0:08

It's May Thirteenth, Nineteen Eighty One

0:10

in St. Peter's Square in the

0:12

Vatican City to sunny afternoon. Mehmet

0:15

Ali Anja, a young man from

0:17

Turkey, lingers among the crowd of

0:19

pilgrims and tourists packed into the

0:21

shadows of St. Peter's Basilica. A

0:23

wide open top car crawl slowly

0:25

across the cobblestones Standing in the

0:27

back as Pope John Paul the

0:29

Second and as the car moves

0:31

through the square, the Pope reaches

0:33

down and touches the outstretched hands

0:35

of the faithful. He blesses the

0:37

crowd, speaking in several languages. All

0:40

the while, Anja carefully tracks the

0:42

Pope's movements. John Paul the second

0:44

is a relatively new put, having

0:46

served only three years and at

0:48

sixty one is the youngest Pope

0:50

and centuries. That might be why

0:52

he's more willing to take risks

0:54

than his advisors would like. Journalists

0:56

have commented that this weekly open

0:58

top car ride leaves him exposed

1:00

to attack, but the Pope love

1:02

seeing his people face to face.

1:04

it's energizing for him, and he

1:06

believes that God will protect him

1:08

from harm. Anja doesn't

1:10

care about the Pope's reason for his

1:12

weekly outings, only that they happen because

1:14

unlike every other person in the square,

1:17

Ah John is no pilgrim. As

1:20

the Pope's car draws near, Asha

1:22

reaches into his jacket and comps

1:24

and nine millimeter Browning semiautomatic pistol

1:26

hidden in his pocket. Hope

1:29

is only feet away. Our job pulls out

1:31

the gun. And.

1:35

Fired for were shot in quick succession.

1:38

Of cried out of hand and St.

1:40

Peter's Square eruption chaos. As a white

1:42

horse be talk with Pope Ah John

1:45

pushes his way through the crown he

1:47

flames away his gun hoping to escape.

1:49

In the chaos he feels a hand

1:51

grabbing his shoulder and another snatching at

1:53

his are a few brave pilgrims and

1:55

the crowd are determined to stop him

1:58

from a strafing our child and. without

2:00

trying to throw them off. But as

2:02

soon as he loosens one person's grip, another

2:04

takes hold. Aja wrestles desperately,

2:06

but there are too many of them.

2:08

The pilgrims force him to the ground

2:11

and restrain him as Vatican security forces

2:13

close in. Of

2:18

the four shots fired by Mehmet Ali

2:20

Aja, one bullet passed through Pope John

2:22

Paul II's torso. Another

2:24

struck his left hand. The remaining

2:27

two bullets hit people in the crown. None

2:29

of these wounds prove fatal. But

2:32

in the aftermath of this shooting, people all

2:34

over the world wonder why someone would want

2:36

to assassinate the Pope. Some theorize

2:38

that Aja was just a lone madman.

2:40

Others think he's an agent sent by

2:42

a foreign government. But no one

2:44

knows for sure. And though in

2:46

the months and years that follow, new facts

2:48

will come to light, to this day there

2:51

are still many unanswered questions about what drove

2:53

Mehmet Ali Aja to shoot Pope John Paul

2:55

II on May 13th, 1981. History

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Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsey Graham.

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And this is History Daily. History

5:15

is made every day. On

5:17

this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories

5:19

of the people and events that shaped our world.

5:22

Today is May 13th, 1981, the attempted assassination of

5:26

Pete John Paul II. It's

5:31

June 5th, 1979 at an airport

5:33

in Warsaw, Poland, two years before

5:35

the attempt on Pope John Paul

5:37

II's life. Stepping out

5:39

of a jet airplane, the Pope stops at the

5:42

top of a staircase. Way on

5:44

the tarmac below are dignitaries, camera

5:46

crews, and thousands of adoring poles.

5:49

The Pope waves, walks down the staircase,

5:51

kneels, and then kisses the ground. Seeing

5:54

this, the crowd roars. For

5:56

the first time since he ascended to the

5:58

papacy eight months earlier, John Paul, the

6:00

second has come home. But

6:02

it is a complicated homecoming. John

6:04

Paul the second is the first Polish

6:06

Pope in history and he understands that

6:09

the sway he holds over his countrymen

6:11

is a potential challenge to Poland's communist

6:13

rulers. The

6:15

Pope was born Karol Wojteva in 1920 in

6:18

a small city outside Krakow. He

6:20

grew up middle class, the son of a

6:22

military officer and a seamstress. But while

6:25

his upbringing was initially comfortable, Karol

6:27

was lucky to survive into adulthood.

6:29

When he was 15, a friend jokingly

6:31

fired a gun at him at close

6:33

range, believing the pistol was unloaded. The

6:36

bullet only just missed. And

6:38

then in 1939, Nazi Germany

6:40

and the Soviet Union both invaded Poland

6:42

and divided the country between them. For

6:45

four years, the teenage Karol had to work

6:47

in a quarry in German occupied Poland. He

6:50

might have died during the war like so many other

6:52

Poles were it not for the help of a local

6:54

archbishop. The support Karol received

6:56

from the church helped convince him that it

6:58

was his calling to become a priest. The

7:02

USSR eventually joined the fight against Nazi

7:04

Germany and drove the Germans out of

7:06

Poland. But the young Karol never

7:09

forgot how the Soviets had collaborated with

7:11

the Nazis to invade his country. Now,

7:13

34 years after the end of

7:15

World War II, Poland is technically independent, but

7:18

it is a communist puppet state. And

7:20

everyone knows that it lies firmly under the thumb

7:22

of Moscow. Even the country's

7:25

traditionally strong Catholicism is frowned upon.

7:27

Poland is officially an atheist nation.

7:30

But the Polish people are restless. Wages

7:33

have stagnated and the price of basic

7:36

goods like butter, meat, and sugar have

7:38

risen substantially. This led to

7:40

widespread protests in 1976 when

7:42

strikes, demonstrations, and looting took place

7:44

throughout the country. The

7:47

Polish government responded brutally, crushing the

7:49

uprising. Helicopters circled overhead

7:51

as tanks patrolled the streets,

7:53

restoring order through brute force and

7:55

intimidation. But no matter how

7:57

much the communist government tightens its grip, He

8:00

cannot control the mind of the Polish people. And

8:03

as the Pope begins touring his homeland

8:05

today, Poland's faith is soon on full

8:07

display. From the

8:09

airport, Pope John Paul II is driven into

8:11

Warsaw. Two million people line

8:13

the streets as he drives by, chanting, Long

8:15

Live the Pope. And when

8:18

he reaches Victory Square in the center of Warsaw,

8:20

the Pope gets out of his car in front

8:22

of another enormous crowd. He climbs

8:24

a staircase to an altar at the base

8:26

of a 30-foot crucifix erected specially for his

8:28

arrival. After years of Communist

8:31

rule, Poles are on accustomed to such

8:33

open displays of religion and many weep

8:35

at the site. Standing

8:37

at the altar, the Pope declares that outlawing

8:39

religion anywhere in the world is an act

8:41

of cruelty. His speech is

8:43

a direct challenge to Poland's Communist government,

8:45

which only allowed the Pope's visit because

8:47

it feared that refusing it would lead

8:50

to another widespread rebellion. But

8:52

just hours into the tour, it seems like things

8:54

might get out of hand anyway. Emboldened

8:57

by the Pope's speech, the crowd begins

8:59

to chant, We Want God. And

9:02

as the crowd whips into a frenzy,

9:04

the Pope declares that those who fought

9:06

to free Poland from Nazi Germany will

9:08

never be truly honored until the country

9:10

is truly independent. Again, the

9:13

crowd erupts, and Communist government officials

9:15

squirm. During his

9:17

nine-day tour of Poland, the Pope delivers

9:19

over 40 sermons, lectures, and addresses all

9:21

over the country. Wherever

9:23

he goes, people chant, We Want God.

9:26

And these words come to represent not

9:28

only the Polish people's desire for religion,

9:30

but also their desire for political freedom.

9:33

So when the time comes for the

9:35

Pope to board his plane and continue

9:37

his European tour, he leaves behind an

9:39

unspoken feeling that something has changed, that

9:41

the Pope has reignited the flames of

9:43

resistance in Poland. Crucifixes and

9:46

rosaries are suddenly transformed from Catholic

9:48

tokens of faith into symbols of

9:50

defiance. And a year after

9:52

the Pope's visit, the Polish labor movement with

9:55

millions of members will encourage the nation's industrial

9:57

sector to strike and stand up to the

9:59

Soviet Union. Union. This will

10:01

cause concern in Moscow. And

10:03

behind closed doors, Soviet officials would begin

10:06

to discuss Pope John Paul II as

10:08

a destabilizing force. So when

10:10

he is shot in 1981, many

10:12

will blame the USSR for the

10:14

attempted assassination. The truth, though, will

10:16

turn out to be far more complicated. History

10:23

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May Thirteenth, Nineteen eighty one in

12:41

a police station And wrong Just

12:43

hours after Mehmet Ali I just

12:45

shot Pope John Paul. The set

12:47

of are just it's in a

12:50

windowless sounds fantastic, the stairs across

12:52

a medal table and to Italian

12:54

police officers who sessions despite the

12:56

bleed circumstances don't asa his smile.

12:58

He seems to enjoy being interrogated.

13:00

Anja has been acting unpredictably ever

13:02

since he was arrested. When the

13:05

police first started questioning him, he

13:07

admitted to the crime immediately. But

13:09

then he recanted, began confessing to other

13:11

bizarre criminal plots which made no sense.

13:14

He said he recently traveled to England

13:16

with plans to assassinate the king, only

13:18

to abandon the plot when he arrived

13:20

and found that England has a queen.

13:23

Realizing that are just concessions might be

13:25

unreliable police began looking for clues and

13:27

his been. Nachos hotel

13:29

room and roam. The police. found a note

13:32

which stated that by shooting John Paul the

13:34

Second, he hoped to bring freedom to the

13:36

people of El Salvador and Afghanistan. This

13:39

to made little sense. It was the

13:41

U S S R who had invaded

13:43

Afghanistan two years earlier and Nineteen Seventy

13:45

Nine. They'd also backed an uprising in

13:47

El Salvador the same year, but none

13:50

of that seem to have anything to

13:52

do with the Catholic church. Left investigators

13:54

scratching their heads. Now.

13:56

though hours into the interrogation anja

13:58

is finally telling seems like a

14:01

coherent story. The Italian

14:03

police learned that Aja is a Turkish

14:05

Muslim with ties to an ultra right-wing

14:07

group called the Grey Wolves. Two

14:10

years ago, Aja murdered the editor of

14:12

a major left-wing newspaper in Istanbul. Afterwards,

14:15

he went on the run for five months

14:17

before being captured and sentenced to life in

14:19

prison. But he escaped, leaving behind

14:22

a note in which he called the Pope

14:24

an imperialist and a crusader and promised to

14:26

kill him. Coincidentally, Pope John

14:28

Paul II was due to visit Istanbul

14:31

just four days later. Local

14:33

police searched everywhere for Aja, but he

14:35

was nowhere to be found and the

14:37

Pope's visit passed without incident. At

14:39

some point, Aja fled Turkey and traveled to

14:42

Bulgaria, where he picked up a pistol and

14:44

a fake passport. From there,

14:46

he traveled between Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and

14:48

Italy, never staying in one place too

14:51

long. When he arrived in Rome,

14:53

he waited for the Pope's weekly public appearance

14:55

and tried to make good on the threat

14:57

he'd made two years earlier. But

14:59

Aja's story leaves police with more questions

15:02

than answers, and the investigators

15:04

demand to know if he acted alone or

15:06

if he's following orders from someone. But

15:09

at this stage, Aja has grown tired of

15:11

the interrogation and refuses to say more until

15:13

he stands trial. In the

15:15

meantime, new theories begin circulating in

15:18

the international media. A month

15:20

after the attack, the Washington Star publishes

15:22

an article alleging that the Soviet security

15:24

agency, the KGB, hired Aja to shoot

15:27

the Pope, hoping to prevent an uprising

15:29

in Poland. Once these allegations

15:31

gained traction, the Soviets then spread their

15:34

own accusations that it was the United

15:36

States behind the plot. But

15:38

there is no concrete evidence for either theory.

15:41

So two months later, all eyes are

15:43

on the Italian courtroom where Mehmet Ali

15:45

Aja is to stand trial and maybe

15:47

provide some answers. In

15:50

court, Aja confesses once again. He

15:52

declares himself a terrorist who makes no

15:55

distinction between right and left-wing ideologies. He

15:57

claims he acted alone, received no outside evidence, and he's not a terrorist. He's not

15:59

a terrorist. outside support and paid his own way

16:02

across Europe by extorting people for money. The

16:05

prosecution though contests this. They

16:07

ask how he managed to pay for

16:09

transportation, food, housing, how he secured a

16:12

fake passport and a pistol through extortion

16:14

alone without having a single run-in with

16:16

police in five different countries. They

16:18

contend it just doesn't seem plausible. Someone

16:21

was surely helping him, but Ajay

16:23

refuses to elaborate. He said

16:26

all he's going to say. After

16:28

that Ajay threatens to go on a hunger strike,

16:30

which brings the proceedings to an abrupt halt after

16:32

just a few days. Since

16:34

he has confessed in court though, the

16:36

investigation is closed and Ajay is sentenced

16:38

to life imprisonment. For

16:41

many, that's the end of the matter. But

16:43

others continue to speculate, with suggestions that

16:45

Ajay was a Muslim extremist working for

16:47

the KGB or the CIA or maybe

16:49

he was just a madman. Ajay

16:53

himself appears to resolve the mystery a year

16:55

later when he abruptly announces that he did

16:57

not act alone after all and was in

16:59

fact hired by the Soviets. But

17:02

by now he's changed his story so many times

17:04

that no one knows what to believe. Despite

17:07

his latest confession, there will be no

17:09

new trial or official investigation into the

17:11

attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

17:13

and Ajay will remain in prison. But

17:16

in 1983, he will suddenly be thrust back

17:18

into the spotlight by an unexpected visit from

17:20

the man he tried to kill. History

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December 27th 1983 in a prison on

19:05

the outskirts of Rome two and a

19:08

half years after the attempted assassination of

19:10

Pope John Paul the Second. The

19:12

shooter Mehmet Ali Adjah sits alone

19:14

in a bare white-walled cell. He

19:17

wears a blue sweater, jeans, and white

19:19

running shoes without laces. His

19:21

face is unshaven. Since being

19:23

handed a life sentence two years ago, Adjah

19:25

has been left to languish in solitude. He

19:28

rarely receives visitors. But

19:30

today the door to his cell opens and the

19:33

guards lead in an unlikely guest, Pope

19:35

John Paul the Second. The

19:37

Pope is fully recovered from the shooting and

19:40

asks if Adjah speaks Italian. The

19:42

would-be assassin nods and kisses the

19:44

Pope's outstretched hand. The two

19:46

men then sit down together in folding chairs

19:48

in the corner of the cell while a

19:50

camera crew films the ensuing conversation. For

19:53

months the Pope has been delivering sermons

19:56

on the theme of reconciliation. His

19:58

visit to Adjah is intended to be be the

20:00

ultimate public display of forgiveness. John

20:04

Paul II and Aja speak for 20 minutes.

20:07

They lean their heads close together, clasping

20:09

hands with Aja even laughing several times.

20:12

Neither of them is wearing a microphone, so

20:14

the cameras only capture the image of the

20:16

men speaking. Later that night, when

20:18

the footage is broadcast around the world, the

20:21

pope states that the details of their conversation

20:23

will remain a secret between himself and Aja.

20:26

He does admit, though, that he forgave Aja and

20:28

now trusts him like a brother. The

20:31

pope then stays in touch with Aja and

20:33

befriends his family. 17

20:35

years later, Aja is pardoned and released from

20:37

prison at the pope's request. And

20:39

after John Paul II's death in 2014, Aja

20:43

returns to Rome and places flowers on the

20:45

tomb of the man he attempted to murder.

20:48

The truth behind why Aja shot the pope

20:50

or who he worked with may never be

20:52

fully understood. But John Paul II's

20:54

decision to forgive his would-be assassin sent a

20:56

clear message to the world. By

20:58

embracing tolerance and mercy, both politically and personally,

21:01

the pope was able to make a valuable

21:03

lesson out of the most harrowing experience, the

21:05

darkest moment of his life when he was

21:07

shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13th,

21:09

1980. Next

21:17

on History Daily, May 14th, 1643. A

21:21

four-year-old prince ascends to the throne of

21:24

France, beginning a decades-long reign that will

21:26

change the country forever. From

21:36

Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily.

21:38

Hosted, edited, and executive produced by me,

21:40

Lindsay Graham. Audio editing by

21:43

Mohammad Shazir. Sound design by

21:45

Matthew Filler. Music by Trane. This

21:47

episode is written and researched by Owen Long.

21:50

Edited by Joel Kenton. Managing

21:52

producer, Emily Burke. roar Mindfulness,

22:04

meditation, breath work. More

22:06

and more people are discovering self-care practices.

22:08

But what about this practice of stoicism?

22:10

Maybe you've heard that word bouncing around

22:13

and I know you're thinking stoicism, ancient

22:15

philosophy, who cares? Well, stoic philosophy is

22:17

more relevant now than ever and it's

22:19

a really powerful tool for helping us

22:21

with the daily anxieties and problems of

22:23

modern life. I'm Ryan Holiday, host of

22:26

the Daily Stoic Podcast, where every day

22:28

I share lessons on how to live

22:30

a better life through the ancient philosophy

22:32

of stoicism, a philosophy of kings

22:34

and emperors, as well as ordinary

22:36

people alike in Greece and in

22:38

Rome. Stoicism is a

22:40

philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier,

22:43

more virtuous and wise. And like all important

22:45

journeys, this is one that begins from within.

22:48

Follow the Daily Stoic on the Wondery app or

22:50

wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to

22:52

the Daily Stoic early and ad-free right now on

22:54

Wondery Plus.