Robbery Suspect Says He Planned to Kill President

A man arrested for an Oakland bank robbery last week claimed that he was gathering money to fund a plot to assassinate President Bush, authorities said Wednesday.

John S. Daughetee, 34, claimed he stalked Bush in at least two cities, that “voices” directed his actions, and that he robbed banks in Oakland and San Francisco last Friday for money to carry out his plan, Oakland Police Sgt. Greg Bingham said.

“It wasn’t so much about Bush, but the President. The thing was the office. He didn’t have any personal vendetta against Bush. He was told by voices to kill the President,” said Bingham.

Daughetee is being held without bail on a federal bank robbery charge in San Francisco. U.S. Atty. Joseph Russoniello said he plans to seek an indictment before a grand jury on the bank robbery charge. The Secret Service is investigating the alleged assassination attempt.

“We don’t know whether he’s for real or not,” Russoniello said. “I’m a cynic by nature. I wouldn’t want to rule out that someone would want to conjure up a story for a defense” that he is mentally unstable.

Richard McDrew, head of the Secret Service office in San Francisco, said Secret Service agents interviewed Daughetee in 1986 in Indiana after he made threats against then-President Ronald Reagan. At the time, however, there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.

Daughetee was admitted twice in 1987 to a Veterans Administration hospital in Indianapolis for emotional problems. He has a zoology degree from the University of Wyoming, attended two years of medical school, and spent two years in the Army, police said.

Daughetee spoke of stalking the President in Washington, waiting for him to emerge from a hotel, and being in a crowd in Hamtramck, Mich., when Bush spoke on April 17. He claims to have bought a gun, and had picked out a spot from which to fire, but could not reach it during the day of the speech.

“We’re pretty certain he was there,” McDrew said. “What his intentions were, we need to establish that.”

Bingham described Daughetee as “very calm, very cooperative, well spoken, very methodical,” a man who did not “come across as a loony tune.”