JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 1950
GEORGE C. WALLACE SHOT DURING CAMPAIGN RALLYLaurel, Maryland (JFK+50) Forty-four years ago today, May 15, 1972, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace* was shot during a campaign rally here in Laurel.
The Governor was shot four times at point blank range by 21 year old Arthur Bremer**. Mr. Wallace was in the process of his third presidential campaign after polling more than 10 million votes as an independent in 1968.
Governor Wallace had just completed a speech and, against the advice of his secret service agents, went into the crowd to shake hands. One of the bullets that hit the Governor lodged in the spinal cord and left him permanently paralyzed.
George Wallace recovered but was confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life. In 1983, after having asked forgiveness for his segregationist politics, he was elected Alabama's governor once more.
Arthur Bremer, who served 35 years in prison for the crime, wrote that he shot Wallace to become "infamous" and to "gain notoriety".
*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.
George C. Wallace
Photo by Marion S. Trikosko (1968)
