Gunman left note in case Trump assassination attempt failed

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—A man who allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump on a Florida golf course had been planning for months to shoot the former president, keeping detailed lists of Trump’s whereabouts and writing a note in case the assassination attempt failed, prosecutors said Monday.

“Dear World, This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you," the handwritten note from Ryan Wesley Routh said. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It’s up to you to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job."

Federal prosecutors included a photo of the note in a new court filing as they urge a judge to keep Routh detained while his court case proceeds.

A witness found the note inside of a box that Routh had dropped off months before the Sept. 15 golf-course encounter. The witness opened the box, which also contained ammunition, tools and a metal pipe, after learning that Routh had been accused of trying to kill Trump.

The note was one of several new revelations about Routh’s plans in the months and weeks before a Secret Service agent allegedly saw him pointing a semiautomatic rifle through a golf-course fence while Trump was playing a few holes away.

Routh had compiled a handwritten list of dates and places where he expected the Republican nominee to be present, and had arrived in Florida more than a month before the encounter, prosecutors said. Cellphone records showed he had on multiple days traveled near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach—about 5 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence—between Aug. 18 and the incident on Sept. 15.

Routh, 58, is expected in federal court later Monday morning, where prosecutors will point to