15. The Former President Who Saved the Life of His Would-Be Assassin
Teddy Roosevelt assured his Milwaukee Auditorium audience: “I give you my word, I do not care a rap about being shot; not a rap“. He then delivered a fiery speech that lasted for ninety minutes. A ninety-minute fiery speech, even as he had a bullet hole in his chest. The assassination had been attempted at 8 PM, as the former president got into an open-air car outside his hotel, and waved his hat at the crowd. Just then, the darkness was lit up by a flash from a .38 Colt revolver.
An aide grappled with the would-be assassin and prevented him from firing another shot, before the crowd joined in. The culprit was a nutjob Bavarian immigrant named John Flammang Schrank. He would have been lynched on the spot if Roosevelt had not intervened, and ordered: “Don’t hurt him. Bring him here. I want to see him. Roosevelt then asked Schrank “What did you do it for?” When Schrank said nothing, Teddy Roosevelt told the crowd to turn him over to the police.