Political Crime: The Nexus of Religion and Politics

In modern times, the precision, scale and organization of killings and assassinations have increased, and the reasons for assassinations have gone beyond being the result of an internal conflict, but have taken on a regional character. On the other side of the world, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865, at Ford's Theatre, is considered the most prominent in the history of the United States; where the stage actor John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the head while he was watching a theatrical performance; Booth was a supporter of maintaining the slavery system, which Lincoln abolished on January 1, 1863. In addition to Lincoln, 3 other American presidents have been assassinated; The first of these was the twentieth president, James Garfield, on July 2, 1881, after Charles Gottow shot him twice. The second bullet was never found, despite Alexander Graham Bell’s attempts to use his humble metal detector to determine where the bullet had lodged in Garfield’s body. The second bullet remained in his body, killing him 80 days after the assassination attempt as a result of blood poisoning. Garfield died on September 19, 1881. The assassination was caused by Garfield’s refusal to appoint Gottow as the United States Consul in Paris.