Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 — January 6, 1919), was the 26th President of the United States of America.



Attempted Assassination
Theodore Roosevelt, former president, was running for president again when he came to Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, for an appearance at the Auditorium. Shortly before 8:00 p.m., he tucked his thick speech into his breast pocket and departed the Hotel Gilpatrick.

John Schrank, a 36-year-old Bavarian immigrant who had stalked the candidate for weeks, was waiting outside. He pulled a revolver from his coat and fired. The bullet smacked Roosevelt in the chest, but first it plowed through his heavy coat, lengthy speech and glasses case. One or all likely saved Roosevelt. While staggered by the bullet, he lost neither conciseness note his famous bluster. "Where you hit?" his aide, Henry Cochems, asked. "He pinked me, Henry," Roosevelt said. Though he was bleeding and his backers advised immediate treatment, Roosevelt insisted on delivering his message to Milwaukee. At the Auditorium, he stuffed a doctor's examination, covered the wound with a handkerchief and took the stage.

Some in the audience were shocked to hear Roosevelt had been an assassin's target; others would not believe it. But the visibly bloodstained shirt was persuasive and not a bad dramatic device. A few minutes later, Roosevelt faltered but steadied himself and again denied pleas to cancel the speech. "It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose," He said, and proceeded to speak for an hour. Roosevelt died with Shrank's bullet in his chest, but not for some years and then of other causes. He was rushed to a Milwaukee hospital, still saying he was not seriously wounded, but doctors insisted on taking him to a Chicago expert for care and recuperation. "I don't want Milwaukee to feel badly about this," he was quoted in an account of the shooting by Stan Gores. "It want the city's fault."

Despite the political upside that goes with surviving an assassination attempt, Roosevelt lost the election to Woodrow Wilson. If his marksmanship was a disappointment, the results should have pleased Schrank, whose half-addled explanation for the shooting was that he had not wanted Roosevelt the man, only "Roosevelt the third termer."