Who assassinated United States President William McKinley?

William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. He was shaking hands with the public when anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him twice in the abdomen. McKinley died on September 14 of gangrene caused by the wounds.

He was the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. McKinley enjoyed meeting the public and was reluctant to accept the security available to his office.

Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism, a political philosophy adhered to by recent assassins of foreign leaders. He regarded McKinley as a symbol of oppression and was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. He was unable to get near the President during an earlier visit, but he shot him twice as McKinley reached to shake his hand in the reception line at the temple. One bullet grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found.

He initially appeared to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse and he died early the next morning September 13th; he was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz was sentenced to death in the electric chair.