Luckiest assassination escapes - including 50 pages of notes that saved president
dailystar.co.ukassassinated while in office.But 13 more commanders-in-chief escaped attempts on their lives thanks to diligent guards, heroic bystanders, misfiring pistols and in some cases, sheer luck.Here we'll look at some of the luckiest and most unlikely of escapes.The first to survive such an attempt was Andrew Jackson in 1835.Richard Lawrence, an out-of-work house painter who believed he was King Richard III, walked into the US Capitol building, brandishing a pistol.The gun misfired, before Lawrence drew a second pistol, which also misfired.According to legend, Jackson then subsequently flew at the man and thrashed him with his cane.
Whether or not that's true, Lawrence's assassination attempt was unsuccessful.Lincoln's death is well-known – having been assassinated by Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth in 1865, just five days after the surrender of Robert E.
Lee – the overall commander of the Confederate Army.But a year prior to that, as he was horse riding, a sniper shot narrowly missed the President's skull, instead managing to knock his hat off.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.Theodore Roosevelt arguably had the luckiest of all escapes when he was shot in 1912.He was saved by the length of his speech after an assassin shot him in the chest while campaigning for the presidency.The 50 pages worth of notes, along with his metal glasses case which were located in his breast pocket slowed the bullet and saved his life.Remarkably, he continued to speak, letting the audience know he had been shot.He said: "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible.
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