1) bought the Zapruder film, which was shown to have been tampered with, and
2) told Walter Cronkite to report that the JFK assassination was the work a lone gunman.
Simplest answers likely the correct ones. Either the opportunity to attempt assassination isn’t there in quiet security seclusion so n the perp must take what opportunity t gey have which may be noisy x and busy, and the noise and busyness of a crowd may help the killer to attempt escape in the mass confusion.
They’re one part terrorism.
A clear public warning to discourage future disobedience of the true powers in control.
I think the simplest and most accurate answer is that most “major assassinations” (those carried out in public) reflects the killer’s true motive... whether it be to garner public attention (due to a deranged lack of it), or to inflict terror to advance a radical cause... both having absolutely nothing to do with the target, and everything to do with the perceived or anticipated reaction by the public to the crime.
Charlie Kirk’s assassin didn’t know him at all... only that the media had painted him as the biggest public enemy of all, next to Trump.
Ultimately, the real assassin behind every public murder is Satan himself... and the reason is simply hate with a purpose.
Most likely, the high profile assassinations you recall (JFK, RFK, MLK, Charlie Kirk) as well as high profile attempts (Ford, Reagan, Trump) happen in the presence of a large number of witnesses because it is precisely those times when the target is among a large number of people that a would-be assassin has the opportunity to get close enough to his target to perform the deed.
Public gatherings where politicians, religious leaders, celebrities from the arts, historically influential figures, leaders in business meet and greet people are good venues to target them.
These people want to talk, shake hands, and kiss the baby there.
Bulletproof glass walls and barriers discount them from the audience.
They often choose to accept risk in order to be accessible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Pope_John_Paul_II
So if I were a bad guy, that’s a venue where I would plan to make a move.
Ockham’s Razor.
Large crowds means public outdoor settings which offer more access and opportunity.
Sneaking into the White House is not really doable by a “lone wolf”. Nobody would buy that malarkey. It would so obviously be a conspiracy of insiders.
Which means regardless if the perp is a true lone wolf or a member or dupe of a conspiracy, it still needs to happen in a large outdoor venue full of people.
Assassinations are meant to be a public statement. A repudiation of whatever the murdered individual believed in or was encouraging. The bigger crowd, the better in the assassins thinking.
CC
By definition “major assassinations” are those with many in attendance, so there is a certain selection bias inherent in your question. In comparison the many victims in Clinton’s body count list, some of whom might have died of natural causes, but, many certainly didn’t, were mostly just regular murders.
Not sure about *most* assassinations being done in front a lot of witnesses is true, but let’s assume it is.
My guess is that in order to get close to them the person has to be in public. It’s not like you’re going to sneak into the white house or Air Force 1 and attempt something like that on a President...or anyone in the white house.
So the best guess is they do it when there are out in public....and as such they always draw a crowd.
The simplest answer is infamy. No matter what happens, thousands of people saw you take a life.
There is no glory in the back alley.
If it was a conspiracy, it may also be a message that there is no protection in public if they want you killed.
MLK was a registered Republican.
Pour encourager les autres.
The intelligence community orchestrates the major assassinations as a way to shape the political policy and the public minds of a country to fit their contrived agenda. This mind shaping and shifting is most effective when performed in the public arena. The operators are not elected and they act totally independent of the publics’ interest. Our elected representatives are unable to reign in the rogue actors and their activities because they are the darkest of the Deep State - a cadre of rogue outlaws who operate with impunity outside Congressional or Executive Branch oversight with their own funding stream obtained from illicit activities like drug running and human trafficking. They have stolen and appropriated for their own exclusive use secret aerospace technologies contracted and developed with taxpayer dollars from within the defense industrial complex which they use to conduct their illegal trafficking activities.
Opportunity and availability are the easiest reasons and random chance is another.
High profile or HVTs are usually only available in large open areas and large events.
Random chance is following, observing and an taking advantage of an uplanned opening.
I won't comment on the author's musing that public assassinations might be intended to achieve a different effect (e.g., sway public opinion and/or influence policy) except to say that I think that it's more likely that it's purely random and/or governed by purely practical considerations, and that the method of assassination (e.g., using a handgun in close quarters versus using a long-range rifle by a gunman hiding on a rooftop) doesn't necessary correlate to any particular program or intention on the part of the assassin.
However, I do definitely believe that a public assassination in front of rolling cameras will have a far-greater socio-political and psychological effect.
Regards,
assassin trying to get lost in a crowd
The presence of these victims at a given time and place was pre-announced. For would-be assassins, access is an issue. The pre-announcement provides that access. The earlier the pre-announcement, the longer the time period available to the plotter prepare for eventualities. Note that only when assassins strike, fail or are caught before striking is it known for a fact that they had plotted to kill. Aborted assassinations where the plotter backed out, for any number of reasons, including fear of personal consequences, don’t figure into the count, so long as they aren’t discovered.
Why not strike at his home? Because getting the address may not be possible. This is why public figures guard their home addresses jealously. Before Oswald struck JFK down, he went after an army general.
While initially skeptical about the photographic evidence provided by the FBI, the Warren Commission reported that Oswald photographed Walker’s Dallas home on the weekend of March 9–10, 1963.[28] Oswald’s friend, 51-year-old Russian émigré and petroleum geologist George de Mohrenschildt,[29] would later tell the Warren Commission that he “knew that Oswald disliked General Walker.”[30]
On April 10, 1963, as Walker was sitting at a desk in his dining room, a bullet struck the wooden frame of his dining-room window. Walker was injured in the forearm by fragments. Marina Oswald later testified that her husband had told her that he traveled by bus to General Walker’s house and shot at Walker with his rifle.[31][32] Marina said Oswald considered Walker to be the leader of a “fascist organization.”[33]
Police detective D. E. McElroy commented, “Whoever shot at the general was playing for keeps. The sniper wasn’t trying to scare him. He was shooting to kill.” The bullet was too badly damaged to provide conclusive ballistics tests, but neutron activation analysis tests later determined that it was “extremely likely” that the bullet was manufactured by the Western Cartridge Company and was the same type of ammunition as was used in the Kennedy assassination.[34]
A note that Oswald left for Marina on the night of the attempt with instructions for her should he not return was not found until ten days after the assassination.[35][36][37] Marina Oswald stated later that she had seen Oswald burn most of his plans in the bathtub, though she hid the note that he had left for her in a cookbook, with the intention of bringing it to the police should Oswald again attempt to kill Walker or anyone else. Marina later quoted her husband as saying, “Well, what would you say if somebody got rid of Hitler at the right time? So if you don’t know about General Walker, how can you speak up on his behalf?”[38]
The Warren Commission questioned Walker about an interview that he had granted on November 22 in Shreveport, Louisiana that appeared in the November 29, 1963 edition of the extreme-right German newspaper Deutsche National-Zeitung, in which Walker accused Oswald of having attempted to kill him.[39] Marina Oswald was asked about the report during a two-week-long detention in which she was interrogated by federal investigators, and she said that she believed that the report was true.]
This is why security consultants for public figures strive to avoid both open air events and open top convertibles. Open air events are cheap to mount, but care must be taken to monitor any high ground in the vicinity. No president has done an open top convertible motorcade since JFK even though it was routine (FDR, Truman, Eisenhower) prior to his demise.
Everything the left does is based on their feelings. Their feelings will not be validated by an anonymous poisoning or other similarly non-public activity. They need to have their feelings validated so they need the public reaction to their actions.