The time Teddy Roosevelt survived a shooting and assassination attempt in Milwaukee
It was 1912 and Teddy Roosevelt was trying to gain entry into his place in the White House. A unhappy New Yorker tried to stop him during his visit to Milwaukee.
An ex- Republican president attempting to re-enter the White House is shot while campaigning, and is able to survive.
However, the assassination attempt was made at Milwaukee during 1912.
If it hadn’t been for the copy of an elongated speech and the case for spectacles that could have been more than just a footnote in the past.
On October. 14th, 1912 Teddy Roosevelt was making a bid to the White House as the candidate for the Progressive Party, after failing to secure the nomination of the Republican Party. He visited Milwaukee for a speech to the crowd at the Milwaukee Auditorium (now Miller High Life Theatre).
In his exit from the Gilpatrick Hotel (now the site of the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee), Roosevelt was killed by a furious New Yorker named John Schrank who was following the former president to prevent him from obtaining another term.
The bullet struck Roosevelt on the chest, but was stopped through the contents in his purse that included a case for spectacles made of steel and a copy long speech. (The Hyatt has a display that commemorates the event at its entryway on King Drive.)
Roosevelt was able to deliver his speech, and with a touch of style, showed off his bloody shirt and speech that was ruined as a sign of his strength.
In the manner that Gerard Helferich recounts in his account of the incident in his “Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin” (Lyons Press) The shooting took place in Milwaukee however, it was only because Schrank was bungled in earlier attempts in following Roosevelt across the country.
Schrank was declared insane after pleading guilty to the murder. (He was known to tell anyone who could listen that his primary source of inspiration was a vision where the president, William McKinley, assassinated in 1901 and replaced by Roosevelt He said to him that Roosevelt was behind his murder.)
However, while Schrank echoed the concerns of a large number of Americans regarding a president who is who is serving a third time -setting a precedent that was laid in the case of George Washington — investigators were unable to link Schrank to any other conspiracy.
Schrank lived the rest all of his time – 31 years – within Wisconsin in mental institutions. As per Helferich’s account, he did not see a single person in the entire time, and passed away in the shadows.