elaborate? Myself? I'm well and still learning to be still. She's gained some Namaste. I'm well and still learning to be still. To override killjoy thoughts whenever they are aimed against me and clearly serve no purpose. To listen, to calm, to sleep when necessary. To let the big God mind do more of the thinking. To let hate work toward and for. Okay, does that make sense to you? No. To let hate work toward and for. To remember. To feel in the midst of legislated numbness.

[Craig Miller]

Okay.

[Gordon Keith]

I try to keep up with the others myself, but we'd all be better off had the others not gone down to ask the parole boards to let them up.

[Craig Miller]

Meaning the Manson clan.

[Gordon Keith]

That is a very sad state of affairs. But I also know why they don't like prison. And how about you signed Lynette from.

[George Dunham]

Did you write her back?

[Gordon Keith]

No, I didn't write her back.

[Craig Miller]

Can I see that?

[Gordon Keith]

Sure.

[George Dunham]

That is so wild.

[Gordon Keith]

Written by the hand that attempted to assassinate your own. Wow. Creepy.

[Craig Miller]

Wow.

[George Dunham]

Maybe she just heard a mock draft

[Gordon Keith]

with Ribby and she didn't hear a mock draft by Ribby and thought, I am going to write this guy.

[George Dunham]

Hey, full repeat, Gordo.

[Gordon Keith]

What? What is that?

[Craig Miller]

Yeah, so this was from Florida. So she wasn't listening, because I don't think back then you could have an app.

[Gordon Keith]

No app. They didn't allow apps in prison back then.

[Craig Miller]

You can barely pick up our signal in Dallas, so there's no way she could get it in Florida.

[George Dunham]

Wow.

[Craig Miller]

That is wild.

[Gordon Keith]

Yes. Yeah. So show and tell and a little bit of history. So maybe. Maybe our podcast listeners learned a little something today. I do. I did.

[George Dunham]

Yeah, I did too.

[Gordon Keith]

I know I did. I did.

[Craig Miller]

And can I say that I've told you guys this before? Things are so divided these days. And when it comes to this topic of presidential assassinations, whether it's Trump in office or Biden in office, there are those group of crazies that want them out of office in any way, even if it's by assassination. And I just think everybody should realize that that would be the worst possible thing for the United States. If our sitting president, whether they're Republican or Democrat or bull moose or independent, if our sitting president is murdered. I just can't. No matter how much you dislike a current president, a past, whatever,

[Gordon Keith]

vote them out. If you don't want them, vote them out. Do what you can to vote them out.

[Craig Miller]

Yes. Because the chance of, especially these days, of our country descending into complete and total chaos after an event like that, I mean, it could be catastrophic. It wouldn't be this cure that a lot of crazies think it would be.

[George Dunham]

Boy, and we see ourselves as selves as being so civilized and just as you said, you got the maybe half of them look at the history of just insane behavior by American citizens thinking that, no, this is the solution here.

[Gordon Keith]

And these are the ones that we know about how many plots are prevented and never came to the surface because we try to do our best to protect an elected president. So, yeah, little history lesson. Thanks to everyone who has listened to the podcast and if you'd like to email us, you can themusers podmail.com that's it. Nailed it. Thanks to Peter Welton, our producer, and thanks to everyone who's been a part of this one. I'm Dale Handsome.

[George Dunham]

The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

[Gordon Keith]

Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

[George Dunham]

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video band from 1987, Hammer Alley.

[Gordon Keith]

Ever heard of them?

[George Dunham]

To rock bottom, dude.

[Gordon Keith]

I was born in 1987. Oh, I can't believe he's doing this.

[George Dunham]

Hammer Alley.

[Gordon Keith]

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