Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman
Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman | |
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Washington, DC | |
Date | November 1, 1950 |
Target | Harry S. Truman |
Weapons | Walther P38, Luger pistol |
Deaths | Leslie Coffelt Griselio Torresola |
Injured | Donald Birdzell Oscar Collazo Joseph Downs |
Perpetrators | Oscar Collazo Griselio Torresola |
Motive | Political status of Puerto Rico |
Part of a series on the |
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
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On November 1, 1950,
Two days before the assassination attempt, Puerto Rican nationalists had attempted to overthrow the government of Puerto Rico. Uprisings occurred in many towns, including
Background
Puerto Rican independence movement
In the 1940s, the
The
The revolts began on October 30, 1950, upon the orders of
Plans for the assassination
In New York City, nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, after learning of the failure of the October 30 uprising, developed a plan to assassinate President Harry S. Truman in order to raise world attention to the Puerto Rican independence movement and the government's suppression of the uprisings.[13][14] They had learned that Truman was living at Blair House, while the White House was being renovated.[15]
The two men realized that their attempt was near-suicidal and that they likely would be killed. Torresola, a skilled gunman, taught Collazo how to load and handle the guns they would use, as his experience had been with other types. They took the train from New York to Washington, DC to reconnoitre the area. On November 1, they moved into action.[13][14][16][page needed]
Attack
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Senator from Missouri
33rd President of the United States
First term Second term Presidential and Vice presidential campaigns Post-presidency
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Torresola approached Blair House, located on
After hearing the gunshots, Secret Service agent Vincent Mroz ran through a basement corridor, stepping out of a street-level door on the east side of the House, where he opened fire on Collazo.[17][18] Mroz stopped Collazo with a bullet to the chest while he was on the entrance steps.[19][20][21][22] Two other officers also shot Collazo, in what was described as "the biggest gunfight in Secret Service history."[21]
Meanwhile, Torresola had approached a guard booth at the west corner, where he took White House Police officer
Torresola shot police officer Joseph Downs in the hip, before he could draw his weapon. As Downs turned toward the house, Torresola shot him in the back and in the neck. Downs got into the basement and secured the door, denying the attacker entry into Blair House.[15][16] Torresola moved to the shoot-out between his partner Collazo and several other police officers, shooting officer Donald Birdzell in the left knee.
Birdzell could no longer stand and was effectively incapacitated, although he would later recover.[15][16] Torresola was standing to the left of the Blair House steps to reload when President Truman looked outside his second floor window, 31 feet (9.4 m) from the attacker.[15][16] Secret Service agents shouted at Truman to get away from the window.[citation needed]
At that same moment, Coffelt left the guard booth, propped against it, and fired his .38-caliber service revolver at Torresola, about 30 feet (10 m) away. Coffelt hit Torresola 2 inches (50 mm) above the ear, killing him instantly.[24] Coffelt limped back to the booth and blacked out. Taken to the hospital, Coffelt died four hours later.[15][16] The gunfight involving Torresola lasted approximately 20 seconds, while the gunfight with Collazo lasted approximately 38.5 seconds.[25] Only one of Collazo's shots hit anyone, largely because Collazo was not a skilled or experienced gunman. Torresola, an expert shooter, did most of the shooting and inflicted almost all of the injuries on the Secret Service officers.[15]
Afterwards, Truman commented that he was not frightened by the attack: since he was a combat veteran of the First World War, he "had [already] been shot at by professionals [i.e. German soldiers]."[citation needed]
Aftermath
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2020) |
President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson asked Coffelt's widow, Cressie E. Coffelt, to go to Puerto Rico, where she received condolences from various Puerto Rican leaders and crowds. Cressie Coffelt responded with a speech absolving the island's people of blame for the acts of Collazo and Torresola.[citation needed]
Oscar Collazo was convicted in federal court and sentenced to death, which Truman commuted to a life sentence. While in prison, he gave an interview telling of his long devotion to the Nationalist Party and cause of Puerto Rican independence. When he was a young man in 1932, he heard Pedro Albizu Campos give a speech about American imperialism, saying that American research doctor Cornelius P. Rhoads had written an outrageous letter appearing to brag about killing Puerto Ricans in experiments.[26] In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence of Collazo to the time served, and the former revolutionary was released. He returned to live in Puerto Rico, where he died in 1994.[citation needed]
At the time of the assassination attempt, the FBI arrested Collazo's wife, Rosa, on suspicion of having
Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rico's status, Truman supported a
In memory
Inside the Blair House, a plaque was installed to commemorate White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt. The day room for the
See also
- United States Capitol shooting incident (1954)
- Cerro Maravilla incident
- List of United States presidential assassination attempts
- List of incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C.
- Río Piedras massacre
- Grito de Lares
- Puerto Rican Independence Party
References
- ^ Glass, Andrew (November 1, 2017). "Puerto Rican militants try to assassinate Truman, Nov. 1, 1950". Politico. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
- Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum (Independence, Missouri). Retrieved April 16, 2019.
- ^ Ayoob, Massad (2006). "Drama at Blair House: the attempted assassination of Harry Truman". American Handgunner (March–April 2006). Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Denis, Nelson (2015). "Chapter 18: The Revolution". War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Type Books. pp. 194–199.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-6068-8.
- ^ Denis, Nelson (2015). "Chapter 18: The Revolution". War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Type Books. pp. 206–208.
- ISBN 978-0-14-311928-9
- ISBN 978-0-394-71787-6
- ^ Claridad Archived May 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Premio a Jesús Vera Irizarry", WebCite, GeoCities
- ^ "Nylatinojournal.com". Archived from the original on August 26, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
- ^ Denis, Nelson (2015). "Chapter 18: The Revolution". War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Type Books. pp. 206–208.
- ^ ISBN 968-6308-22-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7432-6068-8
- ^ a b c d e f g h Truman Library, Truman Library website Archived March 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g "pr-secretfiles.net" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2016.[page needed]
- ^ Excerpts from the history of the United States Secret Service, 1865–1975. Department of the Treasury, United States Secret Service. 1978. p. 30.
mroz secret service.
- ^ Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge Jr. (October 9, 2005). "American Gunfight; A little-remembered shootout near Lafayette Square left President Harry Truman's life hanging in the balance". The Washington Post. p. W.16.
- ^ James W. Clarke (2012). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists. Transaction Publishers. p. 66. ("Secret Service Agent Vincent P. Mroz stopped Collazo on the entrance steps with a single shot to the chest. Collazo fell unconscious face-down ...")
- ^ Scott P. Johnson. Trials of the Century: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture and Law, Volume 1. p. 388. ("A few seconds later, Collazo was seriously wounded when he was shot in the chest by Vincent P. Mroz, a Secret Service agent.")
- ^ a b Ronald Kessler (2010). In the President's Secret Service. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 8. ("The biggest gunfight in Secret Service history was over in forty seconds. A total of twenty-seven shots had been fired.")
- ^ Robert J. Donovan (1996). Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949–1953. University of Missouri Press. p. 294. (as Collazo walked up the steps to the front door, he was "pinned down" by bullets from Mroz and two others)
- ^ Tom (May 2, 2012). "Dramatic Attempt to Assassinate President Truman in Blair House". Ghosts of DC. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ Hunter & Bainbridge, p. 251
- ^ Hunter & Bainbridge, p. 4
- ^ Susan E. Lederer, "Porto Ricochet": Joking about Germs, Cancer, and Race Extermination in the 1930s", American Literary History, Volume 14, Number 4, Winter 2002, accessed 23 October 2013
- ^ a b Jonah Raskin, Oscar Collazo: Portrait of a Puerto Rican Patriot (New York: New York Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners, 1978).
- ISBN 978-0-7432-6068-8.
External links
- Photo of the two guns (used in assassination attempt) in an exhibit at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, Independence, Missouri, US
- "Harry Truman Writes about the Assassination Attempt on His Life Just the Day Before: November 2, 1950" Archived November 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Shapell Manuscript Foundation
- Newsreel scenes of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S Truman
- Truman Assassination Attempt, Ghosts of DC website, 2 May 2012