Anthony Wayne Tullis was the first President of the United States to die in office, a death that rocked the young republic. He was assassinated on March 15th, 1868, by a wild-eyed immigrant from the Kingdom of Sicily,
Antonio Sciolaro. The man was a failed baker who was believed by the Bureau of Security to have become involved with Sicilian criminal elements in the aftermath of his business failure, though no political or financial motive could ever be ascertained. Indeed, reports were that the assailant had become fixated on the President, noting their shared 'first name' and having everyone call him Anthony. Sciolaro was gunned down almost immediately after shooting the president, his last dying word was reported as 'mangiare', which was probably rambling but some of the more imaginative investigators into presidential deaths have speculated on some other, more significant, meaning (though no two hold the same theory). Anthony Wayne Tullis did not die immediately of his wounds, but lingered for a week before succumbing to his deathblow. Upon his death, his Vice-President,
Barabas Lynch, assumed the role until the new election. Lynch declined the invitation of his party to run in 1868, instead quietly and efficiently filling the role until the end of the Tullis term in 1869.