Newly released FBI files have revealed a potential plot to assassinate the late Queen. Photo / Getty Images
Newly released FBI files have revealed a potential plot to assassinate the late Queen. Photo / Getty Images
Newly dug-up FBI files have unearthed a potential plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her trip to the US in 1983, according to news.com.au.
The alleged attack scare followed a phone call made by “a man who claimed that his daughter had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”, according to the document, which also mentions a bar visited multiple times by Irish Republican Army (IRA) sympathisers.
The late Queen and her husband Prince Philip were visiting California in February and March when the incident was allegedly going to take place, however no attempt was made on the monarch’s life.
In 1979, just four years earlier, IRA paramilitaries who were against British rule in Northern Ireland killed Louis Mountbatten in a bomb attack. Mountbatten was the last colonial governor of India and Prince Philip’s uncle.
The FBI file revealed that the man claimed that he was going to hurt the queen “by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge on to the royal yacht Britannia when it sails underneath”.
Or, he “would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park”.
President Reagan laughs following a joke by Queen Elizabeth II, who commented on the lousy California weather she had experienced since her arrival in the US. Photo / Getty Images
A separate document among the files, which was dated 1989, revealed that while the FBI weren’t made aware of any potential harm directed at the Queen, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present from the Irish Republican Army”.
In 1970, what were thought to be IRA sympathisers were unsuccessful in their mission to derail the Queens’s train west of Sydney and, in 1981, the IRA attempted to bomb her while she was visiting Shetland in Scotland.
In the same year, a teenager - now said to have been mentally disturbed - fired a single bullet at the monarch’s car during her visit to New Zealand.
Queen Elizabeth II during her tour of New Zealand in 1981. Photo / NZ Herald
The failed attempt on her life was covered up by police officials and only was revealed in 2018 when New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) spy agency made documents public after an official media request.
Also in 1981, a teenager shot six blanks at the Queen during the Trooping the Colour birthday celebrations in London.
Queen Elizabeth calmed down her frightened horse and continued on with the parade while the teenager confessed to officials who were disarming him that he had “wanted to be famous”.
Queen Elizabeth II at Trooping the Colour in 1981. Photo / Getty Images
One of the most famous breaches in the monarch’s security was the following year, when Michael Fagan managed to break into the Queen’s bedroom undetected and chatted to the monarch for 10 minutes before she could sound the alarm.
Fagan, who was unemployed, had a few drinks before scaling the Buckingham Palace walls, climbing the drainpipe and wandering into the Queen’s bedroom.
He allegedly sat on the startled Queen’s bed and spoke to her before a member of the palace staff lured him out of the room by promising him a shot of whisky.
