Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination. Everett Marshall

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      “I deny that I have had an accomplice at any time,” Czolgosz told District Attorney Penny. “I don’t regret my act, because I was doing what I could for the great cause. I am not connected with the Paterson group or with those Anarchists who sent Bresci to Italy to kill Humbert. I had no confidants; no one to help me. I was alone absolutely.”

      Czolgosz, the assassin, was the son of Paul Czolgosz, who lived at 306 Fleet street, Cleveland, Ohio, at the time of the assassination, having moved there from Warrensburg, Ohio, in search of work. Other members of the family were John, who lived at home with his father and stepmother; Mike, a soldier serving in the Philippines; Vladiolan, who was on his father’s farm, located on the Chagrin Falls Suburban line; and Jacob, of Marcelline avenue. There were two uncles living on Hosmer street.

      The family was Polish and evidently poor.

      Czolgosz’s father talked of his son’s crime. He said his son should be hanged, and that there was no excuse for the crime. At first he appeared not to realize the enormity of the crime, but when aroused he denounced his son, saying he must have been mad.

      The stepmother could not speak English, but gave out the following interview through the medium of an interpreter. She said:

      “Leon left home sixty days before this terrible affair. We heard from him a few weeks ago. He was then in Indiana and wrote to us that he was going away, stating that in all probability we would not see him again.”

      The family had not heard from him since. The stepmother denies Leon was a disciple of Emma Goldman or in any way interested in her doctrines. She said he was not interested in such matters and scarcely intelligent enough to understand them. They had always considered the boy partly demented. Up to three years ago he had worked at the Cleveland rolling mill, but had to quit on account of poor health. Since that time he has been idle. While living on the farm near Warrensville his father had not asked Leon to work, having always considered him too weak for manual labor.

      Regarding the shooting of the President, Mrs. Czolgosz said:

      “I can’t believe Leon is the one. He was such a timid boy, so afraid of everything. Why, he was the biggest coward you ever saw in your life.”

      Leon Czolgosz was born in Alpena County, Michigan, and spent his early life there. Although the family was well known but little was known of Czolgosz, he being only thirteen years of age when the family moved away.

      The family is Polish and was strict in religious observances, but the record does not show that Leon Czolgosz was baptized either at Alpena or at Posen, where the family lived a short time before moving to Alpena.

      Czolgosz, the father, was born in the Province of Posen, Krais Schubin, County of Bromberg, Village of Haido, near Barin, and came directly to Alpena County from Germany about thirty years ago. He worked on the docks and was regarded as a peaceful, inoffensive, ignorant foreigner. The father of Leon Czolgosz raised ten children, of which the assassin was one of the youngest.

      After leaving Alpena the family was only heard of a few times, and that indirectly, but they were known to be in Cleveland, where several of the children were living with them. Valentine Misgalski, a prominent and intelligent Pole, and former friend of the Czolgosz family, said that he never saw any evidences of viciousness in the family. He remembers Leon and said there was nothing unusual about him as a boy. He attended the parochial school, was devoted to his church, and remembers him as in every way an ordinary boy.

      Andrew Czolgosz, uncle of the assassin, lived in Metz Township, thirty miles from Alpena, the most of which distance has to be made overland. He was unable to talk English and conversation had to be carried on through his sons. This family lived in a thickly populated Polish settlement, where the people were ignorant and not always to be trusted, and inquiries had to be made with great care. These people quarrelled and fought among themselves, but at a signal that any one of their members was in danger from any one from the outside, as they call it, a man’s life was in great danger.

      It was in this settlement that Paul Czolgosz lived for a short time after coming to this country before settling in Alpena.

      During the conversation with Andrew Czolgosz a significant remark was made by one of the sons. Inquiry was made as to where Paul Czolgosz could be found, and also his son Leon, without giving a reason for the inquiry. The old man said his brother was in Cleveland, that he had heard from him occasionally, but he did not know what had become of Leon. He had kept track of some of the boys, but he denied any knowledge of where Leon was.

      When the interviewer started to return he asked the boys, who talk English well, if they had heard President McKinley was shot. One of them spoke up quickly, “Did Leon shoot him?” He was told there was a report current to that effect, to which the boy made no reply. An effort was made to resume the conversation, but they would answer no questions, nor would they ask any more questions of their father.

      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 СКАЧАТЬ