Assassin of President William McKinley. Born in 1873 in Detroit, Michigan, he was the fourth of six brothers and sisters of poor Polish immigrants. In 1880, they moved to Rogers City, Michigan. In 1881, the family moved to a house in Alpena. Two years later, they moved to Posen, but moved a year later back to Alpena when his mother died six weeks after giving birth to his sister Victoria when he was 10. At the age of sixteen, his family moved to Natrona, Pennsylvania after his father remarried where he worked in a glass factory. In 1890 they moved to Cleveland and Leon worked at a wire factory. Basically an introverted young man, he became interested in the plight of the working man, reading socialist and anarchist newspapers and magazines. When anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto I of Italy in 1900, he collected the newspaper articles, reading them over and over. In May 1901, he traveled to Chicago to hear famed anarchist Emma Goldman speak. The two talked briefly, and he met her again a few months later after her speech in Chicago. Other anarchists were suspicious of him, and some even thought he was a government spy on their organization. While in Chicago, he read that President William McKinley would visit the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 3, 1901, he purchased a gun, and three days later, while President McKinley was in a receiving line at the Exposition's Temple of Music, Czolgosz walked up to him, firing two shots. One shot hit the President in the chest; the other in the abdomen. The chest wound proved superficial, but the abdomen wound hit his stomach and kidney, and President McKinley died on September 14. Leon Czolgosz was immediately caught, and, after the death of the President tried and found guilty of the killing. The assassination set off a huge anarchist scare across the nation, and Emma Goldman was arrested (quietly released a few days later), even though Czolgosz always stated that he worked alone. Before his execution in the electric chair, his last words were "I killed the President because he was an enemy of the good people - the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

Assassin of President William McKinley. Born in 1873 in Detroit, Michigan, he was the fourth of six brothers and sisters of poor Polish immigrants. In 1880, they moved to Rogers City, Michigan. In 1881, the family moved to a house in Alpena. Two years later, they moved to Posen, but moved a year later back to Alpena when his mother died six weeks after giving birth to his sister Victoria when he was 10. At the age of sixteen, his family moved to Natrona, Pennsylvania after his father remarried where he worked in a glass factory. In 1890 they moved to Cleveland and Leon worked at a wire factory. Basically an introverted young man, he became interested in the plight of the working man, reading socialist and anarchist newspapers and magazines. When anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto I of Italy in 1900, he collected the newspaper articles, reading them over and over. In May 1901, he traveled to Chicago to hear famed anarchist Emma Goldman speak. The two talked briefly, and he met her again a few months later after her speech in Chicago. Other anarchists were suspicious of him, and some even thought he was a government spy on their organization. While in Chicago, he read that President William McKinley would visit the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 3, 1901, he purchased a gun, and three days later, while President McKinley was in a receiving line at the Exposition's Temple of Music, Czolgosz walked up to him, firing two shots. One shot hit the President in the chest; the other in the abdomen. The chest wound proved superficial, but the abdomen wound hit his stomach and kidney, and President McKinley died on September 14. Leon Czolgosz was immediately caught, and, after the death of the President tried and found guilty of the killing. The assassination set off a huge anarchist scare across the nation, and Emma Goldman was arrested (quietly released a few days later), even though Czolgosz always stated that he worked alone. Before his execution in the electric chair, his last words were "I killed the President because he was an enemy of the good people - the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson