Arthur Bremer - Early Life

Early Life

Bremer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the third of four sons to William Bremer (1913–2002), who was a bread truck driver, and Sylvia Bremer (1915 – February 2007), a homemaker. His two elder siblings were illegitimate and their fathers were two different men. Bremer was raised by his working-class parents on the South Side of Milwaukee and lived in a dysfunctional household. He was alleged to have had a stormy relationship with both parents, though he was closer to his father. Bremer stated "I would escape my ugly reality by pretending that I was living with a television family and there was no yelling at home or no one to hit me."

At school, Bremer did well in English and history and displayed a talent for writing, although his grades were generally low. He scored 106 on an IQ test in high school, and 114 on a test he took after his failed assassination attempt, showing that he had at least "above average" intelligence.

School was an ordeal for Bremer because he did not make friends and was either bullied or simply ignored by other students. Bremer had written in his diary that "No English or history test was ever as hard, no math final exam ever as difficult as waiting in a school lunch line alone, waiting to eat alone ... while hundreds huddled & gossiped and roared, & laughed and stared at me ..." and "No one ever noticed me nor took interest in me as an individual with the need to receive or give love. In junior high school, I was an object of pure ridicule for my dress, withdrawal, and asocial manner. Dozens of times, I saw individuals laugh and smile more in ten to fifteen minutes than I did in all my life up to then."

His first grade teacher wrote that it was a pleasure to have Bremer in class, but when he was in the third grade another teacher wrote that "Arthur has adjusted well in class but hasn't made an effort as of yet to play with the other children at recess." He was remembered for awkward laughter and not being able to engage in small talk with others. Bremer attended South Division High School, where he briefly starred on the school's football team.

During adolescence, Bremer was not rebellious and did not attract concern despite his emotional problems, which were overlooked because they did not involve transgressions on which authorities usually focus. Despite his problems, he graduated from high school on January 28, 1969.