In the Crosshairs

Assassinations often change the course of history. Here is an intriguing look at dozens of notable assassinations and attempts throughout history, including complete details about the assassin, the victim, the circumstances of the attack, and the outcome. In the Crosshairs also features photos of many of the victims or would-be victims, and rare archival material, including excerpts from original police reports.

High-profile celebrities, political figures, religious leaders, and many others have fallen prey to assassins, and many have survived. In the Crosshairs is arranged in alphabetical order, by last name, and includes such details as:

On November 8, 1939, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped an assassination attempt – 12 minutes after he left a room where he was making a speech, a bomb went off.
Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat would probably have survived the assassin’s bullet on October 6, 1981, if he hadn’t taken off his bulletproof vest – but he didn’t like the way it made his suit bulge.
Robert John Bardo, the murderer of young actress Rebecca Schaeffer, carried with him to the crime scene a copy of J. D, Sallinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, just like Mark David Chapman did when he murdered John Lennon nearly nine years earlier.
From notable murders (Abraham Lincoln, Gianni Versace, and Indira Gandhi) to little-known attempts (George W. Bush, Wild Bill Hickock, and Andy Warhol) here is a surprising, informative, and intriguing book that deserves to be on every history buff’s bookshelf.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Stephen Spignesi is the author of more than 50 titles on the subject of history and pop culture, including The USA Book of Lists; George Washington’s Leadership Lessons; What’s Your Red, White, and Blue IQ?; and The Titanic For Dummies. He teaches English at the University of New Haven (Connecticut). The author resides in East Haven, Connecticut.