Oct. 22, 1983: President Reagan and a gate-crasher at Augusta National | 2022 Masters
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Posted October 22, 2020, 9:08 am
BY
Bill Kirby
|
Staff Writer

Oct. 22, 1983: President Reagan and a gate-crasher at Augusta National

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    President Reagan's limo at Augusta National where Charles Harris crashed through a gate while President Reagan was visiting. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

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    The gate at the Augusta National where Charles Harris crashed while President Reagan was visiting. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

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    Secret Service agents swing into action after a man crashed his pickup through the gates of Augusta National Golf Club while President Ronald Reagan was playing golf. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

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    The truck belonging to Charles R. Harris is removed from the Augusta National Golf Club in this Oct. 1983 photo. Harris crashed the gate at the club while President Ronald Reagan was playing golf, taking two White House staffers and three Augusta National employees hostage. Within hours Harris was in custody, charged with a federal crime of threatening the president and a state charge of kidnapping. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

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    The gate at the Augusta National where Charles Harris crashed while President Reagan was visiting. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

Charles Harris, of Columbia County, crashed his pickup truck through the gates of Augusta National Golf Club while President Ronald Reagan, Secretary of State George Schultz and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan were playing golf.

Harris wrecked the truck, jumped out and began waving a pistol before taking several hostages and holding them in the club's pro shop while demanding to speak with the president.

It was reported that Reagan twice telephoned Harris from the 16th hole, but Harris disconnected the line both times.

The incident ended without injuries when Harris surrendered two hours later. On that same day, 283 U.S. Marines were killed by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon.

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