American Domestic Terrorists and Assassins

 

 

This list features domestic terrorists and assassins who used violence to pursue their goals. The U.S. Government’s definition of domestic terrorism is:

“the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” –FBI Definition of Domestic Terrorism.

 

Individual Domestic Terrorists and Assassins:

John Wilkes Booth (1839-1865)–Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.

Leon Czolgosz (1873-1901)–Anarchist assassin of U.S. President William McKinley on September 14, 1901.

Lucas Helder (b. )–In 2002, Helder planted pipe bombs throughout the American Midwest.

Theodore Kaczynski –Known as the Unabomber, Kaczynski believed that scientific, industrial, and technological progress cause the human race to live in misery.

Jared Loughner (b. 1988)–The Arizona shooter who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Federal Judge John Roll, and 14 others in January, 2011

 

Timothy McVeigh (1968-2001)–Oklahoma City Bomber.

Terry Nichols (b. 1955)– Conspirator in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.

Lee Harvey Oswald (1936-1963)–Assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

James Earl Ray (1929-1998)–Assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios (1933-2005)–Leader and co-founder of the Boricua Popular Army, which seeks Puerto Rican independence from the U.S. Also founded the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement (MIRA) in 1967. The group was late broken up by the police.

Eric Rudolph (b. 1966)–1996 Atlanta Olympic Park Bomber.

Sirhan Sirhan (b. 1944)–Assassin of Presidential Candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Andrew Joseph Stack III (1956-2010)–Suicide/homicide pilot who crashed his plane into an office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Feb. 18, 2010.

Dan White (1926-1985)–Assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor, Harvey Milk.

 

Domestic Terrorist Groups:

Animal Liberation Front (ALF)–Animal Rights group.

Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement (MIRA)–Puerto Rican terrorist group which sought independence from the U.S. Broken up by the police in the 1960s.

Boricua Popular Army (AKA Ejército Popular Boricua & Los Macheteros)–Puerto Rican terrorist group seeking Puerto Rican independence from the United States. First known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN)

Earth Liberation Front (ELF)–Environmentalist group held responsible for acts of eco-terrorism throughout the United States.

Minutemen –Right-wing terrorist group in the 1960s. (NOTE: not to be confused with the Minutemen volunteer border patrol begun in 2005.)

Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)- Left-wing group best known for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.

Weather Underground–Left-wing group active in the 1960s.

 

 

 

Sources On Domestic Terrorism and Assassins:

“Armies of God: John Brown and the American Terrorist Tradition” by Philip Jenkins of Pennsylvania State University

 

National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrrorism– U.S. Government policy document (available on Amazon).