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[Illustration: THEODORE ROOSEVELT].
THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
_of_
EX-PRESIDENT
Theodore Roosevelt
Written, Compiled, and Edited by
OLIVER E. REMEY
HENRY F. COCHEMS
WHEELER P. BLOODGOOD
Published by
THE PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Copyright.
1912,
by O. E. Remey, Milwaukee
LIBRARY EDITION.
A Library Edition of this book is in the hands of the printers and will
be issued shortly.
This edition will be bound in hard cover. The volume will be neatly
bound and suitable for public and private libraries.
The Library Edition will be limited in number.
Those who desire a copy will be mailed a copy as soon as the edition
is off the press, if they will send one dollar to the Progressive
Publishing Company of Milwaukee, Wis., Room 600 Caswell Block,
Milwaukee.
The demand for this edition is rapidly exhausting it.
THIS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
IS DEDICATED TO
EX-PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT
THE GREATEST AMERICAN
OF HIS TIME.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece
Shirts Worn by the Ex-President 18
Page of Ex-President's Manuscript 24
X-Ray Photograph Showing Bullet 32
John Flammang Schrank 40
Page One of Schrank's Letter 50
Page Two of Schrank's Letter 60
Capt. A. O. Girard 70
Elbert E. Martin 80
Automobile in Which Ex-President Roosevelt Was Shot 90
Johnston Emergency Hospital 100
Judge August C. Backus 110
District Attorney Winifred C. Zabel 120
Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood 130
Dr. R. G. Sayle 140
John T. Janssen, Chief of Police 150
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 160
Members of Sanity Commission 170
Hotel Gilpatrick 180
Schrank in County Jail 190
Henry F. Cochems 199
James G. Flanders, Schrank's Attorney 236
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Preface 9
Chronology 11
Chapter I. The Shot is Fired 15
Chapter II. Speaks to Great Audience 25
Chapter III. Roosevelt in the Emergency 51
Chapter IV. Careful of Collar Buttons 57
Chapter V. Arrival at Mercy Hospital 64
Chapter VI. Gets Back into Campaign 74
Chapter VII. Back at Sagamore Hill 82
Chapter VIII. Arrest, Appears in Court 91
Chapter IX. Appears in Municipal Court 99
Chapter X. Schrank Declared Insane 105
Chapter XI. Shows Repentance But Once 112
Chapter XII. Schrank Before Chief 117
Chapter XIII. Witnesses of the Shooting 132
Chapter XIV. A Second Examination 153
Chapter XV. Report of the Alienists 192
Chapter XVI. Finding of the Alienists 195
Chapter XVII. Schrank Describes Shooting 202
Chapter XVIII. Conclusion of Commission 208
Chapter XIX. Schrank Discusses Visions 210
Chapter XX. Schrank's Defense 213
Chapter XXI. Schrank's Unwritten Laws 224
Chapter XXII. Unusual Court Precedent 235
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., pronounced by a
commission of five alienists a paranoiac. If he recovers he will face
trial for assault 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 Municipal court
for preliminary hearing.
October 18, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt passes 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 assault with
intent to murder before Judge August C. Backus in Municipal 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 Municipal 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 assault 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
assassinate 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 masses 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 assassin 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 assassin 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 reassuring 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 assassin:
"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."
The Colonel said:
"I know it," and opened his overcoat, which disclosed his white linen,
shirt, coat and vest saturated with blood. We all instantly implored
and pleaded with the Colonel to drive with the automobile to a
hospital, but he turned to me with a characteristic smile and said:
"I know I am good now; I don't know how long I may be. This may be my
last talk in this cause to our people, and while I am good I am going
to drive to the hall and deliver my speech."
[Illustration: Shirts Worn by Ex-President Roosevelt Showing Extent
of Bleeding from Wound While He Spoke to 9,000 People.]
By the time we had arrived at the hall the shock had brought a pallor
to his face. On alighting he walked firmly to the large waiting room in
the back of the Auditorium stage, and there Doctors Sayle, Terrell and
Stratton opened his shirt, exposing his right breast.
Just below the nipple of his right breast appeared a gaping hole. They
insisted that under no consideration should he speak, but the Colonel
asked:
"Has any one a clean handkerchief?"
Some one extending one, he placed it over the wound, buttoned up his
clothes and said:
"Now, gentlemen, let's go in," and advanced to the front of the
platform.
I, having been asked to present him to the audience, after admonishing
the crowd that there was no occasion for undue excitement, said that an
attempt to assassinate Col. Roosevelt had taken place; that the bullet
was still in his body, and that he would attempt to make his speech as
promised.
As the Colonel stepped forward, some one in the audience said audibly:
"Fake," whereupon the Colonel smilingly said:
"No, it's no fake," and opening his vest, the blood-red stain upon his
linen was clearly visible.
A half-stifled expression of horror swept through the audience.
About the first remark uttered in the speech, as the Colonel grinned
broadly at the audience, was:
"It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose. I'm all right, no
occasion for any sympathy whatever, but I want to take this occasion
within five minutes after having been shot to say some things to our
people which I hope no one will question the profound sincerity of."
Throughout his speech, which continued for an hour and twenty minutes,
the doctors and his immediate staff of friends, sitting closely behind
him, expected that he might at any moment collapse. I was so persuaded
of this that I stepped over the front of the high platform to the
reporters' section immediately beneath where he was speaking, so that I
might catch him if he fell forward.
These precautions, however, were unnecessary, for, while his speech
lacked in the characteristic fluency of other speeches, while the shock
and pain caused his argument to be somewhat labored, yet it was with a
soldierly firmness and iron determination, which more than all things
in Roosevelt's career discloses to the country the real Roosevelt, who
at the close of his official service as President in 1909 left that
high office the most beloved public figure in our history since Lincoln
fell, and the most respected citizen of the world. As was said in an
editorial in the Chicago Evening Post:
"There is no false sentiment here; there is no self-seeking. The
guards are down. The soul of the man stands forth as it is. In the
Valley of the Shadow his own simple declaration of his sincerity,
his own revelation of the unselfish quality of his devotion to the
greatest movement of his generation, will be the standard by which
history will pass upon Theodore Roosevelt its final judgment. This
much they cannot take from him, no matter whether he is now to live
or to die."
To the men of America, who either love or hate Roosevelt personally,
these words from his speech must carry an imperishable lesson:
"The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech. But
I will try my best.
"And now, friends, I want to take advantage of this incident to say as
solemn a word of warning as I know how to my fellow Americans.
"First of all, I want to say this about myself: I have altogether too
many important things to think of to pay any heed or feel any concern
over my own death.
"Now I would not speak to you insincerely within five minutes of being
shot. I am telling you the literal truth when I say that my concern is
for many other things. It is not in the least for my own life.
"I want you to understand that I am ahead of the game anyway. No man
has had a happier life than I have had--a happier life in every way.
"I have been able to do certain things that I greatly wished to do, and
I am interested in doing other things.
"I can tell you with absolute truthfulness that I am very much
uninterested in whether I am shot or not.
"It was just as when I was colonel of my regiment. I always felt that a
private was to be excused for feeling at times some pangs of anxiety
about his personal safety, but I cannot understand a man fit to be a
colonel who can pay any heed to his personal safety when he is
occupied, as he ought to be occupied, with the absorbing desire to do
his duty.
"I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul; I believe in the
Progressive movement--a movement for the betterment of mankind, a
movement for making life a little easier for all our people, a movement
to try to take the burdens off the man and especially the woman in this
country who is most oppressed.
"I am absorbed in the success of that movement. I feel uncommonly proud
in belonging to that movement.
"Friends, I ask you now this evening to accept what I am saying as
absolute truth when I tell you I am not thinking of my own success, I
am not thinking of my own life or of anything connected with me
personally."
The disabling of Col. Roosevelt at this tragic moment was a great
strategic loss in his campaign. The mind of the country was in a
pronounced state of indecision. He had started at Detroit, Mich., one
week before and had planned to make a great series of sledge hammer
speeches upon every vital issue in the campaign, which plan took him to
the very close of the fight. He had planned to put his strongest
opponent in a defensive position, the effect of which, now that all is
over, no man can measure. Stricken down, an immeasurable loss was
sustained. In the years that lie before, when misjudgment and
misstatements, which are the petty things born of prejudice, and which
die with the breath that gives them life, shall have passed away, this
incident and the soldierly conduct of the brave man who was its victim
will have a real chastening and wholesome historical significance.
[Illustration: Page from Ex-President Roosevelt's Manuscript of
Speech Showing Bullet Holes.]