The Presidential Assassination Attempts That Targeted Bill Clinton
Public DomainBill Clinton at his 1997 State of the Union address.
Bill Clinton was a fairly popular president — despite his infamous impeachment — who left office with a 65 percent approval rating. But a number of would-be assassins tried to take his life while he was in office.
In January 1994, Ronald Gene Barbour, an unemployed limousine driver, traveled to Washington, D.C. with a gun. Apparently, he had wanted to shoot Clinton during one of his morning jogs. Barbour had even openly talked about killing the president with some of his neighbors.
Unfortunately for Barbour, and fortunately for Clinton, the president was out of the country at the time. Barbour returned home, where he was soon arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.
Two more unnerving events happened that year. In September, a suicidal man flew a small plane onto the White House lawn — landing just beneath the Clintons’ window. Though most agreed that his goal was not to kill Clinton, the plane crash raised questions about White House security.
TwitterFrank Eugene Corder crashed his plane on the White House grounds in 1994.
Just a month later, a disgraced military veteran named Francisco Martin Duran fired two dozen shots at the White House. He was later convicted of trying to kill the president and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
But no presidential assassination attempt against Clinton was as alarming as the one in Manila in 1996. That time, the president narrowly escaped an attempt on his life by the 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
As the president’s motorcade barrelled toward a bridge rigged with a bomb, a quick-thinking intelligence officer managed to divert the president at the last minute, ensuring his safety.
In the end, these presidential assassination attempts range from sad to shocking to strange. They also prove that the little things — a lengthy speech, an afternoon nap — can be the difference between life and death.
After reading about the most bizarre presidential assassination attempts, view some of the most haunting Kennedy assassination photos. Then, take a look at some of the most shocking assassination photos from history.
