[geeks] Special skills draft?

[Phil Stracchino]

On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 05:52:43PM +0200, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> Brian Dunbar wrote:
> > You're welcome!  Thank you for paying taxes and allowing me to learn 
> > how to drink, shoot, and cuss like a Marine.  
> 
> According to the D.I. in "Full Metal Jacket", all of the sucessfull
> asssins of U.S. Presidents were ex-Marines. Maybe not a very usefull skill
> in the U.S., but I'm sure you could market yourself in the "third world". :-)

Has anyone fact-checked that claim, though?

Lessee.  John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865;
according to http://www.nps.gov/foth/booth.htm :

"Booth briefly left the Richmond Theatre Company in 1859. He joined the
 Richmond Grays, gaining his only official military experience. He
 enlisted on November 20, 1859 with the sole intention of witnessing the
 December hanging of the fiery abolitionist John Brown in Charles Town,
 Virginia. Soon after witnessing Brown's hanging, Booth left for
 Richmond where he was discharged.

"During the Civil War, Booth said he promised his mother that he would
 not join the Confederate army. Booth did however, undertake some action
 to support the Confederacy. According to some reports, Booth was
 actively engaged in smuggling medical supplies to Confederate forces in
 1864."


Charles Guiteau assassinated James Abram Garfield in 1881;
http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/charles_guiteau/
describes him as 'a psychopath', who spent the Civil War as a member of
the Oneida commune, had 'a marked aversion to work' (doesn't sound much
like a Marine), attacked his sister with an axe, spent time as a
traveling charlatan fleecing audiences in search of religion, and worked
for both Grant's and Garfield's campaigns for President (quietly
switching sides when Garfield won the nomination).  His canvassing for
Grant is the closest he ever got to military service.


Leon Csolgosz assassinated William McKinley; he is described as "a
Polish anarchist".  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAczolgosz.htm
makes no mention of him ever having performed military service of any
kind.


Lee Harvey Oswald (conspiracy theories aside) assassinated John F.
Kennedy; according to http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/oswald.htm, he enlisted
in the USMC in San Diego, CA on Oct 26, 1956, and was discharged from
active duty at El Toro, CA on September 11, 1959.


Looks to me like this claim is one for four.


-- 
  ========== Fight Back!  It may not be just YOUR life at risk. ==========
  alaric at caerllewys.net : phil-stracchino at earthlink.net : phil at novylen.net
   phil stracchino : unix ronin : renaissance man : mystic zen biker geek
     2000 CBR929RR, 1991 VFR750F3 (foully murdered), 1986 VF500F (sold)
           Linux Now!  ...Friends don't let friends use Microsoft.