115 years ago today: President McKinley shot by Leon Czolgosz

[Cooley Hurd]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_William_McKinley



The 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, was shot and fatally wounded on September 6, 1901, inside the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was shaking hands with the public when he was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. The President died on September 14 from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds. McKinley became the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.

McKinley had been elected for a second term in 1900. He enjoyed meeting the public, and was reluctant to accept the security available to his office. The Secretary to the President, George B. Cortelyou, feared an assassination attempt would take place during a visit to the Temple of Music, and twice took it off the schedule. McKinley restored it each time.

Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic Panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism, a political philosophy adhered to by recent killers of foreign leaders. Regarding McKinley as a symbol of oppression, Czolgosz was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. Unable to get near McKinley during the earlier part of the presidential visit, Czolgosz shot McKinley twice as the President reached to shake his hand in the reception line at the temple. One bullet grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found.

McKinley initially appeared to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse on September 13 as his wounds became gangrenous, and died early the next morning; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him. After McKinley's murder, for which Czolgosz was put to death in the electric chair, the United States Congress passed legislation to officially charge the Secret Service with the responsibility for protecting the president.

Last summer, I visited the very spot where McKinley stood as he was shot. It's in the middle of a residential street in Buffalo:

[RDANGELO]

1. and that brought us Teddy Roosevelt.

One of the most forward thinking presidents in our history. The powers that be made him VP to shut him up. They never made that mistake again.

[madokie]

2. His reply was be careful when telling his wife

paraphrasing there. I think he was worried she might be worried that he had indeed been shot and wanted to protect her from the agony of that news.

[struggle4progress]

3. White House Blues

[Cooley Hurd]

8. That is very charming!

I love American music, and this song is a gem!

Thanks!

[struggle4progress]

11. It's been around the block a few times

[former9thward]

4. Robert Lincoln, the son of President Lincoln, was at the assassination site

at the invitation of President McKinley. He was also at the assassination site of President Garfield who had invited him there. He was not a Ford's Theater because he refused an invitation by his father to go there, but went to his father's death bed across the street. Robert's life had been saved by Edward Booth, brother of the assassin, a year earlier when Booth pulled him out of the way of a train.

Robert Todd Lincoln Was Connected To Three Assassinations

http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/12/07/robert-todd-lincoln-was-connected-to-three-assassinations/

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Robert Lincoln was the only son of Abraham and Mary to live to adulthood, too...

[trof]

5. 100 bucks to anyone who can pronounce his last name.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Hahaha!!!

Yep, always a hard one for me!

Sooo, I looked it up:

Chulgoss?

[Retrograde]

9. Czolgosz, just like it's spelled

Of course, it helps that I grew up on Buffalo's East Side, which was almost 100% Polish back then and we were taught to read Polish in the Catholic schools. Polish is very phonetic - it's just that the letters it uses to represent the sounds aren't the same as English uses. "cz" is a hard ch, as in church; "sz" is a slightly hard sh, as in sure. And it's not nearly as tricky as, say, Szczodrowska, the name of one of my g-grandmothers.

My grandmother always claimed that Czolgosz stayed with my grandfather's brother's godfather when he was in Buffalo. My grandmother did not let facts get in the way of a good story.

[Archae]

10. An anarchist, with a nutty "agenda."

Garfield's assassin was certifiably nuts, and went to the gallows singing hymns.

Now is it SOOOOO impossible for a radical leftist who hated President Kennedy to shoot him?