Eyes on the Prize: A Time Line

I'd like to note a few things before I begin this time line:



  • This is my first time line, so I apologize if it seems kinds of rough and awkward in the beginning. If I make a mistake or omit something important, please let me know.

  • I'm a high school senior, so my life is currently occupied with school, extracurriculars, and college apps. However, I promise to try to update this time line at least once a week. I'll make sure to let you all know if for some reason I don't have the time to update the time line.
So without further a due, let us begin.


[FONT=&quot]Excerpt from a WOR(AM) radio broadcast on February 15, 1933(9:40 PM)-

We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin! Reports from the United Press and the AP Wire Service have just informed us that President-Elect Franklin Roosevelt, while giving a speech in Miami Florida, has been shot by an unknown assassin. All we can confirm at this point is that numerous eyewitness accounts claim that 3 gun shots were fired at the President-Elect from an assassin standing somewhere in the crowd. President-Elect Roosevelt is currently undergoing intensive treatment at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and we have no knowledge as to what is the status of Roosevelt's condition. Vice-President-Elect Garner, along with the President-Elect's wife Elanor Roosevelt and other close associates, have been taken to an undisclosed secure location until the final status of the President-Elect's condition is known. Miami Mayor, R.B. Gautier, has declared a temporary state of martial law in the city as the Miami police department, the Secret Service, and other security officials attempt to catch the guilty assassin. Stay tuned to W.O.R. for further developments.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Excerpt from a WOR(AM) radio broadcast on February 15, 1933(10:52 P.M.)-

We have just received word from Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami that President-Elect Roosevelt has just passed away due to fatal gun-shot injuries. Roosevelt was hit by two of the three shots fired at him. One struck him in the upper-right corner of his chest while the other one hit him right above the stomach. We have also received reports that that the Miami police has just taken into custody the man they believe to be responsible for the President's death. All we can confirm of the assassin's identity is that he is an Italian immigrant by the name of Giuseppe Zangara. Current President Herbert Hoover is now scheduled to address to the nation tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. This will be followed by an address given by Vice-President-Elect, now President-Elect John Nance Garner at 11:00 a.m. WOR will be broadcasting both addresses tomorrow at their scheduled times.
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[FONT=&quot]“Dear God! This poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, labor-baiting, evil old man is going to become the President of the United States! FDR must surely be rolling in his grave. It looks like the struggle of working people across this nation is far, far from over.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]UMWA President, John L. Lewis, after hearing President-Elect Garner’s speech to the nation.[/FONT]

“Roosevelt’s assassination was just the beginning. Little did America know that it was about to gripped by a period of instability and fierce internal conflict not seen since the Civil War.”
Excerpt from T. Harry William’s book The 1930’s: America’s Decade Long Civil War
 
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Giuseppe Zangara in custody

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Press Statement from J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, February 16, 1933(8:30 A.M.)

[FONT=&quot]The Bureau of Investigation can now present further evidence on the circumstances surrounding yesterday's assassination of President-Elect Roosevelt. First, we can now confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that Guiseppe Zangara was indeed Roosevelt's assassin. Mr. Zangara's criminal record is one filled with numerous incidents of Anarchist agitation, and we have reason to believe that these Anarchist sentiments were his primary motivation that led him to commit this heinous crime. While we have no evidence at this moment that links Zangara to any wider conspiracy, the Bureau of Investigation will immediately begin a thorough investigation of all known Anarchist organizations and Anarchist sympathizers in order to prevent further acts of Anarchist violence in this country.[/FONT]

"While most experts agree that Zangara was probably the lone assassin, various conspiracy theories about the Roosevelt Assassination refuse to die. Some of the most popular ones include that Zangara was an assassin for the Mafia, Mussolini, or Stalin. Some even suggest that he was a hitman for J. Edgar Hoover himself. While this may appear unlikely, it is understandable why this theory in particular has remained so popular. After all, the Hoover Crusades would not have begun had it not been for Roosevelt's Assassination. When one takes into account the fact that Hoover covered up evidence of Zangara's mental condition, and that he refused to publically rule out the possibility of an Anarachist or Leftist conspiracy to assassinate Roosevelt, it becomes clear that Hoover benefited greatly from Roosevelt's assassination."

T. Harry Williams, The 1930's: America's Decade Long Civil War
 
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