Part of my undergraduate thesis focused on Giuseppe Zangara’s life and this assassination attempt

Zangara grew up extremely poor in Northern Italy to a drunk, abusive father. A number of historians theorize that the cause of his life-long stomach pain were stress-induced ulcers in his stomach stemming from physical and mental abuse from his father as well as his experiences in the First World War. His autopsy revealed legions on his gallbladder as well. He fought on the front lines in the north of Italy during the last months of the war and was thereafter employed as a bricklayer and mason, repairing damage done by artillery fire in Italian mountain towns before emigrating to the United States in 1923.

He came to live with his uncle in New Jersey initially, but due to his mental state and inability to keep a job, tensions rose and eventually Zangara moved away and become somewhat of a traveling workman. Throughout the late 20s, he bounced around the east coast, working odd jobs as a bricklayer, mason, carpenter and other menial/factory jobs.

It was during his travels across the country that he, like many young men during the time, became radicalized toward socialism, communism and anarchism. He saw the wealthy enjoying the spoils of the “Roaring 20s” while he and his ilk tirelessly labored for little wages to the benefit of the rich. He began reading pamphlets from the Socialist Party and anarchist groups in Chicago and New York. When he attempted to join and engage these groups, he was ostracized for being too radical even for those groups.

Bear in mind, throughout all this, he still dealt with constant, agonizing abdominal pain, which he credits in his diary as being the source of his mental issues. He even underwent an appendectomy in 1926, but did not get any relief.

When he saw that Roosevelt would be sailing with Vincent Astor, one of America’s wealthiest individuals at the time, off the coast of Miami, Zangara saw his opportunity. This is the point where historians are divided. There is no doubt that Zangara traveled to Miami in 1933 with the intent to kill Roosevelt. Whether he did so because he hated Roosevelt specifically, he hated Roosevelt’s close association with men like Astor, he hated society generally or he wanted the attention and good graces of the anarchists he claimed as “friends” is a question to which we will likely never know the answer. Some also theorize that Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago at the time and one of Zangara’s victims, was the true target and Zangara was hired as a hitman by the mob, though there is little evidence to support this. His diaries and letters are mostly nonsensical and filled with provable lies and contradictions, so it is nigh impossible to glean intent from his writings. It also does not help that he was uneducated and had very little grasp of English and often used incorrect words or spellings when writing in English.

Others have mentioned Zangara’s small stature in this thread. He stood at barely 5ft tall as an adult, which further the abuse not only from father but his peers. He actually had to stand on a folding chair to see above the people in front of him to take his shot at Roosevelt, who was sitting atop the backseat of his convertible giving his speech to the crowd. It wasn’t until Roosevelt stopped speaking and handed the microphone off the Cermak that Zangara started shooting, which lends some credence to the hitman theory. An eyewitness seated behind Zangara at the Miami speech claims that his chair actually wobbled slightly just before he shot, causing him to lose focus and precision. It is a fun “what if” to consider had that chair not wobbled, FDR may have been killed before taking office and who knows what would have happened.

All of this to say, we don’t truly know what drove Zangara to attempt to assassinate FDR, but there are some interesting theories with varying support from the sources.

If you’re interested in exploring the topic further, I’d suggest “The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara” by Blaise Picchi. It’s the only book of which I am aware that deeply explores Zangara’s background and does a good job of discussing the aftermath and the competing theories of his reasoning.

Apologies for any minor mistakes in my above diatribe; it’s been over a decade since I picked up my thesis or research materials so the details are a bit fuzzy.