9 Assassinations of Public Figures Caught On Camera
Human history is replete with the assassinations of public figures. From Julius Caesar to Abraham Lincoln, these leaders have found themselves at the business end of an assassin's weapon, and the repercussions of which have shaped history as we know it today. But while people who were actually there have provided us with detailed narratives, no footages of these murders were ever taken, for the obvious reason that motion pictures were yet unheard of at the time these events took place.
But with the invention of film during the 20th century, man has become capable of capturing, recording and preserving some of the most shocking moments in human history, political assassinations included. And accessing and viewing them have become all the easier with the advent of the Internet and YouTube, where we and future generations can satisfy our morbid curiosities and watch these assassinations caught on camera over and over again.
Warning: disturbing images
1. King Alexander I
The assassination of Alexander I, the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was one of the first assassinations captured on film. He was shot by Vlado Chernozemski as he was being driven in a car through the streets of Marseilles, France on October 9, 1934. Also killed on that fateful day were French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, the King's chauffeur and Chernozemski himself.
2. Inejiro Asanuma
On October 12, 1960, a 17-year-old extreme rightist named Otoya Yamaguchi fatally stabbed Inejiro Asanuma, head of the Japanese Socialist Party, as he was delivering a live televised speech.
3. John F. Kennedy
This is the infamous film shot by Abraham Zapruder of the JFK assassination, widely regarded as the most complete (and gruesome) visual record of the event.
4. Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald, purported assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed on live TV by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1968, two days after the death of the American president. He was being transferred to the Dallas County Jail at the time of the murder.
5. Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of slain US President John F, Kennedy, was assassinated on June 5, 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, just a day after winning the California primary in his bid for the Democratic party presidential nomination.
6. Anwar Al-Sadat
President Anwar Al-Sadat of Egypt was assassinated by soldiers who were taking part in an annual victory parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981. Eleven other people were killed in the brazen attack, including the Cuban ambassador, while Vice President Hosni Mubarak and 27 others suffered wounds.
7. Benigno Aquino Jr.
Top Philippine opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head on August 21, 1983 as he walked down the steps of the airplane that took him home to the Philippines after years of exile in the United States. Rolando Galman, Aquino's alleged assassin, was also shot dead by airport security men on the tarmac of the then-Manila International Airport. The claim that Galman was the shooter, however, has since been widely discredited, and several of Aquino's escorts, all military men, have been convicted of the murder and are now serving lengthy jail terms.
8. Yitzhak Rabin
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was leaving a mass rally in Tel Aviv drumming up support for the Oslo Accords, the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, when Yigal Amir, a radical right-wing Orthodox Jew opposed to the agreement, shot him with a semi-automatic pistol. He died 40 minutes later at a nearby hospital.
9. Benazir Bhutto
There has been a debate on what really killed Benazir Bhutto, former Prime minister of Pakistan, on December 27, 2007. The video above, however, seems to show that she was shot by a gunman as she was standing through the sunroof of her bulletproof car waving to supporters, before a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the vehicle and killed approximately 20 more people.
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