Leon Czolgosz
Leon Frank Czolgosz (Zol-gash) (May 1873[ October 29, 1901) (also used his mother's maiden name "Nieman" and variations thereof]
Early life
One of seven children of Polish immigrants,[Eric Rauchway, Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2003.] Czolgosz was born in Alpena, Michigan
He left his family farm in Warrensville, Ohio, at the age of ten to work at the American Steel and Wire Company with two of his brothers. At the height of his employment, he was making $4 a day ($120 adjusted to 2008 dollars).
After the workers of his factory went on strike, he and his brothers were fired. Czolgosz then returned to the family farm in Warrensville.
Interest in anarchism
In 1898, after witnessing a series of similar strikes (many ending in violence), Czolgosz again returned home, where he was constantly at odds with his stepmother and with his family's Roman Catholic beliefs. It was later recounted that through his life he had never shown any interest in friendship or romantic relationships, and was bullied throughout his childhood by peers.
He became a recluse and spent much of his time alone reading socialist and anarchist newspapers. He was impressed after hearing a speech by the political radical Emma Goldman, whom he met for the first time during one of her lectures in Cleveland in 1901. After the lecture, Czolgosz approached the speakers' platform and asked for reading recommendations. A few days later, he visited her home in Chicago and introduced himself as Nieman (Low German for new man), but Goldman was on her way to the train station. He only had enough time to explain to her about his disappointment in Cleveland's socialists, and for Goldman to introduce him to her anarchist friends who were at the train station.[Emma Goldman. Living My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. p. 289 and 290] She later wrote a piece in defense of Czolgosz.[American Experience | Emma Goldman | Transcript | PBS]
Czolgosz was never known to be accepted into any anarchist group. Indeed, his fanaticism and comments about violence aroused anarchists' suspicions; some even thought he might have been a covert government agent. Furthermore, Czolgosz was known to have been a Republican (the same party as President McKinley), and had voted in the Republican primaries in Cleveland.[Kick, Russ. You Are Being Lied To. New York: The Disinformation Company, 2001. p.77 ISBN]
The radical Free Society newspaper issued a warning pertaining to Czolgosz reading:
 "The attention of the comrades is called to another spy. He is well dressed, of medium height, rather narrow shouldered, blond, and about 25 years of age. Up to the present he has made his appearance in Chicago and Cleveland. In the former place he remained a short time, while in Cleveland he disappeared when the comrades had confirmed themselves of his identity and were on the point interested in the cause, asking for names, or soliciting aid for acts of contemplated violence. If this individual makes his appearance elsewhere, the comrades are warned in advance and can act accordingly."
Czolgosz's experiences had convinced him there was a great injustice in American society, an inequality which allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. He concluded that the reason for this was the structure of government itself. Then, on July 29, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci told the press he had to take matters into his own hands for the sake of the common man. The assassination shocked and galvanized the American anarchist movement, and Czolgosz is thought to have consciously imitated Bresci. When he was later arrested, police found a folded newspaper clipping about Bresci in his pocket.
Assassination of President McKinley
On August 31, 1901, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, New York and rented a room near the site of the Pan-American Exposition.
On September 6, he went to the exposition with a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson "Safety Automatic" revolver (serial #463344) he claimed he had purchased on September 2 for $4.50.[Leon Czolgosz and the Trial - "Lights out in the City of Light" Anarchy and Assassination at the Pan-American Exposition] With the gun wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket, Czolgosz approached McKinley's procession, the President having been standing in a receiving line outside of the Temple of Music greeting the public for ten minutes. At 4:07 p.m., Czolgosz reached the front of the line. The President thrust out his hand; Czolgosz slapped it aside[ and shot McKinley twice at point blank range.]
Members of the crowd immediately subdued Czolgosz, before the 4th Bridgade, National Guard Signal Corps[Briggs, L. Vernon. "The Manner of Man That Kills", 1921] and police intervened. He had been beaten so severely it was initially thought he might not live to stand trial.[The Trial and Execution of Leon Czolgosz]
Trial and execution
On September 13, the day before McKinley succumbed to his wounds, Czolgosz was transferred from the police headquarters, which were undergoing repairs, to the Erie County Women's Penitentiary until the 16th, after which he was taken to the Erie County Jail before being arraigned before County Judge Emery. After the arraignment, he was transferred to Auburn State Prison.
A grand jury indicted Czolgosz, who spoke freely with his guards, yet refused all interaction with Robert C. Titus and Lorin L. Lewis, the prominent judge-turned-attorneys assigned to defend him, and with the expert sent to test his sanity.
The district attorney at trial was Thomas Penny and his assistant Mr. Haller, who made a "flawless" performance.[Dr. McDonald's description of the trial] Although Czolgosz answered that he was pleading "Guilty", the presiding Judge overruled and entered a "Not Guilty" plea on his behalf.[Hamilton, Dr. Allan McLane. "Autobiography". Pre-1921]
He was convicted and sentenced to death on September 23, in a brief trial that lasted eight and a half hours from jury selection to verdict. Upon returning to Auburn Prison, he asked the Warden if this meant he would be transferred to Sing Sing to be electrocuted, and seemed surprised to learn that Auburn had its own electric chair.
Czolgosz was electrocuted by three jolts, each of 1700 volts, in Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901. His brother Waldek and his brother-in-law Frank Bandowski were in attendance, though when Waldek asked the Warden for his brother's body to be taken for proper burial, he was informed that he "would never be able to take it away" and that crowds of people would mob him, so the body had to be buried on prison grounds.
His last words were "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."[ As the prison guards strapped him into the chair, however, he did say through clenched teeth, "I am sorry I could not see my father."][ His brain was autopsied by Edward Anthony Spitzka.]
Sulfuric acid was thrown into his coffin so that his body would be completely disfigured, resulting in its decomposition within twelve hours.[The Execution of Leon Czolgosz - "Lights Out in the City of Light" - Anarchy and Assassination at the Pan-American Exposition] His letters and clothes were burned.
Legacy
Emma Goldman was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the assassination, but was released because there was no evidence to support this suspicion. She later incurred a great deal of negative publicity when she published "The Tragedy at Buffalo". In the article, she compared Czolgosz to Marcus Junius Brutus, the killer of Julius Caesar, and called McKinley the "president of the money kings and trust magnates."["The Tragedy at Buffalo"] Some other anarchists and radicals were unwilling to help Goldman's effort to aid Czolgosz, believing that he had harmed the movement.[Goldman 311-319]
The scene of the crime, the Temple of Music, was torn down in November 1901. A stone marker in the middle of Fordham Drive, a residential street in Buffalo today marks the approximate spot where the event occurred. Czolgosz's revolver is on display at the Pan-American Exposition exhibit of the Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo.
In 1921, Lloyd Vernon Briggs, Director of the Massachusetts Department for Mental Hygiene reviewed the Czolgosz case
Czolgosz in film and popular culture
The story of McKinley's assassination appears in a traditional folk song, known variously as "The White House Blues", "Zolgotz" (a corruption of the assassin's name), and "McKinley's Rag". Both Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Alan Lomax collected the song for the Library of Congress, the former on the record "Songs and Ballads of American History and of the Assassination of Presidents." It dates to at least 1923 and its original author is unknown.
Czolgosz's story was the fictionalized theme of the play Americans, by Eric Schlosser.
Czolgosz's story, along with those of 8 other presidential assassins and would-be assassins, was the basis of Sondheim's and Weidman's Broadway musical Assassins. His story is told in the song The Ballad of Czolgosz.
Czolgosz's activities on the day of the assassination are depicted in Brian Josepher's fictionalized chronicle of the 20th century, What the Psychic Saw.
Czolgosz's execution by electrocution was recreated on film by Thomas Edison[Execution of Czolgosz, with panorama of Auburn Prison / Thomas A. Edison, Inc.], who also helped invent the Electric Chair.
Czolgosz is the escaped soul in "Leon", episode six of the first season of Reaper.
Czolgosz is referred to by name by Emma Goldman in E. L. Doctorow's novel, "Ragtime."
Czolgosz is referred to by name in Richard Linklater's Slacker during an altercation between a senile anarchist who befriends an armed robber he finds in his home.
In Elanor Updale's "Montmorency's Revenge", Czolgosz and his assassination of McKinley appear as a plot point in the second half of the novel
Gallery
Image:Paul Father Czol.jpg|Paul Czolgosz, Leon's father.
Image:Jacob Czol.jpg|Jacob Czolgosz, Leon's brother.
Image:First photograph of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley, in jail.jpg|First photograph of Czolgosz in jail.
Image:Czol execution card.jpg|Czolgosz's prisoner card at Auburn.
See also
Anarchism and violence
Propaganda of the deed
Assassination
List of assassins
External links
Film: Reenactment of the execution of Leon Czolgosz in the electric chair, early film from 1901, Library of Congress archives (.rm format; offline viewable)
PBS biography of Czolgosz
Leon Frank Czolgosz at Find A Grave
Stone marker at assassination site
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