1954 shooting in the House

[Edward Tinker]

Evidently there was a shooting in the house of represenitives in 1954 with a luger?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=130187187216

I had heard of the White House shooting in 1950 (no luger involved there though ) http://www.trumanlibrary.org/trivia/assassin.htm


Ed

[Mauser720]

The U.S. Capitol shooting incident of 1954 was an attack on March 1, 1954 by four Puerto Rican nationalists who shot 30 rounds using automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol.

The attackers, Lolita LebrÃ?³n, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores RodrÃ?Â*guez, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and began shooting at the 240 Representatives on the floor who were debating an immigration bill. According to Cancel Miranda's recollection of the events (given in a radio interview with Puerto Rican media in 2006), LebrÃ?³n shot her pistol towards the ceiling (as she did not wish to hurt anyone), and Figueroa's pistol jammed. Miranda suspects he was responsible for most of the injuries and damage.

Five representatives were wounded in the attack, one seriously. The wounded lawmakers were Alvin M. Bentley (R-Michigan), who took a bullet to the chest, Clifford Davis (D-Tennessee), who was shot in the leg, Ben F. Jensen (R-Iowa), who was shot in the back, as well as George Hyde Fallon (D-Maryland) and Kenneth A. Roberts (D-Alabama). House pages helped carry Alvin Bentley off the House floor. Miranda suspects he personally wounded three and perhaps four of the five injured representatives. He is also certain that Flores wounded the fifth representative.

The attackers were immediately arrested. Figueroa Cordero requested immediately (and repeatedly) to be charged with a capital crime and given capital punishment by electrocution. Lebr�³n had a written note in her coat explaining the motives for the attack, which she had written given the rather high probability of her being killed in crossfire. All the attackers were given minimum sentences of 70 years in prison, after their death sentences were commuted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter freed the assailants, after they had spent 25 years in prison. Their release coincided with Fidel Castro's release of several American CIA agents being held in Cuba on espionage charges. (Figueroa Cordero had been released a year earlier, since he was sick with a terminal cancer). Carter's administration denied that there were any connections to the Cuban release, saying it was making a humanitarian gesture.

There are still bullet holes from the incident in a desk drawer on the Republican side of the House floor and one in the ceiling. As a result of this incident, the backs of the chairs on the floors of both the House of Representatives and Senate chambers were lined with bulletproof material.

Source: Wikipedia

[Ron Smith]

There was also a shooting in the house in about 1981. I touched off a 1911-A1 and shot a leg off of one our dining chairs. It's amazing how loud those are inside of a house.

Never pick up a loaded gun when you're wiped out on Flexeril...

[davidkachel]

One day I'll tell you guys the story of "the bullet", lost for 40 years and now in my possession.

[MFC]

Tell us now, tell us now!!!

[the gunman]

"Lets hear it David"

[davidkachel]

OK, gather 'round kiddies.

It was about 1965 give or take a year. My childhood friend R whose family lived in a single story 21 room ranch house in AZ was in his mid-teens and rather relaxed about what he left where and when. How one of us didn't end up dead is still a mystery to me.

At one end of the house was the expansive kitchen while R's bedroom was at the other end. One day R left his pristine Nazi proofed .32 PPK sitting on the kitchen counter while he went off to do something else. He forgot it was there and went to bed.

R had a younger brother who of course had lots of toys, among them toy guns. Cleaning up before going to bed, R's mother saw the PPK and assumed it was one of the brother's toys. She picked it up to put it away and BANG, a round went through a closet wall, the metal hose of the vacuum cleaner contained therein and lodged in the opposite wall of the closet. This startled her so much she jumped, flailed her arms and BANG, discharged another round in a direction roughly parallel with the more or less linear kitchen. Back to this in a moment...

R's mother being more than a little startled and angry and utterly unfamiliar with this weapon or any similar weapons, ran through the considerable length of the house with the loaded, cocked and off-safe PPK in hand and woke R, shaking him, pointing the PPK directly at his face and shouting "R, R, how do you turn this thing off?"!!! R awoke staring down the barrel of said PPK and into the face of his understandably upset mother. He carefully eased the weapon out of her hand and then submitted to a well-deserved tongue lashing.

The following morning we dug bullet #1 out of the closet and duct-taped the through-and-through in the vacuum cleaner, which went on to lead a lengthy life of service, despite some debilitating respiratory problems. Then we set about searching for bullet #2.

Despite several kitchen dismemberments, bullet #2 evaded us for 40+ years. No hole, no track, no dents, no dings, no damage of any kind was located. It was as if the bullet had simply evaporated in mid-flight. Over the years we talked often about "the bullet" and the fact that it should have been found long ago. Finally, just a few years ago after it had been decided to remodel the kitchen, a workman came to R one day with a concerned and somewhat puzzled look on his face and "the bullet" between his fingers. R looked at the oxidized but intact .32 ACP bullet and immediately knew exactly what it was.

It seems that second shot had somehow managed to strike the interior of an open drawer in such a way that it was "guided" to the back of the cabinet and the kind of damage one would expect to find and then follow to the location of the bullet, did not exist. Whether it glided along a drawer rail or followed some sort of seam, we don't know for sure. At any rate the only evidence in existence of Ma's attempt on the life of the toaster is now in my possession. Her successful murder of the vacuum cleaner (it finally succumbed to its wounds years later) is still awaiting trial.

[Steinar]

Thanks for sharing that great story David! I quess whenever something disappeared in the family, it went 'gone like the bullet' as a figure of speech


My 'shooting in the house' story has a similarity with Ron's. I also have the leg of a dining chairs on my conscience and it happened in the early 80's as well. But mine was with a .22 biathlon rifle. (glad is was not a .45!)
I was in a hurry to clean it, so I just quickly took it apart on the kitchen floor, cleaned it and got it back together again. Then I fell into the classic 'wrong magazine back into the rifle'-trap. Fired a round when it was still lying on the floor. The bullet went staight trough the leg of a kitchen chair, down to the floor where it made a 'track' pointing directly towards the living room. I followed the mark and found myself looking directly at the family portrait.
But to my luck, the bullet made a hole between the couch and just below the portrait.
This was in my parents house, and I was coward enough to just cover it up the best I could. I plugged the leg of the chair and wall with pieces of wood so that the only 'evidence' was the cut in the floor. Since me and my brothers had moved out by then, it was a great puzzle for my mother how the two of them could have made such a mark under the table. Guess the only ones who know about this now is you guys now, so don't tell anyone

[davidkachel]

Originally posted by Morgan Kane
Thanks for sharing that great story David! I quess whenever something disappeared in the family, it went 'gone like the bullet' as a figure of speech

Actually no. We never mentioned it around Ma. She never quite saw the humor!