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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Books by Elizabeth Camden
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Historical Note
  46. Questions for Discussion
  47. In 2021, look for Luke Delacroix’s story in
  48. About the Author
  49. Back Ads
  50. Back Cover

President McKinley’s assassination sparked wholesale changes in the system of protection surrounding the president. There were more than a hundred police officers and Secret Service agents on duty when President McKinley was shot at the Temple of Music. James Parker was the African-American Pullman porter who tackled the gunman and is credited with making the third shot miss the president.

Leon Czolgosz immediately confessed to the shooting and claimed to have worked alone. Over a dozen well-known anarchists were arrested in the days following the shooting, but they were ultimately released due to insufficient evidence of collusion. Czolgosz was convicted in a two-day trial, sentenced to death, and executed by electrocution a mere forty-five days following McKinley’s death.

George Cortelyou served as personal secretary to three presidents: Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and briefly for Theodore Roosevelt. He later served as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, US Postmaster General, and Secretary of the Treasury.

John Wilkie was a journalist who became the unconventional choice to head the Secret Service from 1898–1911. Following McKinley’s assassination, Wilkie and George Cortelyou worked to revamp presidential security, including protection for the president’s family, which until McKinley’s assassination was not authorized. The Secret Service’s budget, staffing, and procedures were increased, and they kept the president safe until the assassination of John F. Kennedy sixty-two years later.

Questions for Discussion