Assassination of William McKinley

Assassination of William McKinley
Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a concealed revolver.
Location	Temple of Music, on grounds of Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York
Date	September 6, 1901 4:07 pm
Target	William McKinley (died September 14, 1901 of his wounds)
Weapons	.32 caliber Iver Johnson revolver
Perpetrator	Leon Czolgosz (executed by electrocution October 29, 1901)
Motive	To advance anarchism

The assassination of William McKinley occurred on September 6, 1901 inside the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. The President of the United States, William McKinley was visiting the Exposition and was at a public reception, shaking hands with ordinary citizens, when he was fatally wounded by two shots from the gun of Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. President McKinley died just over a week later after his wounds became gangrenous.

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

Czolgosz had searched for the reasons for the hard times which followed the economic Panic of 1893, and had turned to anarchism, which was then greatly feared because of a number of assassinations of foreign leaders by its adherents. Influenced by a speech he had heard made by fellow anarchist Emma Goldman, Czolgosz decided to kill McKinley, believing him a symbol of oppression. After making several attempts to reach McKinley during the earlier part of the presidential visit to Western New York, he shot McKinley twice at the reception as the President reached to shake his hand. One bullet only grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found.

McKinley initially appeared to be recovering from his wounds, but took a turn for the worse on September 12, six days after the shooting, as infection within him turned to gangrene. His health quickly deteriorated and he died on September 14; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him as president. 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.

In September 1901, William McKinley was at the height of his power as president. Elected in 1896 during the economic turmoil and hard times in the United States resulting from the Panic of 1893, he had defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan to win the presidency. McKinley had led the nation both to a return to prosperity and to victory in war; the nation had won the Spanish-American War in 1898, taking such former colonies as Puerto Rico and the Philippines for its own. Re-elected handily in a rematch against Bryan in 1900, according to historical writer Eric Rauchway in his book on the assassination, "it looked as if the McKinley Administration would continue peaceably unbroken for another four years, a government devoted to prosperity".^[1]

Leon Czolgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1873, the son of Polish immigrants.^[2] The Czolgosz family moved a number of times as Paul Czolgosz, Leon's father, sought work throughout the Midwest.^[3] As an adult, he worked in a Cleveland factory until losing his job in a labor dispute in 1893. Thereafter, he worked irregularly where he could, and attended political and religious meetings, trying to understand the reasons for the economic turmoil of the Panic of 1893. In so doing, he interested himself in anarchism.^[4] This movement, by 1901, was greatly feared—New York's highest court had ruled that the act of identifying oneself as an anarchist in front of an audience was a breach of the peace. Anarchists had taken a toll in Europe of a half dozen officials and members of royal houses, and had been blamed for the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago.^[5]

McKinley had been elected to his second term without his original vice president, Garret Hobart, who had died in 1899. He left the choice of a running mate to the 1900 Republican National Convention. In advance of the convention in Philadelphia, New York's Republican political boss, Senator Thomas Platt, saw an opportunity to politically sideline his state's governor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, by making him vice president. Roosevelt received the nomination and was elected vice president on McKinley's ticket.^[6][7]

McKinley gave only a short speech at his second inauguration.^[8] Having long been an advocate of protective tariffs, and believing the Dingley Tariff, passed during his first year in office, had helped the nation reach prosperity, McKinley planned to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements, or reciprocity with other countries. This would open foreign markets to US manufacturers, which had dominated the domestic market thanks to the tariff, and who sought to expand.^[1][9] During the long trip he planned for the months after his inauguration, he intended to make major speeches promoting this plan, leading up to a visit and address at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on June 13.^[10][11]

McKinley, his wife Ida, and their official party left Washington for a clockwise trip of the nation by train, slated to conclude in Buffalo for a speech on which had been designated as "President's Day". He met with rapturous receptions in the West, which had never seen a president, but in California, the First Lady became seriously ill, and for a time she was thought to be dying. She recovered in San Francisco, but her husband cancelled the events which were to be held on the trip east. The speech at the Exposition, however, was postponed until September 5, following some weeks in Washington and two months in Canton, Ohio, the McKinleys' hometown. President McKinley spent time in Canton working on the Buffalo speech, and in supervising improvements to his house.^[12][13] He intended to remain based in Canton until October.^[14]

Czolgosz had lived on his parents' farm near Cleveland beginning in 1898, working little—he may have suffered a nervous breakdown.^[15] He is known to have attended a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman in May in Cleveland: he approached her before the speech and asked her to recommend books on anarchism; she obliged. The talk, in which Goldman did not advocate violence but expressed understanding for those driven to it, was a great influence on Czolgosz; he later stated that her words burned in his head.^[16] He came to see her at her Chicago home in July as she was about to depart on a trip, and the two rode together to the train station. Goldman expressed concern to another radical that Czolgosz (who was using the alias Fred Nieman) was following her around; soon after, he apparently departed Chicago.^[17] William Arntz, a worker at a park in Canton, stated that he had seen a man resembling Czolgosz in mid-1901, when the President was staying at home and sometimes visiting the park. The man was wearing two guns, and when Arntz reminded him that firearms were not permitted outside the park's shooting range, responded dismissively. Arntz sought the police, but the man was never found.^[15]

Later in the summer, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, though his reasons for doing so are not known. Author and journalist Scott Miller speculated that he may have chosen Buffalo because of its large Polish population. He boarded in the suburb of West Seneca and spent much of his time reading. He then left for Cleveland, though what he did there is uncertain; he may have picked up anarchist literature or procured more money. He then went to Chicago, and while there saw a newspaper mention of President McKinley's impending visit to Buffalo. He returned there, as yet uncertain of what he would do; he at first only sought to be near the man whom to him embodied injustice. On September 3, he made up his mind. He later stated,

It was in my heart, there was no escape for me. I could not have conquered it had my life been at stake. There were thousands of people in town on Tuesday [September 3]. I heard it was President's Day. All those people seemed bowing to the great ruler. I made up my mind to kill that ruler.^[18]

On September 3, Czolgosz went to Walbridge's Hardware Store on Buffalo's Main Street. There, he purchased a .32-caliber Iver Johnson revolver. He had as yet no clear plan as to how to assassinate the President.^[19] The following day, William and Ida McKinley arrived in Buffalo by train. The cannon fired to salute the President on his arrival in the city had been set too close to the track, and the explosions blew out several windows in the train, unnerving the First Lady.^[19] About a dozen people on the platform, believing the damage caused by a bomb, shouted "Anarchists!"^[20] As William McKinley stepped down from the train to the official welcome, Czolgosz shoved his way forward in the crowd, but found the President too well guarded to make an attempt on his life.^[19]

McKinley's visit to Buffalo was part of a planned ten-day absence from Canton which was to include an address in Cleveland to an encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was a member as a Union veteran.^[21] The McKinleys were to stay in Buffalo at the large home of the Exposition's president, John G. Milburn (often called the "Milburn House"), and in Cleveland at the home of McKinley's close friend and adviser, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. While in Buffalo, McKinley had two days of events: On Thursday, September 5, he was to tour the fair and deliver his address. The following day, he was to visit Niagara Falls and, on his return to Buffalo, meet the public at the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds. Part of the reason for bringing McKinley twice was to swell the gate receipts; the popular President's visit was heavily advertised. The public reception at the Temple of Music was disliked by his personal secretary, George B. Cortelyou, who twice tried to remove it from the program. McKinley each time restored it, wishing to support the fair (he agreed with its theme of hemispheric cooperation) and because he was not afraid of potential assassins. "Why should I? No one would wish to hurt me."^[22] Cortelyou warned McKinley that many would be disappointed as the President would not have time to shake hands with all who would line up to meet him. "Well, they'll know I tried, anyhow."^[22] Unable to persuade McKinley to alter his schedule, Cortelyou telegraphed to authorities in Buffalo, asking them to arrange extra security.^[23] McKinley did not like security to come between him and the people; in Canton, he often walked to church or the business district without guard, and in Washington went on drives with his wife without any guard in the carriage.^[24]

On the morning of Thursday, September 5, the fair gates were opened at 6:00 am to allow the crowds to enter early and seek good spots from which to witness the President's speech. The Esplanade, the large space near the Triumphal Bridge where the President was to speak was filled with fairgoers; the crowd overflowed into the nearby Court of Fountains. Of the 116,000 fairgoers that day, about 50,000 are believed to have attended McKinley's speech. The route between the Millburn House and the site of the speech was also packed with spectators; McKinley's progress by carriage to the fair with his wife was marked by loud cheering. McKinley ascended to a stand overlooking the Esplanade, and after a brief introduction by Milburn, began to speak.^[25]

In his final speech, McKinley urged an end to American isolationism. He urged trade arrangements which would allow US manufacturers new markets. "The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable."^[26] The crowd greeted his speech with loud applause; at its conclusion, the President escorted Ida McKinley back to her carriage as she was to return to the Milburn House while he toured the fair.^[27] McKinley toured the pavilions of other Western Hemisphere nations, attracting crowds and applause wherever he went. He presided over a luncheon at the New York State Building, and attended a by-invitation-only reception at the Government Building. He was heavily guarded by soldiers and police, but still tried to interact with the public, encouraging those who tried to run to him by noticing them, and bowing to a group of loud young popcorn sellers. He made an unscheduled stop for coffee at the Porto Rican Building before returning to the Milburn House in the late afternoon. Despite a Cortelyou warning to the organizers that she might not attend due to her delicate health, Ida McKinley was present at a luncheon in her honor by the Exposition's Board of Lady Managers, and after dinner, the President and First Lady returned to the fairgrounds, pausing at the Triumphal Bridge to watch the fair illuminated by electricity as the sun set. They then went by boat to the Life Saving Station to view the fireworks from there before returning to the Milburn House.^[28]

Czolgosz, gun in pocket, had arrived early at the fair, and had gotten quite close to the podium before McKinley arrived. He considered shooting the President during his speech, but felt he could not be certain of hitting his target; he was also being jostled by the crowd. Czolgosz had not yet made up his mind when McKinley concluded his speech and disappeared behind security guards.^[29] Nevertheless, he attempted to follow the President as he began his attended tour of the fair, but was thrust back by officers.^[30] Czolgosz saw no further chance at getting close to the President that day, and he returned to his $2/week rented room above a saloon.^[29][30]

On the morning of Friday, September 6, 1901, McKinley dressed formally as usual, then departed the Milburn House for a stroll through the neighborhood. The President nearly slipped away unguarded; when the police and soldiers noticed him leaving, they hurried after him. Czolgosz also rose early, reaching the Exposition gates at 8:30 am with the intent of lining up for the public reception at the Temple of Music, in time to see the President pass in his carriage en route to the train station for the visit to Niagara Falls.^[31] The McKinleys traveled by train to Lewiston, where they switched to trolleys to view the Niagara Gorge. When the party reached the municipality of Niagara Falls, they transferred to carriages to see the sights. The party drove halfway across the Honeymoon Bridge overlooking the Falls, though McKinley was careful not to enter Canada for reasons of protocol. It was a hot day, and Ida McKinley felt ill due to the heat; she was driven to the International Hotel to await her husband, who toured Goat Island before joining his wife for lunch. After smoking a cigar on the veranda, the President drove with his wife to the train which now awaited them nearby, and saw her settled there before touring the hydroelectric plant at the Falls. The train then returned to Buffalo so McKinley could attend the reception at the Temple of Music. Ida McKinley had originally intended to accompany her husband to the auditorium, but as she was not fully recovered, she decided to return to the Milburn House to rest. As the the time allotted for the reception had been pared down to ten minutes, the President did not expect to be separated from his wife for long. It was only 3:30; McKinley stopped for refreshments at the Mission Building before proceeding to the Temple of Music.^[32]

When given the opportunity to host a public reception for President McKinley, fair organizers chose to site it in the Temple of Music—Louis L. Babcock, grand marshal of the Exposition, regarded it as ideal for the purpose. The large auditorium was located close to the Esplanade, in the heart of the fair, and had doorways on each of its four sides. In addition to rows of chairs on the floor of the hall, it had spacious galleries. Babcock spent the morning of September 6 making the physical arrangements for the reception. Floor seating was removed to create a broad aisle, running from the east doors through which the public would be admitted, to where McKinley would stand. Once members of the public shook hands with McKinley, they would exit through the south doors. An American flag was draped behind McKinley, both to screen him from behind, and for decoration—several potted plants were arrayed around the President's place to create an attractive scene. In addition to its utility for other purposes, the ornate building was one of the architectural features of the fair.^[33]

Considerable arrangements had been made for the President's security. Exposition police were stationed at the doors; detectives from the Buffalo police guarded the aisle. In addition to McKinley's usual Secret Service agent, George Foster, two other agents had been assigned to the Buffalo trip because of Cortelyou's security concerns. Babcock was spooked by a joke at lunch in an Exposition restaurant that the President might be shot at the auditorium. He had arranged for a dozen artillerymen to attend the reception in full-dress uniform, intending to use them as decoration. Instead, he had them stand in the aisle with instructions to close on any suspicious-looking person who might approach the President. These men were not trained in police work, and served to crowd the area in front of the President and obstruct the views of the detectives and Secret Service. At such events, Foster usually stood just to the left and behind McKinley. However, Milburn wished to stand to McKinley's left, and Foster and another agent instead stood across the aisle from McKinley.^[34]

Through the afternoon, crowds had filled the floor outside the blocked-off aisle, and the galleries as well, wanting to see the President, even if they could not greet him. McKinley arrived on schedule, glanced at the arrangements, and walked to his place, where he stood with Milburn on his left and Cortelyou on his right. The pipe organ began to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" as McKinley ordered the greeters admitted. The police let them in, and McKinley prepared to perform the favorite part of his job. An experienced politician, McKinley could shake hands with 50 people a minute, gripping their hands first so as to both guide them past him quickly and prevent his fingers from being squeezed. Cortelyou anxiously watched the time; about halfway through the ten minutes allotted, he sent word to Babcock to have the doors closed when Cortelyou raised his hand. Seeing Cortelyou looking at his watch, Babcock moved towards the doors.^[35] The procession was interrupted when 12-year-old Myrtle Ledger of Spring Brook, New York, who was accompanied by her mother, asked McKinley for the red carnation he always wore on his lapel as a good-luck piece. The President gave it to her, then resumed work without his trademark charm. The Secret Service men looked suspiciously on a tall, swarthy man who appeared restless as he walked towards the President, but breathed a sigh of relief when he shook hands with McKinley without incident and began to move towards the exit. The usual rule that those who approached the President must do so with their hands open and empty was not being enforced, perhaps due to the heat of the day as several people were using handkerchiefs to wipe their brows; the next man to approach the President had his right hand wrapped in one, as if injured. Seeing this, McKinley reached for his left hand instead. As the two men's hands touched at 4:07 pm, Czolgosz shot McKinley twice in the abdomen with a gun concealed under the handkerchief.^[35][36]

As onlookers gazed in horror, and as McKinley lurched forward a step, Czolgosz prepared to take a third shot. He was prevented when James Parker, a black of part-Spanish descent from Georgia who had been behind Czolgosz in line, slammed into the assassin, reaching for the gun. He was only just ahead of one of the artillerymen and Buffalo detective John Geary. Czolgosz disappeared beneath a pile of men, some of whom were punching or hitting him with rifle butts. He was heard to say, "I done my duty."^[37][38] McKinley staggered backwards and to the right, but was prevented from falling by Cortelyou, Milburn, and Detective Geary, who guided him across some bunting to a chair. The President tried to convince Cortelyou he was not seriously injured, but blood was visible as he tried to expose the wound. Seeing the beating being taken by Czolgosz, he ordered it stopped. Czolgosz was dragged away, but not before being searched by Agent Foster. When Czolgosz kept turning his head to watch the President while being searched, Foster struck him to the ground with one punch.^[39][40]

After stopping the beating of Czolgosz, McKinley's next concern was for his wife, urging Cortelyou to take care how she was told of the shooting.^[41] The initial crowd reaction had been panic, and an attempt to flee the hall, which was frustrated by others surging inwards to see what had occurred.^[42] As McKinley was carried out on a stretcher to an electric ambulance, there was a moan from the crowd at the sight of McKinley's ashen face.^[43] Foster rode with him on the way to the fair's hospital. On the way there, McKinley felt in his clothing and came out with a metal object. "I believe that is a bullet."^[44] McKinley had been shot twice; one bullet had deflected off a button and only grazed him; the other had penetrated his abdomen.^[44]

The ambulance carrying McKinley reached the Exposition hospital at 4:25 pm. Although it usually dealt with the minor medical issues of fairgoers, the hospital did have an operating theatre. At the time of the shooting, no fully-qualified doctor was at the hospital, only nurses and interns.^[45] The best surgeon in the city (and the Exposition's medical director), Dr. Roswell Park was in Niagara Falls, performing a delicate neck operation. When interrupted during the procedure to be told he was needed in Buffalo, he responded that he could not leave, even for the President of the United States. He was then told who had been shot.^[46][47] The first physician to arrive at the hospital was Dr. Herman Mynter, whom the President had met briefly the previous day; the wounded McKinley (who had a good memory for faces) joked that he when he had met Mynter, he had not expected to need his professional services.^[48] As McKinley lay on the operating table, he stated of Czolgosz, "He didn't know, poor fellow, what he was doing. He couldn't have known."^[49] With Park unavailable and with the fading afternoon light the major source of illumination in the operating room, once another surgeon, Dr. Matthew D. Mann arrived, the decision was made to operate at once to try to remove the remaining bullet.^[47] Mynter had given McKinley an injection of morphine and strychnine to ease his pain; Mann (an experienced gynecologist without experience in abdominal wounds) administered ether to sedate McKinley as the wounded man murmured the Lord's Prayer.^[48]

For hundreds of years, abdominal gunshot wounds had meant death by gangrene or other infection, with doctors able to do little more than ease pain; only seventeen years previously, the first successful operation for such an injury had been performed.^[48] To better the lighting sunlight was reflected onto the wound by another physician; towards the end of the surgery, a better light was rigged. With McKinley in a weakened condition, Mann could do little probing of the wound to try to find the bullet; his work was complicated by the fact that the President was a heavyset man. He made an incision in the President's skin, removing a shred of cloth which was embedded in the flesh. He probed with his finger and hand, finding damage to the digestive system—the stomach displayed both an entry and exit wound. Mann sewed up both holes in the organ, but could not find the bullet itself; he concluded it had lodged in the President's back muscles. He later wrote, "A bullet once it ceases to move does little harm."^[50] A primitive X-ray machine was on display at the fair but was not used on McKinley; Mann later stated that its use might have disturbed the patient and done little good. He used black silk thread to stitch the incision and wound, without drainage, and covered the area with a bandage.^[51]. As the operation concluded, Dr. Park arrived from Niagara Falls; he was unwilling to interfere and at 5:20 McKinley was given another shot of painkiller and allowed to awaken. He was taken to the Milburn House by the electric ambulance.^[52] The First Lady had not been told of the President's shooting; once the surgery was complete, the presidential physician, Presley M. Rixey, gently told her what had occurred. Ida McKinley took the news calmly; she wrote in her diary, "Went to Niagra [sic] Falls this morning. My Dearest was receiving in a public hall on our return, when he was shot by a ... "^[53] Leech, in her biography of President McKinley, suggests that she could not write the word, "anarchist".^[54]

Within minutes of the shots, the news was conveyed around the world by telegraph wire, in time for the late newspaper editions in the US. In the era before radio, thousands stood in cities across the country outside newspaper offices, awaiting the latest bulletin from Buffalo. Fears that McKinley would not survive the day of his shooting were allayed by reassuring bulletins issued by Cortelyou based on information from the doctors. Large, threatening crowds assembled outside Buffalo police headquarters where Czolgosz was brought; word that he had admitted to being an anarchist led to attacks on his fellows: one was nearly lynched in Pittsburgh.^[55][56]

Contrary to Czolgosz's assertion that he had killed the President, McKinley not only was still alive, but seemed to be recovering. On Saturday, September 7, McKinley was relaxed and conversational. His wife was allowed to see him, and he asked Cortelyou, "How did they like my speech?"^[57] Meanwhile, Vice President Roosevelt (who had been on a Vermont vacation), much of the Cabinet, and Senator Hanna hurried to Buffalo. Cortelyou continued to issue encouraging bulletins. The President was permitted few visitors, and complained of loneliness. As the crisis seemed to have passed, dignitaries started to leave on September 9, confident of the President's recovery.^[58][59] Roosevelt left for a vacation in the Adirondack Mountains after expressing outrage that Czolgosz might serve only a few years under New York State law for attempted murder.^[60] (the maximum penalty for attempted murder in New York at that time was ten years.)^[61] Attorney General Philander Knox went to Washington, searching for a means to bring Czolgosz under federal law.^[59] Secretary of State John Hay had been closely associated with the two presidents to be assassinated: he had been Lincoln's secretary, and a close friend of James Garfield. He arrived on September 10th; met at the station by Babcock with an account of the President's recovery, Hay responded that the President would die.^[62]

McKinley biographer H. Wayne Morgan wrote of the week following the shooting:

His hearty constitution, everyone said, would see him through. The doctors seemed hopeful, even confident ... It is difficult to understand the cheer with which they viewed their patient. He was nearly sixty years old, overweight, and the wound itself had not been thoroughly cleaned or traced. Precautions against infections, admittedly difficult in 1901, were negligently handled.^[58]

According to McKinley biographer Margaret Leech, McKinley's apparent recovery "was merely the resistance of his strong body to the gangrene that was creeping along the bullet's track through the stomach, the pancreas, and one kidney".^[63] Another X-ray machine had been sent from New Jersey by its inventor, Thomas Edison. It was not used on the President; sources vary on why this was—Leech states that the machine, which she says was procured by Cortelyou and accompanied by a trained operator, was not used on orders of the doctors in charge of McKinley's case.^[62] Miller recounts that doctors attempted to test it on a man of about McKinley's size, but it proved to be missing a crucial part, much to Edison's embarrassment.^[64]

McKinley had been given nutritive enemas;^[58] on September 11, he took some broth. When it seemed to do him good, the following morning they allowed him toast, coffee, and chicken broth.^[63][65] His subsequent pain was diagnosed as indigestion; he was given purgatives and most doctors left after their evening consultation. In the early morning of September 13, McKinley suffered a collapse. Specialists were summoned; although at first some doctors hoped that he might survive with a weakened heart, by afternoon they knew the case was hopeless. As yet unknown to the doctors, gangrene was growing on the walls of his stomach and toxins were passing into his blood. McKinley drifted in and out of consciousness all day; when awake he was the model patient. By evening, McKinley too knew he was dying, "It is useless, gentlemen. I think we ought to have prayer.”^[63][66] His friends and family were admitted, and the First Lady sobbed over him, "I want to go, too. I want to go, too."^[67] Her husband replied, ""We are all going, we are all going. God's will be done, not ours" and with final strength put an arm around her.^[68] He may also have sung part of his favorite hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee"^[69], although other accounts have her singing it softly to him.^[68] Ida McKinley was led away, her place briefly taken by Senator Hanna. Morgan recounts their final encounter, "Sometime that terrible evening, Mark Hanna had approached the bedside, tears standing in his eyes, his hands and head shaking in disbelief that thirty years of friendship could end thus."^[70] When a tentative, formal greeting gained no coherent response, Hanna "cried out over the years of friendship, 'William, William, don't you know me?' "^[70]

At 2:15 am on Saturday, September 14, 1901, President McKinley died.^[70] Vice President Roosevelt, 12 miles (19 km) from the nearest telegraph or telephone in the Adirondack wilderness, had been notified of McKinley's collapse by a park ranger sent to find him, and was racing over the mountain roads by carriage to the nearest railroad station, where a special train was waiting to rush him to Buffalo. When he reached that station at dawn, he learned of McKinley's death.^[69]

An autopsy was performed later the morning of McKinley's death; Mann led a team of 14 physicians. They found that the bullet had passed through the stomach, then through the transverse colon, and had vanished through the peritoneum after damaging a corner of the left kidney. There was also damage to the adrenal glands and pancreas. Mytner believed the bullet lodged somewhere in the back muscles, though this is uncertain as the bullet was never found: after over three hours of probing, Ida McKinley demanded that the autopsy end. A death mask was taken, and private services took place in the Milburn House before the body was moved to Buffalo City Hall for the start of five days of national mourning. McKinley's body was solemnly taken from Buffalo to Washington, and then to Canton. On the day of the funeral, September 19, as McKinley was taken from his home on North Market Street for the last time, all activity ceased in the nation for five minutes. Trains came to a halt, telephone and telegraph service was stopped. Leech stated, "the people bowed in homage to the President who was gone".^[72][73]

Czolgosz went on trial for the murder of McKinley in state court in Buffalo on September 23, 1901, nine days after the late president died. Prosecution testimony took two days and consisted principally of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting. Defense attorney Loran Lewis and his co-counsel called no witnesses, which Lewis in his closing argument attributed to Czolgosz's refusal to cooperate with them. In his 27-minute address to the jury, Lewis took pains to praise President McKinley; Miller notes that the address was more calculated to defend the attorney's "place in the community, rather than an effort to spare his client the electric chair".^[74] After a bare half hour of deliberations, the jury convicted Czolgosz; he was subsequently sentenced to death and was executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901. Acid was placed in the casket to dissolve his body, before burial in the prison graveyard.^[75][76]

After McKinley's murder, newspaper editorials across the country heavily criticized the lack of protection afforded to American presidents. Though it still lacked any legislative mandate, by 1902, the Secret Service was protecting President Roosevelt full-time. This did not, however, settle the debate. Some in Congress recommended the United States Army be charged with protecting the President.^[77] Not until 1906 did Congress pass legislation officially designating the Secret Service as the agency in charge of presidential security.^[78]

The aftermath of the assassination saw a backlash against anarchists; the Buffalo police announced soon after the shooting that they believed Czolgosz had not acted alone, and a number of anarchists were arrested on suspicion of involvement in McKinley's shooting.^[79] Czolgosz mentioned his contacts with Goldman during the interrogation; authorities arrested her family to give her incentive to turn herself in, which she did on September 10. She spent nearly three weeks in jail; all arrestees thought to have conspired with Czolgosz were released without charge.^[55][80] Anarchist colonies and newspapers were attacked by vigilantes; although no one was killed, there was considerable property damage.^[81] Anti-anarchist laws passed in the wake of the assassination lay dormant for some years before being used during and after World War I against non-citizens whose views were deemed a threat. Among those deported, in December 1919, was Goldman, who had never obtained US citizenship.^[82]

Leech believed the nation marked a transition at McKinley's death:

The new President was in office. The republic still lived. Yet, for a space, Americans turned from the challenge and the strangeness of the future. Entranced and regretful, they remembered McKinley's firm, unquestioning faith, his kindly, frock-coated dignity; his accessibility and dedication to the people: the federal simplicity that would not be seen again in Washington ... The nation felt another leadership, nervous, aggressive, and strong. Under command of a bold young captain, America set sail on the stormy voyage of the twentieth century.^[83]

Books

• Bumgarner, Jeffrey (2006). Federal Agents: The Growth of Federal Law Enforcement in America. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-275-98953-8.

• Horner, William T. (2010). Ohio's Kingmaker: Mark Hanna, Man and Myth. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1894-9.
• Johns, A. Wesley (1970). The Man Who Shot McKinley. South Brunswick, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes.
• Leech, Margaret (1959). In the Days of McKinley. New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 456809.
• McElroy, Richard L. (1996). William McKinley and Our America (softcover ed.). Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9634712-1-5.
• Miller, Scott (2011). The President and the Assassin. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6752-7.
• Morgan, H. Wayne (2003). William McKinley and His America (revised ed.). Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-765-1.
• Olcott, Charles (1916). The Life of William McKinley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Rauchway, Eric (2004). Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-8090-1638-9.

Other sources

• Fine, Sidney (1955). "Anarchism and the assassination of McKinley". The American Historical Review. 60 (4). Washington, D.C.: American Historical Society: 777–799. JSTOR 1844919. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Parker, LeRoy (1901). "The trial of the anarchist murderer Czolgosz". Yale Law Journal. 11 (2). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University: 80–94. doi:10.2307/783764. JSTOR 783764. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• "An interview with the President's nurses". The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review. 27 (4). New York: American Nurses Association: 222–223. 1901. Retrieved March 13, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Comprehensive collection of primary source materials on the McKinley assassination
• "Lights out in the City of Light"; Anarchy and Assassination at the Pan-American Exposition
• McKinley assassination at the Crime Library
• Film archive of the Pan American Exposition, at the Library of Congress. Include clips of McKinley's funeral train, McKinley at the Exposition reviewing the troops on Sept. 5, and the crowd outside the Temple of Music after the shooting.
• Booknotes interview with Eric Rauchway on Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America, September 21, 2003.
• Q&A interview with Scott Miller on The President and the Assassin, June 22, 2011

42°56′19″N 78°52′25″W / 42.93861°N 78.87361°W / 42.93861; -78.87361

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