President William Mckinley Death
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On September 5, 1901, William McKinley and his wife attended the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Here he delivered a speech addressing the issues on tariffs and foreign trade. After that, McKinley went to the Temple of Music to greet the awaiting public.
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One of the people waiting to meet McKinley was Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist supporter. He was standing with a gun in his right hand that was covered by a handkerchief. When McKinley approached him to shake his hand, Czolgosz fired twice. The first bullet hit one of his ribs and caused a minor wound. However, the second bullet went through his stomach, pancreas and kidney, and lodged in the back muscles. As he was shot, McKinley is supposed to have whispered to his secretary George Cortelyou to ask his wife to be careful.
Czolgosz was overpowered by the crowd, but even then McKinley cried out to the crowd not to hurt him.
McKinley was rushed to the hospital where the doctors were able to retrieve one bullet. However, they could not locate the second bullet lodge in his back. The doctors feared that trying to search for the bullet could cause more damage to the president so they decided to leave the bullet where it was lodged.
A new invention of Thomas Edison, the x-ray machine, was on display at the Exposition. It is still unknown why the doctors did not use the machine to locate the second bullet. The doctors believed that the president would recover from the wounds. And McKinley seemed to be getting better so there was no cause for alarm. On September 12, McKinley even ate the first solid food after being shot. However, on the same day, by afternoon, he started experiencing pain and from then on his condition started deteriorating. On September 14, 1901, eight days after being shot, McKinley died due to gangrene and infection that affected his wounds.
William McKinley was buried in West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio. However, later his remained were buried in McKinley Memorial.
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