The Most Famous Failed Assassinations

On Oct. 29, 1994, Francisco Martin Duran, a dishonorably discharged Army veteran, pulled out a semiautomatic weapon and opened fire on who he thought was President Bill Clinton. The bullets hit the White House but did not come near the intended target. Not only did Duran miss, it wasn’t the president at all, but a New York businessman getting a private tour of the White House. It wouldn’t be the last attempt on Clinton. In November of 1996, security foiled a plot in the Philippines in which would-be assassins working with Osama bin Laden planted a bomb underneath a bridge that Clinton was due to cross while traveling in Manila.

Jean Chretien, who was Prime Minister of Canada, can thank his wife Aline for foiling an attempt on his life. Aline Chretien was startled by noises early Sunday morning on Nov. 5, 1995, and found a man brandishing a knife in their home in Ottawa. She locked the doors to their bedroom and they called the police who arrested André Dallaire, a man from Quebec. A judge ruled Dallaire guilty of attempted murder but it was determined he was not responsible for his actions after he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

George Harrison, a musician who espoused peace and love, was the victim of a violent attack. The former Beatle was stabbed in the chest at his home in Henley-on-Thames in the United Kingdom by a man from Liverpool who authorities said was obsessed with the Beatles. Harrison and his wife Olivia were treated for injuries and ultimately survived the attack. Harrison, who died in 2001 after a long bout with lung cancer, had been the target of death threats over the years.

Rapper 50 Cent survived an assassination attempt in 2000, despite getting nine bullets in his body. The rapper from Queens was targeted by three shooters hired by drug kingpin Kenneth McGriff, who objected to the fact that he was mentioned in a song by 50 Cent (born Curtis James Jackson III).

Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, was shot at a shopping mall in Tucson in an attack that killed six people, including a judge and a 9-year-old girl. Giffords survived the attack and continued to serve in the House of Representatives until January of 2012. The attack brought renewed focus on the bitter divide over gun rights in the United States. Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, started the website Americans for Responsible Solutions, which seeks to reduce gun violence and support responsible gun ownership. Loughner was sentenced to life without parole in 2012.