Mehmet Ali Ağca was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Pope John Paul II in May 1981, but the pontiff publicly forgave him and requested his release after 20 years behind bars.
Public DomainMehmet Ali Ağca (right) in court after trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.
On a spring day in 1981, Pope John Paul II entered St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, where he was welcomed by a jubilant crowd. He greeted his supporters and even reached down to pick up a young girl. The pope had just handed the child back to her parents when shots suddenly rang out across the square. Bystanders, including a nun, reacted quickly by apprehending the gunman — a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Ağca.
The pope survived, and Ağca was arrested. But in the years since, the story of his assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II has become ever stranger. Ağca has claimed that he was sent to kill the pontiff by multiple different factions, from Palestinian militants to the Bulgarian secret service. He’s also since claimed to be the Messiah.
So, who was Ağca? What was his life like before 1981, and why did he try to kill the pope? Here’s everything we know about Mehmet Ali Ağca, the would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II.
The Murky Story Of Mehmet Ali Ağca’s Early Life
Born on Jan. 9, 1958, Mehmet Ali Ağca grew up in Turkey’s Malatya province. His family had little money, and Ağca suffered from poor health from a young age. As reported by The New York Times in 1981, his mother told the media that Ağca had seizures until he was 10 years old, as well as “nervous” attacks in which he could not speak to other people. Ağca’s father was a heavy drinker who died when Ağca was eight, and his family was so poor that they could only afford to eat meat every two weeks.
As a young man, Ağca became a member of local street gangs and soon started committing petty theft. In the 1970s, he also purportedly joined the Turkish ultra-nationalist group known as the Grey Wolves, which is believed to be behind the assassinations of scores of government officials, labor organizers, journalists, and left-wing activists in Turkey.
Then, in 1979, Ağca committed his first major act of violence. On Feb. 1, 1979, he murdered a politically liberal newspaper editor named Abdi İpekçi. Ağca was arrested that June, but he managed to escape from prison in November.
Wikimedia CommonsAbdi İpekçi, the journalist murdered by Mehmet Ali Ağca in 1979.
He left behind a letter that hinted at his future actions. Writing about the imminent visit of Pope John Paul II to Turkey, Ağca stated: “Western imperialists who are afraid of Turkey’s unity of political, military, and economic power with the brotherly Islamic countries are sending Crusader Commander John Paul under the mask of a religious leader. If this ill-timed and meaningless visit is not called off, I will definitely shoot the pope. This is the only reason I escaped from prison.”
The pope’s visit passed peacefully, however, and Mehmet Ali Ağca appeared to have vanished from the face of the Earth.
That is, until May 1981.
The Attempted Assassination Of Pope John Paul II
Between November 1979 and May 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca seemingly traveled the globe. The New York Times tracked his movements from Turkey to Iran to various countries in Europe, and finally, at the end of 1980, to Italy. Despite being a wanted man, Ağca was somehow able to avoid detection. But on May 13, 1981, he stepped out of the shadows.
Around 5 p.m. that afternoon, Ağca made his way to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, where Pope John Paul II was greeting a crowd of 20,000. The mood was jovial, and the pope gave blessings and kissed babies as he made his way through the crowd in his “Popemobile.”
Then, Ağca stepped forward from the crowd. Just after the pope handed a little girl back to her parents, the 23-year-old raised his pistol and fired four shots at Pope John Paul II.
Public DomainPope John Paul II shortly after he was shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca on May 13, 1981.
The pontiff, his white cassock suddenly covered in blood, slumped back. He had been struck in the abdomen, right arm, and left hand. One of the bullets had narrowly missed his heart, but the pope was alive and conscious enough to murmur, “I feel great pain.”
Meanwhile, the crowd reacted quickly and apprehended Ağca before he could escape. Investigators found a handwritten note in his pocket that suggested a motive. It read: “I am killing the pope as a protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States and against the genocide that is being carried out in Salvador and Afghanistan.”
However, Mehmet Ali Ağca has changed the story of why he wanted to kill Pope John Paul II several times in the decades since the failed assassination attempt.
Mehmet Ali Ağca’s Life Behind Bars
In July 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca was sentenced to life in prison in Italy. At first, he stated that he had acted alone. But Ağca would ultimately claim that the assassination had been ordered by different factions, including Palestinian militants, the Bulgarian secret service, and the Soviet KGB.
Public DomainA small plaque in Vatican City marks the place where Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope Paul John II in 1981.
In 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Ağca in prison and forgave him for the shooting. Then, in 2000, the pontiff urged the Italian president to pardon Ağca. He was released that June and extradited back to Turkey. There, he served time for the murder of İpekçi, and he was freed once more in 2010.
“I proclaim the end of the world,” Mehmet Ali Ağca declared upon his release from prison, as reported by The Guardian at the time. “All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century… I am the Christ eternal.”
In addition to claiming that he was the Messiah, Ağca offered to help Dan Brown (author of The Da Vinci Code) write a book and volunteered to kill Osama bin Laden.
And though Ağca also promised to reveal more about his motive to kill the pope, he never quite kept his word. He did, however, make his way back to Vatican City in 2014 to lay flowers on Pope John Paul II’s grave. (The pontiff died in 2005.) Ağca also asked for an audience with Pope Francis at the time, but this request was swiftly denied by Vatican officials.
euronews/YouTubeMehmet Ali Ağca during his 2014 visit to Vatican City.
“He has put flowers on the tomb of John Paul II. I think that is enough,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told La Repubblica at the time.
So, why did Mehmet Ali Ağca try to kill the pope? Despite his claims of conspiracy, it seems that the former “Gray Wolf” was a mere “lone wolf,” as most assassins are. His ties to the Bulgarian secret service, KGB agents, or any other group have never been definitively proven, and Ağca has only ever been consistent in his inconsistency.
In fact, despite his delusions of grandeur, he is just a footnote in history. In Vatican City, only a small plaque, invisible and forgotten to most of the tens of thousands who pass by it every day, marks the spot where he tried to kill a pope — and failed.
After reading about Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, discover the strange story of the Cadaver Synod, when a pope tried to put the corpse of his predecessor on trial. Or, learn about Pope Joan, the alleged female pope.
