I recently saw a video of the aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. I noticed how tall the deputies were who had Lee Harvey Oswald in custody, at least compared to their prisoner.
This sent me down quite a rabbit hole to discover the relative heights of the men who have attempted or carried out high profile historical assassinations and the leaders they targeted, looking at the timeframe of the 1860s -1960s.
As a benchmark, the average height of an American adult male was 5’6 is 1900 and 5’9 in 2000. However, Americans tend to elect leaders who are significantly taller than average.
The average height of the nine assassins I looked at was 168 centimeters, or 5’6. If you remove Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan, whose guilt is disputed, and James Earl Ray, who recanted his confession and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, the average height drops to 165 centimeters, or 5’5. The average height of the leaders they targeted was 180 centimeters, or 5’10.
A couple of interesting notes about individual cases.
At 5’8, John Wilkes Booth was taller than the average man at the time, but President Lincoln towered over him. Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson were both 6’4 and are tied aa our tallest president ever.
John Wilkes Booth
At 5’4, Gavrilo Princip had the largest height differential with his victim, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who stood at 6’2. It was the most catastrophic assassination as well, as it started World War I, which led to approximately 10 million military deaths and 9 million civilian deaths, not to mention millions of wounded and missing.
Archduke at 6’2 and Principat 5’4
Leon Czolgosz and President McKinley were the same height.
James Earl Ray was 5’10 and the only assassin on the list who was taller than his target. Martin Luther King was 5’7.
- President Abraham Lincoln, 6’4 | John Wilkes Booth, 5’8
- President James Garfield, 6’0 | Charles Guiteau 5’5
- King Umberto I, estimated 5’6 | Gaetano Bresci, estimated 5’3
- President William McKinley, 5’7 | Leon Czolgosz, 5’7
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 5’10 | John Schrank, 5’5 (failed)
- Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 6’2 | Gavrilo Princip, 5’4
- President John F. Kennedy, 6’1 | Lee Harvey Oswald, 5’9
- Reverend Martin Luther King, 5’7 | James Earl Ray, 5’10
- Senator Robert Kennedy, 6’1 | Sirhan Sirhan, 5’5
Apart from their height, I couldn’t find many commonalities between the assassins. In terms of motive, where they lived, their occupations, or where the attacks took place, there were no noticeable similarities.
old spirituals 
Ronald Reagan/John Hinckley, Jr. (failed) and Harry Truman/Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola (failed). If you go to Dealy Plaza, you can see all the bullet holes in the overpass. Oswald was the fall guy. There are several interesting eyewitness testimonies on YouTube that discount the one shooter theory. Dallas may be taking down the building where Oswald supposedly was shooting from and redesigning the whole area. So sad.
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I’m right there with you about Oswald. He was the patsy. I went to Dealy plaza for the first time last year. I didn’t look at the bridge (wish I had known to). There are so many things that don’t add up but the most amazing thing is that the Zapruder film clearly disproves the official version of events. There’s just no way JFK would have been thrown violently backward by a shot from behind.
RFK’s assassination is also highly suspect. No video evidence there but the autopsy showed the fatal bullet was fired two inches behind RFK when Sirhan was four feet in front of him. And more people were shot and bullets found in the wall than Sirhan’s gun held.
But I didn’t know about Truman having an attempt on his life! I’ll have to read up on that. John Hinckley was permanently released not that long ago.
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For me, listening to the eyewitnesses really tells the story and seeing the area with bullet damage in the railroad overpass. There were people standing on that overpass as well as around every area in Dealy Plaza. The man that was in the train tower (in what is now a parking lot for visitors of the book depository) had quite a story to tell about possibly the grassy knoll shooter. I believe there were several shooters. The route Kennedy’s car would take was suddenly changed. Dealy Plaza was a surprise to find how small it is. How could anyone miss their target. RFK, Jr. spoke about his dad’s assassination and believes there was another shooter that got away during all the confusion in that small area. Both brothers had crossed the Mob and with the Cuban debacle it could have been the Mob and the CIA. The government used Lucky Luciano to help win over Sicily in WW2.
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it would be criminal to take the book depository down! That’s American history. I hope they don’t do it
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Judy, a book and documentary presents evidence the shot that killed Kennedy was accidentally fired by the Secret Service Agent, George Hickey, in the rear seat of the limousine. Once that was realized, the Secret Service, the FBI and all the resources of the Federal Government worked diligently cover it up. A few people believe the evidence is credible.
The Agent was carrying a AR-15. When the first shot was fired, or even as a matter of routine when guarding the President, the “safety” was turned off. That allowed his finger to pull the trigger discharging the weapon when the limousine suddenly stopped. The safety on a AR-15 is located near the trigger on the right side. According to the documentary the weapon disappeared and was likely destroyed by the Government.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/accidental-assassin-jfk-theory-alleges-secret-service-agent-fumbled-gun-flna2D11634276
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i’ll check that out. if i might make a recommendation? this is a very good documentary
https://youtu.be/oSgC-DtBBiU?si=BkOsBVzGKaKqlkfS
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Oops! Ronald Reagan was the 80’s!
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