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Plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II during 1983 San Francisco visit revealed in FBI documents

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Plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II during 1983 San Francisco visit revealed in FBI documents


The FBI has disclosed a potential threat to Queen Elizabeth II during her 1983 trip to the United States. The documents were released this week on the FBI’s records website. Elizabeth died last September after a 70-year reign.

The queen’s West Coast visit with her husband, Prince Philip, included a stop in San Francisco in March 1983. CBS San Francisco reported that one document appears to detail a tip gathered around a month before that visit from San Francisco police regarding a phone call from “a man who claimed that his daughter had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet.”

Four years earlier in 1979, IRA paramilitaries opposed to British rule in Northern Ireland killed Louis Mountbatten, the last colonial governor of India and an uncle of Philip, in a bomb attack.

According to the documents, the man said he was going to “attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth” by either dropping an object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the queen’s royal yacht or trying to kill her during a visit to Yosemite National Park. The documents said the Secret Service intended to close the bridge’s walkways as the yacht drew near.

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Queen Elizabeth ll makes a speech as President Ronald Reagan looks on during a banquet on March 3, 1983, in San Francisco.
Queen Elizabeth ll makes a speech as President Ronald Reagan looks on during a banquet on March 3, 1983, in San Francisco.

Anwar Hussein/Getty Images


The names of the San Francisco police officer who received the phone call and the caller were redacted in the documents, which did not indicate whether precautions were taken at Yosemite or whether any arrests were made. A March 7, 1983, memo indicated the queen completed the U.S. visit “without incident” and that “no further investigation is warranted.”

A separate file among the documents, dated 1989, pointed out that while the FBI was unaware of any specific threats against the queen, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present from the Irish Republican Army.”

In 1970, suspected IRA sympathizers unsuccessfully attempted to derail Elizabeth’s train west of Sydney, while in 1981 the IRA tried to bomb her on a visit to Shetland, off the northeast coast of Scotland.

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In the same year, a mentally disturbed teenager fired a single shot toward the queen’s car during a visit to New Zealand. Christopher Lewis fired the shot as she toured the South Island city of Dunedin.

The botched attempt was covered up by police at the time and only came to light in 2018 when New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service spy agency released documents following a media request.

Also in 1981, another teenager fired six blanks at Elizabeth during the monarch’s Trooping the Color birthday parade in central London.

The queen quickly calmed her startled horse and carried on while the teenager told soldiers who disarmed him he had “wanted to be famous.”

The following year, in one of the most famous security breaches of her reign, Michael Fagan managed to get into the queen’s bedroom and spent 10 minutes talking to her before she could raise the alarm.

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The unemployed decorator had a few drinks and scaled the walls of Buckingham Palace, climbing up a drainpipe to enter the queen’s London residence.

He wandered into her bedroom and reportedly sat on the end of the bed for a chat with the perturbed monarch before a palace staffer lured him away with the promise of a shot of whisky.

The FBI documents detailed other security concerns involving the queen’s visits to various U.S. cities. When she attended a Baltimore Orioles game with President George H.W. Bush in May 1991, several dozen demonstrators in the park chanted slogans condemning Britain’s policy in Northern Ireland.

On September 8, 2022, after more than 70 years on the British throne, Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle, her official residence in Scotland. She was 96.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay to get new leadership after scandal

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San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay to get new leadership after scandal


The Aquarium of the Bay, a fixture on San Francisco’s Pier 39 for almost three decades, finds itself in a financial mess due to a scandal embroiling its now-departed CEO who served for almost a decade.  

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Last month, then-CEO George Jacob told KTVU about a massive transformation of the facility where everything but the aquatic tunnels would be removed and replaced by a much bigger building at warp speed.

“We’re excited about its amazing future where we would transform the aquarium into a climate and ocean conservation living museum. The exhibit area would quadruple. We plan to execute, from the date of permits, in 24 months. That level of transition has never happened before and this is going to be something to behold,” said Jacob.

But at the insistence of the Board Chairman Jon Fisher, Jacob resigned over issues of unpaid bills, financial improprieties, excessive spending on travel, dining, personal spending, and holding overseas events to the tune of almost $750,000, as well as a transition the aquarium could not afford. 

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“There will be no proliferating, there will be no events of any kind until the organization is in much better shape,” said Fisher.

Not only are these the longest aquarium tunnels in the United States, they are unique because they are concentrated on Bay life, and you can rarely see Bay life in the murky waters of San Francisco Bay.

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 The top priority for Fisher: the health and safety of aquatic life. 

“The sharks and the fish…they deserve our very best and this was not it. This is a charitable organization for the public good and, unfortunately, I don’t think the previous plans served the public good, served the animals,” said Fisher.

Another priority: empowering employees through a whistleblower policy. The aquarium survived the recession and COVID-19. Will it survive this? 

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“I absolutely think it has a life going forward and I absolutely think our best days are ahead of us,” said Fisher. 

In the short term, a busy summer season will bolster its finances, but new leadership and major operational changes are coming. 
 



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San Francisco, CA

Police shooting shuts down streets in SF's Bayview neighborhood

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Police shooting shuts down streets in SF's Bayview neighborhood


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Police activity has shut down streets in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood Thursday afternoon.

Police say an officer shot a person, but the individual did not sustain any gunshot wounds.

There is an active scene at Ingalls Street and Armstrong Avenue.

Police are asking the public to avoid the area.

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Stay with ABC7 News for the latest details on this developing story.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco: Suspicious death investigated

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San Francisco: Suspicious death investigated


The death of a person last week in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is being investigated by the police’s homicide squad.

The police were called at 9:39 p.m. on Friday, May 17, to the 200 block of Turk Street. The person, an adult, was declared dead at the scene.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner deemed the death suspicious, and homicide detectives took over the investigation. No other details have been released.



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