Arthur Bremer
| Arthur Bremer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arthur Herman Bremer August 21, 1950 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Occupation | Busboy/Janitor |
| Criminal charge | Attempted murder |
| Criminal penalty | 53 years' imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Paroled |
| Parent(s) | William Bremer Sylvia Bremer |
Arthur Herman Bremer (born August 21, 1950) is an American convicted for an assassination attempt on U.S. Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace on May 15, 1972 in Laurel, Maryland, leaving Wallace permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Bremer was found guilty and sentenced to 63 years (53 years after an appeal) in a Maryland prison for the shooting of Wallace and three bystanders.
After 35 years of incarceration, Bremer was released from prison on November 9, 2007.
Bremer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the third of four sons to William Bremer (1913 – 2002), who was a bread truck driver for the Krohn Cartage Company, and Sylvia Bremer (1915 – 2007), a homemaker. His two elder siblings were illegitimate and their fathers were two different men. Bremer was raised by his working-class parents on the South Side of Milwaukee and lived in a dysfunctional household. He was alleged to have had a stormy relationship with both of his parents, though he appears to have been closer to his father. Bremer stated "I would escape my ugly reality by pretending that I was living with a television family and there was no yelling at home or no one to hit me."
At school, Bremer did well in English and history and displayed a talent for writing, although his grades were generally low or mediocre. He scored 106 on an IQ test in high school, and 114 on a test he took after his failed assassination attempt, showing that he had at least "above average" intelligence.
School was an ordeal for Bremer because he did not make friends. He was not bullied, but was mainly shunned, ostracized or isolated by other students. Bremer wrote in his diary that "No English or history test was ever as hard, no math final exam ever as difficult as waiting in a school lunch line alone, waiting to eat alone ... while hundreds huddled & gossiped and roared, & laughed and stared at me ..." and "No one ever noticed me nor took interest in me as an individual with the need to receive or give love. In junior high school, I was an object of pure ridicule for my dress, withdrawal, and asocial manner. Dozens of times, I saw individuals laugh and smile more in ten to fifteen minutes than I did in all my life up to then."
His first grade teacher wrote that it was a pleasure to have Bremer in class, but when he was in the third grade another teacher wrote that "Arthur has adjusted well in class but hasn't made an effort as of yet to play with the other children at recess." He was remembered for awkward laughter and not being able to engage in small talk with others. Bremer attended South Division High School, where he briefly started on the school's football team and did well, where he proved to be quite a good player. However, his mother said he was too ill to play and withdrew him from the team.
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