Lawrence, Richard

Early life

According to various sources, Richard Lawrence was born in 1800 or 1801 in England . When he was 12 years old, the family moved to the United States of America , and settled in Virginia . As a child, all of Lawrence's acquaintances described him as a quiet and shy, but hardworking boy who always tried to help his parents. He never showed any strange behavior, or signs of a mental disorder. Becoming older, Lawrence mastered the profession of a house painter , and began working in his profession throughout the state. Historians believe that it was the effects of toxic substances that were added to the paint at that time that led to organic damage to the brain and over time caused it a mental disorder . In the early 1830s, he and his family moved to the city of Washington .

Mental problems

The first signs of mental problems began to appear in James Lawrence in November 1832 , when he suddenly quit his job and informed his relatives that he was returning to England . However, a month later he returned home and said that he decided not to sail to England because of the “cold weather”. He again took up his main craft, however, already at the beginning of 1833, having again given up everything, he announced his return to England "to study landscape painting." Lawrence left again and lived in Philadelphia for several weeks, but then returned home again and told his family that he could not sail to England because of “unnamed people,” and also said that he read articles about himself in the Philadelphia newspapers, which contained “ condemnation of his plans to leave for England by the US government. "

Lawrence then said that he was going to start working to save enough money to hire a ship with a captain, with which he planned to sail to England. However, Lawrence’s mental disorder progressed, and soon after leaving work again, he told his sister and her husband that he no longer needed to work, as “the US government owed him a large sum of money”, which he was “about to return”, since he is a "descendant of Richard III ."

At the same time, the appearance and behavior of Lawrence began to change dramatically. Usually balanced and calm, he began to show aggression and insult members of his family and neighbors, and in addition, he grew a mustache and began to dress in old-fashioned clothes, which he changed 3-4 times a day. Once Lawrence threw himself with his fists at the maid, as he believed that she was laughing at him; another time, his sister found him talking to himself. In addition, neighbors noted that Lawrence spent several hours almost every day sitting at the front door of his house in anticipation of a “payment from the US government,” and at the end of 1834 concluded that President Andrew Jackson was preventing the payment of “cash debt” , and decided to physically eliminate it, because he believed that Vice President Martin Van Buren would immediately pay him all the money as soon as he assumed office.

In early January 1835, Lawrence arrived in Washington and followed President Jackson's movements for several weeks. He rented a workshop and acquired two single-shot flintlock pistols. On the morning of January 30, 1835, Lawrence, wearing a hat and a long coat, with the words “be damned if I do not!” Left his workshop for the last time.

On the same day, President Jackson was present at the Capitol in farewell to the member of the US House of Representatives from South Carolina Warren Davis, who was then to be buried in the Congress cemetery . Then the US president was poorly guarded, and almost anyone could easily go to a government office or get closer to the head of the American state, and everyone was allowed to attend the funeral of statesmen. Lawrence took advantage of this: hiding two pistols in the deep pockets of his coat, he, mingling with a crowd of locals who wanted to take part in the farewell to Davis, planned to shoot Jackson when he left his crew. However, he could not fulfill his plan due to the fact that after Jackson's arrival several dozen people rushed to the crew to shake the president’s hand, and Lawrence was unable to get close enough to shoot him.

Then he decided to wait for Jackson to leave the ceremony and shoot him at the exit from the Capitol. Lawrence stood at the eastern exit of the building and began to wait. A few hours later, Jackson left the farewell hall, accompanied by only one bodyguard and several associates. When he walked a few meters from Lawrence, he grabbed the first pistol and, aiming at Jackson's upper back, pulled the trigger, but there was a strong snowstorm that day, and the gunpowder in the gun was damp, since Lawrence had been on the street for too long causing the weapon to misfire . Hearing a characteristic click, the president turned around, at that moment Lawrence grabbed a second pistol and tried to shoot again, but Jackson hit him with a cane in the arm, causing the weapon to fall into the snow. The president tried to raise Lawrence’s weapon several times with a cane, and immediately the attacker was dumped on the ground by a guard and neutralized.

During the trial and trial, Richard Lawrence behaved inappropriately and shouted that "he does not recognize the legality of the trial," and also said that "dear gentlemen, I must judge you, not you me." On April 11, 1835, a court chaired by Judge Francis Kay found Richard Lawrence insane and sentenced him to life in a mental hospital. Over the next 20 years, he was twice transferred from one hospital to another until finally in 1855 he was placed in a psychiatric hospital named after St. Elizabeth, where he died on June 13, 1861 .