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Andrew Jackson Had Beaten An Assassin To The Punch

On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson became the first attempt at a Presidential assassination. After attending the funeral of a Congressman, unemployed Richard Lawrence pulled two pistols on Jackson. Both pistols misfired, a likelihood of 1 in 125,000. Jackson took this opportunity to unleash some smackdown on Lawrence's candy ass that The Rock would have done, repeatedly striking him with his cane. Lawrence claimed that he was the deposed King of England, Richard III (who died in 1485) and needed to kill the President. He felt that if Jackson were no longer in office, Vice President Martin Van Buren would establish a national bank and allow Congress to pay him the money for his English estate claims.

It was proven he was a bit coo coo, as he was once conservatively dressed fellow. Suddenly around 1832, Lawrence grew a mustache and began buying expensive and flamboyant clothing, which he would change three or four times a day. At times standing in the doorway of his home for hours and gazing out into the street. Neighborhood children would jokingly address him as "King Richard", which typically pleased Lawrence, who failed to realize the children were teasing him. He also became paranoid and hostile towards others. On one occasion, he threatened to kill a maid who he thought was laughing at him.

Lawrence also began verbally and physically abusing his family, mainly his sisters, over imagined slights. In one instance, he threatened to hit his sister with a paperweight because he believed that she had been talking about him. At Lawrence's trial, witnesses described the bizarre behavior that he exhibited. Several people testified that Lawrence would engage in nonsensical conversations with himself, and others stated that he would have laughing and cursing fits.

In the years following his acquittal, Lawrence was held by several institutions and hospitals. In 1855, he was committed to the newly-opened Government Hospital for the Insane - later was renamed St. Elizabeths Hospital - in Washington, D.C., where he remained until his death on June 13, 1861. Still stubbornly believing he was King Richard, probably.