Killing the Presidents: Presidential Assassinations and Assassination Attempts, by Nicholas Vulich

Six stars

My love of all things historical, especially those of a political nature, drew me to this short book/pamphlet by Nick Vulich. It serves as an overview on American presidential assassinations, as well as attempts that have been made on POTUS. Vulich lays the groundwork for each assassination (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy), both historic and geographic, as well as offering a background on the assassin. Where possible, Vulich also discusses any legal action taken thereafter and sentence rendered by the courts. The latter portion of the piece looks briefly into the attempts made on presidents and how they failed, though this is far less encompassing in its detail. With direct quotes and a few references to eyewitness accounts, Vulich does well to show the reader what happened and the mindset of the person responsible for the act. A decent read for your morning coffee period.

Vulich likely never expected his printed piece to be anything other than a primer, and its superficial detail leads me to feel that is the case. It could be the basis for an explosive book, should each of the five assassinations be drawn out and explored with much historical documentation. It is surely something I would read, as I love lesser-known history that is not rote memorisation from history textbooks. While I noted that Vulich is not in the market to write such a tome, I wonder if any historian would take up the challenge and compile something of this nature. Where things fell short for me came in some of the typographical or grammatical errors, something that, in such a short piece, could easily have been caught by a third or fourth eye. In reading it once, they leapt out at me, which confuses me, as it made it through enough hands to be published (electronically) and pushed out to the public. Such things can sully a well-written piece and I cannot brush them off

Well done, Mr. Vulich for piquing my interest and making me want to read more on the subject. I will have to look around for some of your other work, sure to be equally as interesting.