Arthur Bremer

Arthur Herman Bremer (born August 21, 1950) is an American convicted criminal, whose attempt to assassinate U.S. Independent presidential candidate George Wallace on May 15, 1972, in Laurel, Maryland, left Wallace permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Bremer was found guilty and sentenced to 63 years (53 years after an appeal) in a Maryland prison for the shooting of Wallace and three bystanders.

Despite his problems, he graduated from South Division High School in January 1969.

After graduating from high school, Bremer briefly attended Milwaukee Area Technical College, studying aerial photography, art, writing, and psychology; he dropped out after one semester.

Bremer was employed as a busboy at the Milwaukee Athletic Club from March 1969.

On September 1, 1970, Bremer got a part-time job working as a janitor at Story Elementary School, which he quit after almost 18 months, on January 31, 1972.

In 1971, Bremer was demoted to kitchen work after customers complained that he talked to himself and that "he whistled and marched in tune with music played in the dining room."

Angered by his demotion, Bremer complained to the program planner for the Milwaukee Commission on Community Relations.

The complaint was investigated and dismissed.

On October 16, 1971, after an argument, Bremer moved from his parents' house to a three-room one-bedroom apartment near Marquette University, where he lived until May 9, 1972.

Late on the night of November 18, 1971, Bremer was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and for parking in a no-parking zone.

A court-appointed psychiatrist declared Bremer mentally ill, yet stable enough to continue to live in the community.

Bremer was released after paying a $38.50 fine.

On December 8, 1971, Bremer pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Bremer quit his job at the Athletic Club on February 16, 1972.

On January 13, 1972, Bremer went into the Casanova Gun Shop in Milwaukee, and bought a snub-nosed Charter Arms Undercover .38-caliber revolver for $90.

After a short [romantic?] relationship ended and he quit both of his jobs, on March 1, 1972, Bremer began his Assassin's Diary with the words "It is my personal plan to assassinate by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace. I intend to shoot one or the other while he attends a campaign rally for the Wisconsin Primary."

On April 10, Bremer traveled from Milwaukee to Ottawa, which Nixon was about to visit.

Three days later, dressed in a business suit with a "Vote Republican" sticker on, wearing sunglasses and with a revolver in his pocket, Bremer went out intending to assassinate Nixon, but found no opportunity.

Security was tight, making it impossible for Bremer to get close enough to Nixon, and he doubted whether any bullets would go through the glass of Nixon's limousine.

Three days later, on April 13, Bremer thought he saw Nixon's limousine outside of the Centre Block, but it had disappeared by the time he could retrieve his revolver from his hotel room.

On May 4, 1972, after a ten-day break from writing, Bremer realized it would be almost impossible to assassinate Nixon and decided that it was Wallace's "fate" to be his victim, even though his diary entries never showed the same level of interest or enthusiasm as they did with regard to assassinating Nixon.

Bremer made this clear in his diary writing, "He [Wallace] certainly won't be buried with the snobs in Washington. ... I won't even rate a TV interruption in Russia or/Europe when the news breaks—they never heard of Wallace."

The following day, he checked out two books from the public library in Milwaukee, both detailing the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan: Sirhan by Aziz Shihab and "R.F.K. Must Die!" by Robert Blair Kaiser.

Despite his lack of enthusiasm, early on the morning of May 9, 1972, Bremer took a car ferry to Ludington, Michigan, and visited the Wallace campaign headquarters in Silver Lake, Michigan, and offered to be a volunteer.

That week, he attended a Wallace rally in Lansing and in Cadillac.

On the afternoon of May 13, Kalamazoo police received an anonymous phone call saying a suspicious looking person had been sitting in a car near the National Guard Armory.

When questioned, Bremer said he was waiting for the Wallace rally to begin and wanted to get a good seat.

Bremer was photographed at the rally that evening, where he had a clear opportunity to shoot his target, but according to his diary, he did not do so because he might have shattered some glass and blinded some "stupid 15-year-olds" who stood nearby.

The following day, Bremer set off for Maryland and made his final diary entry.

Bremer turned up in Wheaton, Maryland, for Wallace's noon appearance at Wheaton Plaza for a shopping center rally on May 15, 1972.

He was dressed in dark glasses; patriotic red, white, and blue, wearing his new campaign button which said "Wallace in 1972".

He strongly applauded Wallace, in contrast with many others present, who heckled and taunted the speaker.

Two tomatoes were thrown at Wallace during the rally, but both missed.

Based on this reception, Wallace refused to shake hands with anyone present, denying Bremer the opportunity to carry out his plan.

After 35 years of incarceration, Bremer was released from prison on November 9, 2007.

Bremer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the third of four sons, to William and Sylvia Bremer.

He was raised by his working-class parents on the south side of Milwaukee and lived in a dysfunctional household.

Bremer stated "I would escape my ugly reality by pretending that I was living with a television family and there was no yelling at home or no one to hit me."

Bremer did not make friends in school, where he was shunned and ostracized.