George Andrew Campbell McMahon (c.1902 – 1970), also known as Jerome Bannigan, was convicted for his failed assassination attempt against King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom at Hyde Park in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1936.

Early life and career

McMahon was born as Jerome Bannigan in

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...

, on the outskirts of

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. His parents were natives of

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, Ireland. He was a keen

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in his youth until he suffered a hip injury at the age of twelve. Bannigan relocated to London from around 1926 and engaged in social work. He began to pass on information to Scotland Yard. Bannigan changed his name to George Andrew Campbell McMahon from 1933. McMahon was a low-level fraudster and gun-runner to

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

when he came to the Italians' attention. They offered him cash for information about armaments. He was a paid informant for the Security Service (later

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

) by 1935.

1936 incident

On 16 July 1936, as Edward VIII

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through Hyde Park, following the

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ceremony, McMahon produced a revolver. Bystanders—including a Mrs Alice Lawrence, who was standing next to McMahon—and members of the Metropolitan Police reportedly subdued McMahon, after a struggle, during which the unfired revolver fell near the king's horse as it continued down Constitution Hill. McMahon later stated in a 40-page document entitled "He Was My King" that he was hired by the Italian embassy in London to kill the King, but he deliberately botched the assassination attempt. His attempts to contact the security service and the Home Office had failed. McMahon was subsequently sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour on 14 September 1936, for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

References

External links

The Independent: I was paid £150 to shoot the King, claimed caretaker

Newsreel of assassination attempt on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, George 1970 deaths Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales 1936 crimes in the United Kingdom 1930s crimes in London Failed regicides 1936 in England Scottish journalists Scottish people of Irish descent People from Govan Year of birth uncertain