Saturday, November 1, 2014 This Day In American History Account #1 On November 1, 1950, an assassination attempt was made on President Harry Truman. During the autumn of 1950, renovations were made to the White House, and President Truman and his family had to live in the Blair House, which is nearby on Pennsylvania Avenue. On the 1st of November,Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, two political activists from the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, a radical group that was fighting for independence from the U.S., saw an opportunity. This temporary presidential residence surely would not have the security that the White House contained. At 2:00 in the afternoon, the assailants launched their attack on the Blair House. The two men simply walked up to the house and began firing at the guards, who were standing near the steps of the building. As soon as shots were fired, Secret Service agents and police reacted quickly and streamed into the area. Large amounts of gunfire were exchanged between the two sides, and when the smoke cleared, Secret Service Agent Leslie Coffelt lay mortally wounded and one of Trumans attackers, Griselio Torresola, lay dead. President Truman was shockingly unfazed by the whole event, going about the rest of his day normally, saying, A President has to expect these things. Account #2 On This Day: Puerto Rican Nationalists Attempt to Assassinate President Harry Truman On Nov. 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, tried to assassinate President Truman in hopes of bringing their country closer to independence. Assassination Attempt Fails Puerto Rico had been in a state of contention with the U.S. for almost half a century. Unhappy with their status as citizens of a commonwealth, Puerto Rican nationalists demanded independence and resorted to violent measures to attain it. In October 1950, Bronx, N.Y., residents Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, members of Puerto Rico’s Nationalist Party, decided to assassinate President Harry Truman to draw attention to their cause. Shortly after 2:00 p.m on Nov. 1 the two men approached from opposite directions to the Blair-Lee House, where President Truman was living while the White House underwent renovation. They planned to shoot their way inside to the president, but never made it past the front door. Secret Service agents intercepted Collazo and Torresola’s bullets, keeping Truman safe from harm. However, when the gunfire subsided, both Torresola and White House guard Leslie Coffelt lay dead at the steps of Blair-Lee House. Tucked inside Torresola’s jacket, officials found a letter from Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos. He had urged Torresola to “assume the leadership of the movement in the United States” and to do so “without hesitation of any kind.” Collazo spent the next 29 years in prison, and the attempt to assassinate Truman brought Puerto Rico no closer to autonomy. More Background Information: When the Spanish-American War drew to a close in 1898, Puerto Rico was annexed to the United States. It was given the right to elect its own governor but could not participate in presidential elections. From the start, the political climate of the island was one of unrest. Puerto Rico’s Republican Party wanted statehood, but the Union Party favored greater autonomy. The Nationalist Party gained power in the 1920s and worked for immediate independence. Meanwhile, the Socialist Party was focused on the laboring classes of Puerto Rico, advocating for autonomy rather than independence. Leading up to the assassination attempt of 1950, violence was building in Puerto Rico. Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard-educated orator, rallied the island’s nationalists and advocated violence as the most effective means of achieving independence. According to Time magazine, “After President Roosevelts visit in 1934, he [Campos] shrieked: ‘Cowards, you should have received Roosevelt with bullets but you greeted him with flowers.’” Nationalists did not back down after the assassination attempt failed. Continued attacks in San Juan and Washington left a total of 32 people dead. In 1954, nationalists opened fire on the House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. Later Developments: FALN Presidential Assassinations 1865: Abraham Lincoln 1881: James Garfield 1901: William McKinley 1950: Harry S. Truman (Failed) 1963: John F. Kennedy 1975: Gerald Ford (Failed) 1981: Ronald Reagan (Failed) For the latter half of the 20th century, the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) fought for complete independence. The group was responsible for more than 120 bomb attacks between 1974 and 1983, and in the 1980s, members were sentenced to “extensive prison terms.” In 1999, President Clinton was criticized for offering clemency to members of FALN, which the FBI recognizes as a terrorist organization, under the condition that they renounce all acts of violence. Key Player: Oscar Collazo Collazo, the gunman who had survived the shoot-out at Blair House, was sentenced to death but his verdict was changed to life in prison just one week before his scheduled execution. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted his sentence and Collazo was released. He returned to Puerto Rico a national hero and continued to fight for Puerto Rico’s independence. A Description of the Assassination Attempt on President Harry Truman - Blow-by-Blow November 1, 1950 attack on the Blair House President Harry Truman resided in the Blair House (Across from the White House) while the interior of the White House was completely gutted and rebuilt. Puerto Rican terrorist Griselio Torresola walked up Pennsylvania Avenue from the west side while his partner, Oscar Collazo, walked up to Capitol 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 officers back, and pulled the trigger; but since he had failed to chamber a round in it, nothing happened. After pounding on his pistol and fumbling around with it, Collazo managed to chamber and fire the weapon just as Birdzell was turning to face him, striking the officer in his right knee. Nearby, Secret Service Special Agent Floyd Boring and White House Police officer Joseph Davidson heard the shot and opened fire on Collazo with their service revolvers. It was later said that Boring stood back and cocked the hammer on his revolver to make accurate shots, while most of the other officers fired double-action, as quickly as they could. Collazo returned fire but 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 saw police officer Leslie Coffelt, sitting inside. In a double-handed shooting stance, Torresola quickly pivoted around the opening of the booth. 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 also incapacitated 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. At that same moment, 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 and hit Torresola two inches above the ear, killing him instantly. Coffelt was taken to the hospital and died four hours later It is unknown whether Torresola saw Truman, when the president opened and looked out his window. If Torresola did see him, then officer Coffelt may have saved Trumans life, and sacrificed his own life in doing so. 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. In a letter to his cousin, Ethel Noland, dated November 17, 1950, President Truman wrote: Im sorry I didn’t get to talk to you and (cousin) Nellie at the dinner or after it. But Im really a prisoner now. Everybody is much more worried and jittery than I am. Ive always thought that if I could get my hands on a would-be assassin hed never try it again. But I guess thats impossible. The grand guards who were hurt in the attempt on me didnt have a fair chance. The one who was killed was just cold bloodedly murdered before he could do anything. But his assassin did not live but a couple of minutes – one of the S.S. (Secret Service) men put a bullet in one ear and it came out the other. I stuck my head out the upstairs window to see what was going on. One of the guards yelled, Get back. I did, then dressed and went downstairs. I was the only calm one in the house. You see, Ive been shot at by experts and unless your names on the bullet you neednt be afraid – and that of course you cant find out, so why worry. The S.S. chief said to me, Mr. President, dont you know that when theres an Air Raid Alarm you dont run out and look up, you go for cover. I saw the point but it was over then. Hope it wont happen again. They wont let me go walking or even cross the street on foot. I say they wont, but it causes them so much anguish that I conform – a hard thing for a Truman to do as you know, particularly when he could force them to do as he wants. But I want no more guards killed.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:58:47 +0000
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