On this day 46 years ago, Raymond Lee Harvey and Osvaldo Espinoza Ortiz attempted to assassinate the President of the United States with blank rounds

Raymond Lee Harvey (born 1944/1945) is an American drifter. Born in Ohio, he was arrested by the United States Secret Service after being found carrying a starter pistol with blank rounds, ten minutes before President Jimmy Carter was to give a speech at the Civic Center Mall in Los Angeles on May 5, 1979.

Harvey claimed that he was part of a four-man operation to assassinate the president, after having been approached by three Latino men staying at the Alan Hotel who gave him a starter pistol, and asked him to shoot it into the ground to create a diversion, so they could then shoot the president from their hotel room during the distraction.

He spent the night in a room taken by one of the men, whom he knew as "Julio", but who was later identified as a 21-year-old illegal Mexican alien who gave the name Osvaldo Espinoza Ortiz.

At the time of his arrest, Harvey had eight spent rounds in his pocket, as well as 70 unspent blank rounds for the gun.

Charges against the pair were ultimately dismissed for a lack of evidence.

The names "Lee Harvey" and "Osvaldo" (Osvaldo is the Spanish equivalent to "Oswald") drew comparisons to Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. This led some to believe that the incident was set up to scare Carter into submission.