Newly released FBI documents reveal that Queen Elizabeth II was potentially at risk of assassination during her visit to the United States in 1983.
The files, released after the Queen’s passing last year, shed light on the concerns of the FBI, which played a role in ensuring the monarch’s safety during her trips, particularly regarding threats from the IRA.
The threat of assassination was reported to a police officer based in San Francisco.
The documents state that the officer, a regular visitor to an Irish pub in the city, alerted federal agents about a phone call he received from an individual he had encountered at the establishment.
The officer said the man told him he was seeking revenge for his daughter who “had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”.
The threat came on 4 February 1983 – about a month ahead of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip’s visit to California.
“He was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park,” the document says.
In response to the threat, the Secret Service had planned to “close the walkways on the Golden Gate Bridge as the yacht nears”. It is unclear what measures were taken at Yosemite, but the visit went ahead. No details of arrests were published by the FBI.
The 102-page cache was uploaded to the Vault, the FBI’s information website, on Monday, following a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by US media outlets.
The recently released FBI documents highlight the fact that several of Queen Elizabeth II’s state visits to the United States, including her trip to the West Coast in 1983, took place during a period of heightened tensions related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. During America’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the late Queen visited New York City.
According to the files, a pilot was summoned for flying a small plane over Battery Park with a sign that read “England, Get out of Ireland.” This incident occurred during one of the Queen’s visits.
The documents also reveal the FBI’s continued vigilance regarding perceived threats to the late Queen. The assassination of her second cousin, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979 off the coast of County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, in an IRA bombing, further underscored the potential risks.
Overall, the released files shed light on the FBI’s dedication to ensuring the safety of Queen Elizabeth II during her visits to the United States, especially considering the context of the Troubles and the ongoing IRA threats.
Ahead of a personal visit by the late Queen to Kentucky in 1989, an internal FBI memo read “the possibility of threats against the British Monarchy is ever-present from the Irish Republican Army (IRA)”.
It continued that “Boston and New York are requested to remain alert for any threats against Queen Elizabeth II on the part of IRA members and immediately furnish same to Louisville,” in Kentucky.
The late Queen, who owned racehorses, is known to have visited Kentucky several times during her life to enjoy the state’s equestrian highlights, including the Kentucky Derby.
On a state visit in 1991, the late Queen was scheduled to see a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with President George H Bush.
The FBI warned the Secret Service that “Irish groups” were planning protests at the stadium and “an Irish group had reserved a large block of grandstand tickets” to the game.
The bureau told NBC News there might be “additional records” that exist besides the ones released this week, but it did not set out a timetable for their publication.