The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara: The Man Who Would Assassinate FDR

On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, a 33-year-old unemployed bricklayer, fired five pistol shots during a Miami political rally at president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. All five rounds missed the intended target, but one fatally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Less than five weeks later, Zangara was electrocuted in a Florida state prison. In his matter-of-fact narrative, Picchi, a former professor of criminal law at Florida International University, pulls together the fragments of a story that has been ignored for many years. The issues he raises are still current today: the proper protection of presidents by the Secret Service; the treatment of the poor in the criminal justice system; the ease with which Zangara bought an $8 handgun; the political haste with which Zangara was accused of being part of an anarchist conspiracy; and the role of the media in fast-tracking a jury verdict. Picchi makes use of newspaper accounts (although the national press corps was largely absent because it was massed at the train station awaiting Roosevelt's scheduled departure), personal interviews and historical records. But what makes this book most interesting is an appendix containing a translation of a hitherto unpublished memoir written by Zangara during his last days. It sheds some light on the biggest mystery of all--why an impoverished lone wolf wanted to kill a future president of the U.S. who held out so much hope for the downtrodden. Photos. (Dec.)