Few know it, but the Queen of England went through an event that was going to end very badly. Queen Elizabeth was almost killed in the US in the 1980s. The FBI cleared her of the threat at that time, which was coming from the IRA.
Queen Elizabeth, almost assassinated in America in the 80s. The FBI thwarted the attackers’ plans
The file was made public after the queen’s death, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Thus, the documents show how the FBI, which ensured the security of the sovereign during her visits, was concerned about the threats of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland that wanted to break away from British sovereignty.
The attacker confessed to a policeman in a bar
According to the filing, a lawman who frequented an Irish pub in San Francisco alerted federal agents to the intentions of an individual he had met there.
The threat was made on February 4, 1983, about a month before the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, to California, USA.
The man allegedly told the policeman on the phone that he wanted to avenge his daughter, who “was killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet.”
How the man had planned the attack on the Queen
“He was going to try to harm Queen Elizabeth and would have done this either by throwing an object from the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht Britannia as it passed underneath, or by trying to kill the Queen Elizabeth when she allegedly visited Yosemite National Park,” the FBI document states.
In response to this threat, the Secret Service had planned to “close the gangways on the Golden Gate Bridge the moment the yacht approaches.” It is not known what action was taken at Yosemite, but the visit did take place. The FBI also did not release details of any arrests.
The file has 102 pages
The 102-page FBI file was uploaded to Vault, the FBI’s information site, on Monday following a Freedom of Information Act request by several US newspapers.
Also, many of the Queen of England’s state visits to the US, including her 1983 visit to the West Coast, took place during heightened tensions over the unrest in Northern Ireland.
Last but not least, a file dated 1989 shows that, although the FBI was not aware of specific threats against the Queen, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is always present from the Irish Republican Army”.
