Introduction

The Department of Drama at the University of North Carolina at Asheville presented the musical "Assassins" by Stephen Sondheim at the Carol Belk Theatre on October 7-10. I was the dramturg for the show, and this research was done in order to better the understanding of the director and the actors to the reasoning behind the assassin's motives. Since then my research has grown into a type of passion, and thus I have created this website to help others understand the assassins as well.

The act of assassination first started when Cain murdered his brother Abel in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is an act, which is hideous and often times changes the world. The history of assassination in the United States is a long and sad one. It started in 1835 when the demented Richard Lawrence aimed a gun at President Andrew Jackson; and the most recent attempt occurred almost 150 years later in 1981 when John Warnock Hickley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan. There have been a total of twelve assassination attempts on the President of the United States life, four of them successful.

This website is not designed to glorify the Assassins in U.S. history. It is, in fact, a means by which we can explore why these people did not "connect" with society and why they felt that they needed to express themselves through assassination. The surprising fact is that most of the assassins did not commit their horrendous actions for political reasons, but as a social statement. This website's purpose is to explain who these people were and why they felt this was their only recourse, along with how it effected the country.

When we look deeper into society we find more and more members who are lost, isolated, lonely, deep in despair, and willing to strike out in any means of gaining attention. As a people we need to "connect" to them and help them to become accepted and contributing members of our society and not outcasts. This website raises the question of not if another assassination will occur, but when and by whom? The future assassins are in our schools, our churches, and around us in every level of society. We need to recognize them, protect them from themselves, and embrace them with a new hope for the future.


	The Department of Drama at the University of North Carolina at Asheville presented the musical "Assassins" by Stephen Sondheim at the Carol Belk Theatre on October 7-10. I was the dramturg for the show, and this research was done in order to better the understanding of the director and the actors to the reasoning behind the assassin's motives. Since then my research has grown into a type of passion, and thus I have created this website to help others understand the assassins as well. The act of assassination first started when Cain murdered his brother Abel in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is an act, which is hideous and often times changes the world. The history of assassination in the United States is a long and sad one. It started in 1835 when the demented Richard Lawrence aimed a gun at President Andrew Jackson; and the most recent attempt occurred almost 150 years later in 1981 when John Warnock Hickley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan. There have been a total of twelve assassination attempts on the President of the United States life, four of them successful. This website is not designed to glorify the Assassins in U.S. history. It is, in fact, a means by which we can explore why these people did not "connect" with society and why they felt that they needed to express themselves through assassination. The surprising fact is that most of the assassins did not commit their horrendous actions for political reasons, but as a social statement. This website's purpose is to explain who these people were and why they felt this was their only recourse, along with how it effected the country. When we look deeper into society we find more and more members who are lost, isolated, lonely, deep in despair, and willing to strike out in any means of gaining attention. As a people we need to "connect" to them and help them to become accepted and contributing members of our society and not outcasts. This website raises the question of not if another assassination will occur, but when and by whom? The future assassins are in our schools, our churches, and around us in every level of society. We need to recognize them, protect them from themselves, and embrace them with a new hope for the future.

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