The Chruchill Series - Jan. 12, 2006

(One of a series of daily posts on the live of Winston S. Churchill.)

In June 1942 Churchill visited the United States for the second time since Pearl Harbor. After a series of discussions and an inspection of American troops training in South Carolina, he traveled to Baltimore to meet a flying boat which would take him and his party back to England. President Roosevelt sent his top aide, Harry Hopkins to see them off.

As the flying boat prepared to taxi for takeoff, a struggle was taking place at the end of a nearby pier. Two FBI agents had tackled a man and were wrestling a gun from his hand as he shouted, "I'm going to kill Churchill."

The man was later judged to be insane.

When Churchill learned of the incident he took note of the fact the man had placed himself in the open at the end of a pier: "crackpots are a special danger to public men, as they don't worry about the 'getaway.'"
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Tom Hickman, Churchill's Bodyguard. (p. 139)