Arthur Bremer - Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

On March 1, 1972, Bremer began his diary with the words, "It is my personal plan to assassinate by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace. I intend to shoot one or the other while he attends a campaign rally for the Wisconsin Primary." Bremer's purpose was "to do SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC, FORCEFUL & DYNAMIC, A STATEMENT of my manhood for the world to see." The following evening, Bremer attended an organizational meeting for Wallace at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.

Although Bremer's main aim was to assassinate then-President Richard Nixon, on March 23, Bremer attended a Wallace dinner and rally at Milwaukee's Red Carpet Airport Inn. During the next two months, Bremer would trail Wallace across the USA, travelling by car, plane, ferry and bus.

On April 4, Bremer attended a Wallace victory rally at the ballroom of a Holiday Inn in Milwaukee. Two days later, he flew to New York to visit a massage parlor in the hope of losing his virginity, and stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. On April 8, while preparing for a trip to Ottawa, he put one of his guns, a Browning 9mm, under a mat in the trunk of his car, but it went down so deeply into the right wheel well that he could not get it back out again. It was removed a week after Bremer's arrest when the car was dismantled.

On April 11, Bremer traveled to Ottawa and stayed at the Lord Elgin Hotel. Two days later, Bremer, dressed in a business suit, wearing sunglasses and with a revolver in his pocket, hoped to assassinate Nixon. He could not find an opportunity to do so, however; security was tight because of the presence of anti-Vietnam War protesters and Quebec nationalists, and Ottawa police officers guarded the motorcade's path, making it impossible for anyone to get close to Nixon. Bremer was also unsure whether any bullets would go through the glass of Nixon's limousine. As a result, he did not open fire and the motorcade sped past unharmed. Bremer left Canada, staying at the Sheraton Motor Inn in New Carrollton, Maryland for three days. After this he returned to Milwaukee, where he spent the following two weeks. On April 24, he wrote in his diary, "I'm as important as the start of WWI. I just need the little opening and a second of time."