An Odd President-Elect
Most men if they’re being shot at, or have been shot at, are going to try to get as far away as possible, especially politicians. Or at least that is what you’d assume they’d do. After all, even in the 1930s, politicians had a reputation as self-serving, arrogant men.
Moreover, the Secret Service’s first rule is to get the President out of the line of fire as quickly as possible. In fact, after preventing danger altogether, their only rule might be to get the President out of harm’s way quickly.
That isn’t what happened in this case. Instead, once the shooting was over, and Zangara was in custody, FDR ordered the car that he had given the speech in to pick up the wounded and rush them to the hospital. He cradled Cermak’s head on his shoulder and kept the man talking, which doctors claimed prevented Cermak from going into shock. Roosevelt then spent several hours at the hospital, visiting each of the wounded. He returned again the following day.
Now, if you’re cynical, you might suspect that this was all just a politician taking advantage of a tragedy to further his “good guy” image, and it might be, no one will ever know for sure. Or it might just be that FDR was a good man who felt for the people who were injured by a man who wanted to kill him, but had missed his mark.
There are many reasons that people have used to attempt to kill the President. Most of them, sadly, seem to be disassociated with reality in some form or another. Zangara blamed FDR, and in fact all capitalists, for his stomach problems, and begged for the death penalty at his arraignment.
It wasn’t until March 6, 1933 when Cermak succumbed to his wounds that Zangara’s original 80-year sentence was changed to death by electrocution.
During the Great Depression, there was a lot of pressure on FDR to get things right. Even though he hadn’t taken office yet, it isn’t hard to imagine that the pressure of trying to take the nation out of the worst economic crisis ever weighed heavily on FDR’s mind. Yet, he still took the time to help save the lives of people who were injured simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Political stunt or not, it is not something you can imagine many of today’s politicians doing (or even being able to do because of the Secret Service).