A huge, hulking truck seemed to inadvertently block the street just in front of the car in which the President of Mubanda was driving. I had to stop. The downpour had just begun to sound, and the air was heavy. Because of this, the protective shutters in the passenger compartment, contrary to safety requirements, were raised, which made the killer's task ridiculously simple
He could only get closer and rely on the will of the gods. After all, the president, in addition to his popularity among the people, was also distinguished by devilish luck: in his twenty-one years of being in power on Olympus, he miraculously escaped the hands of hired killers eighteen times! Not otherwise, he got along with the devil - not without reason does he belittle those who believe in the gods of their ancestors and elevate the apostates who have chosen a white god for themselves? “But this time the unclean person won't help him,” the twenty-year-old boy who was clutching the handle of a pistol in his pocket was pounding in his head, “even if all the forces of hell stand up to protect him. Mukuru is with us! Whispering a prayer, the killer rushed forward, to where the profile of a hated face loomed in the cabin … Isn't it a plot for a modern mystical thriller?
Fatal cart with hay
However, a similar story has already taken place … exactly 400 years ago, in Paris. There, on May 14, 1610, under similar circumstances, the French king Henry IV died, stabbed to death by a Catholic fanatic. The same Henry, who promised every poor man a chicken in a pot on Sundays and whom even after centuries the French people will praise in songs: “Long live Henry the Fourth, long live the brave king, this four-time devil who had a triple gift: drink, fight and be gallant gentleman!"
On Friday, May 14, the monarch decided to visit the arsenal in order to inspect new weapons before the upcoming war with Spain. The dukes d'Epernon and de Montbazon were in the carriage with Henry. In addition, the crew was accompanied by horse guards. But even a large escort could not help the "good King Henry". The carriage drove not along a wide street, but along the narrow street of the Iron Rows, which in the depths turned out to be blocked by a wagon with hay. A jam has formed. Again, by a strange coincidence, the carriage's leather curtains were open. And, finally, by an incredible whim of Fortune, it was at the place where the carriage stopped that the Catholic fanatic Francois Ravallac, who hated Henry IV, was armed with a dagger.
The fact is that the assassin knew only the final destination of the royal procession - the arsenal, but most likely did not know which streets she would follow. A red-haired fellow with a disheveled beard jumped onto the spoke of the wheel, dived waist-deep into the carriage window and hit the king in the chest. But a few years ago, in a similar situation, Providence saved Henry's life: when the king received those close to him who congratulated him on his victory over the Catholic League, the monarch bowed down to raise the courtier from his knees, exactly at the moment when the killer decided to strike. Therefore, the blade of the dagger instead of the chest slid across the face, knocking out the king's tooth - an insignificant price to pay for a life saved! But this time the miracle did not happen. The killer's hand was firm. Heinrich only managed to say: "I am wounded!" - and died.
In the 17th century, investigators had as little faith in long chains of coincidences as they do today. Therefore, Ravallac was interrogated with passion. But he, even under torture, insisted that he acted alone and did not name the customers. The law enforcement agencies of that time were just as little interested in delaying the investigation into such a "resonant" murder, as they would say today, as they are today. Therefore, Ravallac was declared a fanatic assassin and quartered two weeks later. But rumors of a conspiracy against the king did not stop.
Someone said that his wife, Maria Medici, had a hand in the murder of the king, someone suspected the mighty Duke d'Epernon, who dreamed of the first role in the state. There was allegedly even a witness to the conspiracy - Jacqueline d'Escoman, but she was rushed herself to be sentenced to life imprisonment on an unrelated charge. And the first minister of Henry IV
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the Duke of Sully, like Cardinal Richelieu, later hinted that the murder of the king was the work of the Spaniards …
Unfortunate Katyn
Of course, the murder of the first person in the state always gives rise to such suspicions. Even if there is no direct evidence. There is something, but there are enough people who want death for the ruler at all times. And you do not need to be a soothsayer in order to foresee the opening of a "fair" of versions around the causes of the plane crash on April 10, 2010, in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski died. There are too many here not just accidents, but real mysticism: after all, Kaczynski was flying not somewhere, but to Katyn.
In 1943, in the village of Katyn, near Smolensk, the Germans opened several fraternal graves and announced that the bodies found in them were the remains of Polish officers interned by the Red Army during the "liberation campaign" against Poland in 1939 and shot a year later. … After the liberation of Smolensk, Soviet experts also examined the remains and came to the conclusion that the execution of prisoners was the work of the SS, and the action itself was carried out not in 1940, but in 1941. Only 46 years later, TASS published a statement in which it admitted that the death of Polish officers was the work of the Soviet side.
On April 10, 2010, on the day of the 70th anniversary of the shooting, the plane of the Polish president Tu-154 flew to Smolensk. Onboard there were 7 crew members and 89 passengers: politicians, high military commanders, public and religious leaders - all of them intended to pay tribute to the memory of those killed in Katyn. The Russian side was going to do the same. In fact, it was planned to conduct a ritual of national reconciliation between the two peoples. A natural question arises: maybe someone didn't like it?
In this story, we again meet with a chain of fatal accidents that ended in tragedy. For some reason, contrary to all the instructions, the political elite of Poland ended up on the same airliner. For some reason, despite the most difficult weather conditions in Smolensk, an experienced presidential pilot, who knew perfectly well what kind of passengers were on board, was making an extremely risky landing approach. By a fatal coincidence, exactly where Polish officers once perished, their descendants die exactly 70 years later … In a word, if there are plane crashes filled with sinister symbolism, then Smolensk is among the first.
Domino principle
Surprisingly, some of the circumstances of the death of Henry IV were repeated to the details on November 22, 1963. In the same way as in the carriage of Henry IV, due to the heat, the plastic top in the John F. Kennedy limousine was lowered, which greatly facilitated the task of the sniper - Lee Harvey Oswald (according to the official version), who shot at the President of the United States. Two days later, Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby with complete indifference from the guard of the suspect. The journalist Dorothy Culgollen also died mysteriously, and she managed to talk face to face with Jack Ruby for more than an hour. Jack Hunter, who visited his apartment immediately after the murder of Oswald, was shot dead at the police station - a policeman allegedly spontaneously fired a pistol. Another journalist who had visited Oswald's apartment with Hunter, Jim Coser, was shot dead in his home. The taxi driver who drove Oswald on the day of Kennedy's assassination died in a car accident. Many other witnesses or participants in the investigation into the Kennedy assassination were killed or died in a suspicious manner.
But just like Ravallac, Oswald was recognized as a lone killer, and his convoluted and bizarre biography served as an excellent argument for his mental disorder. Thus, the death of the "good president", like the death of the "good king", left a lot of reasons for various versions, gossip and speculation, since it was beneficial, alas, to very many.
Maybe American
A similar mystery shrouds the death of another American president - Abraham Lincoln. At first glance, everything looks quite simple: a supporter of preserving the slavery of blacks in the United States - John Booth - is filled with hatred for the president, who intends to end this slavery. And so he gathers several supporters around him and prepares a political assassination. And not only Lincoln was to die. According to Booth's plan, on April 14, 1865, it was planned to destroy both Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.
But the most unexpected circumstances again intervened. The bruiser, who was supposed to kill the secretary of state, had a pistol misfired, and the stab did not reach its target. The unlucky killer rushed to flee Seward's house, never completing the mission entrusted to him. Another conspirator, before attempting to assassinate the vice president, decided to wet his throat for courage and in the nearest bar he got so much that there could be no question of any murder. But the "alcoholic accident" that saved Andrew Jackson turned out to be fatal for Lincoln.
On the evening of April 14, 1865, the President and his wife were at the Ford Theater in Washington DC for the comedy "My American Cousin." After the start of the second act, the guard, instead of being at the entrance to the presidential box, also decided to sprinkle his throat, which the killer took advantage of. It seems that he was even sure of such a strange behavior of the bodyguard, since his whole plan was based on the fact that the box would not be guarded. Surprisingly, before visiting the theater, Lincoln asked the Secretary of War to replace his bodyguard - but this request was not fulfilled.
As an actor, John Booth acted like he was playing a criminal in a nasty play. At first, he spied on the victim through the keyhole. Waiting for the moment when the audience burst into laughter during the comedy, he burst into the box and almost point-blank shot the president in the head. Then he exclaimed with pathos: "This will always be the case with tyrants!" - and, fighting back with a dagger from Major Henry Rathbone who rushed towards him, he jumped from the box into the hall from a height of three meters. Incredibly, the killer, who also injured his leg in the fall, managed to escape safely from the packed theater. Even more incredible, but, fleeing from Washington, where, in modern terms, the "Intercept" plan had already been announced, Booth called himself by his name to the sergeant guarding the blocked bridge - and he let him through. Booth's luck left only when the soldiers surrounded the barn on the ranch,where he was hiding. It is not known whether he would have gone out of the burnt barn to surrender or not - he was accidentally shot through the wooden wall of the barn (it was not possible to establish who exactly shot).
A diary was found with the murdered man. Strangely, the court did not pay any attention to him, and only a few years later the Congressional Commission of Inquiry remembered this important piece of evidence. However, by that time, the diary was missing the last eighteen pages - including those that were supposed to describe the preparation for the assassination of Lincoln. There is one more mysterious fact: on the day of the assassination of the President of the United States, Booth for some reason wanted to meet with the Vice President (thus, on whose life the drunkard killer never dared to commit an assassination attempt) and even passed a note through his secretary: “I didn't want to bother you. You are at home? J. W. Booth.
First after Gustav III
But if in the above-described murders there was always at least an executor, then the death of another "good president" did not leave this clue to the investigation. We are talking about Olof Palma, chairman of the Social Democratic Labor Party of Sweden and Prime Minister of the country in 1969-1976 and 1982-1986.
The politician had enough enemies and friends in abundance: the right-wingers disliked him because he, a native of high society, betrayed his interests by leading the left-wing party; some leftists, on the contrary, often did not trust Palma precisely because of their social origin. Someone considered him arrogant and arrogant, someone did not like his lack of a sense of humor. Nevertheless, ordinary Swedes treated him with great sympathy.
In particular, that is why Palme did not use security and often went to work by public transport, or even got there on foot, communicating with passers-by along the way. On the evening of February 28, 1986, Olof Palme and his wife Lisbeth calmly walked to the Grand Cinema to watch the film The Brothers Mozart. The murderer, according to the investigation, was most likely already waiting for the spouses. When the crowd that came out after the screening began to dissolve, the Palme couple, discussing the film, went to the subway. The assassin followed them in cold blood and, when the couple reached the intersection, came close and shot the Prime Minister three times in the back. After that, the killer rushed away into the saving darkness. The clock showed 23:10.
From the words of bystanders, it was possible to establish only that the killer was tall and fair-haired. Also, three bullets were found that hit the prime minister. The investigation did not have any more material evidence. It was not even possible to find the spent cartridges, since the offender used a revolver. Only by the fact that all markings were removed from the bullets, allowing them to be identified, the assumption arose that a professional, and not a madman, was acting. After all, political assassination in Sweden is an unthinkable thing: the latter happened more than two hundred years ago, when King Gustav III was mortally wounded by a shot at a masquerade.
Literally the next day, a mountain of fresh flowers grew at the site of Palme's murder, and thousands of rallies of memory swept across the country. For the Swedish police, the investigation became a matter of honor, and in the same 1986 they arrested the alleged killer - 33-year-old Viktor Gunnarsson, a member of the extremist group of the European Workers' Party. However, due to insufficient evidence, he soon had to be released. The released Gunnarsson moved to the United States. Years have passed since then, but no new evidence that would allow the investigation to move forward has been found. Meanwhile, the former prime suspect, Gunnarsson, who lived in Salt Lake City, died mysteriously. His apartment was found open, none of his valuables and money was missing, and after a while his body was found in the desert 120 miles from Salt Lake City. And again - no leads, no evidence …
It is sometimes extremely difficult to truly understand the proportion of objective and subjective factors in the deaths of famous politicians. Sometimes a well-planned action may well be perceived as simple bad luck, and sometimes a blind chance becomes the source of legends about an insidious conspiracy of the dark forces.
