Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Assassination of President William McKinley

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

On August 31, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, the President of the United States, William McKinley was shot twice in the torso. Seven days later, he passed away due to an infection. For the third time in only 36 years, a US president had been assassinated. Yet, few people remember this event, or even the president himself. Learn more about the assassination of President William McKinley on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 6th, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, the president of the United States, William McKinley, was shot twice in the torso. Seven days later, he passed away due to an infection. For the third time in only 36 years, a U.S. president had been assassinated. Yet, few people remember this event, or even the president himself. Learn more about the assassination of President William McKinley on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past? We're wrong. ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world

now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by Audible.com. My audiobook recommendation today is the president and the assassin. McKinley, terror and empire at the dawn of the American century by Scott Miller. In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would become known as the American century. The president and the assassin is the story of the momentous years leading up to that event, and of the very different paths that brought together two of the most compelling figures of

the era, President William McKinley and Leon Cholgash, the anarchist who murdered him. Scott Miller chronicles how these two men, each pursuing what they considered to be right and honorable, collided in violence in 1901. You can get a free one-month trial to Audible and two free audiobooks by going to audibletrial.com slash everything everywhere, or by clicking on the link in the show notes. William McKinley isn't one of the better-known U.S. presidents, which is sort of For starters, his election in 1896 ushered in an entire reordering of the political system in the United States, as I mentioned in my previous episode on America's six political eras. He won two presidential elections, and most presidents who've won two terms usually are the ones who stand out in history. Finally, he was assassinated, and the presidents who were killed in office, like Kennedy and Lincoln, tend to be deified and remembered.

The McKinley administration ushered in many significant changes to the United States government. Under McKinley, the U.S. entered into the Spanish-American War, its first foreign war. The McKinley administration also began an ill-fated attempt at trying to become a colonial power, gaining territories outside of North America for the first time. Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Philippines all became U.S. territories under William McKinley. While there weren't any opinion polls at the time, by any measure, McKinley was a popular president. He won two presidential elections by comfortable margins, and even, had to publicly announce that he wasn't going to seek a third term.

He was first elected in 1896 when the country was in the middle of depression after the panic of 1893, and the economy in the country was on the rebound. The other player in this story is the assassin, Leon Cholgash. Cholgosh was born in Michigan to a Polish family of eight children and grew up in Detroit. His education was limited as he went to work in a glass factory in Pennsylvania in his teens, and later went to work at a steel factory in Cleveland. When the panic of 1893 struck, which absolutely is going to be the subject of a future episode, he, along with others at the steel mill, was laid off and then asked to accept lower wages.

The company went on strike, which began the political awakening of Leon Cholgosh. He started by attending meetings of moderate socialist groups, and then gravitated towards more extreme groups before finally winding up as an anarchist. Cholgosh was a socially awkward person. He never dated anyone, had few friends, and would, like all good assassins, be described as a loner. He began approaching anarchist leaders around the Midwest and began asking very direct questions about their organization in a way that made him seem rather shady.

Some groups thought he was a spy. In July of 1901, he attended a speech by noted anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and then later went to her house to talk to her. He became inspired by the assassination of King Umberto I of Italy, who a year earlier was assassinated by an anarchist. Cholgosh figured that he would do his part for the cause by killing the President of the United States of America. His plan was pretty straightforward. The president was going to be speaking at the Pan American Exposition, which was being held in Buffalo, New York.

That was the place he was going to commit the act. On October 31st, 1901, he arrived in Buffalo and rented a room. On September 2nd, he purchased a 32-caliber Ivor Johnson safety automatic revolver, the exact same model used to kill King Umberto I in Italy. On September 6th, he went to go find McKinley. McKinley was in a receiving line in the Temple of Music, which was the concert hall at the exposition. It was a temporary structure that was only intended to be used for the duration of the fair.

Cholgash waited in the line to meet the president until it was his turn. When he got to the front of the line, the president extended his hand to him. Cholgash, however, pulled out his gun and fired two shots, point blank at the president. One of the shots actually hit a button on the president's jacket. The other went directly into the president's stomach. The wound was not necessarily fatal. If a similar gunshot wound happened today, odds are the victim would live. The man behind Cholgosh in line was James Parker, a man who had been born into slavery in Georgia.

Parker punched Cholgots in the neck and wrestled him to the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand before he could fire a third shot. Nearby police and soldiers then piled on Cholgash and began beating him senselessly. It was McKinley himself who ordered them to stop beating Cholgosh. He told them, quote, go easy on him, boys. Parker gave an account of the incident to local papers. He said, quote, I heard the shots. I did what every citizen of the country should have done. I am told that I broke his nose.

I wish it had been his neck. I'm sorry I did not see him four seconds before. I don't say that I would have thrown myself before the bullets. But I do say that the life of the head of this country is worth more than that of an ordinary citizen. and I should have caught the bullets in my body rather than let the president should get them." The exposition had its own hospital, and that was where the president was taken. However, there was no doctor on the premises at the time. The lead surgeon was in Niagara Falls and was in the middle of a surgery when he was notified.

Eventually, two doctors arrived, but they weren't necessarily trained to treat abdominal wounds. One was a gynecologist. They decided to go into surgery immediately, as the operating room was lit by natural light, and the sun was starting to set. The surgeons couldn't find the bullet. The president's stomach had both an entry and an exit wound, but they didn't have the tools to properly work on the president. There was an experimental x-ray at the exposition

which could have been used to help the doctors find the bullet, but they never thought to use it. Cholgash was immediately taken to a local police station where he was held under arrest. Crowds gathered outside the police station, and when people found out that he was an anarchist, there were attacks on other anarchists around the country. At first, it appeared that the president might survive.

The day after, on September 7th, he appeared to be doing better. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was in Vermont and rushed to Buffalo to attend to the president. By September 9th, he had actually left again, confident that the president would make a full recovery. On September 10th, Secretary of State John Hay arrived. Hay had been a personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln and was a personal friend of James Garfield, the two previously assassinated presidents. McKinley's improving condition, however, was deceptive. Gangrene was spreading in his body, and the affection got worse and worse.

At 2.15 a.m. on Saturday, September 14th, 1901, President William McKinley passed away. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was returning to Buffalo. He learned of the news when he arrived at a train station in North Creek, New York, where there was a special train waiting to take him to Buffalo. When he arrived in Buffalo, the decision was made to take the oath of office immediately. As for Cholgash, he was indicted by a grand jury just two days after the president's death. He was assigned two defense attorneys, but he refused to speak to either of them as he viewed them as being part of the system he was trying to fight. He did, however, speak freely and often with his prison guards.

The trial began on September 23rd, just nine days after McKinley's death. Cholgash entered a plea of guilty, but the judge recorded it as not guilty. The defense had no witnesses, and because Cholgash refused to cooperate, he really had no defense. at all. The case was open and shut, as there were multiple witnesses, a murder weapon, and Cholgosh never really challenged the fact that he did it. The jury found him guilty after only 30 minutes, and that was only because they took the time to review the evidence. He was sentenced to death by electric chair. Cholgash did not seek an appeal and was resigned to his fate. He was executed on October 29th, just 45 days after William McKinley died. His last words were,

quote, I killed the president because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father, unquote. His body was drenched with sulfuric acid before burial to facilitate the dissolution of his corpse. The aftermath of the assassination had several repercussions. After three presidential assassinations in just 36 years, steps were finally taken to improve presidential security. agents of the Treasury Department, known as the Secret Service,

were immediately assigned by Congress to provide protection for the president, and that became permanent in 1902. The anarchist movement became divided on the question of Leon Cholgash. Some thought the assassination a good thing, and others thought it hurt the movement more than it helped. McKinley was buried in Canton, Ohio, in one of the largest tombs dedicated to any president of the United States. James Parker, the man who tackled Kolgash, refused to take any money,

but did go on a speaking tour after the assassination where he addressed sold-out crowds. He wanted to become a salesman for a magazine dedicated towards Pullman Porter's and other African-American hotel employees. The location of the assassination was a temporary structure, so it was eventually torn down. Today, the location is marked by a very small stone in the median of a very unassuming residential street. Today, the presidency and assassination of William McKinley has mostly been forgotten. nonetheless, at least in 1901, it was the single biggest story in the United States. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com.

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