Leon Czolgosz Biography

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World of Criminal Justice on Leon Czolgosz

Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist who shot and killed William McKinley, the twenty-fifth president of the United States. Czolgosz, who had emigrated from Poland, believed that McKinley was an enemy of working people. His action put Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, and it also highlighted the ominously violent image of anarchism.

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of rapid societal changes. Anarchism, the belief that people should not be ruled by organized government, caught on among the poor and the working class. Some anarchists advocated more radical views than others, and Czolgosz belonged to this camp.

The son of Polish immigrants, Czolgosz grew up in poverty, and he grew into a bitter adult. (During his trial he made no secret of his hatred for the United States.) He eventually settled in the New York town of West Seneca. There he quickly established a reputation as a dangerous individual, one whom the police would need to watch closely. The secretive Czolgosz raised suspicion not only among the police but also among his fellow anarchists. He was considered untrustworthy, perhaps even a spay or an undercover policeman. Anarchist publications denounced Czolgosz and urged that he be shunned.

None of this deterred Czolgosz, who continued to support anarchism and continued to project the same image that made him appear so unsavory. In 1901, the Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, not far from Czolgosz' home. When he found out that President McKinley would be there, he decided to murder the leader. On September 6, McKinley was greeting a crowd of people, one of whom was Czolgosz (who had his hand wrapped in a bandage as though he had been injured). As the President drew nearer to Czolgosz, the anarchist removed a pistol from under the bandage and fired twice. The first bullet was deflected, but the second lodged in McKinley's stomach.

Nearby guards and soldiers grabbed Czolgosz, who did not resist but merely said, "I done my duty." McKinley did not die immediately; in fact, he lived another eight days. Modern physicians believe that it was gangrene from the bullet wound and not the bullet itself that killed the president. (Ironically, one of the inventions featured at the Exposition was a forerunner of the modern X-ray machine, but no one thought to use it to locate the bullet.) McKinley died on September 14, and Czolgosz was put on trial on September 23. He made no effort to defend himself; he refused to cooperate with his court-appointed lawyer and did not take the stand in his own behalf. He did say that he had been inspired to kill McKinley by the assassination of Italy's King Humbert I the previous year. He was sentenced to death and electrocuted at Auburn Prison, near Syracuse, New York on October 29. He pointedly said that he held no remorse for his deed. The role of the Secret Service as protector of the president and the president's family was prescribed by Roosevelt, who acted in light of the fact that three presidents had been assassinated in only 36 years.