During a visit to America by Elizabeth II the authorities were alerted to an assassination plan
An IRA sympathiser threatened to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II by dropping an “object” off the Golden Gate Bridge on to her royal yacht during her visit to San Francisco at the height of the Troubles, FBI documents reveal.
A police officer who frequented an Irish pub in the city alerted FBI agents to a call he had received from another regular drinker, who wanted to avenge the death of his daughter. The caller claimed she “had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”.
The alleged plotter said that he was going to drop the object as the Queen’s royal yacht, Britannia, passed beneath the bridge. He also said he could attempt to harm the Queen when she visited Yosemite National Park.
The Queen’s royal yacht, Britannia, passing the Bay Bridge in 1983. There was an alleged plot to drop a bomb on it when it went under the more famous Golden Gate Bridge
The claims were revealed in a tranche of FBI records released under a freedom of information request after the monarch’s death in September.
The documents do not assess how seriously US law enforcement treated the threat or whether it was viewed as the drunken rant of a bereaved father.
The man who made the threat was described as having been involved in previous police investigations and had been “generally co-operative, although he makes no secret of his sympathies for the IRA”.
The threat was seemingly taken seriously enough that, according to the memos, the US Secret Service said it planned to close the walkways of the Golden Gate Bridge as the royal yacht approached.
The Queen and her husband with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in 1983 at their getaway just north of Santa Barbara
During the Queen’s visit to San Francisco she met Ronald Reagan, then president. The FBI documents reveal that the police had warned that “it will be very hard to anticipate and prevent incidents which may embarrass either the Queen or the president”, due to the wide variety of protesters expected against both dignitaries
She also faced potential problems elsewhere in the US. In 1989, before a visit to the east coast, an internal FBI memo noted that while there was no specific danger, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present” from the IRA.
Despite the threat in San Francisco, the Queen was well received in the Bay Area. Among the highlights was a welcoming performance from Tony Bennett, who serenaded the monarch with I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
Source: The Times
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