FBI files reveal 1983 plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II

A recently released archive of FBI files has uncovered a potential plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her 1983 visit to California.

The possible threat followed a phone call made by “a man who claimed his daughter was killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet,” according to the document, which also mentions a bar frequented by Irish Republican Army (IRA) supporters.

The Queen and her husband Prince Philip visited the West Coast of the United States in February and March 1983 and the trip was uneventful.

Four years ago, in 1979, IRA paramilitaries opposed to British rule in Northern Ireland killed Louis Mountbatten, the last colonial governor of India and Uncle Philip, in a bomb blast.

The file says the man claimed he was going to try to harm the queen, “either by throwing an object from the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht Britannia as it sails underneath.”

Alternatively, he “tried to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park,” they added.

A separate file among the documents, dated 1989, stated that while the FBI was not aware of any specific threats to the Queen, “the possibility of threats to the British monarchy from the Irish Republican Army is always present.”

It was previously reported that the Queen, who died last September at the age of 96, was the target of other assassination plots.

In 1970, alleged IRA supporters tried unsuccessfully to derail her train west of Sydney, and in 1981 the IRA attempted to blow her up during a visit to the Shetland Islands off the northeast coast of Scotland.

In the same year, a mentally unstable teenager fired a single shot at the side of the Queen’s car during a visit to New Zealand.

Another teenager shot her with six blanks during the Trooping the Color parade in central London.