Chief Executive Victim of Most Cowardly Anarchist

On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot twice in the stomach while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Leon Czolgosz, a Polish citizen associated with the Anarchist movement, fired at McKinley who was greeting the public in a receiving line.

McKinley died September 14, whispering the words of his favorite hymn, “Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee.” He was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.

Library of Congress.

Czolgosz was executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.

The New York Times contemporary reports on the shooting.

Title for this post from headline in The San Francisco Call.

McKinley $500