Criminal Justice

Would-Be George Wallace Assassin Will Be Released

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  • Print.

After 35 years in prison, the man who shot Alabama Gov. George Wallace during his 1972 presidential campaign is about to be released.

Maryland prison authorities say that Arthur Herman Bremer, now 57, will be freed later this year, the Washington Post reports. The shooting ended Wallace’s presidential bid and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He died in 1998.

Although Wallace wrote to Bremer in 1995, expressing his forgiveness and saying that he hoped the two could meet, Bremer never responded, the Post reports.

In 1997, Bremer referred to Wallace and other southern politicians as “segregationist dinosaurs” in an appeal for parole. “They are extinct, not endangered, by an act of God,” Bremer wrote.

Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.