TRUMAN ESCAPES HARM IN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 67 years ago this afternoon, November 1, 1950,
two Puerto Rican nationalists walked down the sidewalk from opposite directions toward Blair House*.
They had arrived in the Capital the day before on a train from New York City with the murder of President Harry S. Truman on their minds. The pair were armed with two 9mm semiautomatic pistols--a Luger and a Walther P-38.
At 2 p.m., the two men were involved in a desperate gun battle with White House police officers and secret service agents. The President, awakened from his nap on the 2nd floor, came to the window to see what was going on outside. He was quickly ordered to take cover by agents.
One of the Puerto Ricans, Griselio Torresola, was killed by Officer Leslie Coffelt, who himself was mortally wounded in the gun battle. The other man, Oscar Collazo, managed to reach the steps of the house before he collapsed from a bullet in the chest.
Collazo had fired 9 rounds from the P-38 with only 1 hit, while Torresola, who was killed by a shot in the ear, fired 8 rounds from the Luger. He was attempting to reload when he was killed.
Two other police officers, Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were wounded but survived. Officer Coffelt died that afternoon from multiple gunshot wounds. The Truman family had a single fresh red rose placed on his grave at Arlington every day.
Oscar Collazo was found guilty of homicide on March 7, 1951. He received the death penalty but that sentence was commuted to life in prison by President Truman. In 1979, Collazo became a free man by the commutation of President Jimmy Carter.
*Blair House was built in 1824 & was the home of Dr. Joseph Lovell, the 1st surgeon general of the US Army. Francis Preston Blair, editor of the Globe, moved into the home with his wife, Eliza, & 3 children in 1830. The Trumans used the house as their residence while the White House was undergoing renovation.
SOURCES
Blair House, The President's Guest House, www.blairhouse.org/
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri
True Crime: Assassination, Editors of Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1994.
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 67 years ago this afternoon, November 1, 1950,
two Puerto Rican nationalists walked down the sidewalk from opposite directions toward Blair House*.
They had arrived in the Capital the day before on a train from New York City with the murder of President Harry S. Truman on their minds. The pair were armed with two 9mm semiautomatic pistols--a Luger and a Walther P-38.
At 2 p.m., the two men were involved in a desperate gun battle with White House police officers and secret service agents. The President, awakened from his nap on the 2nd floor, came to the window to see what was going on outside. He was quickly ordered to take cover by agents.
One of the Puerto Ricans, Griselio Torresola, was killed by Officer Leslie Coffelt, who himself was mortally wounded in the gun battle. The other man, Oscar Collazo, managed to reach the steps of the house before he collapsed from a bullet in the chest.
Collazo had fired 9 rounds from the P-38 with only 1 hit, while Torresola, who was killed by a shot in the ear, fired 8 rounds from the Luger. He was attempting to reload when he was killed.
Two other police officers, Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were wounded but survived. Officer Coffelt died that afternoon from multiple gunshot wounds. The Truman family had a single fresh red rose placed on his grave at Arlington every day.
Oscar Collazo was found guilty of homicide on March 7, 1951. He received the death penalty but that sentence was commuted to life in prison by President Truman. In 1979, Collazo became a free man by the commutation of President Jimmy Carter.
*Blair House was built in 1824 & was the home of Dr. Joseph Lovell, the 1st surgeon general of the US Army. Francis Preston Blair, editor of the Globe, moved into the home with his wife, Eliza, & 3 children in 1830. The Trumans used the house as their residence while the White House was undergoing renovation.
SOURCES
Blair House, The President's Guest House, www.blairhouse.org/
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri
True Crime: Assassination, Editors of Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1994.
Blair House
Washington, D.C
Photo by John White (2003)
