Assassination in 1912
In September TR campaigns across the country on a mammoth speaking tour through the Midwest out to Washington and Oregon and then down into California.
October 2nd he’s back at Sagamore Hill for 5 days and then on the 7th he’s off to New Orleans, Charleston, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Evansville, Indianapolis, Chicago and by Monday, October 14, 1912 he was in Milwaukee. That night he had dinner at the Gilpatrick Hotel with plans to deliver a speech at the Milwaukee Auditorium.
TR was being tracked by 36 year old John Flammang Schrank who for part of the time traveled under the name Walter Roos. He followed Roosevelt for 24 days, but there were complications that prevented him from getting access to Roosevelt. He said he was within 10 ft of Roosevelt in Chattanooga, but lost his nerve.
Schrank learned that while in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Roosevelt planned to go to the Gilpatrick Hotel at 223 Third Street.
Shrank waited across the street at Herman Rollfink's saloon. He began drinking beer and told the bartender he was a journalist.
Schrank went to the Gilpatrick at 5:45 pm and stood among a crowd that gathered. TR arrived and went to his suite to rest and then had dinner before his speech.
At 7:00 pm Schrank went back to the saloon across the street and waited. There was a band at Rollfink's saloon and Schrank requested that they play the “Star Spangled Banner.” He danced while they played the song.
The bartender Paul Thume said Schrank bought each of the musicians a drink and right before he left he bought everyone a drink.
At around 8:00 pm Schrank crossed the street and blended in with the crowd to wait for Roosevelt to emerge.
Roosevelt left the Gilpatrick Hotel at 8:10 pm and climbed into a waiting convertible.
He initially sat down, but as the crowd began to cheer Roosevelt stood up and raised his hat to acknowledge them.
Schrank pushed through the crowd and aimed his pistol at Roosevelt's chest. He shot Roosevelt at point blank range. After the first shot, he was ready to fire again when he was then tackled by TR’s stenographer and former football player Elbert E. Martin. Martin wrested the gun away.
TR was 53 years old, 5’9” and around 220bs. The bullet went through his overcoat, metal eyeglass case, 50 page speech folded in half, heavy suspenders and lodged in a rib 4 inches from his heart.
Henry Cochems, the Chairman of the Progressive Party Speaker’s Bureau, asked TR if he had been shot. TR said “he pinked me Harry.” TR coughed and didn't taste any blood. In the army they told you to cough and if you don't taste blood there's a good chance you hadn't been fatally gut shot.
Roosevelt remained calm as the crowd began to call for Schrank's lynching. Roosevelt asked them to stop. “Don’t hurt him. Bring him to me.” Standing in front of him TR cupped Schrank's face and asked, “why did you do that?” When Schrank didn’t respond he told the officers to “take charge of him and see there’s no harm done to him.”
He’s given the Colt pistol and remarks, “a .38 Colt has an ugly drive.” People pointed to the bullet hole in his coat he said,, “I know it.” With TR is Dr. Scurry Terrell who is a throat doctor and tells TR not to deliver his speech. Roosevelt ignores Terrell and decides to go to the Milwaukee Auditorium and deliver his speech.
He takes out a handkerchief and covers the wound and goes off to deliver his speech. Henry Cochems introduced TR and tells the audience he’s been shot.
TR tells the crowd, “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot….. , "The bullet went in here–I will show you." He then opened his vest and showed the bloody stain which had spread from his right breast to his waist.
He then shouts to the audience, “‘but it takes more than that to down a Bull moose.” As he read the speech he dropped pages on the floor showing the blood stains and the bullet holes in each page.
He speaks for 84 minutes before he is eventually taken to Johnston Hospital (John Johnston donated the property for the hospital.) TR sees Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood. He has a dime size bullet hole in his chest. After examination Bloodgood realized the bullet had lodged in a rib about 4 inches from his heart and decides TR should be moved to Chicago’s Mercy Hospital where doctors there were better equipped to treat the wound, or remove the bullet.
Schrank was found with a letter claiming McKinley visited him in a dream and named Roosevelt was the man who killed him. He was found insane, unfit for trial.
He is committed to the Central State Hospital for the insane in Whaupin, Wisconsin and lives there until his death in 1943 in FDR’s 3rd year of his 3rd term. He will become a cadaver at a Chicago Medical School.
The bullet remained in TR for the balance of his life. If you visit the grave there are 206 bones and one .38 caliber slug.
On the night of the assassination attempt Edith was attending a play in NYC with cousin Laura Roosevelt when she got the news from Laura’s son who was working in the campaign in NYC.
Edith went to the Progressive Party Headquarters in the Hotel Manhattan. The first report said he wasn’t shot. The next report said it was a minor flesh wound and finally at around midnight Edith receives the news he was shot but was doing fine resting in the hospital. She receives a telegram from TR saying “it’s minor no more dangerous than when the kids get a scrap playing outside.” She goes to Chicago and sleeps there for 5 days as TR recovers before they return home. Luckily the wound did not get infected.
