Diary Entry - 05/13/1981
Key Facts
President Reagan meets with Members of Congress to discuss how to reduce the national crime level.
President Reagan receives word of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II by Turkish assassin Mehmet Ali Agca.
Word from Habib in Israel holds out a little hope that we can avert a nose to nose between Syria & Israel. Met with group of Dem. Senators & Att. Gen. The Sens. refer to selves as moderate to conservative Dems.—a little akin to the House Dem. Consv. caucus. Spent the entire time on crime & what we can do to help at the nat. level. They have proposed some good bills which I can easily support. A. Gen. Smith told of biggest drug bust in hist. just recently achieved—$150 mil. in drugs & 123 top level arrests. The top man was put on $21 mil. bail. A Fed. judge reduced it to $500,000. He is now free and a fugitive. Word brought to us of the shooting of the Pope. Called Cardinal Cooke & Cardinal Crowell—sent message to Vatican & prayed.
