September 8, 1964

Assassinations

We were somewhat startled this week to read of the strange coincidences surrounding the assassinations of President Lincoln and President Kennedy.

An account of the quirks of fate -- pertaining to the slain presidents and their successors -- was shown to me by a friend. It consisted of a single, mimeographed sheet, with no hint of its authorship.

The punch line at the end makes it clear that the purpose of the missive is political, but the parallels are true.

Here it is for what it’s worth:

• “Both Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy were concerned with the issue of Civil Rights.
• “ Lincoln was elected in 1860; Kennedy in 1960.
• “Both were slain on a Friday, and in the presence of their wives.
• “Both were shot from behind, and in the head.
• "Their successors -- both named Johnson -- were southern Democrats. Both were Senators.
• “Andrew Johnson was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908.
• “John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939.
• “Booth and Oswald were both assassinated before going to trial.
• “Both presidents' wives lost children through death while in the White House.
• “ Lincoln’s secretary, Kennedy by name, advised him not to go to the theater. Kennedy’s secretary, whose name was Lincoln, advised him not to go to Dallas.
• “John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theater – then ran to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and ran to a theater.
• “The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
• “The names Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson, each contain 13 letters.
• “Does history repeat itself?
• “Andrew Johnson was not re-elected.
• “Ulysses S. Grant (a Republican) was elected-and his last name begins with ‘G.’

Political assassination is a sensational crime comparatively rare in the United States. However, it is centuries old in the Near East where the technique originated.

The word assassination is Arabic for “under the influence of hashish.” This was the European name for a member of the secret order of the Moslem Shiites. The order was founded by Hasan Sabbah about 1090 -- in the mountain fortress of Alamut.

Distinguishing mark of the order was not in the tenets, which history has forgotten, but in its methods of disposing of enemies by ruthless murder.

The head of the order was Sheikh al-Jabal, known in Western Europe as the Old Man of the Mountain. He was an absolute ruler. Under him the members were strictly organized into classes according to the degree of initiation into the secrets of the order.

The most important of the classes was one of the lower groups of the hierarchy -- the “devotees” -- from whom unquestioning obedience and a fanatic disregard for their own safety was expected. Martyrdom was not avoided, but sought. These men were the instruments of assassination.

Assassins were prepared for their tasks -- and rewarded -- by being taken occasionally into the earthly paradise in the fastness of the Old Man’s fortress. There, the narcotic hashish -- a derivative of hemp -- was administered. The assassins also were allowed to indulge in the most exotic forms of sensual pleasure.

The order grew strong over all of Persia and Syria. Succeeding chiefs of the order, six after Hasan, were of great political power.

The coming of the Mongols doomed the power of Persian Assassinations. Hulagu Khan in 1256 attacked their fortresses and massacred them. The Syrian branch suffered a similar fate at the hand of Bibars, Mameluke sultan of Egypt. Scattered groups of the old order are said still to exist today in North Syria.

Assassination is a nasty, cowardly crime resorted to in this country only by the addlepated or downright insane. It is to be devoutly hoped that the U.S. Secret Service, Congress and the Presidents themselves will take whatever measures are necessary to protect our Chief Executive from crackpots.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist