Public DomainMehmet Ali Aca (right) in court after trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.On a spring day in 1981, Pope John Paul II entered St. Peters Square in Vatican City, where he was welcomed by a jubilant crowd. He greeted his supporters and even reached down to pick up a young girl. The pope had just handed the child back to her parents when shots suddenly rang out across the square. Bystanders, including a nun, reacted quickly by apprehending the gunman a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Aca.The pope survived, and Aca was arrested. But in the years since, the story of his assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II has become ever stranger. Aca has claimed that he was sent to kill the pontiff by multiple different factions, from Palestinian militants to the Bulgarian secret service. Hes also since claimed to be the Messiah. So, who was Aca? What was his life like before 1981, and why did he try to kill the pope? Heres everything we know about Mehmet Ali Aca, the would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II.The Murky Story Of Mehmet Ali Acas Early LifeBorn on Jan. 9, 1958, Mehmet Ali Aca grew up in Turkeys Malatya province. His family had little money, and Aca suffered from poor health from a young age. As reported by The New York Times in 1981, his mother told the media that Aca had seizures until he was 10 years old, as well as nervous attacks in which he could not speak to other people. Acas father was a heavy drinker who died when Aca was eight, and his family was so poor that they could only afford to eat meat every two weeks. As a young man, Aca became a member of local street gangs and soon started committing petty theft. In the 1970s, he also purportedly joined the Turkish ultra-nationalist group known as the Grey Wolves, which is believed to be behind the assassinations of scores of government officials, labor organizers, journalists, and left-wing activists in Turkey. Then, in 1979, Aca committed his first major act of violence. On Feb. 1, 1979, he murdered a politically liberal newspaper editor named Abdi peki. Aca was arrested that June, but he managed to escape from prison in November.Wikimedia CommonsAbdi peki, the journalist murdered by Mehmet Ali Aca in 1979.He left behind a letter that hinted at his future actions. Writing about the imminent visit of Pope John Paul II to Turkey, Aca stated: Western imperialists who are afraid of Turkeys unity of political, military, and economic power with the brotherly Islamic countries are sending Crusader Commander John Paul under the mask of a religious leader. If this ill-timed and meaningless visit is not called off, I will definitely shoot the pope. This is the only reason I escaped from prison.The popes visit passed peacefully, however, and Mehmet Ali Aca appeared to have vanished from the face of the Earth.That is, until May 1981. The Attempted Assassination Of Pope John Paul IIBetween November 1979 and May 1981, Mehmet Ali Aca seemingly traveled the globe. The New York Times tracked his movements from Turkey to Iran to various countries in Europe, and finally, at the end of 1980, to Italy. Despite being a wanted man, Aca was somehow able to avoid detection. But on May 13, 1981, he stepped out of the shadows. Around 5 p.m. that afternoon, Aca made his way to St. Peters Square in Vatican City, where Pope John Paul II was greeting a crowd of 20,000. The mood was jovial, and the pope gave blessings and kissed babies as he made his way through the crowd in his Popemobile. Then, Aca stepped forward from the crowd. Just after the pope handed a little girl back to her parents, the 23-year-old raised his pistol and fired four shots at Pope John Paul II.Public DomainPope John Paul II shortly after he was shot by Mehmet Ali Aca on May 13, 1981.The pontiff, his white cassock suddenly covered in blood, slumped back. He had been struck in the abdomen, right arm, and left hand. One of the bullets had narrowly missed his heart, but the pope was alive and conscious enough to murmur, I feel great pain.Meanwhile, the crowd reacted quickly and apprehended Aca before he could escape. Investigators found a handwritten note in his pocket that suggested a motive. It read: I am killing the pope as a protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States and against the genocide that is being carried out in Salvador and Afghanistan.However, Mehmet Ali Aca has changed the story of why he wanted to kill Pope John Paul II several times in the decades since the failed assassination attempt.Mehmet Ali Acas Life Behind BarsIn July 1981, Mehmet Ali Aca was sentenced to life in prison in Italy. At first, he stated that he had acted alone. But Aca would ultimately claim that the assassination had been ordered by different factions, including Palestinian militants, the Bulgarian secret service, and the Soviet KGB. Public DomainA small plaque in Vatican City marks the place where Mehmet Ali Aca attempted to assassinate Pope Paul John II in 1981.In 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Aca in prison and forgave him for the shooting. Then, in 2000, the pontiff urged the Italian president to pardon Aca. He was released that June and extradited back to Turkey. There, he served time for the murder of peki, and he was freed once more in 2010.I proclaim the end of the world, Mehmet Ali Aca declared upon his release from prison, as reported by The Guardian at the time. All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century I am the Christ eternal. In addition to claiming that he was the Messiah, Aca offered to help Dan Brown (author of The Da Vinci Code) write a book and volunteered to kill Osama bin Laden. And though Aca also promised to reveal more about his motive to kill the pope, he never quite kept his word. He did, however, make his way back to Vatican City in 2014 to lay flowers on Pope John Paul IIs grave. (The pontiff died in 2005.) Aca also asked for an audience with Pope Francis at the time, but this request was swiftly denied by Vatican officials. euronews/YouTubeMehmet Ali Aca during his 2014 visit to Vatican City.He has put flowers on the tomb of John Paul II. I think that is enough, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told La Repubblica at the time.So, why did Mehmet Ali Aca try to kill the pope? Despite his claims of conspiracy, it seems that the former Gray Wolf was a mere lone wolf, as most assassins are. His ties to the Bulgarian secret service, KGB agents, or any other group have never been definitively proven, and Aca has only ever been consistent in his inconsistency. In fact, despite his delusions of grandeur, he is just a footnote in history. In Vatican City, only a small plaque, invisible and forgotten to most of the tens of thousands who pass by it every day, marks the spot where he tried to kill a pope and failed. After reading about Mehmet Ali Aca, the Turkish man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, discover the strange story of the Cadaver Synod, when a pope tried to put the corpse of his predecessor on trial. Or, learn about Pope Joan, the alleged female pope.The post The Bizarre Story Of Mehmet Ali Aca, The Turkish Hitman Who Tried To Assassinate Pope John Paul II appeared first on All That's Interesting.