Notorious figures / City history
Leon Czolgosz
1873–1901 · anarchist, assassin of President William McKinley
Detroit-born wireworker and anarchist who shot President William McKinley in Buffalo in 1901; his birth in the city is his main tie to Detroit.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Auburn Prison, Auburn, New York
aged 28- Birth name
- Leon Frank Czolgosz
- Detroit years
- 1873–mid-1870s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Leon Czolgosz was born in Detroit on May 5, 1873, the fourth of eight children of Polish immigrant parents who had come to the city in search of work. The family did not stay long: by the mid-1870s they had moved to northern Michigan, living in Rogers City, Alpena and the Polish farming settlement of Posen, before heading on to Pennsylvania and the Cleveland area. There Czolgosz worked in wire mills, lost his job in the Panic of 1893 and drifted toward anarchism, influenced in part by a speech by Emma Goldman. On September 6, 1901, he shot President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo; the president died eight days later. Czolgosz was tried within weeks and executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901. His Detroit chapter is short, but he remains one of the most widely known people born in the city.
Highlights
- Born in Detroit on May 5, 1873, to Polish immigrant parents
- Shot President McKinley in Buffalo on September 6, 1901
- McKinley's death on September 14, 1901, made Theodore Roosevelt president
- Executed at Auburn Prison, New York, on October 29, 1901