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{{Short description|
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox criminal
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| image_caption = Mug shots of Giuseppe Zangara following his arrest
| birth_date = {{birth date|1900|9|7|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ferruzzano]], [[Calabria]],
| death_date = {{death date and age|1933|3|20|1900|9|7|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Union Correctional Institution|Florida State Prison]], [[Raiford, Florida]], U.S.
| charge =
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]]
| spouse =
| parents =
| conviction = [[First degree murder]]<br>[[Attempted murder]] (4 counts)
| death_cause = [[Execution by electrocution]]
}}
'''Giuseppe Zangara''' (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen who attempted to assassinate the [[President-elect of the United States]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's [[First inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt|inauguration]].{{sfn|Picchi|1998|pp=14–15}} During a night speech by Roosevelt in [[Miami, Florida]], Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead
== Early life ==
Zangara was born on September 7, 1900, in [[Ferruzzano]], [[Calabria]], Italy. After serving with the [[
== Health issues ==
Zangara had little education and worked as a [[bricklayer]]. He suffered severe pain in his [[abdomen]], which doctors told him was chronic and incurable. In 1926 he underwent an [[appendectomy]], but it was no help; if anything, it may have made his pain worse. The doctors who performed his [[autopsy]] attributed his abdominal pain to [[adhesions]] they found on his [[gallbladder]]. In his prison memoir, Zangara himself attributed his pain to being forced to do grueling physical labor on his father's farm from an early age. He wrote that his pain began when he was six years old.{{sfn|Picchi|1998|pp=68–69}}
Observers at the time and following his execution have discussed his mental state. Arguments have been made that Zangara was [[mental illness|mentally ill]], incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, and ought to have had an [[insanity defense]] presented on his behalf while others have contended that he was sane.<ref name="chic trib picchi">{{cite news |last1=Possley |first1=Maurice |title=AN INTRIGUING LOOK AT THE MAN WHO TRIED TO KILL FDR |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-10-18-9810180020-story.html |access-date=22 October 2022 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=18 October 1998 |archive-url=https://archive.
==Assassination attempt==
[[File:GiuseppeZangara.png|thumb|250px|Zangara after his arrest in custody of Dade County
On February 15, 1933, Roosevelt was giving an impromptu speech at night from the back of an open car in the [[Bayfront Park]] area of Miami, Florida, where Zangara was working the occasional odd job and living off his savings. Zangara, armed with a [[.32 S&W|.32-caliber]] [[Iver Johnson|US Revolver Company]]<ref name="Abbott2007">{{cite book|first=Geoffrey|last=Abbott|title=What a Way to Go: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death|url=https://archive.org/details/whatwaytogo00geof|url-access=registration|date=April 17, 2007|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-312-36656-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whatwaytogo00geof/page/99 99]–}}</ref> revolver he had bought for $8 ({{Inflation|US|8|1933|r=-1|fmt=eq}}) at a local pawn shop, joined the crowd of spectators, but as he was only {{convert|5|ft|m}} tall, he was unable to see over other people and had to stand on a wobbly metal folding chair, peering over the hat of Lillian Cross to get a clear aim at his target from 25 feet away.{{sfn|McCann|2006|p=70}} He placed his gun over Mrs. Cross' right shoulder (She was only about 4 inches taller than he was and weighed 105 pounds).{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}
After Zangara fired the first shot, Cross and others grabbed his arm, and he fired four more shots wildly. Five people were hit:<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-02-17/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1789&index=1&rows=20&words=Giuseppe+Zangara&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Giuseppe+Zangara&y=11&x=11&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 Evening star. [volume], February 17, 1933, Page A-5, Image 5]</ref> Mrs. Joseph H. Gill (seriously wounded in the abdomen);<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-03-24/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1933&index=12&date2=1933&words=Gill+Joe+Mrs&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&rows=20&proxtext=Mrs.+Joe+Gill&y=13&x=18&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 Evening star. [volume], March 24, 1933, Page A-4, Image 4 she was released from hospital March 23, 1933]</ref> Miss Margaret Kruis of [[Newark, New Jersey]], (minor wound in hand and a scalp wound);<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042243/1933-02-16/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1777&index=0&rows=20&words=hand+Kruis+Margaret&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=MArgaret+Kruis++hand&y=16&x=16&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 The Bismarck tribune.
Roosevelt cradled the mortally wounded Cermak in his arms as the car rushed to the hospital; after arriving there, Cermak spoke to Roosevelt
== Aftermath ==
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== Conspiracy theory ==
While accounts focus on Cermak and the other victims being random casualties of an attempt to assassinate Roosevelt, a conspiracy theory emerged sometime before 1999,<ref name=AllanMay/> originating in Chicago,<ref>{{cite news |last=Kass |first=John |author-link=
The conspiracy theorists suggest that Zangara had been an expert marksman in the [[Royal Italian Army|Italian Army]] 16 years earlier, who would presumably hit his target,{{sfn|Sifakis|1987|p=}} though sidestepping any issues about Zangara's progressive age and health issues since his time in the war, his short stature requiring him to stand on a jostled chair, his experience being with a rifle rather than with a pistol from a great distance, and his own statements regarding his target.
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== See also ==
* [[List of assassinations]]
* [[List of people who were executed]]
* [[List of people executed in Florida (pre-1972)]]
== Notes ==
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[[Category:Italian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:20th-century executions by Florida]]
[[Category:American people executed for murder]]▼
[[Category:American bricklayers]]
[[Category:American male criminals]]
[[Category:20th-century executions of American people]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Executed American assassins]]
[[Category:American failed assassins]]
[[Category:Failed assassins of presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Italian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Italian people executed abroad]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Florida]]
[[Category:People executed by Florida by electric chair]]
▲[[Category:Executed assassins]]
[[Category:People from Paterson, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from the
[[Category:1933 mass shootings in the United States]]
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