80 years ago on this
date, March 20, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara was executed by the electric chair for the
assassin of Chicago mayor, Anton Cermak on 15 February that year. He was put to
death exactly 32 days after the murder, it was a swift and sure execution. As
he was arrested on the spot, there is no way any abolitionist can say he was
innocent, he was guilty beyond any doubt. I got the information from Wikipedia.
Mug shot of Giuseppe Zangara following his
arrest.
|
Born
|
September
7, 1900
Ferruzzano, Calabria, Kingdom of Italy |
Died
|
March 20,
1933 (aged 32)
Florida State Prison, Raiford, Florida, U.S. |
Charge(s)
|
First-degree
murder
|
Penalty
|
Death by
electric chair
|
Conviction
status
|
Deceased
|
Occupation
|
Bricklayer
|
Giuseppe Zangara (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was the
assassin of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak,
though United States President–elect Franklin D. Roosevelt may have been his
intended target. Roosevelt escaped injury, but five people were shot including
Cermak.
Early
life
Zangara
was born in Ferruzzano, Calabria, Italy. After serving in the Tyrolian Alps in
World War I, Zangara did a variety of menial jobs in his home village before
emigrating with his uncle to the United States in 1923. He settled in Paterson,
New Jersey and on September 11, 1929, he became a naturalized citizen of the
United States.
Physical
health problems
Zangara,
a poorly educated bricklayer, suffered severe pain in his abdomen, later
attributed to adhesions of the gall bladder, possibly originating from an
appendectomy performed in 1926. These adhesions were later cited as a cause for
his increasing mental delusions. It became increasingly difficult for him to
work due to both his physical and mental conditions.
Anton Cermak
|
Assassination
attempt
On
February 15, 1933, Roosevelt was giving an impromptu speech from the back of an
open car in the Bayfront Park area of Miami, Florida, where Zangara was living,
working the occasional odd job, and living off his savings. Zangara joined the
crowd, armed with a .32-caliber pistol he had bought at a local pawn shop.
However, being only five feet tall, he was unable to see over other people, and
had to stand on a wobbly folding metal chair, peering over the hat of Lillian
Cross to get a clear aim at his target. After the first shot, Cross and others
grabbed his arm, and he fired four more shots wildly. Five people were hit,
including Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing on the running board of
the car next to Roosevelt. En route to the hospital, Cermak allegedly told FDR,
"I'm glad it was me instead of you", words now inscribed on a plaque
in Bayfront Park.
Aftermath
In
the Dade County Courthouse jail, Zangara confessed and stated: "I have the gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents
first and next all capitalists." He pleaded guilty to four counts
of attempted murder and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. As he was led out
of the courtroom, Zangara told the judge: "Four times 20 is 80. Oh, judge,
don't be stingy. Give me a hundred years." The judge, aware that Cermak
might not survive his wounds, replied: "Maybe there will be more
later."
Cermak
died of peritonitis 19 days later, on March 6, 1933, two days after Roosevelt's
inauguration. Zangara was promptly indicted for first-degree murder in Cermak's
death. Because Zangara had intended to commit murder, it was irrelevant that
his intended target may not have been the man he ultimately killed. In that
case, he would still be guilty of murder under the doctrine of transferred
intent. Circuit Court Judge Uly Thompson sentenced Zangara to death.
Zangara
pleaded guilty to the additional murder charge, and was sentenced to die.
Zangara said after hearing his sentence: "You give
me electric chair. I no afraid of that chair! You one of capitalists. You is
crook man too. Put me in electric chair. I no care!" Under Florida
law, a convicted murderer could not share cell space with another prisoner
before his execution, but another convicted murderer was already awaiting
execution at Raiford. Zangara's sentence required prison officials to expand
their waiting area, and the "death cell" became "Death
Row".
Execution
On
March 20, 1933, after spending only 10 days on Death Row, Zangara was executed
in Old Sparky, the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.
Zangara became enraged when he learned no newsreel cameras would be filming his
final moments. Zangara's final statement was "Viva
Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere! [...] Push the button!"
Motivations
Raymond
Moley interviewed Zangara and believed he was not part of any larger plot, and
that he had intended to kill Roosevelt.
Alternative
theories have circulated, especially in Chicago, where there were rumors that
Zangara was a hired killer, working for Frank Nitti, who was the head of the Chicago Outfit (Chicago's largest organized-crime
syndicate). Allegedly, Mayor Cermak was the real target, because of his pledge
to clean up the rampant gang violence in Chicago. Another speculation is that
Cermak was connected to the Outfit's underworld rivals.
Some
versions of this story assert that Zangara was a diversion for a second gunman
who was to shoot Cermak; but this alleged second gunman was never seen.
Another
point is that Zangara had been an expert marksman in the Italian Army (though
not with a pistol from a great distance), and would presumably hit his target,
so perhaps Cermak was the intended victim.
In
popular culture
Zangara
was played by Eddie Korbich in the original Off-Broadway production of Assassins
by Stephen Sondheim. In later productions he was played by Paul Harrhy in
London and by Jeffrey Kuhn in the show's original Broadway production.
Appearing in several songs from the play, he has a major solo in the number,
"How I Saved Roosevelt".
Zangara
plays a significant role in the background provided for Philip K. Dick's The
Man in the High Castle. The alternate history novel begins with the premise
that Zangara succeeded in assassinating Franklin D. Roosevelt, using this
historical event as its point of divergence.
In
1960, in a two-part story line on the TV show The Untouchables, actor
Joe Mantell played the part of Giuseppe "Joe" Zangara. This episode
focuses on Nitti's plan to kill Mayor Cermak, which fails, thanks to Eliot
Ness. But Ness's successful prevention of Nitti's assassination plot is quickly
undercut when Zangara does the deed. The shows were originally aired February
25 and March 3, 1960.
Max
Allan Collins' 1983 novel, True Detective, first in the Nathan Heller
mystery series, features Zangara's attempted assassination of Roosevelt,
positing it as an actual attempt on Chicago's mayor at the time, Anton Cermak.
The novel won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover from the Private
Eye Writers of America.
The
2011 fantasy noir novel Spellbound by Larry Correia features Zangara's
attempted assassination of FDR. Zangara is magically enhanced in a plot to
inflame bigotry and curtail the civil rights of the magically gifted
protagonists of the Grimnoir Society. Instead of using a small caliber handgun,
Zangara is made into a living cannon or bomb, and kills nearly 200 onlookers
including Mayor Cermak and crippling Roosevelt.
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