Mehmet Ali Ağca

Mehmet Ali Ağca was born 9 January 1958 in Turkey and became a hitman for the Grey Wolves, a far-right organisation. On 1 February 1979 he murdered leftist journalist Abdi İpekçi, was imprisoned, then escaped. He travelled illegally to Vatican City on 13 May 1981 and that same day attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in the square; the Pope survived, Ağca was captured. He served 19 years in Italian prison - where John Paul II visited him - then was deported to Turkey for a ten-year sentence. Released 18 January 2010, he called himself a mercenary with no political orientation, though his Grey Wolves and Counter-Guerrilla ties were known. In 2014 he returned to the Vatican to lay white roses on the tomb of the newly canonised Pope; he asked to meet Pope Francis and was refused.