The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt Part 1

The Attempted a.s.sa.s.sination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt.

by Oliver Remey and Henry Cochems and Wheeler Bloodgood.

PREFACE.

At 8:10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 14, 1912, a shot was fired the echo of which swept around the entire world in thirty minutes.

An insane man attempted to end the life of the only living ex-president of the United States and the best known American.

The bullet failed of its mission.

Col. Theodore Roosevelt, carrying the leaden missile intended as a pellet of death in his right side, has recovered. He is spared for many more years of active service for his country.

John Flammang Schrank, the mad man who fired the shot, is in the Northern Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh, Wis., p.r.o.nounced by a commission of five alienists a paranoiac. If he recovers he will face trial for a.s.sault with intent to kill.

This little book presents an accurate story of the attempt upon the life of the ex-president. The aim of those who present it is that, being an accurate narrative, it shall be a contribution to the history of the United States.

This book is written, compiled and edited by Henry F. Cochems, Chairman of the national speakers' bureau of the Progressive party during the 1912 campaign, and who was with Col. Roosevelt in the automobile when the ex-president was shot, Wheeler P. Bloodgood, Wisconsin representative of the National Progressive committee, and Oliver E.

Remey, city editor of the Milwaukee Free Press, who necessarily followed all incidents of the shooting closely.

The story told is an historical narrative in the preparation of which accuracy never has been lost sight of.

CHRONOLOGY.

October 14, 1912--At 8:10 o'clock P.M., John Flammang Schrank, of New York, a paranoiac, shoots ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in the right side with a 38-caliber bullet as the ex-President is standing in an automobile in front of Hotel Gilpatrick, Milwaukee. Schrank is immediately arrested, after a struggle to recover the revolver and protect him from violence. Col. Roosevelt, bleeding from his wound, is driven to the Auditorium, Milwaukee, and speaks to an audience of 9,000 for eighty minutes. Immediately after his speech he is taken to the Johnston Emergency hospital, Milwaukee, where his wound is dressed. At 12:30 o'clock he is taken on a special train to Chicago, then to Mercy hospital.

October 15, 1912--Schrank is arraigned in District court, Milwaukee, and admits having fired the shot. He is bound over to Munic.i.p.al court for preliminary hearing.

October 18, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt pa.s.ses crisis in Mercy hospital, Chicago.

October 21, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt leaves Chicago for his home at Oyster Bay, R.I.

October 22, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt reaches home after a trip not seriously impairing his condition.

October 26, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt takes first walk out of doors.

October 27, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt celebrates his fifty-fourth birthday.

October 30, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt speaks to an audience of 16,000 in Madison Square Garden, New York, over 30,000 having been turned away. He is given an ovation lasting forty-five minutes.

November 1, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt again speaks to an audience filling Madison Square Garden. But for his request that it cease so that he could speak, the ovation would have exceeded that of October 30.

November 3, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt makes his last campaign speech at Oyster Bay, R.I.

November 5, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt votes at Oyster Bay, R.I.

November 12, 1912--John Flammang Schrank pleads guilty to a.s.sault with intent to murder before Judge August C. Backus in Munic.i.p.al court, Milwaukee. Judge Backus appoints a commission of five Milwaukee alienists to determine, as officers of the court, Schrank's sanity.

November 14, 1912--The sanity commission begins examinations of Schrank.

November 22, 1912--The sanity commission reports to Judge A. C. Backus in Munic.i.p.al court, Milwaukee, that Schrank is insane and was insane at the time he shot ex-President Roosevelt. Schrank is committed to the Northern Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh, Wis. Judge Backus in making the commitment orders that in the event of recovery Schrank shall face trial on the charge of a.s.sault with intent to kill.

November 25, 1912--Schrank is taken to the Northern Hospital for the Insane, Oshkosh, Wis., by deputies from the office of the sheriff of Milwaukee county.

CHAPTER I.

THE SHOT IS FIRED.

RELATED BY HENRY F. COCHEMS AFTER THE SHOOTING.

At 8:10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 14, 1912, an attempt was made to a.s.sa.s.sinate Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in the city of Milwaukee.

Col. Roosevelt had dined at the Hotel Gilpatrick with the immediate members of his traveling party. The time having arrived to leave for the Auditorium, where he was due to speak, he left his quarters, and, emerging from the front of the hotel, crossing the walk, stepped into a waiting automobile.

Instantly that he appeared a wild acclaim of applause and welcome greeted him. He settled in his seat, but, responsive to the persistent roar of the crowd, which extended in dense ma.s.ses for over a block in every direction, he rose in acknowledgement, raising his hat in salute.

At this instant there cracked out the vicious report of a pistol shot, the flash of the gun showing that the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin had fired from a distance of only four or five feet.

Instantly there was a wild panic and confusion. Elbert E. Martin, one of Col. Roosevelt's stenographers, a powerful athlete and ex-football player, leaped across the machine and bore the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin to the ground. At the same moment Capt. A. O. Girard, a former Rough Rider and bodyguard of the ex-President, and several policemen were upon him.

Col. Roosevelt's knees bent just a trifle, and his right hand reached forward on the door of the car tonneau. Then he straightened himself and reached back against the upholstered seat, but in the same instant he straightened himself, he again raised his hat, a rea.s.suring smile upon his face, apparently the coolest and least excited of any one in the frenzied mob, who crowding in upon the man who fired the shot, continued to call out:

"Kill him, kill him."

I had stepped into the car beside Col. Roosevelt, about to take my seat when the shot was fired. Throwing my arm about the Colonel's waist, I asked him if he had been hit, and after Col. Roosevelt saying in an aside, "He pinked me, Harry," called out to those who were wildly tearing at the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin:

"Don't hurt him; bring him to me here!"

The sharp military tone of command was heard in the midst of the general uproar, and Martin, Girard and the policemen dragged Schrank toward where Mr. Roosevelt stood. Arriving at the side of the car, the revolver, grasped by three or four hands of men struggling for possession, was plainly visible, and I succeeded in grasping the barrel of the revolver, and finally in getting it from the possession of a detective. Mr. Martin says that Schrank still had his hands on the revolver at that time. The Colonel then said:

"Officers, take charge of him, and see that there is no violence done to him."

The crowd had quickly cleared from in front of the automobile, and we drove through, Col. Roosevelt waving a hand, the crowd now half-hysterical with frenzied excitement.

After rounding the corner I drew the revolver from my overcoat pocket and saw that it was a 38-caliber long which had been fired. As the Colonel looked at the revolver he said:

"A 38-Colt has an ugly drive."

Mr. McGrath, one of the Colonel's secretaries riding at his right side, said:

"Why, Colonel, you have a hole in your overcoat. He has shot you."