Assassination!: The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents (18 page)

Convinced that most Americans shared his conviction about would-be “third termers,” Schrank later told police he was surprised no one else had sought to stop Roosevelt before he did. As an unmarried man with no children, though, Schrank figured he might as well be the one to act. He went out the next day and purchased a .38 caliber Colt revolver.

In his attempts to get close enough to Roosevelt, Schrank followed him on the campaign trail, traveling through Charlestown, Augusta, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville, Evansville, Chicago, and finally, Milwaukee.

Around 7 PM on October 14, Schrank entered a saloon, bought the musicians there a round of drinks, and asked them to play “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He smiled and danced around a bit as they played. He treated them to a second round of drinks, then left the saloon just minutes before shooting Roosevelt.

A team of five psychiatrists determined that John Schrank was insane and not fit for trial. Upon hearing this, Schrank thanked each of the doctors, shook their hands, and told them that while he disagreed with their diagnosis, he felt they had done their best.

This polite and genial attitude continued the rest of his life. Schrank was committed to a prison hospital at Waupon, Wisconsin, where he was considered a model patient and nicknamed “Uncle John.” In thirty-one years there, he never received a visitor or letter. He died in 1943, at age sixty-seven.

Roosevelt recovered quickly. With votes split between the Progressives for Roosevelt and the Republicans for Taft, they both lost out to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who won the presidency with only 42 percent of the popular vote.

The bullet would stay in Roosevelt’s chest the rest of his life, where he claimed it never bothered him. After the election, the former president and his son Kermit embarked on an expedition to explore the River of Doubt in the Brazilian jungle.

Zangara grew to be only five feet tall, weighing 105 pounds. In his midteens he joined the Italian army but hated military life. By this point he had developed severe stomach pains that would cause him misery throughout his life.

By the end of his service, he blamed capitalists and corrupt government for his plight and decided he would kill Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III. Taking a pistol to a railroad depot, Zangara’s plot was thwarted when he could not get close enough to see the king over the tall guards in front of him.

Zangara then moved to the United States to live with an uncle in Paterson, New Jersey, and found work as a bricklayer. In 1929, he became a US citizen so that he would be eligible to join a union. He lived a solitary life and did not smoke, drink, date, or even socialize with others.

Despite the onset of the Great Depression, Zangara saved enough money to travel briefly to both Los Angeles and Panama. He then settled in Miami, where he occasionally supplemented his savings by betting on dog or horse races.

But nothing in life eased his constant suffering, and by early February 1933, running low on money, Zangara decided he’d had enough. He bought a gun in a pawnshop and decided he would go to Washington, DC, and kill President Herbert Hoover.