Posted on 08/23/2007 8:17:54 AM PDT by RightWhale
http://www.who2.com/arthurbremer.html
21-year-old Arthur Bremer shot Alabama governor George Wallace at a presidential campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland on 15 May 1972.
Arthur Bremer, 57, is due to be released after serving 35 years of the 53 year sentence for the attempted assassination of George Wallace.
Wow its been 35 years...
Not enough.
It was the best thing to ever happen to Wallace. He got his life straightened out from it.
From Wikipedia:
Arthur Bremer was the fourth of five children of truck driver William Bremer and his homemaker wife Sylvia. He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in a working-class household. The one-paycheck family of seven was financially troubled and William soothed his tensions with booze, which exacerbated his tendency toward withdrawal. This frustrated Sylvia, leading her to lash out, causing many noisy arguments in the household. Sometimes an infuriated Sylvia would lock her husband out of the house. At other times, she got back at him by refusing to cook meals. Arthur’s relations with both parents were cool and distant, but out of the two he was closer to his father, who tried in his own way to be a good parent by taking his children to parades and once on a vacation to a lake. Bremer wrote in a school essay that he often pretended he “was living with a television family and there was no yelling at home and no one hit me.”
Arthur didn’t speak until he was four years old. However, when he entered school, teachers believed him to be slightly above average in intelligence. In high-school he scored a 106 on an IQ test, though after his arrest, he scored around 114.[1] Bremer did quite well at English and History and displayed a talent for writing, though he was always an atrocious speller. His grades were generally mediocre though in school, which itself was an ordeal for Bremer, who could not make friends. Other children did not invite him into playground games, choosing instead to either ignore or taunt him. Bremer wrote, “No English or history test was ever as hard, no math final exam ever as difficult as waiting in a school lunch line alone, waiting to eat alone ... while hundreds huddled & gossiped and roared, & laughed and stared at me ...” and “No one ever noticed me nor took interest in me as an individual with the need to receive or give love. In junior high school, I was an object of pure ridicule for my dress, withdrawal, and asocial manner. Dozens of times, I saw individuals laugh and smile more in ten to fifteen minutes than I did in all my life up to then”.[2]
One Teacher wrote it was a pleasure to have Bremer in class, but when he was in the third grade, another wrote that “Arthur has adjusted well in class but hasn’t made an effort as of yet to play with the other children at recess”.[3]
Bremer was not the type of youth who attracted concern because he wasn’t rebellious. Instead, he was the sort of adolescent who was in emotional trouble but whose problems were easily overlooked because they did not involve the kind of transgressions that authority figures focus on. Despite his problems, he managed to graduate from high school on 28 January 1969.[4]
After graduating, Bremer worked as a busboy at the Men’s Grill in the Milwaukee Athletic Club and also added an additional $2.70 an hour job as a janitor at Story Elementary School from the fall of 1970 onwards. At the time he obtained his second job, he also studied photography at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. However, after registering for the spring 1971 semester at MATC, Bremer dropped out and then moved out of his parents’ home on 16 October 1971 after a major fall-out with his parents.
At the Athletic club, Bremer was described as “a very good worker, very dependable” but one waitress said he was “weird”. Another said that “No one knew much about him. He did his job and kept himself to himself”. However, just after moving out of his parents home, he was demoted to kitchen work at the Athletic Club after patrons complained that he mumbled and talked to himself, whistled and marched in time to music that was played in the dining room. Unhappy with this demotion, he filed a complaint with the Milwaukee Community Relations Commission which rejected Bremer’s complaint and found it was bordering on paranoia.
Residents of the apartment building at 2433 West Michigan Street to which Bremer moved noted that he always had the same wardrobe: blue suit, white shirt and gray tie. He saw no member of his family from just after Christmas 1971 up to his arrest in May 1972. In one instance during a snowstorm in the winter of 1971/1972, Bremer chose to drive his car back and forth over the fallen snow, instead of shoveling it.
[edit] Previous arrest
It seems that the year 1971 was an Annus Horribilis for Bremer. As well as the major fall-out with his parents in October, a friend of his (Bremer had hardly any friends) died of a drug overdose on 22 May. Bremer was arrested for the first time in his life on 18 November 1971 for carrying a concealed weapon and for parking his car in a no-parking zone. After undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, he was fined for disorderly conduct a month later. Despite this, Bremer was still able to purchase a Charter Arms .38 caliber pistol on January 13, 1972 from Casanova Guns, Inc.
[edit] Romantic relationship
While working at his janitor job, in the fall of 1971 Bremer met Joan Pemrich, a 16-year old Hall monitor. Despite Bremer’s inappropriate behavior, the couple went out on three dates. Knowing little of girls and women in the real world, on his first date, Bremer displayed pornographic pictures to Pemrich and made a lot of graphic sex talk. He said he could help her with her hang-ups as he claimed to know a lot about psychology.
Bremer’s inappropriate behavior also showed itself at a Blood, Sweat and Tears concert. Trying to act the suave lothario and attempting to demonstrate his new “man about town” cool, Bremer pressed a kiss on a woman who was not in his group whilst queueing to get into the concert. The woman promptly reported his action to a police officer who let Bremer off with a warning. During the concert, Bremer attempted to impress Pemrich and her friends by dramatically dancing in his seat and clapping when no one else was and swaying back and forth during the concert. After the concert, Bremer excitedly whispered to Pemrich that he was so aroused he could hardly walk.
After this, Pemrich dumped Bremer. He repeatedly phoned her, begging her to see him again but Pemrich flatly refused. He then shaved off all of his long hair “to show that inside I feel as empty as my shaved head”. Catching up with her, he pulled off his knit cap and showed her his bald pate (only his sideburns remained). After seeing it, Pemrich walked away from Bremer without speaking to him.
The now bald head caused another embarrassment for Bremer. On 15 January 1972 the school at which he worked had a dance and Bremer was on hand to help clean up. Some of his ex-girlfriend’s friends visited the place to have a look at his baldness. They got there when the lights were out. When the lights went on, the girls saw Bremer’s bald shiny head and burst out laughing at him.
[edit] Planning an assassination
Bremer quit his janitor job on 16 February. Two weeks later, on March 1, 1972 he began his diary with the words, “It is my personal plan to assassinate by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace”. His purpose was “to do SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC, FORCEFULL & DYNAMIC, A STATEMENT of my manhood for the world to see”.[5]
On 23 March, Bremer attended a Wallace dinner and rally at Milwaukee’s Red Carpet Airport Inn. At the time though, the main focus of Bremer’s activities was to assassinate President Nixon. Bremer hoped that his act would result in his death and create infamy for himself. On 4 April 1972 he flew to New York to visit a massage parlour in the hope of losing his virginity and stayed at the Waldorf Hotel. That evening he appeared at a Wallace victory rally. On 8 April, he slipped the weapon under a mat in the trunk of his car, but it went down so deeply under the right wheel well that he could not get it back out again. It was removed a week after Bremer’s arrest when the car was dismantled. Bremer had other guns with him but in his New York hotel room, his Browning .38 automatic went off accidentally.
On 10 April Bremer travelled to Ottawa and stayed at the Lord Elgin hotel. Four days later, Nixon made a public appearance in a Limousine at Parliament Hill. Bremer was dressed in a business suit, wearing sunglasses, with a revolver in his pocket hoping to assassinate the President, but security was tight, due to presence of Vietnam War protesters and Canadian nationalists. Ottawa police officers guarded the motorcade’s path, making it impossible for anyone to get close to Nixon. Bremer was also unsure whether any bullets would go through the glass of Nixon’s Limousine. As a result, he didn’t open fire and the President sped past unharmed.
Bremer left Canada the following day, staying at the Sheraton Motor Inn in New Carrollton, Maryland for three days. After this he returned to Milwaukee. On 24 April he stated that “I’m as important as the start of WW1. I just need the little opening and a second of time”.
However, having realized it would be near impossible to assassinate Nixon, on 4 May he decided that Wallace would have the “honor” of being his victim, even though his diary entries never showed the same enthusiasm as they did with regards to assassinating Nixon, with entries such as “Who the hell ever got buried in ‘Bama for being great?” and “To this man it seems only another failure. I won’t even rate a TV enteroption [sic] in Russia or Europe when the news breaks. He won’t get more than 3 minutes on network TV news”.[6]
[edit] Events leading up to the shooting
Despite his lack of enthusiasm for assassinating Wallace, on 8 May Bremer left his Milwaukee apartment for what was to be the final time. He travelled east in the 1967 blue Rambler going to Maryland. On 9 May Bremer visited Wallace headquarters in Silver Spring and offered to work in the campaign. On the evening of 10 May he attended a Wallace rally in Cadillac, Michigan.
The following day he was in Michigan. Bremer attended a Wallace rally on the evening of 13 May in Kalamazoo which passed off without any incident. He had the chance to shoot his target but didn’t because, according to his diary, he could have shattered some glass and blinded some “stupid 15-year-olds” who stood nearby. He made his final diary entry the following day, 14 May 1972, when he travelled to Maryland for the third time in a month. The final words in the diary were “My cry upon firing will be “A penny for your thoughts”. Copyright 1972. All rights reserved. Arthur H. Bremer”.
[edit] The shooting
Bremer turned up in Wheaton, Maryland, for a noon appearance as Wallace was making at a shopping-center rally on 15 May 1972 dressed in dark glasses, patriotic red, white and blue and wearing his new campaign button which said “WALLACE in ‘72”. He strongly applauded everything Wallace said, which was in contrast with many others who heckled and taunted Wallace. Two tomatoes were thrown at Wallace during the rally, but missed. Based on this reception, Wallace refused to shake hands with those present, denying Bremer the opportunity to carry out his plan.
At the second rally, which took place at Laurel Shopping Center, 16 miles away, there was minor heckling early on but that didn’t last. About 1,000 people were present and they were mostly quiet and listened approvingly to what Wallace said. After he had finished speaking, Wallace shook hands with some of those present, against the advice of his Secret Service guards. At approximately 4:00 p.m., a few minutes after the rally ended, Bremer pushed his way forward, stuck his gun in Wallace’s stomach and opened fire, emptying the weapon before he could be subdued. He hit Wallace four times. Wallace lost a pint of blood and was in a mild state of shock. One bullet lodged in his spinal cord; the others hit Wallace in the abdomen and chest. Three other people present were wounded accidentally: Alabama State Trooper Captain E C Dothard (Wallace’s personal bodyguard), Dora Thompson (a campaign volunteer) and Nick Zarvos (a Secret Service agent). They all made a full recovery.
[edit] Aftermath
After Bremer’s arrest, his apartment was searched. Found were Wallace campaign buttons, a Confederate flag, boxes of shells, old high school themed pornographic magazines, Black Panther literature, a booklet entitled 101 Things To Do in Jail and various newspaper clippings, including one on the difficulty of providing security for campaigning politicians. In Bremer’s diary were comments such as “My country tis of thee land of sweet bigotry”, “Never say colored, say Negro, so here is a negro card”, “My blood is black”, “Cheer up Oswald”, “White collared, male, suburban, republican robot”, “A Thundering of hooves and out of the western sky came the colored man” and “If I live tomorrow then it will be a long time”.
Police described Bremer’s car as a “hotel on wheels”. 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 1972 copy of a Writer’s Yearbook, two books on the assassination of Robert Kennedy entitled Sirhan and RFK Must Die, and a Browning 9mm semiautomatic pistol. From 8 May 1972 to the day of his arrest Bremer had slept in his car.
During his subsequent trial in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which was condensed to a 5-day morning to twilight event to accommodate presiding Judge Ralph W. Powers’ upcoming vacation plans and held only two and a half months after Bremer shot Wallace, the defense argued that Bremer was legally insane at the time of the shooting and that he had “no emotional capacity to understand anything”, but the jury rejected this argument, after the prosecution countered that he was perfectly sane. Arthur Marshall for the prosecution, told the court that Bremer, whilst obviously disturbed and in need of Psychiatric treatment, as well as being full of hate and feelings of intense humiliation, was sane, knew what he was doing, had been seeking glory and was still sorry that Wallace had not died. Marshall said that Bremer “Knew he would be arrested... He knew he would be on trial”.
On 4 August 1972 the jury of six men and six women took just over an hour and a half to reach their verdict. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison shooting Wallace and three other people. When asked if he had anything to say, Bremer replied “Well, Mr. Marshall [the prosecutor] mentioned that he would like society to be protected from someone like me. Looking back on my life I would have liked it if society had protected me from myself. That’s all I have to say at this time”.
The sentence was reduced to 53 years on 28 September after an appeal.
Doesn’t the “He needed shootin’” defense apply here?
I remember exactly where I was....driving on the Capital Beltway near College Park Maryland when I heard the news he’d been shot up the road in Laurel.
Sometimes threads are posted immediately and even in duplicate, and sometimes half a day goes by and nothing.
Laurel Shopping Center has really gone downhill since then. Hardly anybody shops there anymore.
I wonder how much time the average murderer serves in Maryland nowadays, bearing in mind that Bremer didn’t actually murder anyone?
I don’t know, but the entire Wallace assassination seems like a murky incident.
So they’re releasing a sociopath back into society and betting he won’t do anything crazy.
The neighborhood deteriorated to the point it just wasn't safe enough for shoppers.
Maybe that's because it wasn't actually an assassination since Wallace survived.
Don’t know if he’s a sociopath, but he is being released into the general public.
That’s an interesting point and many wouldn’t count the incident as an assassination because the victim survived, but the victim need not actually become deceased for such an attack to be classified as an assassination.
Attempted assassination,
A friend's son was murdered 20 years ago and she has to go to a parole hearing in a couple of months, it's not the first one she's been to, it will be the third one. She's afraid they are going to let the woman out that killed her son. I don't tell her but I believe they will this time.
It was more than attempted. Wallace was taken out of the campaign, so it was successful to that extent.
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