Harry Truman and the Puerto Rican Revolutionaries
Most people perceive the 1950s to be a calm and prosperous time. Americans were finally free of the Great Depression and optimism was quickly returning. However, not everyone was pleased with the status quo. There were some in Puerto Rico who resented American dominion over their island. Not a free country and not a state, Puerto Rico remained an American territory. A small minority of Puerto Ricans were upset enough at the lack of the island’s independence, as well as other perceived injustices, that they believed a grand gesture was needed.
In October of 1950, frustration over Puerto Rican sovereignty boiled over. Armed revolts sprang up across the country. The Puerto Rican National Guard swiftly put down the uprising with overwhelming force. News spread through the Puerto Rican community in New York where two men, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, decided that the uprisings needed to be followed up with an even greater act, which would focus the world’s attention on the Puerto Rican independence movement. The best way to achieve that goal was to kill the President of the United States.
Though they realized the plot would surely be suicidal, they concluded there would never be a better chance to assassinate a sitting President, as Harry Truman was temporarily living in the Blair House, while the White House was being renovated. Just days after the uprising, the two would-be assassins took a train to Washington D.C. After assessing the situation, they decided to act. Their murderous charge lasted only seconds but came within feet of their intended target before they were stopped.
Collazo, the lesser-skilled gunman, acted first. He walked up to a police officer, planning to shoot him in the back, only to point the gun, pull the trigger and watch as nothing happened. Collazo forgot to chamber his firearm. As the officer turned to see what was happening, Collazo shot him in the knee, effectively taking him out of the fight. Immediately, other officers converged on the scene shooting him multiple times. Collazo’s role ended less than a minute after it began, though he survived his wounds.
Torresola, bolder and with greater skill, got further. Sneaking up to Police Officer Leslie Coffelt, he struck the man multiple times in the torso, mortally wounding him. Next, Torresola shot another officer in the back and neck, leaving him for dead. Shockingly, the wounded officer had the presence of mind and strength of will to lock the doors leading to Truman’s location. Meanwhile, Officer Coffelt, while dying of his wounds, propped himself up and took one shot at Torresola, hitting him in the head, killing him instantly.
Though Truman was never in any immediate danger, in an interview many years later, he revealed: “I don’t know what those damn fools were thinking of. If they had waited about 10 minutes Mrs. Truman and I would have been walking down the front steps of Blair House and there’s no telling what might have happened.”