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The Alle-Kiski Valley’s legacy has been blessed with brave pioneers and military heroes, prosperous business owners, inventors and successful political leaders, civic leaders and athletes.

And then … there’s Leon Czolgosz.

Czolgosz, who spent several years as a teenager working in a Natrona glass factory, shot President William McKinley on Sept. 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, N.Y.

The 25th president died eight days later, and Czolgosz was executed Oct. 29 at New York’s Auburn Prison.

Czolgosz’s family had emigrated from Poland. Czolgosz (pronounced chowl-gash), who was born May 5, 1873, in the Detroit area, was brought to the Natrona section of Harrison by relatives to work in one of the factories. He lived on Sycamore Street.

Czolgosz later became active in the anarchist movement, particularly radicalized by the works of anarchist Emma Goldman.

After leaving Natrona, he got a job in a Cleveland rolling mill.

Watching the economic crash of 1893, the factory closed and later tried to reduce wages, resulting in a strike by the workers. The economic conditions of the time caused Czolgosz to seek others who shared his beliefs.

After the assassination of King Umberto I in Italy, Czolgosz heard a speech by Goldman in Cleveland and decided McKinley should suffer the same fate as his Italian counterpart.

On Sept. 2, 1901, Czolgosz bought a .32-caliber Ivan Johnson revolver for $4.50 in Buffalo. It was the same type of gun the assassin used on King Umberto.

He headed for the exposition hall four days later and entered a receiving line for McKinley.

Czolgosz covered the gun with a handkerchief. The tradition at the time was for people to greet the president with a bare hand, but McKinley’s security detail figured the handkerchief was covering a deformity.

When McKinley offered to shake Czolgosz’s left hand, the assailant shot the president twice at point-blank range. Onlookers and security people tackled Czolgosz immediately and detained him.

Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was on vacation at the time in the Adirondack Mountains and was rushed to Buffalo.

It appeared as though McKinley might survive his wounds, however, and Roosevelt returned to his camping trip. But gangrene set in, and McKinley died Sept. 14.

Czolgosz was quickly tried in an Erie County, N.Y., court and sentenced to death 45 days later in the Auburn Prison electric chair.

The assassination was the first big news story of the 20th century, much like the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were the first big story of the 21st century.

It was the third U.S. presidential assassination in 36 years, following the killing of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James Garfield in 1881.

McKinley was just four months into his second presidential term.

The Secret Service, an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department, was formed in 1865 to detect counterfeit paper money and coins.

They protected presidents on a limited basis.

After the McKinley assassination, the Secret Service began protecting presidents 24/7.

Following the assassination of presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson expanded Secret Service protection to presidential candidates.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies, the Secret Service became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

George Guido is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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