Politics and gun control occupy the headlines as the pressing issues of our time. Rightfully so. The two seem to go hand-in-hand, perhaps never more so than in 2016. The problem of differentiating between responsible gun owners and lunatics with guns is a constant water-cooler debate. It got me to thinking, have there been any people connected to the Presidency, either as a candidate or an electee, who have killed someone with a gun? A morbid thought to be sure, but the kind of thing my mind wanders towards when I need a subject to write about.
Of course, rhetorically speaking, just about every president has killed someone indirectly by virtue of military action, but have any ever actually pulled the trigger and taken a life? The list, although speculative in many aspects, can be long and intriguing. There are many Presidents who, by the nature of their ascension to the White House, could easily make that list. We can visit the most likely candidates (in a nonlinear fashion) and there is one name on that list that I believe will shock and surprise you.
George Washington had an impressive military record which included close engagements in both the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783). No one knows how many men he killed, nor whether he killed any men at all. But during one of his first battles at Jumonville Glen, in the Ohio Territory, 21-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Washington commanded a small force of 159 men, so logistics dictate that he surely had a direct role in the fighting and likely killed an opposing combatant.
The same can be said of William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812. Harrison fought in close combat while repelling an ambush with his 200-man regiment at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Later Harrison fought the combined forces of British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames where Indian leader Tecumseh was killed. So a strong case could be made that the former Governor of the Indiana Territory killed an enemy combatant in battle. Joining him in the War of 1812 was James Buchanan who fought against the British as a young private in Baltimore. Old Rough and Ready, Zachary Taylor fought in four American Wars against Indians, the British, and later in Mexico. He was quite the seasoned soldier and at least as likely as Harrison to have killed an opposition combatant.
Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley and our own Benjamin Harrison all saw action in the Civil War. Knowing the savagery of the War of the Great Rebellion, it is not hard at all to imagine that these men pulled that trigger. Grant served as a commander, but saw some close battles during the Mexican-American War of 1841.
Harry S Truman was the only president to serve in World War I. As a commander of artillery, Captain Truman certainly gave direct orders to his Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery Division resulting in enemy kills. Knowing “Give ‘em Hell” Harry’s no-nonsense reputation, he may well have pulled the trigger himself. Truman’s unit participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in support of George S. Patton’s tank brigade and Truman’s unit destroyed two German field gun batteries.
A number of Presidents served in World War II. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald R. Ford, Richard M. Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were all in uniform. Most likely only Kennedy, Ford and Bush saw a shot fired in anger during WWII. Kennedy commanded his famous PT-109 in the Solomon Islands. The boat sank when a Japanese destroyer split it in two while JFK and the crew was on active patrol. Eighteen-year-old Bush stands out among this list as the youngest aviator in the Navy in 1943. He flew many bombing missions in the Pacific and his actions surely resulted in death from above. In 1944 his plane was shot down and he was rescued at sea. Bush’s actions therefore lead to a conclusion of likelihood.
Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Medal of Honor for his personal bravery at the Battle of San Juan Hill for leading an attack on an enemy position with a handful of men. By his own account, Roosevelt was first to reach the enemy position and killed the first man with his pistol. Trouble is, Teddy is the only one who ever corroborated this account. Admittedly, the story sounds like it fits the man and remains as a myth that helped create his mystique.
Grover Cleveland, whom Bill Clinton refers to as our nation’s most “vastly underappreciated” ex-president, is a name on this list that, when based on appearance alone, comes as a modest surprise. While Cleveland lacked the luster of a military career, he remains our only president to have served as a sheriff (in Erie County, New York). While acting in that capacity he personally hanged two men. Cleveland, who famously hired a substitute to serve in his place during the Civil War, was given the option of hiring someone to perform the executions for him, but declined, saying it was his responsibility alone.
That brings us to the venerable Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory was without question a president widely remembered for his proclivity for violence. In short, General Jackson was an angry man. He fought in several wars and engaged in multiple personal duels. He was a fearless and ruthless Indian fighter during the First Seminole War who later defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, becoming the hero of the War of 1812. His fierce military reputation notwithstanding, Jackson fought 103 duels in his lifetime, most of them regarding his wife’s honor. In 1806 he shot and killed Charles Dickinson over a horse-racing debt and an insult to his wife Rachel. Dickinson fired first, hitting Jackson with a bullet that lodged next to Jackson’s heart. Jackson staggered but did not fall. He then carefully aimed his pistol and killed Dickinson on the spot. Jackson was wounded in so many duels that he was said to “rattle like a bag of marbles” as he walked. He purportedly racked up 26 kills in his lifetime. So he is the only U.S. President known to have killed a man with a gun.
So those are the Presidents I can think of for whom a case could be made that they indeed took another’s life violently, only one of which can be positively confirmed. The fact is, most of these men were young and unknown during their time of infamy, so we have no record aside from personal recollections. Besides, in warfare, it was often hard to tell if your single shot in a volley of many killed anyone, so some of them most likely never knew themselves. But the point is, guns and the Presidency are not exactly new dance partners.
Wait, you say, none of these surprised you? Well, if we stray off the path of actually winning the office into the slightly murky waters of close-but-no-cigar candidates, what would you say if I told you that a candidate known as the intellectual conscience of the Democratic Party and the Liberal lion of the Ike Era, Adlai Stevenson II, killed someone with a gun?
Stevenson, the 31st Governor of Illinois, was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956, losing both times to Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower. He narrowly missed out on the 1960 nomination to John F. Kennedy. He was from Libertyville, Illinois, a town between Chicago and the Wisconsin state line a mere 3 1/2 hour drive from Indianapolis. Noted for his intellectual demeanor, eloquent public speaking, vehement opposition to the Soviet Union and as a champion of progressive causes, Stevenson had a terrible tragedy in his past.
On December 30, 1912, 12-year-old Adlai unintentionally shot and killed a 15-year-old second cousin named Ruth Merwin when a rifle he was handling unexpectedly discharged. The accident occurred at a party for his sister Buffie at grandfather Adlai Stevenson’s house in Bloomington; the senior Stevenson had been vice president of the United States under Grover Cleveland and vice presidential nominee with William Jennings Bryan. Adlai was considered “too young,” so he was given his dinner early and sent up to his room.
A military-academy student at the party, Bob Whitner, was urged to perform the military manual of arms. Buffie called upstairs to Adlai and asked him to go to the attic and look for an old .22 rifle she thought was there. Young Adlai returned with the rifle and handed it to Whitner, who quickly examined it to be sure there were no bullets in it before performing the drill. He executed the drill to perfection, then handed the gun back to Adlai to be returned to the attic. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, one shell remained loaded in the chamber. As Stevenson took the gun, he attempted to mimic the older boy’s performance and the gun suddenly discharged.
The bullet entered Ruth Merwin’s forehead. She fell dead on the carpet in the hall. Adlai’s parents rushed to the sound of the gunfire and his father Lewis asked, “What boy did this?” The shocked future Governor answered, “I did,” and dejectedly went up to his room and lay down on the bed gasping moans that could be heard behind the closed door. At an inquest the next day, he was cleared of all blame for the accident. The official examination revealed that the ejecting mechanism of the gun had a rusty spring that prevented the emergence of the single bullet. The account of the inquest published in the local newspaper mentioned that “Adlai Stevenson, prostrated with grief, was unable to be present.”
Ruth’s mother quickly forgave the youngster telling him that he must not blame himself. Stevenson was devastated by the incident and rarely referred to it as an adult. Perhaps unsurprisingly, from the time of that tragedy forward, guns were barred from the Stevenson home. The episode was so traumatic Adlai never even told Ellen, his wife of 21 years, about the incident. She only learned of it when a Time reporter asked about it during an interview in 1952, three years after the couple divorced.
In a posthumous biography written in 1976, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, author John Bartlow Martin offered a more controversial account. An anonymous eyewitness, interviewed years after the incident, claimed that “Adlai took the gun from the other boy, pointed it at one of the girls, Ruth Merwin, and pulled the trigger.” Gun control experts thought this revised account more believable than the original story, and more in line with how most accidental child shooting deaths generally happen. Regardless, a death occurred and Adlai Stevenson’s own death in 1965 negated any further rebuttal.
Had this happened in 2016 instead of 1912, Stevenson’s parents might have easily faced criminal charges for neglecting basic gun-safety protocols. But, as we are so often reminded nowadays, you can’t realistically apply modern standards to the early-20th-century world. Questions about gun ownership and gun rights have been around in this country for centuries and I don’t see them going away anytime soon. An undeniable hot button political issue to be sure, sometimes guns and politics collide through the pages of history.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest book is “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
