Pope John Paul II’s Attempted Murder: Revisiting One Of Vatican’s Most Chilling Mysteries

Vatican City witnessed an assassination attempt in 1981 on then-Pope John Paul II. The incident happened in St. Peter’s Square as he addressed the audience. While the pope was critically wounded, he survived the injuries.

Meanwhile, the assailant was identified as a Turkish gunman and a member of the militant fascist group Grey Wolves. Mehmet Ali Ağca used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol that struck the pope in the abdomen, seriously injuring his colon and intestines.

​The incident sent a warning across the Vatican City. However, the assassination attempt seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg. While Mehmet was immediately caught and jailed, the motive behind the attack was never fully resolved.

​Years later, in a 2023 interview for the series Spy Ops, Ağca had explained why he committed the crime. In his words, “I wanted to leave a mark on history and then leave.” He had planned to kill Pope John Paul II and then subsequently commit suicide.​

​However, Ağca could not execute his plans after firing just two shots. His gun unexpectedly got jammed, and before he could fix and restart the unfinished business, he was caught.​

​Despite Ağca's admission of the crime, the motive behind the attack remains unsolved. Investigators believed that the Turkish gunman did not act on his own, and the attack may have been orchestrated by others. In fact, various lines of investigations suggested possible external links.

​For instance, Ağca’s connection with the fascist group Grey Wolves was thoroughly examined. When he was sentenced to life in prison, one of his connections with the group allegedly facilitated his escape.

The CIA, on the other hand, established connections between the Pope’s attempted assassination and Bulgarian cutouts used by the Soviets. Although this was never really proven, it was believed to be one of the more plausible reasons.

​Fingers were also pointed at other right-wing European stay-behind organizations. These included the CIA and NATO as well, who were believed to have trained civilians for their missions.

​A third possibility was highlighted by the French newspaper Le Monde diplomatique. It pushed blame on gun trafficker Bekir Celenk for funding money to the group, Grey Wolves, who then plotted the assassination attempt on the Pope. The newspaper claimed that the group targeted the Pope because the fascist group was against John Paul II’s support for the Solidarity Labor Movement.

Pope John Paul himself believed in conspiracy theories that proved Mehmet Ali Ağca did not work alone. In his biography, the Pope had written, “Ali Ağca, as everyone knows, was a professional assassin. This means the attack was not his own initiative; it was someone else's idea. Someone else had commissioned him to carry it out.”