The Plots Against the President (25 page)
  52 “The farmers will rise up”: Schlesinger, 1:4.
  52 “They weren't paranoid”: Manchester, 1:65.
  52 “I want”: Hitler, quoted in Wolfskill, 2.
  53 “I do not often envy”: Reed, quoted in Schlesinger, 1:268.
  53 “The word itself”: Sharlet, 137.
  53 “men of far greater intelligence” ⦠“Those rascals in Russia”: Manchester, 1:68.
  54 “Communist Party members”: MacPherson, 119.
  54 “Even the iron hand” ⦠“on the shelf”: Manchester, 1:67â69.
  54 “What does a democracy do”: David M. Kennedy, 111.
  54 “swaggered across Europe and Asia”: Cook, 2:26.
  54 “people like Hitler and Stalin”: Vanderbilt, 104.
  54 “told me that what he wanted” ⦠“He told me that the only thing”: Ibid., 110.
  55 “you seize power”: Ibid., 120.
Chapter Eleven: American Mussolini and the Radio Priest
  56 “Who is that
awful
man”: Tully, 324.
  56 The legend of Huey Long has been immortalized in Robert Penn Warren's
All the King's Men
and John Dos Passos's
Number One
.
  56 “pudgy pixie”: Williams, 4.
  56 “Incredible Kingfish”: “Democrats: Incredible Kingfish,”
Time
, October 3, 1932.
  56 “one of the two most dangerous men in the United States”: Tugwell,
Brains Trust
, 194.
  56 “American Mussolini”: Davis, 2:352.
  57 “Frankie, you're not going to let” ⦠“I like him”: T. Harry Williams, 602.
  57 “The countless visitors”: David M. Kennedy, 113.
  57 “twin terror”: MacPherson, 123.
  57 “When I talk to him”: Long, quoted in Brinkley, 58.
57â58 “secretly contemptuous” ⦠“capitulated” ⦠“Huey was a political man”: Williams, 801â2.
  58 “father of hate radio”: Warren,
Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin the Father of Hate Radio.
  58 “laden with appeals”: Brinkley, 278.
  59 “all wool and a yard wide”: Long, quoted in Brinkley, 58.
  59 “once pleasant discourses”: Ibid., 83.
  59 “A priest who was more famous”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 78.
  60 “Choose to-day!”: Coughlin, quoted in Schlesinger, 3:17.
  60 “spirit of gold trading”: Coughlin's February 19, 1933, sermon, quoted in Brinkley, 270.
  60 “I take the road to fascism”: Coughlin, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 112.
  60 “in normal times” ⦠“There is no question”: Roosevelt, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 301.
Chapter Twelve: The
Nourmahal
Gang
  61 For Roosevelt's affection for China and dislike of Hitler, see Freidel, 123ff.
  62 “Wall Street was not merely”: Fraser,
Every Man
, 414.
  62 “The belief that those in control”: Joseph P. Kennedy, 93.
  62 “waiting affably”: Schlesinger, 1:464.
  63 “scion of a family”: Davis, 2:420.
  63 “1. World is sick”: Moley,
First New Deal
, 100ff.
  64 “The Hasty Pudding Club”: Flynn, quoted in Davis, 2:420.
  64 “fascinated by the mystery” ⦠“he was doing so much”: James Roosevelt and Sidney Shalett, 277.
  64 “At Sea with Franklin D.”: Flynn, quoted in Davis, 2:420.
  64 “could be neither stemmed”: Moley, “Bank Crisis.”
  65 “the last holiday” ⦠“getting a marvelous rest”: Franklin Roosevelt to Sara Roosevelt, February 6, 1933. Elliott Roosevelt,
FDR: His Personal Letters
, 1:328.
Chapter Thirteen: Magic City
  67 “the blow that broke the boom”: Stuart McIver, “1926 Miami: The Blow That Broke the Boom,”
Florida Sun Sentinel
, September 19, 1993.
  67 “Columns of hooded”: Picchi, 6.
  68 “begging expedition”: Gottfried, 317.
  68 “those people”: James Roosevelt and Sidney Shallet, 277.
  68 “I didn't even open”:
New York Times
, February 16, 1933. Quoted in Davis, 2:422.
  69 Details of the motorcade are contradictory. Moley contended that he was accompanied in the
second
car by Vincent Astor, Kermit Roosevelt, and William Rhinelander Stewart. Other accounts, including Blaise Picchi's study of the assassination, contend that it was Judge Kerochan, Astor, Roosevelt, and Moley in the
third
car.
  69 “It would be easy”: Astor, quoted in Moley, “Bank Crisis.”
  70 “one of those improbable”: Ibid.
  70 “I remember T.R.”: Roosevelt to Garner, December 21, 1932, quoted in Elliott Roosevelt,
F.D.R.: His Personal Letters
, 313.
  70 “Sono gli incerti del mestiere”: William Manchester,
The Death of a President
(New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 35.
  70 “We welcome him to Miami”: Picchi, 13.
Chapter Fourteen: I'm All Right
  71 “Where do you think” ⦠“I go right down” ⦠“It no look” ⦠“There are many people”: Donovan, 160.
  72 “After the speech, Mr. President”: Gowran, “Shot Aimed at FDR Took Cermak's Life,”
Chicago Tribune
, November 23, 1963.
  72 “I have had”: Roosevelt remarks, quoted in Freidel, 169.
  72 “the talking picture people”: Roosevelt, quoted in Davis, 2:429.
  72 “But you've
got
to” ⦠“I'm sorry”: Ibid.
  72 “The President”: Gottfried, 324.
  73 “get him the hell out of here”: Picchi, 16.
  73 “It was providential”: Davis, 2:430â31.
  73 “I saw Mayor Cermak”:
New York Times
, February 17, 1933.
  73 “I'm all right”: Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 1:465.
  73 “I don't think he is going to last”: ⦠“It was surprising” ⦠“Tony, keep quiet” ⦠It won't hurt you”:
New York Times
, February 17, 1933.
  74 “Open the door”: Picchi, 25.
  74 “F.D.R. had talked to me”: Moley, “Bank Crisis,”
  75 “These things are to be expected”:
New York Times
, February 16, 1933. Quoted in Davis, 2:431.
  75 “must of have been awfully hard”: Eleanor Roosevelt quoted in Cook, 2:27.
  76 “Roosevelt's nerve”: Moley, “Bank Crisis, Bullet Crisis,”
Saturday Evening Post
, July 29, 1939.
  76 “The President-elect, feeling the bullets”: James A. Hagerty,
New York Times
, February 16, 1933.
  77 “Tony, I hope you'll be up”: Roosevelt, quoted in Picchi, 35.
  77 “I'm glad it was me”: Ibid. While this phrase from Cermak to Roosevelt has been widely repeated throughout history, legend has it that a Chicago reporter falsely attributed those words to Cermak.
Chapter Fifteen: Too Many People Are Starving to Death
  78 “I have the gun”: Zangara.
  78 “conducted only minor”: FBI “Franklin D. Roosevelt Assassination Attempt” file.
  79 “among the bonus diehards”: Dickson and Allen, 330, n.61.
  79 “an Italian anarchistic”: Telegram from agent in Houston, Texas, to J. Edgar Hoover, February 16, 1933. FBI “Zangara” file.
  79 “was the representative”: Memorandum from V. W. Hughes of the U.S. Bureau of Investigation to J. Edgar Hoover, February 20, 1933, FBI “Franklin D. Roosevelt Assassination Attempt” file.
  79 “dances conducted”: Letter from J. Zajic to J. Edgar Hoover, February 17, 1933, FBI “Franklin D. Roosevelt Assassination Attempt” file.
  79 For more information regarding Zangara's ties to the cases, see FBI “Franklin D. Roosevelt Assassination Attempt” file.
  79 “When I fired the first shot”: Zangara confession. Quoted in Picchi, 252.
  80 “Someone sent me here” ⦠“to be quiet”: Zangara, quoted in Picchi, 85.
  80 “Don't do that please” ⦠“He is going to kill the president!”: Cross, quoted in Picchi, 17.
  81 “two Legionnaires” ⦠“like a ton of bricks” ⦠“I want to kill the president!”: Ibid., 19ff.
  81 “I sprang”: Armour affidavit, quoted in Picchi, 29â30.
  82 “Nobody take my arm”: Zangara, quoted in Picchi, 28â29.
  82 “deprive Mrs. Cross”: Ibid., 163.
  82 “little lecture on manners”: Donovan, 160.
  82 “The fact remains”: Ibid., 163â64.
  82 “I'm such a little fellow”: Zangara testimony.
Chapter Sixteen: Typical of His Breed
  83 “The little Italian”: Reporter Jack Bell, quoted in Picchi, 47.
  83 “a swarthy Italian”:
Miami Herald
, quoted in Picchi, 45.
  84 “I was figuring to go”: Zangara, quoted in Donovan, 156.
  84 “I want to keel all presidents”: Zangara, quoted in Key, 14.
  84 “I see Mr. Hoover”: Zangara testimony.
  84 “You don't need no school”: Donovan, 150.
  84 “hate very violently”: Zangara, quoted in Davis, 2:433.
  84 “like a dog”: Zangara, quoted in Picchi, 48.
  85 “the stomachache”: Zangara, quoted in Picchi, 66.
  85 “I needed it”: Zangara, Ibid., 243.
  85 “The guards got in front of me”: Ibid., 241.
  86 “an anarchist, socialist” ⦠“lunch-hour orator” ⦠“governments and men in power”: Rosario Candrilli, quoted in Picchi, 72.
  86 “fostered and founded”: Hynes quoted in Picchi, 77.
  87 “not a maniac”:
New York Times
, February 16, 1933.
  87 “a lonesome morose character”: “Zangara Planned Attack All Alone,”
New York Times
, February 17, 1933. The motivation behind this dissembling by the Secret Service cannot be determined, as that agency refused to release documents under a Freedom of Information Act request by this author.
  87 Di Silvestro accusation against Zangara: “Di Silvestro Links Zangara in Bomb Death: Phila. Attorney Tells Mussolini That Assassin Has Been Identified as Dynamite Terrorist.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, March 18, 1933. Also see FBI “Zangara” file.
  87 “against the lives” ⦠“With my most sincere regrets”: “Five Jailed as Suspects in Roosevelt Plot Quiz,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 19, 1933.
  88 “I am friend of Zangara”: Newspaper clipping in FBI “Zangara” file, “Boy of 15 Suspected in Roosevelt âBomb,' ” Associated Press, March 2, 1933.
  88 “wide-spread group” ⦠“Zangara must have had”: C. James Todaro to Edward W. Wells, February 21, 1933, in FBI “Zangara” file.
  88 “under the protection”: Gallagher, 144.
  88 “natural political mode of class rule”: Bancroft, 155.
  89 “I do not belong to any society”: Key, 14â15.
  89 “This is the United States”: Robinson, quoted in Freidel, 171.
  89 “socialistic” ⦠“anarchistic” ⦠“fixed idea”:
New York Times
, February 17, 1933.
  89 “felt it was desirable”: Moley to Fred Charles of
Buffalo Times
, February 24, 1933. Moley Collection. “I interviewed Zangara after the shooting that night and in my opinion no psychiatrist would declare him insane in the legal sense of the word. I made it very clear in my statement to the newspapers after examining him that I found no political ideas. I did this not only because it was true, but because I felt it was desirable to avoid, so far as possible, any hysteria on the subject of radicalism.”
  90 “For even if he had remained”: Davis, 2:433.
Chapter Seventeen: The Bony Hand of Death
  91 “Divine Providence”: Roosevelt telegram to Mrs. Cross, reprinted in the
New York Times
, February 20, 1933.
  91 “To a man”:
Time
, February 27, 1933.
  92 “killing its elected leaders” ⦠“Guarding any President”: Reilly, 10â11.
  92 “one of the most elaborate”: February 18, 1933.
  92 “Circumstances made it impossible”: Moley, “Bank Crisis,” 1.
  92 “A most critical situation”: Hoover to Roosevelt, February 17, 1933, quoted in Schlesinger, 1:476.
  93 “the letter from Hoover” ⦠“That the breaking point had come”: Moley's notes of the reaction to Hoover's letter, Raymond Moley Collection, Hoover Institution.
  93 “It would have been inconceivable”: Thomas Lamont, quoted in Freidel, 175.
  93 “Fundamentally, the millions”: Freidel, 181.
  93 “mortally stricken” ⦠“steadily degenerating confidence”: Moley's notes of the reaction to Hoover's letter Raymond Moley Collection, Hoover Institution.
93â94 “assumed that Roosevelt would succeed”: Moley, “Bank Crisis,” 13.
  94 “90 percent of the so-called new deal”: Hoover to Reed, February 20, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 177.
  94 “cheeky” ⦠“madman”: Schlesinger, 1:477.
  94 “It is my duty”: Hoover to Roosevelt, February 28, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 188.
  94 “I am equally concerned”: Roosevelt to Hoover, March 1, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 189.
  95 “revolution and not reform”: Hoover, quoted in Alter, 182.
  95 “center of the storm”: Ahamed, 444.
  95 “did not want”: Josephson,
Money Lords
, 147.
  95 “nine million dollars”: Manchester, 1:88.
  96 “imperturbable and betrayed”: James Roosevelt and Sidney Shalett, 251.