Foreign Language Press Service

Mckinley Assassination The Murderer Shot Him Twice and Fatally Wounded the President His Name Is Leon Czolgosz

Narod Polski, Sept. 11, 1901

Friday, the sixth, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, at the exposition in the Temple of Music, where a reception was to be held, an anarchist shot the President twice, immediately after the greeting of the President by the assembled guests.

A man of short stature came close to the President and extended his left hand, his right hand was covered with a handkerchief; hidden under it he carried a revolver. Giving his left hand to the President he pressed the revolver,hidden in his right hand, to the President's breast and shot twice. The first bullet shattered the President's breast; the second penetrated the intestines and pierced his stomach. The President fell forward and said, "I think I am shot, God forgive him." As he was falling his private secretary, Cortelyou, and Milburn, chairman of the exposition, caught him.

2

There was a terrible panic among the 20,000 people attending the exposition. Women fainted and the crowd quickly caught the murderer and would have torn him to shreds were it not for the intervention of the police, who with great difficulty extricated the maniac from the hands of the angry mob which demanded the right to lynch him.

The maniac was taken to a separate room in the Temple of Music, from whence he was taken to the police station under heavy guard. The surgeons removed the bullet from the breast of the President and sewed up the wounds in the stomach.

The maniac who committed this horrible crime confessed to the police that he is an anarchist, had no accomplices and that he fulfilled his duty. When they asked his name he replied, "Fred Nieman." Later he confessed that he is a Pole, his name is Leon Czolgosz, lives in Cleveland, where also live his brothers and sisters.

His father owns a farm eight miles from Cleveland. Czolgosz arrived in Buffalo a week before the exposition and stayed at Novak's Hotel on Broadway Avenue, in 3room No. 8.

It is inexpressively sad that the would-be assassin is a Pole. It is the first deed of that kind by a Pole. There is no Polish name written in our history as a regicide. He is the first, and it is the more sorrowful for us that the would-be assassin is a Pole whose countrymen are so hospitably received in free America. Poles have nothing in common with anarchists, and have always condemned that cursed movement as contrary to our faith and a healthy human mind. We feel the pain which this sad occurrence caused, not only in America, but throughout the whole world. All people are mourning, and it is caused by a maniac who is of our nationality.

Giving expression to the great sorrow this attack has caused, the Polish Roman-Catholic Union, in the name of the organization, sent condolences Saturday morning to private secretary Cortelyou.

Reprinting from American newspapers: Czolgosz is a Pole, we cannot believe it.

4

It does not seem possible that a Pole would raise his hand against a crowned head. A Pole has never committed such a murder and never will. A well-known anarchist of New York, when informed that Czolgosz is a Pole, said, "What a Pole? Poland has no anarchists. It is a Catholic country." A local paper, The Daily News, assures us that the plot to murder the President was hatched in Chicago. The murderer was in our city the early part of July, and here conspired with anarchist chiefs. This coincides with Leon Czolgosz's confession that he committed the act of murder under the influence of Emma Goldman's teachings.

The police arrested twelve anarchists last Saturday, and are keeping them in the City Hall under heavy guard. Latest telegrams inform us that Czolgosz was born in Cleveland and attended the public elementary school. On being graduated, he roamed from city to city. As he received no religious training and did not associate with Poles, only with the Jewish Goldman, traveled and imbibed her anarchistic religion, we should not regard him as a Pole in the true sense of that word. Therefore, to acknowledge the murderer as our countryman, and for that reason to publicly express our sorrow, we believe unnecessary and damaging 5to our good reputation. If we were to acknowledge every Pole who commits some stuped act, we would be considered as wild Mongolians.

As we are going to press, the latest telegram informs us that the Honorable President will survive; pulse and temperature are normal. Only the President's wife is allowed by the doctors to see the patient, and only for a short time.

Czolgosz, in jail, cynically stated that he is not sorry for his deed and is only sorry that he did not kill the President. From all parts of the world telegrams are received, among them one from the Pope expressing condolences.

FLPS index card