Assassination of the President

The President

Twenty fifth president of the United, William McKinley, became governor of Ohio in 1891 and secured a massive victory for the Republican Party in the presidential election in 1896. During his first term, the Spanish-American War ended with the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Cuba and the U.S. annexation of the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

He was reelected with another substantial majority in 1900. In the following year, the city of Buffalo, on the Niagara Falls, staged a Pan-American Exhibition, which the president amiably attended. It was while greeting his citizens that he was shot.

Assassination

The line of people waiting to shake the hand of the president at a public reception included Leon Czogolz. He was a 28 years old anarchist from Cleveland, Ohio. Even his fellow anarchists thought that he was a dangerous lunatic. His heavily bandaged right hand concealed a gun, and when the smiling president offered his hand, he fired. The bullet was deflected by a button on president’s waistcoat and the anarchist fired again. The second bullet hit the president in the stomach, and Czogolz cried out: “I have done my duty.”

Death

The president died in Buffalo on September 14. He was 58 years old, but the surgeons said they could not find the bullet in his abdomen because he was so fat. He was succeeded by the vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. Czogolz was tried and found guilty of murder, and went to the electric chair. He said: “I killed the president because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people.”