On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shaking
hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York,
when a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz approached
him and fired two shots into his chest. The president rose slightly
on his toes before collapsing forward, saying “be careful how you
tell my wife.”
Czolgosz moved over the president with the intent of firing a third
shot, but was wrestled to the ground by McKinley’s bodyguards. McKinley, still conscious, told the guards not to hurt his assailant.
Other presidential attendants rushed McKinley to the hospital
where they found two bullet wounds: one bullet had superficially punctured his sternum and the other had dangerously entered
his abdomen. He was rushed into surgery and seemed to be on
the mend by September 12.
Later that day, however, the president’s condition worsened
rapidly and, on September 14, McKinley died from gangrene
that had gone undetected in the internal wound. Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt was immediately sworn in as president.
Czologz was executed in the electric chair (a fairly new means
of execution at the time) at New York’s Auburn Prison on Oct.
29th, 1901, just 54 days after he shot the president.
Mug Shot of President William McKinley’s assassin,
Leon Czologz.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919)
