Leon Czolgosz
L. Vernon Briggs/Wikimedia Commons
Leon Czolgosz, the man who assassinated William McKinley, was born in 1873 and raised in Detroit, Michigan by his Polish immigrant parents. Starting in his teens, Czolgosz began working in factories, and by the time he was 17, he was working at the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. It was while working there, that Czolgosz first began to truly see the battle between factory workers and factory owners.
During the Panic of 1893, a severe economic depression, the Rolling Mill factory closed down temporarily, and the owners began planning to reduce workers’ pay, causing the workers to then go on strike.
This was the first time that Czolgosz had seen collectivized action on the part of workers, as well as the violent response on the part of police and factory owners, and he was inspired by it.
Czolgosz then joined a moderate workman’s socialist organization called the Golden Eagle Society but quickly moved on to a much more radical socialist organization known as the Sila Club. It was there that he began to learn about anarchism, and he soon grew infatuated with the ideology.
Wikimedia CommonsThe mugshot of Leon Csolgosz following the assassination of President William McKinley.
Unemployed, Czolgosz moved in with his father and stepmother in Warrensville, Ohio. There he became reclusive, staying in the house and reading books on anarchism. During this time, he attended a rally by famed anarchist Emma Goldman in Cleveland.
Czolgosz attempted multiple times to insert himself into anarchist society and organizations, but his social awkwardness, his evasiveness, and his blunt inquiries about secret societies made many wary to deal with him.
The radical Free Society newspaper even put out a warning to avoid a person with the description of Czolgosz, incorrectly believing him to be a government spy.
Nevertheless, Czolgosz continued to believe that the rich grew wealthy by exploiting the poor and that he needed to disrupt this world order.
Such a disruption came in 1900, when King Umberto I of Italy was killed by an anarchist. This event was pivotal to Czolgosz, and a psychologist who examined him later said that, at the time, Czolgosz “spent a great deal of time reading the account of the murder of King Umberto…The paper was very precious to him as he took it to bed every night.”
Soon, this crime inspired Czolgosz to commit an assassination of his own. He traveled all the way to Buffalo, New York, the soon-to-be site of the Pan-American Exposition, which President William McKinley was to attend, and began renting a room in a hotel there.
Wikimedia CommonsThe site of the assassination (marked with an “X”) inside the Temple of Music. 1901.
On September 6, Czolgosz attended the exposition with a concealed .32 caliber Iver Johnson “Safety Automatic” revolver. Once inside, he made his way to the Temple of Music, a concert hall built for the exposition.
There, McKinley was greeting an admiring crowd, and shaking the hands of any man who came up to him. It was then that Czolgosz took his opportunity.
He pushed to the front of the line to stand directly in front of the president. Czolgosz had wrapped his right hands in a rag to hide the weapon, so McKinley reached to shake his left hand. When the two men touched hands, Czolgosz fired twice into the president’s abdomen.
He almost shot a third time before he was tackled by a member of the crowd. The crowd began to pummel Czolgosz, until McKinley himself called out for them to stop.
McKinley died eight days later from gangrene that developed as a result of his gunshot wounds.
Czolgosz was tried for murder nine days later, and after being found guilty, was executed via electric chair on October 29, 1901.
