JFK+50: Volume 5, No. 2098
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF TEDDY ROOSEVELTMilwaukee, Wisconsin (JFK+50) In this election year of 2016, the Republican Party is split on the candidacy of Donald J. Trump. In the election year of 1912, however, the Republican Party was so divided that incumbent President William Howard Taft's nomination led to the formation of a third party led by former President Theodore Roosevelt.
104 years ago this evening, October 14, 1912, Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party nominee Theodore Roosevelt was shot while greeting the public in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel here in Milwaukee.
At 8 p.m. local time, TR was shot in the chest from a distance of five feet as he stood in his open car waving his hat to the crowd. A 32-caliber bullet passed through his glasses case and folded manuscript which were in his breast pocket. Roosevelt's stenographer was able to grab the assailant before more shots could be fired.
TR refused to be taken to a hospital until he completed his scheduled speech.
With worried aides standing by ready to catch him if he passed out, TR told the astonished crowd...
"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot."
Despite the wound, Roosevelt went on to speak for an hour and at one point pulled the bloody manuscript from his pocket, held it up for the audience to see, and said...
"It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose."
After finishing his speech, TR was taken to the hospital. Although he recovered, doctors determined it was best not to attempt to remove the bullet.
The shooter was an unemployed New York saloon-keeper named John Schrank. The 36 year old man was later determined to be insane and was committed to an asylum in Wisconsin.
SOURCE
"Shot in the Chest 100 Years Ago, Teddy Roosevelt Kept on Talking," by Christopher Klein, October 12, 2012, History, www.history.com/
TR in Milwaukee
October 14, 1912
