Mehmet Ali Agca, who served a 19 year prison sentence for shooting Pope John Paul has been released now after another ten years after serving another sentence for murdering a newspaper editor. When he attacked the pope he said he was acting on his own, but no clear motive was ever found.
Agca would often suddenly burst into screaming fits, claiming that he was the new messiah, leading many to question his mental health. Still, John Paul said he forgave the man after meeting him in 1983 as Agca served out his prison sentence. After killing a Turkish newspaper editor, Agca fled Turkey and traveled abroad with a Turkish ultra-nationalist group. Though he always eventually claimed he had been acting alone, he would often change his story, claiming everything from the raving act of a lone gunman to a Bulgarian Secret Service conspiracy. After an investigation was launched by authorities the Bulgarian group was acquitted.
Now that Agca has been released, he has been called repeatedly by a number of news, book, and film agents who wish to represent him and several unnamed studios who, according to Agca’s lawyers, have offered him millions of dollars for the rights to print a book or movie about his story and the secret to why he really shot John Paul II. The incident was one of the iconic mysteries of the 1980’s, and to this day remains unexplainable by anyone but Agca. Of course some have said Agca himself doesn’t know. After years of raving hundreds of hoaxed stories as to what motivated him, the ultimate “truth” story Agca releases for millions isn’t expected to be any more enlightening.
After his 30 year prison sentence for murder, attempted murder, robbery, and attempting to escape from jail, Agca is now a free man. Of course he is also going to be a very unpopular man in most regions around the world, and will be watched very closely by the international community. Of course many will remember the words of John Paul II, who said, “pray for my brother Agca, whom I have sincerely forgiven.” As time went on and John Paul recovered, he exchanged letters with his would be assassin and even befriended him to a certain degree. When John Paul II’s health waned, Agca sent him a letter that wished the pope to get better, and told him that the Apocalypse was fast approaching.
Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of believers that the attempted assassination of John Paul II was a conspiracy brought on by a number of groups. Some say it was the CIA while others say it was Ayatollah Khomeini. If there was a plot to assassinate the pope by more than a lone gunman, all traces of evidence appear to have vanished.
John Paul II said the assassination attempt marked the final Fatima prophecy. Many said this was likely a cover up and that the final Fatima revelation was the date of the Apocalypse. Today a relic sits at the location where the pope was shot and lost a little under three quarters of his blood. The marble plate on the ground bears the roman numeral date of the assassination attempt and John Paul’s papal coat of arms.