The Book of Assassins

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ASSASSIN TRIVIA Julius Caesar's assassination may have been patricide. His last words were not "Et tu Brute," as Shakespeare suggests, but "kai su teknon"-Greek for "You too, my child." These words were particularly appropriate when one considers the rumors that surrounded Brutus's paternity (see BRUTUS). Perhaps the most unusual weapon ever used in an assassination attempt was the "infernal machine." The device was composed of twenty-five rifles that could be fired simultaneously by a single trigger. Ironically, the would-be assassin's intended victim walked away unhurt, while most of those crowded around him did not (see FIESCHI). When a hunchbacked dwarf fired a shot at Queen Victoria, London police arrested every hunchbacked dwarf in the capital until they found the right one (see BEAN). Rigoberto LOpez not only shot and killed Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza but also anonymously won a newspaper contest for the best poem eulogizing the dead leader (see LOPEZ). President Andrew Jackson survived two attempted assassinations on the same day. When his hapless attacker's pistol misfired, he drew a second pistol-which also misfired. Jackson beat the man with his cane until help arrived (see LAWRENCE).