Publication information |
Source: Daily Picayune Source type: newspaper Document type: article Document title: “Czolgosz’s Confederate” Author(s): anonymous City of publication: New Orleans, Louisiana Date of publication: 8 September 1901 Volume number: 65 Issue number: 227 Part/Section: 1 Pagination: 8 |
Citation |
“Czolgosz’s Confederate.” Daily Picayune 8 Sept. 1901 v65n227: part 1, p. 8. |
Transcription |
full text |
Keywords |
McKinley assassination (investigation of conspiracy); John J. Geary (public statements); Leon Czolgosz (incarceration: Buffalo, NY); Leon Czolgosz; Leon Czolgosz (confession). |
Named persons |
Leon Czolgosz; John J. Geary; Emma Goldman; William McKinley; Thomas Penney. |
Document |
Czolgosz’s Confederate
The Police Positive That He Had an Accomplice.
Buffalo, Sept. 7.—Although Czolgosz refused to
incriminate any one else in the plot to kill Mr. McKinley, the police are of
the opinion that another man is a party to it. The man is the one who walked
directly in front of Czolgosz, and shielded him from the sight of the secret
service men. The police have a good description of him, and his arrest may occur
at any moment.
There is no doubt, according to the police, that
this man was an accomplice of Czolgosz.
Two or three suspects were picked up in various
parts of the city to-night, but they were released after undergoing an examination,
each one proving an alibi.
Czolgosz does not appear to be insane. Detective
Sergeant John Geary, who stood a few feet from Czolgosz when he fired the shots,
and who caught President McKinley when he fell, was asked whether, in his opinion,
Czolgosz was insane.
“He may be,” said the detective, “but from all
I saw of him, he is just an anarchist.”
Czolgosz is not above the average height. His
face is that of a typical German. He arose at an early hour this morning, and
ate a hearty breakfast.
He appears to be very nervous, and starts suddenly
when any one speaks to him. He proves to be very elusive in answering questions,
however. The police worked over him until a late hour last night, and they admitted
that very little progress had been made in bringing out facts from him regarding
his past history.
To a reporter, District Attorney Penney gave the
substance of Czolgosz’s confession, as follows:
This man has admitted shooting the president.
He says he intended to kill; that he had been planing to do it for the last
three days. He went into the Temple of Music with murder in his heart, intending
to shoot to kill. He fixed up his hand by tieing a handkerchief around it, and
waited his turn to get near the president. When he got directly in front of
the president, he fired. He says he had no confederate; that he was entirely
alone in the planning and execution of this diabolical act.
He says that he is a believer in the theories
propounded by Emma Goldman, whom he heard lecture several times. He also intimates
that he does not believe in our form of government, and, therefore, that he
deemed it his duty to get rid of the president.
This, in substance, is the confession of Leon
Czolgosz, who is a German-Pole and says his home is in the vicinity of Cleveland,
O. He is twenty-eight years old, unmarried, and has seven brothers and two sisters
living there. He worked for a time in the wire works at Newark, O. He exhibits
no sign of remorse, and, aside from his nervousness, acts as if he had done
what he considered a praiseworthy, instead of a dastardly act.