Gut-Shot in Buffalo

T. Dart Walker’s illustration shows Big Jim Parker moving to restrain the assassin, who conceals his pistol in a linen bandage while shooting William McKinley (Image Credit: Library of Congress)

On this day in 1901, President William McKinley stood in the Temple of Music at the Buffalo World’s Fair, gladhanding a series of well-wishers while an organist played a majestic Bach sonata.

To discourage assassination attempts, the Secret Service normally made sure everyone’s hands were empty before they approached the president. But on that hot summer afternoon, the president’s bodyguards let the crowd of overdressed Victorians clutch handkerchiefs and mop their perspiring faces.

So, few noticed when a man with “a short cropped heavy black moustache” stepped up to McKinley. “[W]ell dressed, of medium height, rather narrow shoulders,… about 25 years of age,” he extended a bandaged right hand toward the president.

Two shots rang out.

“There was an instance of almost complete silence, like the hush that follows a clap of thunder,” wrote a reporter. “The president stood stock still, a look of hesitancy, almost of bewilderment, on his face. Then he retreated a step while a pallor began to steal over his features.”

Secret Service agent George Foster saw “the President draw his right hand under his coat, straighten up and, pressing his lips together,” give the assassin “the most scornful and contemptuous… look possible.”