Daniel Cowart (pictured here left with a rifle) and Paul Schlesselman were charged in a criminal complaint with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of firearms (a sawed-off shotgun) and conspiracy to rob a gun dealer. The two planned to massacre 88 people and behead 14 African-Americans, before assassinating Senator Obama while dressed in tuxedos and top hats, the complaint revealed. The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two “8“s or “H“s stand for “Heil Hitler. These bastards discussed a "killing spree to include targeting a predominantly African-American school and attempting to assassinate presidential candidate Barack Obama. Both knuckle-heads met via the Internet a month ago and have "very strong beliefs and views regarding 'White Power' and 'Skinhead' views. Cowart had bought one rifle and stockpiled two handguns, both stolen from his grandfather. They planned to steal another high-powered rifle from a gun store in Jackson, Tennessee, as well as a series of robberies to finance their bloody actions. "Schlesselman stated that they planned to drive their vehicles as fast as they could toward Senator Obama shooting at him from the windows. Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt. Daniel Cowart who never graduated from high school, lived with his grandparents in a southern, rural part of the county and no family information is available on Paul Schlesselman (pictured here right in glasses) except that Helena-West Helena, on the Mississippi River in east Arkansas’ Delta, with a population of 12,200, is 66 percent black and is in one of the nation’s poorest regions, trailing even parts of Appalachia in its standard of living.
In late August, the alarm was also raised when it was revealed that three men who wanted to assassinate Barack Obama, were arrested with a weapons cache near the Democratic Party's convention in Denver, Colorado. See FBI investigates 'Obama assassination plot'. However the US Attorneys office later gave all clear saying that there had been no credible threat against Obama because no sufficient evidence of a “true threat” was found. The three men were said to be drug abusers who probably were under the spell of high dose of methamphetamine. “From a legal standpoint, the law recognises a difference between between a true threat and the racist rantings of drug abusers. The three men — Shawn Adolf, (bottom left in blue), his cousin Tharin Gartrell, 28, (top right with blond hair), and Nathan Johnson, 32, (top left in grey t-shirt), have long criminal records for illegal gun possession, drug dealing and theft. There were multiple outstanding warrants for their arrest and all three were being held on drug and firearms charges
The spectre of assassination arose in May 2008 when Senator Hillary Clinton had to apologise after appearing to suggest that the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 during his presidential campaign was a good reason for her staying in the race. Mr Obama is often compared to John F. Kennedy; but it is his skin colour that has added to concerns for his safety in a country that has more than 200 million legally held firearms and 30,000 gun deaths each year.