Voting Station

Violet Gibson

Please vote to return to collections.

Assassin (Failed)

The Resume

    (August 31, 1876-May 2, 1956)
    Born in Dublin, Ireland
    Daughter of Edward Gibson, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
    Shot at Benito Mussolini, grazing his nose (April 7, 1926)
    Released without being charged and deported to Great Britain
    Spent the rest of her life at St. Andrew’s Hospital

Why she might be annoying:

    Even before the assassination attempt, her eccentric behavior twice got her admitted to asylums.
    A year before shooting Mussolini, she shot herself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
    She said she shot Mussolini as a sacrifice to God, who had sent an angel to steady her arm as she aimed.
    She attempted to hang herself at St. Andrew’s with a noose made from scraps of cloth (1930).
    She reportedly believed that her moods determined the weather.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She suffered a number of illnesses growing up, including scarlet fever at age five, peritonitis at 14, pleurisy at 16, and rubella at 20.
    When she was eighteen, she was a debutant in the court of Queen Victoria.
    She missed killing Mussolini only because he turned his head at the same moment she pulled the trigger.
    She was almost lynched by the crowd before being rescued and detained by police.
    She wrote a thank you letter to her jailer after being released and sent to Britain.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 15 Votes: 46.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 23 Votes: 47.83% Annoying