Assassination of William McKinley

Assassination of William McKinley
Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a concealed revolver. Clipping of a wash drawing by T. Dart Walker.
Location	Temple of Music, on grounds of Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York
Coordinates	42°56′19″N 78°52′25″W / 42.9386859°N 78.8735908°W / 42.9386859; -78.8735908Coordinates: 42°56′19″N 78°52′25″W / 42.9386859°N 78.8735908°W / 42.9386859; -78.8735908
Date	September 6, 1901 4:07 p.m.
Target	William McKinley (died September 14, 1901, of his wounds)
Weapons	.32 caliber Iver Johnson revolver
Perpetrator	Leon Czolgosz (electrocuted October 29, 1901)
Motive	To advance anarchism

William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was assassinated on September 6, 1901 inside the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He was shaking hands with the public when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot him twice in the abdomen. McKinley died eight days later on September 14 of gangrene caused by the gunshot wounds. He was the third American president to have been assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.

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

Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic Panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism, a political philosophy adhered to by recent killers of foreign leaders. Regarding McKinley as a symbol of oppression, Czolgosz was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. Unable to get near the President during the presidential visit earlier, Czolgosz shot McKinley twice as the President reached to shake his hand in the reception line at the temple. One bullet grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found.

McKinley initially appeared to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse on September 13 as his wounds became , and died early the next morning; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him. After McKinley's assassination, for which Czolgosz was sentenced to death in the electric chair, Congress passed legislation to officially charge the Secret Service with the responsibility for protecting the President.