[_Jim]

Some references that pertain to the pyschology of Assassins:

ASSASSINS:

James F. Kirkham, Sheldon G. Levy and William J. Crotty,
Assassination and Political Violence: A Report to the National
Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (New York: Bantam
Books, 1970), pp. 65f.: "Although we cannot unravel the significance
of the similarities between the assassins, we could make this
statement: we could predict after President Kennedy's assassination
that the next assassin would probably be short and slight of build,
foreign born, and from a broken family--most probably with the father
either absent or unresponsive to the child."

Patricia Cayo Sexton, The Feminized Male (New York: Random House,
1969), p. 4: "Sirhan and Oswald, both reared under the maternal
shadow, grew to be quiet, controlled men and dutiful sons. Estranged
from their fellows, fathers, and normal male associations, they
joined a rapidly growing breed--the 'feminized male'--whose normal
male impulses are suppressed or misshaped by overexposure to feminine
norms. Such assassins often pick as their targets the most virile
males, symbols of their own manly deprivation. The assassin risks no
contest with this virility. His victim is caught defenseless by the
sniper's bullet and is unable to strike any blows in self-defense. A
cheap victory--no challenger and no risk of defeat. Their desire to
get out is simply the natural male impulse to cut maternal ties and
become a man. The black revolt is a quest by the black male--whose
social impotence has exceeded even that of the white woman--for
power, status, and manhood. He does not want to be a 'boy' any
longer: I am a man is the slogan of his revolt. These rebellions are
alarms, alerting us to the social forces that dangerously diminish
manhood and spread alienation and violence."





Ibid., p. 67: "David Rothstein, for example, has analyzed twenty-
seven inmates of the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in
Springfield, Mo., who had indicated an intention to attack the
President. The threatmakers bore similarities to Lee Harvey Oswald.
Most came from unhappy homes. They had domineering mothers and weak,
ineffectual fathers. Most joined the military service at an early
age, yet their experiences proved to be unhappy. Rothstein interprets
their actions in threatening the President as the manifestation of a
hostility towards their mother redirected against authority symbols--
the government and, more specifically, the President."

Dr. Fred B. Chartan, "A Psychiatric History: What Assassins Have in
Common," The Birmingham News, 7 July, l968: "The [U.S. presidential]
assassins were all men (there has never been a woman political
assassin), all loners, and all lacking fathers through death,
divorce, work schedule, or at least through a very poor parental
relationship. It is also significant that the assassins were either
bachelors or did not get along with women."

[tpaine]

Psycho-babble.

[texasbluebell]

"Although we cannot unravel the significance of the similarities between the assassins, we could make this statement: we could predict after President Kennedy's assassination that the next assassin would probably be short and slight of build, foreign born, and from a broken family--

Wonder if they were able to predict Hinckley after Sirhan then...