On this day, Feb. 15, 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt, but Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was mortally wounded.
Roosevelt had just delivered a speech in Miami’s Bayfront Park from the backseat of his open touring car when a deranged, unemployed bricklayer named Giuseppe Zangara opened fire with six rounds, shouting, “Too many people are starving!” Five people were hit, including Cermak, who died on March 6. Zangara’s attack reflected the anger felt by many Americans during the Great Depression.
Roosevelt was still only the president-elect and his policies remained untested, but reports of Roosevelt’s composure during
the shooting did much to enforce his public image as a strong leader.
Zangara was initially tried for attempted murder and sentenced to 80 years, but when Cermak died of his wounds on March 3, 1933, Zangara was retried and sentenced to the electric chair. Zangara was executed on March 20 — barely a month after the shootings.
