Tahir Rahman, MD

 

Assassin comes from the Italian and French term Assissini, believed to derive from the word hashshashin which shares its word origin with hashish. It originally referred to religious fanatics.

In keeping with this original meaning, assassins belong to the same ilk or subculture-- a fanatical desire to achieve fame, notoriety and a special place in history. Historical and political cultures as well as the attackers they spawn come in waves. Their grievances are often rooted in narcissism and a grandiose sense of self. They often pattern their behavior after other assassins but are ideologically framed within their unique moment in history.

 

John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln)

Booth was a famous actor and rigorously defended the Confederate culture of slavery and white supremacy. He saw President Lincoln as a tyrant who was taking away white Southerners’ rights to have an independent Confederacy, with slavery at its core. After shooting Lincoln at Ford's theater on April 14, 1865, he relished, amplified and defended his actions by exclaiming on stage, "Sic Semper Tyrannis," which means "thus always to tyrants." Booth and his conspirators shared in the radical belief that the assassination of President Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward would disrupt the United States government, allowing the Confederacy to re-establish itself.

Charles Giteau (Garfield)

Guiteau described himself as "a lawyer, a theologian and politician," but had little in the way of actual accomplishments. He wrote an obscure speech called "Garfield vs Hancock" and saw himself as an important Republican Stalwart. He held a grandiose belief that his work for the party was critical to Garfield's election to the presidency. Guiteau made personal requests to Garfield and his cabinet for employment, but he was continually rejected. He made the decision to assassinate Garfield, allowing Vice President Chester A. Arthur to become President.

He wrote an address (a manifesto) to the American people, accusing Garfield of "the basest ingratitude to the Stalwarts" and said the president was on a course to "wreck the once grand old Republican party." He wrote that assassination, was "not murder; it is a political necessity" and "I leave my justification to God and the American people." Guiteau, believed himself as "a Stalwart of the Stalwarts,"
and wrote that "the President...will be happier in Paradise than here." He ended his note with a self-incriminating statement, "I am going to jail."

On July 2, 1881, he shot Garfield at a railroad station in Washington, D.C. As he surrendered to authorities, Guiteau said: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. ... Arthur is president now!" This statement along with other evidence presented at trial showed that he relished, amplified and defended his actions. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

On the scaffold, he delivered a "last dying prayer" in which he declared that God "did inspire the act for which I am now murdered." He called President Arthur a "a coward and an ingrate whose ingratitude to the man that made him and saved his party and land from overthrow has no parallel in history." Then, as a last request, he recited a poem "that I wrote this morning about 10 o'clock" called "I am going to the Lordy."

Having failed in work, family and most other areas of life, Giteau relished in the idea of fame-- and that others who shared in his political beliefs (opponents of President Garfield) would approve of his actions and make him a hero or patriot. Indeed, at his trial he compared himself to George Washington and Ulyesses S. Grant.

Leon Czolgosz (McKinley)

Czolgosz was an anarchist who referred to himself as "Fred Nieman" in German which means "Fred Nobody." Seeking fame and recognition, on September 6, 1901, he shot President William McKinley in the chest at point blank range.

Czolgosz believed that great injustices in American society allowed the wealthy to exploit the poor for profit. He believed this was due to flaws in the structure of government. A previous assassination had recently taken place in Italy-- King Umberto I was killed by an anarchist on July 29, 1900. The assassin, Gaetano Bresci stated that he had decided to take matters into his own hands for the sake of the common man.

In a confession letter, Czolgosz wrote:

"I made my plans 3 or 4 days ago to shoot the President.  When I shot him I intended to kill him and the reason for my intention in killing was because I did not believe in presidents over us.  I was willing to sacrifice myself & the president for the benefit of the Country."

John Hinckley, Jr (Reagan)

John Hinckley, Jr. was envious of his siblings-- they were honored by his family with large oil paintings. Hinckley, meanwhile, struggled in life and sought fame in extreme ways. He began to relish in his affection for a beautiful, blue eyed young actress, Jodie Foster. Instead of developing real relationships with women, he became inspired by Foster's part in the movie Taxi Driver in which she played a prostitute. His beliefs that they were destined to be together grew more dominant, refined, and resistant to challenge over time. Despite the knowledge that they could never be together, he held an intense emotional commitment to be with Foster.

Prosecution expert Dr. Park Dietz stated:

I asked him if he had been trying to impress Jodie Foster, and he said, “Well, it is a combination of things: to impress her, almost to traumatize her. That is the best word. To link myself with her for almost the rest of history, if you want to go that far”….I then asked him if he had been trying to communicate something to Jodie Foster, and he said that he had been trying to communicate something to the effect of, “now you will appreciate how much I cared for you. I went to this extent. Now do you appreciate it?” I asked a follow-up to that, which was whether he thought he had accomplished that goal, and he said, “you know actually I accomplished everything I was going for there. Actually, I should feel good that I accomplished everything on a grand scale.” I asked him if he really meant that because the statement struck me as an extraordinary one, and he said, “Actually, I accomplished exactly what I wanted to accomplish, without exception.”

Dr. Dietz believed that "Hinckley reveled in the memory of being transported by well-armed U.S. Marshals in a helicopter. He was featured on the cover of Newsweek, rewarding his effort. He told Dietz, “I got everything I was going for.” He fantasized about being famous. In fact, so famous that he would be elevated to a glamorous level that would enable him to be with Foster.

In an article, noted scholar Dr. Reid Meloy described two forms of erotomania. The clinically accepted delusional erotomania, in which patients believe that another person is in love with them (exact opposite of Hinckley's fixation); and borderline erotomania, in which no delusion is present, yet there is an extreme and overvalued disorder of attachment in the pursuit of, and in the potential for violence toward, the unrequited love object (Foster). These are often expressed as a fantasy.

Indeed, Hinckley stated in a poem:

You know a few things about me, dear sweetheart
Like my obsession with fantasy
But what the rabble don't yet understand
Is that fantasies become reality in my world.

-John Hinckley, Jr.

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References:

Rahman, T., Zheng, L., & Meloy, J. R. (2021). DSM-5 cultural and personality assessment of extreme overvalued beliefs. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 60, 101552.

Meloy, JR:. Unrequited Love and the Wish to Kill: the diagnosis and treatment of borderline erotomania. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 1989. 

Clarke, JW. American Assassins, The Darker Side of Politics. Princeton University Press, 1982. 

Note that the above examples of assassins utilize the definition of extreme overvalued beliefs as a new category of criminal behavior. Many books and articles are written on the insanity defense which are based on outdated psychiatric criteria. I am offering this page as a way to foster further discussion and progress in legal and threat assessment scholarship. Court decisions are based on ever-changing historical norms, as well as changing scientific knowledge and legal trends. We must respect the final adjudicated decisions in cases, while striving for improvement in our taxonomy.