Giuseppe Zangara
Giuseppe Zangara was an Italian immigrant whose life was marked by hardship and misfortune. Born in Ferruzzano, Italy, in 1900, he faced numerous challenges from a young age, including a serious ear ailment, the early death of his mother, and several accidents that contributed to a lifelong struggle with pain, both physical and emotional. After serving in the Italian military, Zangara immigrated to the United States in 1923, where he worked as a bricklayer and became a U.S. citizen in 1929.
In 1933, driven by desperation and anti-capitalist sentiments, Zangara attempted to assassinate president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. However, the shots he fired missed Roosevelt and struck bystanders, critically injuring Chicago Mayor Anthony Cermak, who later died from his injuries. Zangara was quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, showing no remorse during the proceedings. His execution by electrocution on March 20, 1933, occurred just five weeks after the assassination attempt, highlighting the swift nature of the American judicial system.
Zangara's actions and their consequences sparked discussions about his mental state, the quality of his legal representation, and the societal factors that may have influenced his decision to commit violence against a political figure. Ultimately, his failed assassination attempt inadvertently allowed Roosevelt to assume office and lead the nation through significant historical challenges.
Subject Terms
Giuseppe Zangara
Italian American bricklayer and attempted assassin
- Born: September 7, 1900
- Birthplace: Ferruzzano, Reggio Calabria Province, Italy
- Died: March 20, 1933
- Place of death: Railford, Florida
Major offenses: Attempted assassination and first-degree murder
Active: February 15, 1893
Locale: Bayfront Park, Miami, Florida
Sentence: Death by electrocution
Early Life
Born in Ferruzzano, Italy, Giuseppe Zangara (zhyew-SEHP-pay zehn-GAR-uh) seemed to have bad luck for most of his short life. He suffered from an ear ailment at birth, which led physicians to operate immediately. His mother died when he was two from complications of another childbirth. At three years old, Zangara fell down two flights of stairs; at four, he burned his leg in a fire; and at five, he broke his wrist in another fall down the stairs. Shortly after he started school at age six, his father insisted that he quit school to work on a farm in order to make money for the family. The combination of hard labor at such a young age and the many beatings administered by his father left Zangara with severe stomach pains—an ailment that he would complain about for the rest of his life—and a deep-seated hatred of capitalists, whom he blamed for his family’s economic plight.
At the age of twenty-one, Zangara began compulsory service in the Italian military. He had a series of low-level assignments. During his five-year stint, he contemplated killing King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy but never got the opportunity. After leaving the military, Zangara worked briefly as a brick mason. He decided to go to the United States and arrived in Brooklyn, New York, in September, 1923. Eventually, he found his way to Paterson, New Jersey, where he lived with an uncle who resided there. Zangara found work as a bricklayer. During the next several years, he joined a union and applied for U.S. citizenship, which he achieved in 1929. At just five feet, one inch tall and a little over one hundred pounds, Zangara kept to himself socially. He lived in a series of rooming houses in Paterson, East Paterson, Passaic, and Hackensack while in New Jersey. He spent one year in California before going to Miami in 1931.
Criminal Career
By early 1933, Zangara was running out of money and was in constant pain from his stomach ailment. He bought a .32-caliber pistol with the intent of killing President Herbert Hoover but balked at going to Washington, D.C., because of the cold weather there. Then he found out that president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt would be coming through Miami on his way back from vacation in the Bahamas. On the night of February 15, 1933, he waited for Roosevelt to speak from his car in front of the bandstand at Bayfront Park. However, Zangara’s inability to get through the crowd and his diminutive stature led him to stand on an unstable chair in an attempt to kill Roosevelt. Zangara missed Roosevelt, and the five shots he fired hit five bystanders instead, including Chicago mayor Anthony Cermak, who had come down from the stage to talk to the soon-to-be chief executive. Cermak was by far the most seriously injured.
Legal Action and Outcome
Originally sentenced to four twenty-year terms after pleading guilty to charges of assault with intent to kill, Zangara was indicted for first-degree murder following Mayor Cermak’s death from injuries on March 6, 1933. Once again entering a guilty plea and expressing no remorse, Zangara was sentenced to death by electrocution at the Florida State Penitentiary in Railford. As he was strapped into the electric chair on March 20, 1933, he called witnesses “lousy capitalist sons of bitches.” He was buried in an unmarked prison grave when no person claimed his remains.
Impact
There are several points to consider about the bizarre life and death of Giuseppe Zangara. First, his execution just five weeks after the shooting at Miami’s Bayfront Park set a modern-day record for the rapidity of the justice system, even though Zangara pleaded guilty and displayed no regret for his actions other than missing the intended target. Still, some legal experts question the quality of his legal counsel, while others believe Zangara’s status as an Italian immigrant resulted in discrimination against him.
The second issue in the case is the determination of Zangara’s mental and physical state at the time of the shootings. Various psychiatrists argued over whether Zangara met the definition of insanity. What analysts do know is that he was not an ideological extremist, such as a communist or an anarchist. He was an atheist and anticapitalist whose target became the political leader of a nation that embraced capitalism. While some accuse Zangara of having a death wish, he never attempted to commit suicide. Perhaps his desperate economic situation, isolated social status, and ever-present stomach pains contributed to his decision to kill. Interestingly, a postexecution autopsy determined that Zangara had a chronically infected gallbladder, though physicians could not agree on what effect that may have had on his stomach or abdomen.
Zangara’s failure to hit president-elect Franklin Roosevelt allowed Roosevelt to flourish as a leader who led America through the Great Depression and World War II. Before he did that, however, he had to take the train back to Washington and be inaugurated as the nation’s thirty-second president. In a strange twist of history, his train picked up several dignitaries on the way out of Florida, one of whom was Joseph P. Kennedy, whose son would later become President John F. Kennedy, who would be assassinated in 1963.
Bibliography
Clarke, James W. American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982. This book contains a chapter that compares Zangara to Arthur Bremer, who attempted to assassinate Alabama governor George Wallace during his presidential run in 1972.
Picchi, Blaise. The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara, the Man Who Attempted to Assassinate FDR. Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1998. This is the definitive account of Zangara’s life and death, which includes extensive eyewitness accounts together with Zangara’s memoir, written shortly before his execution.
Ray, Jo Anne. American Assassins. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner, 1974. This text contains a biographical chapter about Zangara.