1983 Plot to Assassinate Queen Elizabeth II

During her unprecedented 70-year rule—the longest reigning monarch in British history—Queen Elizabeth the 2nd visited the United States on a number of occasions, including four State Visits, five State dinners and two unofficial visits to America, further cultivating the deep and lasting bonds between the United States and Great Britain. However, after her death on September 8th, 2022, on May 22nd, 2023, the FBI uploaded a 102-page dossier to The Vault, which is their public information website, revealing a credible two-pronged assassination plot during her 1983 visit to the West Coast, during a time of ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland, which led to the 1979 assassination of the Queen’s second cousin, Lord Mountbatten, by Irish Republican Army volunteer, Thomas McMahon.

Saved by an Off-duty Cop

According to the FBI’s records, on February 4th, 1983—about a month before the Queen’s planned visit to San Francisco with her husband Prince Philip—an off-duty San Francisco police officer was enjoying a pint in popular Irish pub, when a fellow drinker told him about his plans to avenge his daughter, who had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier. Planning his revenge by taking the life of the British monarch, the man disclosed his plan to drop objects onto the Queen’s Royal Yacht Britannia, when she sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. And if his attempts at bombardment failed, the man further disclosed, he would then make a second assassination attempt during a planned visit to Yosemite National Park.

Disaster Averted

Fortunately for the Queen and both nations involved, the officer reported his encounter to the FBI, who in turn alerted the Secret Service about the planned assassination plots. In response to the threat by a still unknown IRA sympathizer, the Secret Service closed the walkways over the Golden Gate Bridge as the Queen’s yacht sailed under it, while the FBI’s records failed to elaborate on their security measures enacted during the Queen’s visit to Yosemite, making QE2’s 1983 visit to America, a potential tragedy, averted by vigilance and strategic planning.