Leon Frank Czołgosz (1873 – October 29, 1901) was the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley. In the last few years of his life he was heavily influenced by anarchist writers such as Emma Goldman.

Early life

One of two children of Polish immigrants, Czołgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan. His actual date of birth is unknown - some sources state, without offering any evidence, that he was born on January 1, 1873. He lived in conditions of brutal poverty most of his life.

He left his family farm in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of ten to work at the American Steel and Wire Company, with two of his brothers.

When Czolgosz was 12, his mother died while giving birth to another child. At the height of his employment, he was making $4 a day, an extremely high wage at the time, but after the workers of his factory went on strike (during a time when unions were considered dangerous and illegal), they were fired.

Anarchy and Emma Goldman

In 1898, after witnessing a series of similar strikes (many ending in police confrontation), Czolgosz returned home, where he was constantly at odds with his family's Roman Catholic beliefs and with his stepmother.

He became a recluse, and spent much of his time alone, reading socialist and anarchist newspapers. Some speculate that Czolgosz may have suffered a mental breakdown. He was very affected by hearing a speech of Emma Goldman, and sought her out in New York City to discuss political matters. She later wrote a piece sympathetic to Czolgosz's assassination of McKinley, though not quite in favor of the act.

However, Czolgosz, as far as is known, failed to be accepted into any anarchist group. Indeed, his fanaticism and comments about violence aroused their suspicions; some even thought he may have been a covert government agent.

The radical Free Society newspaper issued a warning pertaining to Czolgosz reading:

"The attention of the comrades is called to another spy. He is well dressed, of medium height, rather narrow shouldered, blond, and about 25 years of age. Up to the present he has made his appearance in Chicago and Cleveland. In the former place he remained a short time, while in Cleveland he disappeared when the comrades had confirmed themselves of his identity and were on the point interested in the cause, asking for names, or soliciting aid for acts of contemplated violence. If this individual makes his appearance elsewhere, the comrades are warned in advance and can act accordingly."

Czolgosz's experiences had convinced him there was a great injustice in American society, an inequity which allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. He concluded the reason for this was the structure of government itself.

Then on July 29, 1900, King Umberto I was assassinated by avowed anarchist, Gaetano Bresci. Bresci told the press he had to take matters into his own hands for the sake of the common man. The assassination sent shockwaves through the American anarchist movement. In Bresci, Czolgosz found his hero: a man who had the courage to sacrifice himself for the cause.

The assassination inspired Czolgosz enough that he went to the trouble to duplicate the event as much as possible, buying the same Iver Johnson revolver Bresci had used. When he was later arrested, police found a folded newspaper clipping about Bresci in Czolgosz’s pocket.

September 1901

On August 31, 1901 he moved to Buffalo, New York and rented a room near the site of the Pan-American Exposition.

On September 6, Czolgosz went to the exposition with a pistol in his hand, concealed in a handkerchief. McKinley had been standing in a receiving line at the Temple of Music greeting the public for several minutes when Czolgosz reached the front of the line and shot McKinley twice at point-blank range at 4:07 p.m.. McKinley would die from his wounds on September 14.

The gun used by Czolgosz was a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson "Safety Automatic" revolver, serial number 463344. Czolgosz purchased the gun for $4.50 on September 2, 1901. The pistol is currently on display at the Pan-American Exposition exhibit of the Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo. It is the only US presidential assassination weapon which is not in federal custody.

Czolgosz was convicted and sentenced to death on September 23 in a trial that lasted 8 hours and 26 minutes from jury selection to verdict.

Czolgosz was found guilty and executed by electrocution, by three jolts at 1700 volts each, on October 29, 1901, in Auburn prison in Auburn, New York. The electrocution was filmed by Thomas Edison in poor quality.

His last words were "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people—the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime." As the prison guards strapped him into the chair, however, he did say through clenched teeth, "I am sorry I could not see my father."

Sulfuric acid was thrown in his coffin so his body would completely dissolve within 24 hours. His letters and clothes were burned.

Emma Goldman was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the assassination, but was released because there was no evidence to support this suspicion.

The scene of the crime, the Temple of Music, was torn down in November 1901.

Miscellany

Czolgosz's story, along with those of 8 other presidential assassins and would-be assassins, was the basis of Sondheim's and Weidman's Broadway musical Assassins. In the musical, he is befriended by fellow assassins Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth, also the only other two characters with "ballads". His song, The Ballad of Czolgosz, is an upbeat, folk song that contrasts sharply with his friend Booth's earlier ballad.

Among the personal effects found in his apartment was a U.S. quarter stamped with the date 2218. The face in profile on said quarter was not George Washington, but rather a face which has yet to be identified.

The antagonist of Warren Adler's mystery novel, American Quartet, used Czolgosz as inspiration in a Washington, D.C. killing.

Leon Frank Czolgosz (May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901; also used surname "Nieman" and variations thereof) was the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley. In the last few years of his life, he claimed to have been heavily influenced by anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.

Early life

Czolgosz was born in Alpena, Michigan in 1873, one of eight children (six boys and two girls) of Mary (née Nowak) and Paul Czolgosz, Polish Catholic immigrants from Prussia.

According to a different source, Czolgosz's ancestors were immigrants from what is now Belarus. His father might have emigrated to the US in the 1860s from Astravets near Hrodna. At immigration he stated his ethnicity as Hungarian and changed his surname from Zholhus (Жолгусь, Żołguś) to Czolgosz.

He was baptized in St. Albertus Catholic Church. His family moved to Detroit when he was five years old.

He left his family farm in Warrensville, Ohio, at the age of ten to work at the American Steel and Wire Company with two of his brothers. After the workers of his factory went on strike, he and his brothers were fired. Czolgosz then returned to the family farm in Warrensville. At the age of sixteen, he was sent to work in a glass factory in Natrona, Pennsylvania for two years before moving back home.

Interest in anarchism

In 1898, after witnessing a series of similar strikes (many ending in violence), Czolgosz again returned home where he was constantly at odds with his stepmother and with his family's Roman Catholic beliefs. It was later recounted that through his life he had never shown any interest in friendship or romantic relationships, and was bullied throughout his childhood by peers. He became a recluse and spent much of his time alone reading Socialist and anarchist newspapers while drinking milk in his mother's attic. He was impressed after hearing a speech by the political radical Emma Goldman, whom he met for the first time during one of her lectures in Cleveland in 1901. After the lecture Czolgosz approached the speakers' platform and asked for reading recommendations. A few days later he visited her home in Chicago and introduced himself as Nieman, but Goldman was on her way to the train station. He only had enough time to explain to her about his disappointment in Cleveland's socialists, and for Goldman to introduce him to her anarchist friends who were at the train station. She later wrote a piece in defense of Czolgosz.

The radical Free Society newspaper issued a warning pertaining to Czolgosz, reading:

The attention of the comrades is called to another spy. He is well dressed, of medium height, rather narrow shoulders, blond and about 25 years of age. Up to the present he has made his appearance in Chicago and Cleveland. In the former place he remained but a short time, while in Cleveland he disappeared when the comrades had confirmed themselves of his identity and were on the point of exposing him. His demeanor is of the usual sort, pretending to be greatly interested in the cause, asking for names or soliciting aid for acts of contemplated violence. If this same individual makes his appearance elsewhere the comrades are warned in advance, and can act accordingly.

Czolgosz believed there was a great injustice in American society, an inequality which allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. He concluded that the reason for this was the structure of government itself. Then he learned of a European crime which changed his life: On July 29, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy had been shot dead by anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci told the press that he had decided to take matters into his own hands for the sake of the common man.

The assassination shocked and galvanized the American anarchist movement, and Czolgosz is thought to have consciously imitated Bresci. Joseph Petrosino's warnings were useless, because McKinley ignored them.

Assassination of President McKinley

On August 31, 1901, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, New York. There, he rented a room near the site of the Pan-American Exposition.

On September 6 he went to the exposition with a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson "Safety Automatic" revolver (serial #463344) he claimed he had purchased on September 2 for $4.50. With the gun wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket, Czolgosz approached McKinley's procession, the President having been standing in a receiving line inside of the Temple of Music, greeting the public for 10 minutes. At 4:07 p.m. Czolgosz reached the front of the line. McKinley extended his hand; Czolgosz slapped it aside and shot him in the abdomen twice at point blank range.

Members of the crowd immediately subdued Czolgosz, before the 4th Brigade, National Guard Signal Corps and police intervened, and beat him so severely it was initially thought he might not live to stand trial. Czolgosz was then briefly held in a cell at Buffalo's 13th Precinct house at 346 Austin Street until he was moved to the city's police headquarters downtown.

Trial and execution

Following the assassination, newly-elevated President Theodore Roosevelt issued a pronouncement declaring: "When compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance.”

On September 13, the day before McKinley succumbed to his wounds, Czolgosz was transferred from the police headquarters, since the headquarters were undergoing repairs, to the Erie County Women's Penitentiary. On the 16th he was taken to the Erie County Jail before being arraigned before County Judge Emery. After the arraignment, he was transferred to Auburn State Prison.

A grand jury indicted Czolgosz on September 16, who spoke freely with his guards, yet refused all interaction with Robert C. Titus and Lorin L. Lewis, the prominent judges-turned-attorneys assigned to defend him, and with the expert psychiatrist sent to test his sanity.

The district attorney at trial was Thomas Penney, assisted by a Mr. Haller, whose performance was described as "flawless". Although Czolgosz answered that he was pleading "Guilty", the presiding Judge Truman C. White overruled him and entered a "Not Guilty" plea on his behalf.

In the nine days from McKinley's death on September 14, to Czolgosz's trial on September 23, Czolgosz's lawyers were unable to prepare a defense since Czolgosz refused to speak to either one of them. As a result, Lorin Lewis argued at the trial that Czolgosz could not be found guilty for the murder of the president because he was insane at the time (similar to the defense that was used in the Charles J. Guiteau trial back in 1881, after the shooting of President James A. Garfield).

On September 23 and 24 prosecution testimony was presented, consisting of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting. Lewis did not call any defense witnesses. Czolgosz himself refused to testify on his own defense, nor did he ever speak at all in court. In his statement to the jury, Lewis noted Czolgosz's refusal to talk to his lawyers or cooperate with them, admitted his client's guilt, and said that "the only question that can be discussed or considered in this case is... whether that act was that of a sane person. If it was, then the defendant is guilty of the murder... If it was the act of an insane man, then he is not guilty of murder but should be acquitted of that charge and would then be confined in a lunatic asylum."

The prosecutor laid great stress on Czolgosz's anarchist affiliations and called upon the jury to heed the popular demand for a quick trial and execution. Since the defense had been unable to enter evidence that Czolgosz had been afflicted with any kind of temporary insanity, there could only be one verdict. Even if the jury believed the defense that Czolgosz was insane by claiming that no sane man would have shot and killed the president in such a public and blatant manner in which he knew he would be caught, there was still the legal definition of insanity to be overcome. Under New York law, Czolgosz was legally insane only if he was unable to understand what he was doing.

At Thomas Penney's request, White closed the trial with instructions to the jury that supported the prosecution's argument that (a): Czolgosz was not insane, and that (b): he knew clearly what he was doing. After this, any chance that remained of acquitting Czolgosz on the basis of insanity was gone, since the defense offered no evidence that he couldn't understand the wrongness of his crime.

Czolgosz was convicted on September 24, 1901 after the jury deliberated for only one hour. On September 26, the jury recommended the death penalty. Upon returning to Auburn Prison, Czolgosz asked the warden if this meant he would be transferred to Sing Sing to be electrocuted, and seemed surprised to learn that Auburn had its own electric chair.

Czolgosz was electrocuted by three jolts, each of 1800 volts, in Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901. His brother, Waldek, and his brother-in-law, Frank Bandowski, were in attendance. When Waldek asked the Warden for his brother's body to be taken for proper burial, he was informed that he "would never be able to take it away" and that crowds of people would mob him.

His last words were "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime." As the prison guards strapped him into the chair, however, he did say through clenched teeth, "I am sorry I could not see my father."

Czolgosz was autopsied by John T. Gerin; his brain was autopsied by Edward Anthony Spitzka. The body was buried on prison grounds following the autopsy. Prison authorities originally planned to inter the body with quicklime to hasten its decomposition, but they became dissatisfied with this option after testing quicklime on a sample of meat. After determining that they were not legally limited to the use of quicklime for the process, sulfuric acid was poured into Czolgosz's coffin so that his body would be completely disfigured. The warden estimated the acid caused the body to disintegrate within 12 hours.

Czolgosz's letters and clothes were burned, although in the case of letters the names of those who had sent threatening or sympathetic correspondence were recorded for future reference.

Legacy

Emma Goldman was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the assassination, but was released, due to insufficient evidence. She later incurred a great deal of negative publicity when she published "The Tragedy at Buffalo". In the article, she compared Czolgosz to Marcus Junius Brutus, the killer of Julius Caesar, and called McKinley the "president of the money kings and trust magnates." Other anarchists and radicals were unwilling to support Goldman's effort to aid Czolgosz, believing that he had harmed the movement.

The scene of the crime, the Temple of Music, was demolished in November 1901, along with the rest of the Exposition grounds. A stone marker in the middle of Fordham Drive, a residential street in Buffalo, marks the approximate spot where the shooting occurred . Czolgosz's revolver is on display in the Pan-American Exposition exhibit at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo. In 1921 Lloyd Vernon Briggs, Director of the Massachusetts Department for Mental Hygiene, reviewed the Czolgosz case and the cases of Clarence Richeson and Bertram G. Spencer. Contrary to views almost universally expressed at the time of the assassination, Briggs concluded that Czolgosz was "a diseased man, a man who had been suffering from some form of mental disease for years. He was not medically responsible and in the light of present-day psychiatry and of modern surgical procedure, there is a great question whether he was even legally responsible for the death of our President."

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William McKinley assassination

The William McKinley assassination occurred on September 6, 1901, at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. United States President William McKinley, attending the Pan-American Exposition, was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley initially appeared to be recovering from his wounds, but took a turn for the worse six days after the shooting and died on September 14, 1901. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley as President. McKinley was the third of four presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881 and preceding John F. Kennedy in 1963. After McKinley's murder Congress would officially charge the Secret Service with the physical protection of U.S. presidents.

McKinley at the Exposition

McKinley and his wife Ida arrived at the Exposition on September 5th, which had been designated as "President's Day" in his honor. Events scheduled for that day included private receptions and a military review as well as a speech to be given by McKinley.

On the morning of the 6th, McKinley visited Niagara Falls and returned to the Exposition for a scheduled public reception that afternoon. His secretary, George B. Cortelyou, disliked such public receptions, believing them to be security risks. Cortelyou suggested that McKinley should skip the reception, but McKinley replied, "Why should I? No one would wish to hurt me." McKinley, accompanied by Cortelyou and Exposition president John Milburn, arrived at the Exposition at 3:30 p.m. and proceeded to the Temple of Music building where the reception was to take place.

In 1901 the U.S. Secret Service, founded in 1865 to combat counterfeiting, was not officially responsible for the protection of American presidents. However, the Secret Service had already provided informal, occasional security since 1894, starting with McKinley's predecessor Grover Cleveland. The Secret Service was there that day to protect the President, along with local Buffalo detectives and a squad of eleven Army servicemen that had been instructed to keep an eye on the crowd. McKinley, flanked by Cortelyou and Milburn, stood and shook hands with the people filing by in a long line. Waiting in that line was Leon Czolgosz.

The assassin

Czolgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1873, the son of Polish immigrants. He had once been a factory worker but had been unemployed for several years and was living with his family in 1901. Czolgosz had become interested in anarchism in the years preceding the McKinley murder. In May 1901 he attended a speech given by famous anarchist Emma Goldman, in Cleveland, Ohio. Czolgosz traveled to Goldman's home in Chicago on July 12 and spoke briefly to Goldman before she left to catch a train. Goldman was later arrested and briefly detained on suspicion of involvement in McKinley's murder.

In his September 7 statement Czolgosz said that he had read eight days prior, in Chicago, that McKinley would be attending the Exposition. He immediately took a train to Buffalo and rented a hotel room. Czolgosz was at the fair on September 5 for President's Day and heard McKinley's speech. He was tempted to shoot the President then but did not because he could not get close enough.

Instead, he came back to the Exposition the next day. Goldman's speech from May was still "burning [him] up". He joined the line of people waiting to shake the president's hand. Czolgosz wrapped up his hand with a white handkerchief to hide the pistol he was carrying. Secret Serviceman George Foster later explained his failure to observe Czolgosz's wrapped-up hand by saying that Czolgosz was too closely bunched up to the man in front of him. However, at the trial, Foster would also admit to not noticing Czolgosz because he was paying close attention to James Parker, a black man who was standing in line immediately behind the assassin.

The shooting

On the morning of the 6th, McKinley visited Niagara Falls and returned to the Exposition for a scheduled public reception that afternoon. His secretary, George B. Cortelyou, disliked such public receptions, believing them to be security risks. Cortelyou suggested that McKinley should skip the reception, but McKinley replied, "Why should I? No one would wish to hurt me." McKinley, accompanied by Cortelyou and Exposition president John Milburn, arrived at the Exposition at 3:30 p.m. and proceeded to the Temple of Music building where the reception was to take place.

In 1901 the U.S. Secret Service, founded in 1865 to combat counterfeiting, was not officially responsible for the protection of American presidents. However, the Secret Service had already provided informal, occasional security since 1894, starting with McKinley's predecessor Grover Cleveland. The Secret Service was there that day to protect the President, along with local Buffalo detectives and a squad of eleven Army servicemen that had been instructed to keep an eye on the crowd. McKinley, flanked by Cortelyou and Milburn, stood and shook hands with the people filing by in a long line. Waiting in that line was the asassin, Leon Czolgosz.

McKinley had been shaking hands for approximately ten minutes when Cortelyou left his side to shut the doors. William J. Gomph, the exposition's official organist, was softly playing Schumann's Träumerei on the massive organ that was a special attraction at the Temple of Music.

At this moment, 4:07 p.m. Czolgosz advanced to face the President. McKinley reached out to take Czolgosz's "bandaged" hand, but before he could shake it Czolgosz pulled the trigger twice. James Benjamin "Big Ben" Parker, a six-foot six inch Black waiter from Atlanta who was laid-off by the exposition's Plaza Restaurant, standing immediately behind Czolgosz, punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground, and knocked the gun from Czolgosz's hand. Agent George Foster jumped onto Czolgosz and shouted to fellow agent Albert Gallagher "Al, get the gun! Get the gun! Al, get the gun! Gallagher instead got Czolgosz's handkerchief, which was on fire. Private Francis O'Brien of McKinley's Army detail picked up the gun.

McKinley remained standing while security dragged Czolgosz away. After someone hit Czolgosz again, McKinley cried out "Don't let them hurt him!" Eleven minutes after the shooting an ambulance arrived and McKinley was taken to the hospital on the Exposition grounds. He had been shot twice. One bullet deflected off his ribs, making only a superficial wound. However, the second bullet hit McKinley in the abdomen, passed completely through his stomach, hit his kidney, damaged his pancreas, and lodged somewhere in the muscles of his back.

The doctors, unable to find the bullet, left it in his body and closed up the wound. An experimental X-ray machine, which might have helped to find the bullet, was on hand at the exhibition, but for reasons that remain unclear it was not used. (In the following days Thomas Edison would arrange for an X-ray machine to be delivered all the way from his shop in New Jersey, but it was never used either). McKinley, still unconscious from the ether used to sedate him, was taken to John Milburn's home to recover.

Death of the President

Czolgosz confessed everything that night stating, "I killed President McKinley because I done my duty. I didn't believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none." He provided more detail the next day, insisting that he acted alone, although his statement did not prevent Goldman's arrest a few days later.

Contrary to Czolgosz's assertion that he had killed the President, not only was McKinley still alive, but he seemed to be recovering. On Saturday, September 7th, McKinley was in good condition, relaxed and conversational. His wife was allowed to see him, and he asked Cortelyou, "How did they like my speech?" A bulletin sent from his sickbed on September 8 said, "The President passed a good night and his condition this morning is quite encouraging. His mind is clear and he is resting well. Wound dressed at 8:30 and found in a very satisfactory condition."

Most of McKinley's cabinet came to Buffalo, as well as his old friend and former campaign manager, Senator Mark Hanna. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was attending a luncheon event in Vermont on September 6 when word came that the President had been shot. Roosevelt and his party left immediately for Buffalo, arriving the next day.

However, by September 10, McKinley had improved to the point that Roosevelt's presence no longer seemed necessary, and, for the sake of publicity, the Vice President left Buffalo that day. He went to take a hiking vacation in the Adirondack Mountains, where his wife and family were already waiting. Similarly, Mark Hanna and the cabinet members left Buffalo when the crisis seemed to have passed.

The President continued to improve. A bulletin on September 9 stated, "The President's condition is becoming more and more satisfactory. Untoward incidents are less likely to occur." On September 10 a bulletin stated, "The President's condition this morning is eminently satisfactory to his physicians. If no complications arise a rapid convalescence may be expected." McKinley continued to take water orally and nutritive enemas. On September 11, the President took beef juice orally, the first food he'd taken in the stomach since the shooting. Bulletins said "continues to gain" and "condition continues favorably." On September 12, McKinley had his first solid food, some toast and egg with coffee, but he "did not relish it and ate very little."

Later on September 12, the President's condition began to worsen. He reported headache and nausea and his pulse rate increased, rapid but weak. McKinley became sweaty and restless, although he remained conscious and alert. A bulletin on the morning of September 13 said, "The President's condition is very serious, and gives rise to the gravest apprehension."

That day, Friday, September 13, McKinley began rapidly deteriorating. Hanna and the cabinet returned to the Milburn house. McKinley was given adrenaline and oxygen in attempts to improve his weak pulse. His condition worsening, McKinley told his doctors, “It is useless, gentlemen, I think we ought to have prayer.” Later, as he faded, McKinley whispered the words to the hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." A bulletin at 6:15 p.m. said, "The President's physicians report that his condition is most serious in spite of vigorous stimulation....unless it can be relieved the end is only a question of time."

Senator Hanna, grief stricken, said "Mr. President, can't you hear me? William! Don't you know me?" President McKinley, brought down by infection and gangrene, died at 2:15 a.m. on September 14.

Roosevelt succeeds to the Presidency

On September 12, Theodore Roosevelt and his family arrived at their cabin on the 5,344-feet-high Mount Marcy. The next morning, a cold, foggy day, Roosevelt left for a climb to the top of the mountain, accompanied by a couple of his friends and a park ranger. By noon on September 13, the Vice President and his party had stopped to rest at the summit on a large flat rock that offered a panoramic view of the mountains. They climbed back down five hundred feet to have lunch by a lake.

At about 1:30, a park ranger arrived, running, bearing a telegram. Roosevelt understood as soon as he saw the messenger what had happened, saying later: "I instinctively knew he had bad news....I wanted to become President, but I did not want to become President that way."

The telegram confirmed his fears, reporting that McKinley's condition had turned very much for the worse. After returning to his cabin, Roosevelt received a dire telegram from Secretary of War Elihu Root:

THE PRESIDENT APPEARS TO BE DYING AND MEMBERS OF THE CABINET IN BUFFALO THINK YOU SHOULD LOSE NO TIME COMING

Just before midnight, Roosevelt left his family for a carriage ride down Mount Marcy, a trip that even in daylight usually took seven hours. At 3:30 a.m. Roosevelt boarded another wagon and continued the long, twisting ride down the mountain at high speed in the dark. Two hours later, Roosevelt finally arrived at the train station in North Creek, New York, where, at 5:22 a.m. on September 14, he received a telegram from Secretary of State John Hay:

THE PRESIDENT DIED AT TWO-FIFTEEN THIS MORNING

Roosevelt then boarded the train. The train stopped briefly in Albany before pulling into Buffalo at 1:30 p.m. There he met his friend Ansley Wilcox and went to Wilcox's house, one mile from Milburn's house where McKinley's body lay.

After cleaning up, Roosevelt went to the Milburn house to pay his respects. He met Root, Cortelyou, and most of the rest of the cabinet there, but could not see McKinley's body as the autopsy was already underway. Root recommended holding the ceremony there, but Roosevelt thought that "inappropriate" and decided to return to the Wilcox house for the swearing-in ceremony. Roosevelt took the oath of office as the 26th President of the United States at 3:30 p.m. Six weeks away from his 43rd birthday, he was and still is the youngest man ever to hold the office of President.

Aftermath

Emma Goldman incurred a great deal of negative publicity when she published an article in which she compared Czolgosz to Marcus Junius Brutus, the killer of Julius Caesar, and called McKinley the "president of the money kings and trust magnates." Some other anarchists and radicals were unwilling to help Goldman's effort to aid Czolgosz, believing that he had harmed the movement.

Czolgosz went on trial on September 23, 1901, only nine days after the President died. Prosecution testimony took two days and consisted of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting. Defense counsel Loran Lewis did not call any witnesses. In his statement to the jury, Lewis noted Czolgosz's refusal to talk to his lawyers or cooperate with them, admitted his client's guilt, and said that "the only question that can be discussed or considered in this case is...whether that act was that of a sane person. If it was, then the defendant is guilty of the murder....If it was the act of an insane man, then he is not guilty of murder but should be acquitted of that charge and would then be confined in a lunatic asylum."

The jury took only half an hour to convict Czolgosz. On September 26, Czolgosz was sentenced to death. He was immediately taken to Auburn State Prison to await execution. Czolgosz expressed remorse, saying, "I wish the people to know I am sorry for what I did. It was a mistake and it was wrong. If I had it to do over again I never would do it. But it is too late now to talk of that. I am sorry I killed the President." Czolgosz was executed by means of electrocution on October 29, 1901.

After McKinley's murder, Congress took up the question of Presidential security. In the fall of 1901 they informally asked the Secret Service to control presidential security, and the Service was protecting President Theodore Roosevelt full-time by 1902. However, this was not yet official. Some in Congress recommended the United States Army be charged with protecting the President. Not until 1906 did the Congress pass legislation officially designating the Secret Service as the agency in charge of presidential security.

The McKinley Monument in Buffalo, New York, a 96-foot-tall obelisk in Niagara Square, was dedicated in 1907. The Milburn house at 1168 Delaware Avenue, where McKinley died, was turned into an apartment building in 1919 and later demolished around 1956, becoming part of the Canisius High School parking lot. Students of the school watched the demolition from windows. A stone marks the location of the Temple of Music where McKinley was shot. The Wilcox house in Buffalo, where Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office, is now a National Historic Site.

References

• Fisher, Jack C. Stolen glory : the McKinley assassination. La Jolla, CA : Alamar Books, ©2001

• Johns, A. Wesley. The man who shot McKinley. South Brunswick [N.J.]: A.S. Barnes [1970]

• Lowy, Jonathan. The Temple of Music: A Novel. Three Rivers Press, 2005. ISBN 0307209849. A novel of the assassination.

• Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Modern Library, 2001 (paperback edition). ISBN 0375756787.

• Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. Random House, 2001. ISBN 0394555090.

• Olcott, Charles. The Life of William McKinley. Houghton Mifflin company, Boston, 1916.

• Rauchway, Eric. Murdering Mckinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2004. ISBN 0809016389, 9780809016389

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