Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and PatriotEverett, Marshall
History
Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and Patriot
Leon Czolgosz has an aunt living in Alpena, but she would answer no
questions. Czolgosz also had a brother living in the Polish settlement.
On the rolls of the Pension Office was the name of Jacob F. Czolgosz. A
pension of $30 a month was paid to Jacob because of a wound in the right
hand and forearm. The wound was received through the explosion of a
shell at Sandy Hook in 1899. Czolgosz enlisted from Cleveland, Ohio
(giving his address at 199 Hosmer street), first in Battery M, Sixth
Artillery, on September 15, 1898. He was afterward discharged on January
22, 1899, and then re-enlisted in the ordnance branch, in Captain
Babbitt’s company, and was serving there when wounded.
He was born at Alpena, Michigan, and was twenty-two years and ten months
old when he first enlisted.
Leon Czolgosz was a member of several Anarchist clubs in Cleveland, one
of which was named “Sila,” which means “force.” The club met at the
corner of Tod street and Third avenue, over a saloon which, it is said,
Czolgosz once owned. Three years before the assassination the club
disbanded and he left it, but joined another.
“Czolgosz made no secret of the fact that he was an Anarchist,” said
Anton Zwolinski, a Cleveland Pole. “He was always talking about it and
trying to force Anarchists’ principles on every one whom he talked with.
He was a great coward, however, and I am surprised he had the nerve to
do as he did. It would not surprise me to learn that he is merely the
tool of some other persons. When the Sila Club broke up Czolgosz joined
another one.”
Several years previous to his crime, Czolgosz was employed in a Newburg
mill, where he was known as Fred Nieman. He was a member of Forest City
Castle Lodge No. 22 of the Golden Eagles. His former associates said he
was a queer man, but was known to have a most violent temper. It is said
that the assassin was a strong infidel and a red-hot Socialist. He was
last seen by his Cleveland friends around Newburg the previous spring,
when he was living on a farm with his father near Warrensville, Ohio.
John Ginder, an employe of the Newburg wire mill, where Czolgosz
formerly worked, and who was also a member of the Golden Eagle Lodge,
received a letter from Czolgosz in July, dated West Seneca, N. Y.
The letter, which was taken by the police, was written in red ink and
contained a strange reference to the fare to Buffalo. It read as
follows:
“West Seneca, N. Y., July 30, 1901.—John Ginder—Dear Sir and
Brother: Inclosed you will find $1 to pay my lodge dues. I paid $1
to Brother George Coonish to pay the assessment sent out on account
of the death of Brother David Jones.
“Brother Ginder, please send my book to me at my cost, and also send
password if you can do so.
“I left Cleveland Thursday, July 11. I am working here and will stay
for some time. _The fare from here to Buffalo is $5.15._
“Hoping this finds you well, as it leaves me, I remain
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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