FBI documents detail the 1983 assassination threat against Queen Elizabeth II
A trove of documents released by the FBI this week reveal details of an assassination threat against Queen Elizabeth II prior to a 1983 trip she and her husband made to the United States, as well as other security concerns related to the Irish Republican Army.
The documents were published on the FBI’s website following a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Queen, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, died in September.
The plot to assassinate the Queen was shared with an officer of the San Francisco Police Department in early February 1983, weeks before she and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, were due to visit the United States. show the documents. Specific names and other details are redacted from the report.
The unknown officer said he received a call on February 4, 1983, from a man claiming that his daughter had been killed by a rubber bullet in Northern Ireland. The officer visited an Irish pub called the Dovre Club, which the FBI described as a meeting place for Irish Republican Army sympathizers.
The 1983 visit, like some of the Queen’s other trips to the United States, took place during Northern Ireland’s 30-year sectarian conflict known as the Troubles. About 3,600 people were killed in that period when Britain sent its army into the Protestant enclave to confront groups, including the IRA, who wanted to reunite Northern Ireland with the rest of Ireland.
The man on the phone shared plans to harm the Queen by either “dropping an object from the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht Britannia” as it sailed underneath or by attempting to kill her while visiting Yosemite National Park, the documents said. Specific details on how either plot would have been accomplished were not provided.
Officials noted that the Secret Service planned to close off the walkways on the Golden Gate Bridge whenever the yacht was in the area. While it is unclear whether any arrests have been made, the documents state that the monarch’s visit passed “without incident”.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
The New York Times reported on the Queen’s tour of the West Coast at the time, describing it as a sparkling affair, punctuated by a visit to President Ronald Reagan’s farm in California. Bad weather was reported to have forced the royal couple to fly rather than sail to the Bay Area, though they participated in a farewell celebration at the wharf.
The Queen said her time on the West Coast was “a wonderful and enjoyable journey”.
The documents also outlined security concerns over some of the Queen’s other visits to the United States. Before her 1989 trip to Kentucky, the FBI said it was unaware of any specific threats against the monarch, but noted that “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present from within the Irish Republican Army.”
On another trip, in 1991, the Queen attended a Baltimore Orioles game with President George Bush. FBI officials took note of a letter published in an Irish newspaper in Philadelphia before the trip.
Officials said Irish groups were planning to protest the Queen at the baseball game and an Irish group had reserved a large number of tickets.
That night, according to The Times, the Queen and others sat in the glass-fronted coffin reserved for the team’s owner. After greeting the players and before taking their seats, the Queen waved to the audience, who erupted in cheers and applause.