Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman
The assassination attempt on Harry S. Truman occurred on November 1, 1950. It was perpetrated by two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, while the President resided at the Blair-Lee House. The attempt left one White House police officer and one assassin dead, while President Truman was not harmed.
Background
In the 1940s, Puerto Rican nationalists were increasingly angered by what they viewed as great injustices towards Puerto Rico, including the Ponce Massacre, the alleged extra-judicial murders of certain nationalists, the jailing of Pedro Albizu Campos for his advocacy of violent resistance, and the impending change of Puerto Rico's status from a non-autonomous territory to a partially self-governing commonwealth. They viewed Puerto Rico as a colony demanding independence.
Griselio Torresola came from a family which believed in the Puerto Rican independence cause, while Oscar Collazo had been participating in the movement since childhood. They met in New York City amd became good friends. On October 28 1950, they received the news that the Jayuya Uprising, led by the nationalist Blanca Canales in Puerto Rico, had failed. Torresola's sister had been wounded and his brother Elio was arrested. Collazo and Torresola then decided to assassinate President Truman with the intention of bringing world attention to the independence cause of Puerto Rico.
The attempt
Torresola walked up Pennsylvania Avenue from the west side while his partner, Oscar Collazo, engaged Secret Service agents and White House policemen with his Walther P38 pistol from the east. Torresola approached a guard booth at the west corner of the Blair-Lee House, and noted an officer, Private Leslie Coffelt, sitting inside.
Torresola, in a double handed, isosceles shooting stance, quickly pivoted from left to right around the opening of the booth. Coffelt was taken completely by surprise, as tourists often stopped at the box to ask for information. Torresola fired four shots from his 9 mm German Luger semi-automatic pistol at close range at Coffelt. Three of the shots struck Coffelt in the chest and abdomen, and the fourth went through his policeman's tunic. Coffelt slumped down in his chair, mortally wounded.
Torresola then turned his attention to plainclothes White House policeman Joseph Downs. Downs, who had just paused to chat with Coffelt, proceeded down the walkway to the basement door at the west end of the Blair-Lee house when he heard shots being fired. Downs noticed Torresola, but was shot once in the hip before he could draw his weapon. Downs turned back towards the house, and was shot twice more by Torresola, once in the back and once in the neck. Downs staggered to the basement door, opened it, slid in, and then slammed the door behind him, denying Torresola entry into the Blair-Lee House.
Torresola then turned his attention to the shoot-out between his partner, Collazo, and several other law enforcement officers. Torresola noted wounded policeman Donald Birdzell aiming at Collazo from the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Torresola aimed and shot Birdzell in the left knee from a distance of approximately 40 feet. Collazo was later wounded in the chest.
Torresola realized he was out of ammunition. He stood to the immediate left of the Blair House steps while he reloaded. At the same time, President Truman, who had been taking a nap in his second-floor bedroom, awoke to the sound of gunfire outside. President Truman went to his bedroom window, opened it, and looked outside. From where he stood reloading, Torresola was thirty-one feet away from that window. It is unknown whether either man saw the other. Other officers ordered Truman away from the window.
At the same time, the mortally-wounded Coffelt staggered out of his guard booth, leaned against it, and aimed his revolver at Torresola, who was approximately 30 feet away. Coffelt squeezed the trigger and fired, hitting Torresola two inches above the ear on a slight upward angle and blowing out a portion of his brain. Torresola was killed instantly. Coffelt would succumb to his wounds in a hospital four hours later.
If Torresola had gone up the steps and entered the door of the Blair-Lee House, he would have been met by a Secret Service Agent with a Thompson submachine gun. Torresola would have undoubtedly been killed at that point. Coffelt's final supreme effort made that unnecessary.
The gunfight involving Torresola lasted approximately 20 seconds, while the gunfight with Collazo lasted approximately 40 seconds.
Aftermath
Coffelt's wife, Cressie E. Coffelt, was later asked by the President and the Secretary of State to go to Puerto Rico, where she received condolences and expressions of sorrow from various Puerto Rican leaders and crowds. Mrs. Coffelt responded with a speech absolving the island's people of blame for the acts of Collazo and Torresola. A plaque at the Lee-Blair House commemorates Coffelt's sacrifice, heroism, and fidelity to his duty and his country. The day room for the U.S. Secret Service's Uniformed Division at the Blair-Lee House is named for Coffelt as well.
Oscar Collazo was sentenced to death, which was later commuted by Truman to a life sentence. Pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, Collazo was released and went back to Puerto Rico. He died in 1994. His wife, Rosa, was also arrested by the F.B.I. on suspicion of having conspired with her husband in the attempt, and spent eight months in federal prison. Upon her release from prison, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from the electric chair.
References
- Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr., "American Gunfight: The Plot To Kill Harry Truman - And The Shoot-Out That Stopped It", Simon & Schuster (2005), ISBN 0-7432-6068-6.
- “Off The Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman”, Edited by Robert H. Ferrell, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1980, pp. 198-99
