Assassination of William McKinley — 1901 assassination in Buffalo, New York, US
McKinley's assassination led Congress to formally assign presidential protection to the Secret Service and elevated Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency.
Key Facts
- Date of shooting
- September 6, 1901
- Date of death
- September 14, 1901
- Assassin
- Leon Czolgosz, anarchist
- Cause of death
- Gangrene from abdominal gunshot wound
- Czolgosz execution date
- October 29, 1901
- Presidential assassination sequence
- Third U.S. president assassinated
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed factory worker radicalized after the Panic of 1893, adopted anarchist beliefs and came to view President McKinley as a symbol of oppression. Convinced it was his duty to act, he planned to kill the president during his public appearance at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
On September 6, 1901, as McKinley greeted visitors in the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition, Czolgosz concealed a revolver beneath a handkerchief and fired twice at close range. One bullet grazed the president; the other lodged in his abdomen. McKinley appeared to stabilize initially but died on September 14 from gangrene caused by the wounds.
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as president following McKinley's death. Czolgosz was convicted of first-degree murder and executed by electric chair on October 29, 1901. Congress subsequently passed legislation formally charging the Secret Service with protecting the president, fundamentally reshaping executive security in the United States.