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Until the twin attempts on Ford, some analysts argued that only certain kinds of Presidents attracted assassins, unlocking the combination of mental imbalances that turns a misfit into a maniac. Leaders who were charismatic and activist like the Kennedy brothers, the Roosevelts, Jackson and Lincoln. And it is notable—and paradoxical—that there were no attempts on the lives of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, who were not well-liked as Presidents and came to arouse venomous passions in large parts of the population. Chicago Psychiatrist David Rothstein thinks that perhaps likable Presidents may be more vulnerable to attack, since they stir up the greatest hopes and thus the greatest potential for disillusionment in the minds of the deranged.
Such speculations inevitably lead into the minds of real or potential assassins, who have been studied and even profiled, just as skyjackers were, for use by law-enforcement agencies as an aid in spotting killers in advance. The type is fairly well defined. "He has been neglected, abused or rejected by one or both parents," says Dr. Marvin Wolfgang, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist. He is frustrated, both in his work and in his personal life, and probably has some kind of sexual problems. Feeling rejected by his parents, he will likely seek reassurance in some larger paternalistic group, like the military. Both Moore and Fromme fit the otherwise male pattern. Moore was a WAC, and Fromme was a slave in Charles Manson's regimented family. Even in that larger group, however, the potential assassin will almost inevitably find or feel rejection.
At the same time, he or she is a loner. Speaking of four assassins he studied, University of Chicago Psychiatrist Lawrence Freedman notes that "their life-styles without exception were chaotic. They led wandering lives without roots and with constantly shifting goals. Neither in their work nor in love were they able to escape their sense of failure." All the experts agree that an assault on the President gives such a person the feeling of identity he has lacked and a sense of importance akin to that of the man he kills. The one who pulls down the Colossus of Rhodes will always go down in history, John Wilkes Booth is said to have told a friend. And today, he or she can achieve instant recognition. Says University of New Hampshire Professor Stuart Palmer: "You can become a TV star or an assassin," adding that for some people, "becoming an assassin, known to everyone by the media, is certainly pretty good second-best."