BARBWIRE BOB – American Presidents Have Faced Assassins – Part 1
With the shocking assassination attempt on former president Donald J. Trump, and current nominee as Republican candidate for the presidency, it is interesting to examine some of the other attempts on presidential lives. William McKinley was the 25th president of The United States and was the third American president to be assassinated following Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield.
McKinley was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition.
In the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901. He was six months into his second term of office as a Republican. He has been elected president in 1896 during a serious depression resulting from the Panic of 1893 that resulted in the collapse of mining, impacting Colorado mines. He defeated his Democrat rival, William Jennings Bryan, in famous debates. McKinley was leading the nation back to economic prosperity and to victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898, taking possession of Spanish colonies in Puerto Rico and the Philippines, while Cuba was still to be freed under “Rough Rider” Teddy Roosevelt who succeeded McKinley after his death.
McKinley was shaking hands with the public when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz, with the 32 caliber “Iver Johnson” revolver concealed under a cloth rag, fired the fatal shots. The assassin had lost his job during the economic depression and turned to anarchism. McKinley appeared to be recovering from his wounds but died of gangrene at 2:15 am on September 14,1901. He was succeeded by his newly elected vice-president Theodore Roosevelt as the 26th president who had only been in office for six-months following his career as Governor of New York and Assistant Secretary of The Navy.
Roosevelt would be shot himself years later by assassin John Schrank in front of the Gilpatrick hotel in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912. The bullet struck his suit pocket, penetrating a steel glass case and a thick booklet, the bullet entering his chest but not his lungs. Roosevelt shook off the wound and gave a political speech before seeking medical assistance. Roosevelt’s famous quote is historic, “Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far”
Czolgosz was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair. Newspapers across the country heavily criticized the lack of protection afforded American presidents and in 1906 Congress passed legislation officially designating the Secret Service as the agency in charge of presidential security.
That’s how they got the job.