Reason First: Murderer Giuseppe Zangara Just Wanted to Ride ‘Old Sparky’

Capitalism is the political-economic social system of justice. The irony that is inherent in the story of murderer Giuseppe Zangara, a complete collectivist and altruist, is that he attempted to kill one of the most anti-capitalist figures of all time, then President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead of forever silencing the future 32nd president of the United States of America, he inadvertently struck Chicago mayor Tony Cermak in the lung, killing him.

As anti-freedom as Zangara was, he would be remembered for trying to take down someone who would introduce some of the most pro-collectivism policies in American history. As the New Deal unravelled its ugly scrolls across the land, many Americans would hail Roosevelt as a champion of “the little guy.”

But the little guy is who he hurt the most. And Zangara was ready to murder this man. He railed against kings and capitalists, falsely lumping them in the same pot, disregarding that kingdoms are not built on capitalism.

Zangara pled guilty and emphatically wanted to embrace “Old Sparky” at Florida State Penitentiary. He demanded to be put in the chair, the last yelps from a beast who could not stand reality. For him to try to dispatch one leftist champion and to kill another lefty only goes to show the disconnect between ardent criminals and the men who stand by vicious ideals.

Zangara possessed every opportunity to petition the government. He could have implored to the State to have his voice be heard. Instead, he lowered himself to the status of a brute and turned his back on rationality.

His adamant response to wanting to die in the electric chair demonstrated that he held anti-life beliefs as well. No man with self-esteem wants to die under normal circumstances. He wants to soak up all the virtuous things that life has to offer. Zangara was a monster that could not match the thinking level of some men. His haphazard way of dealing with his problems changed the course of history. Had Roosevelt been assassinated, there may have not been the glut of social programs. But you don’t stop a man by putting a round in his body or head. You use the political system to alter the course of history.

But Zangara, Roosevelt, and Cermak all held mixed premises or outright evil ideals. None of them challenged the status quo with revolutionary, individualistic and capitalistic thought. Of course Zangra stood as the most evil as he opened fire aiming at the president-elect but knocked down Cermak in the process. Through varying degrees of morality with Zangara in the negative, Roosevelt and Cermak were no free-market angels. They pushed for anti-individual rights to expand social programs. But what Zangara did remained far worse.

By shooting into the crowd, he also struck a woman named Mabel Gill who would perish due to wounds sustained from Zangara’s firearm. He should be remembered not for his “bravery” in front of a judge asking for more years and for his excitement at meeting the last seat he would sit on in his life but for his cowardice.

By not knowing what capitalism is and what it affords to billions of people every day, he took his selflessness and self-destruction on a ride into an electrified wall. For his ill knowledge in what he was doing, Zangara will forever be known as the man who almost killed the president-elect and killed two other people in his wake. This criminal deserved the electric chair whether he wanted it or not.

Capitalism holds that all property be made private and that individual rights be respected fully. None of these men understood or refused to evade acting on these principles. The least moral of all was Zangara. Irony overwhelmed his life and signed his death certificate.