President Roosevelt Shot – Gunman Prompted by a Ghost

October 14, 1912

Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is shot in the chest by John Schrank in Milwaukee. Roosevelt, who served as President from 1901 to 1909, was running for reelection. Schrank claimed that he was told in a dream by the ghost of William McKinley, who was pointing to a picture of Roosevelt, to kill Roosevelt to avenge McKinley’s death and as a warning to those who’d run for three terms as President. Schrank was later declared insane and institutionalized for the remainder of his life. Roosevelt was on the way to deliver a speech when shot. The bullet was deflected by his eyeglasses and a 50-page copy of his speech he was carrying in his jacket. Despite the wound, he insisted on delivering his speech before being taken to the hospital. Roosevelt completed his 90-minute speech with blood seeping through his shirt, opening with, “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet – there is where the bullet went through – and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.” Doctors determined it would be too dangerous to remove the bullet, so Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.