Another Helping of "Intellectual Hash": Commentary on "Assassins of Rulers" (MacDonald, 1912)

This commentary examines MacDonald's 1912 paper, "Assassins of Rulers," from a critical perspective, avoiding the tendency to treat 'classic' papers with deference simply because of their age. The paper's contents are examined in terms of their author's expertise, his academic allegiances, his career and his sources. The substance of MacDonald's paper proves largely to be taken from Régis' 1890 monograph on the same subject, but in the transposition this has been stripped of analysis and meaning, which it is necessary in any commentary to explain and restore. This process enables an illuminating exploration of pioneering observations about attackers of the prominent, many of which have arguably needed to be rediscovered in the modern day, given the failure of most current researchers to consult historical works or those written in languages other than English. Consideration of the paper touches on important themes such as changing conceptualizations of dangerousness and their association with ideas about punishment. The case histories set out by MacDonald serve to illustrate the notion of "warning behaviors" that have attracted the interest of contemporary researchers. MacDonald's paper serves as a cautionary tale that research on threat assessment should be informed by the careful observations of practitioners, rather than the theories and prejudices of armchair 'experts.'