The bullet proof vest came into being at the end of the 19^th Century when, in 1881, Dr George Emery Goodfellow of Arizona stumbled across a gun battle between two men. When Dr Goodfellow rushed to tend the chest wounds suffered by one of the combatants, he was amazed to find that 'not a drop of blood' had come from the wound. The bullet had ripped though his clothes, but had failed to penetrate his folded silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. By the end of the century, wealthy gangsters were wearing $800 silk vests (that’s £5,000 in today’s money). On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was wearing such a silk vest, but died when Gavrilo Princip shot him in the neck.

Improvements continued to be made and by the 1930s, criminals started to wear less expensive but stronger vests made from cotton padding and cloth. The police’s response was to develop the .357 Magnum cartridge (which was also used on non-bullet-proof vest wearing criminals to devastating effect – fatalities in police shootings increased 20% a year after the .357 was introduced). But by 1965, a key development was made by the DuPont Company, who created Kevlar, a light material, five times stronger than steel, an invention which, from day one, would have saved the lives of many assassin-prone men and women, including Bhutan’s Premier Jigme P Dorji, Iran’s Premier Hassanali Mansur, Adib Shishekly, the former dictator of Syria, Portugal’s General Humberto Delgado and Malcolm X who all met their ends with bullets fired into their chests in 1965.

One drawback to wearing the first Kevlar vests was the bulkiness and weight (8kg). But these days, a slim bullet-proof vest weighs in at around only 1.2kg. They are made from a breathable material with antibacterial properties, making them much more comfortable to wear than most people realise. These lightweight vests cost around £500 and stop bullets fired from 96% of handguns and many rifles, including 9mm full-metal-jackets.

Wearing a bullet-proof vest is a small price well worth paying. So many assassins are inexperienced and are too nervous to try a risky head-shot, and aim instead for the largest target area, the torso. American researchers discovered that over 2,000 US patrol officers' lives were saved over a twenty-year period thanks to the bullet-proof vest.

Here are just a few victims of assassination who might have benefited from wearing a Kevlar vest since its invention:

1966 - South African PM Hendrik Verwoerd: The architect of apartheid was stabbed in the chest in parliament. Verwoerd was replaced by Johannes Vorster Balthazar, an admirer of Adolf Hitler.

1974 – US Governor George Wallace: Shot in the chest at a political rally. Wallace, a presidential candidate, survived but was left confined to a wheelchair and had to pull out of the elections. This event practically handed the the election victory to Richard Nixon.

1980 – Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Romero: shot while celebrating mass at his cathedral.

1981 – US President Ronald Reagan: Shot in the side by John Hinckley. Survived, but only just. The US government was, for a time, left in chaos after Admiral Haig mistakenly told reporters “I’m in charge here” when Vice President George Bush was supposed to take control.

1986 – Swedish PM Olof Palme: Shot in the back while walking home. Europe lost one of its most liberal and influential PMs and his death cost the African National Congress their strongest and most outspoken supporter.

1995 - Israeli PM, Yitzhak Rabin: Shot in the back after a peace rally. The Middle East Peace Process collapsed in the wake of his assassination.

2003 – Serbian PM Zoran Dindic: shot once in the chest while descending a stairway in Serbia’s main government building. His death led to a state of emergency and Serbia’s fragile political unity crumbled after his death.

Many targets say that by refusing to wear a bullet-proof vest, they are showing their enemies that they are not afraid. But good protection is the action of a strong leader. At the very least, by making themselves a hard target, many of their enemies will be put off the idea of assassination.

The bullet-proof vest is a particularly good defence against the lone-wolf amateur assassin; Vorwoerd, Rabin, Wallace and Reagan were all attacked by lone wolves. The deaths of Vorwoerd and Rabin had devastating consequences and if they had been wearing a £500 vest, not only would it have probably saved their lives; it would have saved the lives of hundreds of others who died in the turmoil that followed their assassinations.