32. The Attempted Assassination of Harry S. Truman
While President Truman was napping in the Blair House, Griselio Torresola approached the building from the west side. His partner, Oscar Collazo snuck up behind a Capitol police officer, Donald Birdzell, who was standing on the Blair House’s steps, and tried to shoot him in the back. However, the inexperienced Collazo had failed to chamber a round. He did so and fired just as Birdzell turned around, and hit him in the knee.
Hearing the gunshots, Secret Service agent Vincent Mroz rushed out of a separate Blair House entrance, and shot Collazo in the chest as he was climbing the steps. Two other Secret Service agents joined in, and exchanged fire with Collazo in what was described as “the biggest gunfight in Secret Service history“. In the meantime, Torresola had reached a guard booth, and shot White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt four times, mortally wounding him.