GOVERNOR WALLACE SHOT DURING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN RALLY
Laurel, Maryland (JFK+50) At 4 p.m. local time on May 15, 1972, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace* was shot during a campaign rally at the Laurel Shopping Center 14 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.
The Governor, surrounded by a crowd of about a thousand people was shot multiple times at point blank range by 21 year old Arthur Bremer**. The gunman was dressed in red, white and blue.
One of the bullets penetrated Wallace's chest and two more the stomach. An eyewitness said...
"The man stuck the gun right in (Gov. Wallace's) stomach and fired."
The bullet that lodged in the spinal cord would leave George Wallace permanently paralyzed. He would be confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life.
Although he did not fare well in the presidential election of 1972, he later won another election as governor of Alabama and publicly apologized for his segregationist positions.
*George C. Wallace (1919-1998) was born in Clio, Alabama & graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa in 1942. GCW served in the US Army Air Corps in WWII. He was 45th Governor of Alabama serving terms 1963-1967, 1971-1979 & 1983-1987.
**Arthur Bremer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1950. He was ostracized by other students at school and was deemed anti-social by his teachers. AB was sentenced to 63 years in prison for shooting GCW but the sentence was reduced to 53 years after appeal. He was released on November 9, 2007.
SOURCE
"Wallace Is Shot, Legs Paralyzed, Suspect Seized at Laurel Rally". by William Greider, The Washington Post, May 16, 1972, www.washingtonpost.com/
Laurel, Maryland (JFK+50) At 4 p.m. local time on May 15, 1972, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace* was shot during a campaign rally at the Laurel Shopping Center 14 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.
The Governor, surrounded by a crowd of about a thousand people was shot multiple times at point blank range by 21 year old Arthur Bremer**. The gunman was dressed in red, white and blue.
One of the bullets penetrated Wallace's chest and two more the stomach. An eyewitness said...
"The man stuck the gun right in (Gov. Wallace's) stomach and fired."
The bullet that lodged in the spinal cord would leave George Wallace permanently paralyzed. He would be confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life.
Although he did not fare well in the presidential election of 1972, he later won another election as governor of Alabama and publicly apologized for his segregationist positions.
*George C. Wallace (1919-1998) was born in Clio, Alabama & graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa in 1942. GCW served in the US Army Air Corps in WWII. He was 45th Governor of Alabama serving terms 1963-1967, 1971-1979 & 1983-1987.
**Arthur Bremer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1950. He was ostracized by other students at school and was deemed anti-social by his teachers. AB was sentenced to 63 years in prison for shooting GCW but the sentence was reduced to 53 years after appeal. He was released on November 9, 2007.
SOURCE
"Wallace Is Shot, Legs Paralyzed, Suspect Seized at Laurel Rally". by William Greider, The Washington Post, May 16, 1972, www.washingtonpost.com/
George C. Wallace
Photo by Marion S. Trikosko (1968)
