On the fateful evening of January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson became the first active president to be the target of an assassination. Richard Lawrence, an unemployed English painter, was the man who attempted to kill Jackson using two pistols. After Lawrence was tried and found "not guilty by reason of insanity", a considerable number of conspiracy theories erupted into the public. The main conflicting theories were and still are that Lawrence only attempted to commit Jackson's murder out of insanity, and that Lawrence was merely a pawn of one of Jackson's political oppositions, the true mastermind of the failed assassination. The most widely accepted version of this story. is that Lawrence single-handedly conceived and committed the attempted murder. In this theory, Lawrence initially planned to kill Jackson before attending a funeral. This was not possible because there was no appropriate time when Jackson was vulnerable, so Lawrence quickly decided to assassinate him after the service. As Jackson was leaving, Lawrence placed a gun on Jackson, which misfired, but Lawrence then retrieved another gun, which had also misfired. Some other historians believe that the guns were actually jammed and no bullets came out of the barrel. This led Jackson to rush in and bludgeon Lawrence repeatedly with his cane, true to his reputation as "Old Hickory." Other bystanders are believed to have worked harder to keep Jackson away from Lawrence than to subdue Lawrence himself. When he was tried, the verdict was that he was not guilty of insanity. Richard Lawrence, at the time of the assassination attempt, believed himself to be King of England. Lawrence was unemployed, so he blamed Jackson instead of his... middle of paper ... Orians theorize that Crockett didn't really act out of kindness toward Jackson, but rather out of an impulse to save himself and Jackson . prevent reproaches from being attributed to him. The real story behind the attempted assassination of President Jackson may always remain a mystery and leave historians believing their personal theories. The theory that there are more people out there, and Lawrence is just a pawn in the failed assassination, is less accepted, but far more exhilarating. On the other hand, analysts who posit that Lawrence single-handedly conceived the plan still have an unanswered question. How is it possible that two shots from two different weapons missed at a distance of a few centimeters or were blocked? There are a few signs in the events leading up to and during the attempted murder that either point to a huge conspiracy theory or are perhaps just coincidences..