Truman assassination attempt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S. Truman occurred on November 1, 1950. It was perpetrated by two Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

pro-independence activists

Puerto Rican independence movement

The Puerto Rican independence movement refers to initiatives throughout the history of Puerto Rico aimed at obtaining independence for the Island, first from Spain, and then from the United States...

, Oscar Collazo

Oscar Collazo

Oscar Collazo , was one of two Puerto Ricans who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman.-Early life:...

and Griselio Torresola

Griselio Torresola

Griselio Torresola born in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, was one of two Puerto Rican Nationalists who attempted to assassinate United States President Harry Truman. During the attack on the president, Torresola mortally wounded White House policeman Private Leslie Coffelt and wounded two other law...

, while the President resided at the Blair House

Blair House

Blair House is the official state guest house for the President of the United States. It is located at 1651-1653 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., opposite the Old Executive Office Building of the White House, off the corner of Lafayette Park....

. The attempt resulted in the deaths of White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt

Leslie Coffelt

Leslie William "Les" Coffelt was an officer of the White House Police Force who was killed while defending U.S. President Harry S...

, and Torresola, while President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

was not harmed.

Background and preparation

In the 1940s, Puerto Rican nationalists were increasingly angered by what they viewed as great injustices towards Puerto Rico, including the Ponce Massacre

Ponce massacre

The Ponce massacre occurred on 21 March 1937 when a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico, by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party commemorating the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and coinciding with a protest against the incarceration by the...

, the alleged extrajudicial murders of certain nationalists, the jailing of Pedro Albizu Campos

Pedro Albizu Campos

Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...

for his advocacy of violent resistance, and the impending change of Puerto Rico's status from a non-autonomous territory to a partially self-governing commonwealth. They viewed Puerto Rico as a colony demanding independence.

Griselio Torresola came from a family that believed in the Puerto Rican independence cause, while Oscar Collazo had been participating in the movement since childhood. They met in New York City and became good friends. On October 28, 1950, they received the news that the Jayuya Uprising, led by the nationalist Blanca Canales

Blanca Canales

Blanca Canales Torresola was a Puerto Rican nationalist leader. Canales may possibly have been the first woman to have led a revolt against the United States when she led the The Jayuya Uprising.-Early years:...

in Puerto Rico, had failed. Torresola's sister had been wounded and his brother Elio was arrested. Collazo and Torresola then decided to assassinate President Truman with the intention of bringing world attention to the independence cause of Puerto Rico. Torresola, as a skilled gunman, taught Collazo how to load and handle a gun. Both men familiarized themselves with the area around the Blair house.

During the second term of the presidency of Harry Truman, the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

was found to have serious structural faults and was completely gutted and renovated. While the White House was undergoing renovation, the President resided at Blair House.

The attempt

Torresola walked up Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...

from the west side while his partner, Oscar Collazo, walked up to Capital police officer Donald Birdzell on the steps of the Blair house. Approaching Birdzell from behind, Collazo pulled out a Walther P38 handgun, pointed it at the officer's back, and pulled the trigger; but since he had failed to cock it, nothing happened. After pounding on his pistol and fumbling around with it, Collazo managed to fire the weapon just as Birdzell was turning to face him, striking the officer in his right knee. Nearby, Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

Special Agent Floyd Boring

Floyd Boring

Floyd M. Boring was an American Secret Service agent who served with 5 US Presidents. He was also present and took part in the gunfight that foiled an assassination attempt on Harry S...

and White House Police officer Joseph Davidson heard the shot and opened fire on Collazo with their service revolvers. Collazo returned fire, and soon found himself outgunned as the wounded Birdzell managed to draw his weapon and join the shootout. Soon after, Collazo was struck by two .38 caliber rounds in the head and right arm, while other officers rushed to join the fight.

Meanwhile, Torresola approached a guard booth at the west corner of the Blair House, and noted an officer, Private Leslie Coffelt

Leslie Coffelt

Leslie William "Les" Coffelt was an officer of the White House Police Force who was killed while defending U.S. President Harry S...

, sitting inside. Torresola, in a double handed shooting stance, quickly pivoted from left to right around the opening of the booth. Coffelt was taken completely by surprise, as tourists often stopped at the box to ask for information. Torresola fired four shots from his 9 mm German Luger semi-automatic pistol at close range at Coffelt. Three of the shots struck Coffelt in the chest and abdomen, and the fourth went through his policeman's tunic. Coffelt slumped down in his chair, mortally wounded.

Torresola then turned his attention to plainclothes White House policeman Joseph Downs. Downs, who had just paused to chat with Coffelt, proceeded down the walkway to the basement door at the west end of the Blair-Lee house when he heard shots being fired. Downs noticed Torresola, but was shot once in the hip before he could draw his weapon. Downs turned back towards the house, and was shot twice more by Torresola, once in the back and once in the neck. Downs staggered to the basement door, opened it, slid in, and then slammed the door behind him, denying Torresola entry into the Blair House.

Torresola then turned his attention to the shoot-out between his partner, Collazo, and several other law enforcement officers. Torresola noted wounded policeman Donald Birdzell aiming at Collazo from the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Torresola aimed and shot Birdzell in the left knee from a distance of approximately 40 feet. Now shot in both knees, Birdzell was no longer able to stand and was effectively incapacitated (he would later recover). Soon after, the severely wounded Collazo was hit in the chest by a ricochet shot from Davidson and was incapacitated too.

Torresola realized he was out of ammunition. He stood to the immediate left of the Blair House steps while he reloaded. At the same time, President Truman, who had been taking a nap in his second-floor bedroom, awoke to the sound of gunfire outside. President Truman went to his bedroom window, opened it, and looked outside. From where he stood reloading, Torresola was thirty-one feet away from that window. It is unknown whether either man saw the other.

At the same time, the mortally-wounded Coffelt staggered out of his guard booth, leaned against it, and aimed his revolver at Torresola, who was approximately 30 feet away. Coffelt fired, hitting Torresola two inches above the ear on a slight upward angle, killing him instantly. Coffelt was taken to the hospital and died four hours later.

The gunfight involving Torresola lasted approximately 20 seconds, while the gunfight with Collazo lasted approximately 38.5 seconds. Only one shot fired by Collazo hit someone, while all of the rest of the damage was done by Torresola.

Aftermath

Coffelt's widow, Cressie E. Coffelt, was later asked by the President and the Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

to go to Puerto Rico, where she received condolences and expressions of sorrow from various Puerto Rican leaders and crowds. Mrs. Coffelt responded with a speech absolving the island's people of blame for the acts of Collazo and Torresola. A plaque at the Blair House commemorates Coffelt's sacrifice, heroism, and fidelity to his duty and his country. The day room for the U.S. Secret Service's Uniformed Division at the Blair House is named for Coffelt as well.

Oscar Collazo was sentenced to death, which was later commuted

Pardon

Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...

by Truman to a life sentence. This sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

to time served in 1979, and Collazo was released and went back to Puerto Rico. He died in 1994. His wife, Rosa, was also arrested by the FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

on suspicion of having conspired

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

with her husband in the attempt, and spent eight months in federal prison. Upon her release from prison, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from the electric chair.

Background and preparation

The attempt

Aftermath

See also