The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt Part 10

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that the sheriff of Milwaukee county is hereby ordered to convey the said John Schrank to the said Northern Hospital for Insane, near Oshkosh, in the county of Winnebago, state of Wisconsin, and there to deliver him to the superintendent thereof and the said superintendent is hereby ordered and directed to receive the said John Schrank as an inmate of said hospital and there to keep him until he has recovered from such insanity, when he shall be returned to this court for further proceedings as provided by law."

Schrank expressed the keenest disappointment both on the report of the insanity commission and also on the judgment of the court.

"Why didn't they give me my medicine right away, instead of making me wait," he exclaimed bitterly as he was led to the county jail. "I did it, and I am willing to stand the consequences of my act.

"I want to say now that I am sane, and know what I am doing all the time. I am not a lunatic, and never was one."

Schrank offered no defense. Before the judgment of the court was p.r.o.nounced he was asked if he had any statement to make.

"I have nothing to say," he said clearly.

While Judge Backus was reading the judgment, Schrank sat with bowed head. His fingers twitched nervously, but otherwise he gave no outward sign. As the deputy sheriffs led him away, he stopped and insisted upon shaking hands with each one of the five alienists.

Although Schrank was not called to the witness stand during the inquisition yesterday afternoon, District Attorney W. C. Zabel introduced testimony to show Schrank's every movement in Milwaukee, from the time he arrived until the time he shot Col. Roosevelt.

This testimony tended to show that Schrank "filled up" on beer just before he committed the act, although each of the witnesses insisted that he was not intoxicated at the time he did the shooting. One policeman said that he was dazed, but was not intoxicated.

The testimony showed that Schrank spent the early part of the evening he shot Col. Roosevelt in the saloon of Herman Rollfink, 215 Third street, where he posed as a newspaper man "out on an investigating trip."

"Schrank came into the saloon at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and drank five or six beers," testified Paul Thume, a bartender. "He told me he was a newspaper man, and to prove it, he pointed to the newspapers in his pockets.

"We got to talking, and I told him I was going out west to earn some money. He advised me to go south to make money. He wanted a place to room, but when I recommended a room for $1 a day, he kicked. Said he was willing to pay 75 cents.

"He came in again at 7 o'clock in the evening and we talked some more.

He then asked the bar musicians to play some song, something with stripes in it, and then he bought each one a drink."

For the first time during the hearing, Schrank smiled. It started in a broad smile, and then extended until it covered his entire face. It developed that he asked the musicians to play the "Star Spangled Banner," which the bartender described as a song having "stripes" in it.

Schrank left the saloon only a few minutes before he did the shooting, after having again treated all to drinks.

The testimony of the barkeeper was substantiated by two musicians, Frank Galk and James Crawford, who said that Schrank danced around while they were playing.

Herman Rollfink told how he jumped on Schrank after the shooting and blocked the door to the kitchen in the hotel after Schrank had been carried in there.

Capt. Alfred O. Girard said:

"I saw Schrank in the crowd just as I was getting into Col. Roosevelt's automobile. I saw him as he raised the gun up between two men. I saw the flash, and almost simultaneously, I sprang upon him. After taking him into the hotel, we searched him, but found no other weapons."

Three policemen were placed on the stand as witnesses, and each one insisted that he was not detailed to service there, but had been attracted to the spot by the crowd.

This tended to show that Col. Roosevelt had no police protection while he was in Milwaukee.

Robert M. Lenten, clerk at the Argyle hotel, recognized Schrank as the guest who signed his name as Albert Ross.

"He came to the hotel about 10:15 Sunday night and I a.s.signed him to room No. 1," he said. "He did not act unusual, and we talked as I showed him to his room. The room is right above the Milwaukee river, so I told him he had better keep away from the window, if he didn't want to fall into the 'Wabash.' That's the name we give to the river."

This struck Schrank as funny and he laughed again.

The report of the alienists was filed with the court just before 10 o'clock in the morning. It included fifty pages of typewritten matter, and its reading consumed nearly two hours. After the report was read, the alienists were placed on the stand and questioned by the district attorney.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Judge August C. Backus.]

Schrank listened to the reading of the report without the slightest sign of interest, until the clerk read the findings p.r.o.nouncing him insane.

Schrank was taken to the Northern Hospital for the Insane, Oshkosh, by Deputy Sheriff Richard Muldenhauer and Fred Becker, bookkeeper in the sheriffs office, on the morning of November 25, at 11 o'clock.

The three left the sheriffs office in an automobile shortly before 11 o'clock and arrived at the Chicago & Northwestern depot, Milwaukee, a few minutes before train time.

Before leaving the jail Schrank asked for the sheriff and thanked him for his kindness during his confinement in the county jail. He also shook hands with Jailer Adam Roth and deputies who have been with him during the trial.

Schrank's duties at the Northern Hospital for the Insane and are light and remain so until the physicians of the hospital have had ample time to observe him.

CHAPTER XI.

SHOWS REPENTANCE BUT ONCE.

Although Schrank's bail finally was fixed at $15,000, bail would not have been accepted. This was announced by District Attorney Zabel. One of the several reasons for raising the bail was that motion picture men had planned to pay Schrank's bail and secure his release long enough to once again go through the shooting for the purpose of making a motion picture film of the event.

"I absolutely refused to sanction such a thing," said the district attorney. "It is bad enough to have it happen once without perpetuating the deed by enacting it once again for the motion picture men.

"I do not begrudge the earning of the motion picture men. What I object to is the demoralizing effect such a picture film would have. It would tend to make a hero out of this man, and I don't propose that the young shall be allowed to wors.h.i.+p him as a hero.

"I understand, however, that a motion picture concern, when it found how we had frustrated its attempts to secure an actual picture of Schrank actually reproduced a scene of taking Schrank from the county jail to the city hall by palming off another man who resembles Schrank.

"In order to reproduce a scene of taking him from the jail, they picked out a building that resembled the jail, the Ivanhoe temple. They reproduced Schrank emerging from the 'jail' between two bogus deputy sheriffs. Later some one told me the same performance was repeated at the city hall to convey the impression that the would-be slayer was being taken into the city hall and up to the courtrooms."

During the time Schrank was confined in jail he showed signs of repentance but once, that was on Sunday, October 24, when religious services were conducted in the jail.

The Rev. Mr. Cavanam, a traveling evangelist, started the services shortly after 10 o'clock. Schrank, who a week before refused to attend services conducted by Christian Endeavorers, was one of the first to appear when a hymn was started.

At the close of the sermon Schrank turned away and walked to his cell with head bowed. He entered the cell and fell on his knees alongside his cot. Several of the prisoners who had been walking up and down the corridor stopped in amazement on seeing Schrank on his knees, but quietly walked away until he had finished.

When Miss Alice Evans, a soloist, sang a song, Schrank reappeared, and the prisoners noticed a happy look on his face which had not been visible before during his imprisonment. After the religious people had left the jail Schrank mingled more than had been his wont with the other prisoners, and seemed to be in high spirits.

When Gustave Struber delivered an address to the prisoners in German Schrank appeared to be one of the most attentive hearers, and shook hands with the speaker before he left the jail.

There is nothing about Schrank which portrays the human fiend.

On the contrary, he is a very ordinary type. There are hundreds of thousands men of his very type, and who are peaceable citizens.

The only way that Schrank differs from other men is in mind. He undoubtedly is a degenerate possessing a depraved and diseased mind, but there is nothing in his physical make-up that would brand him as such.

Police Chief John T. Janssen, student of human nature, penetratingly studied and measured the man's features for hours during examinations, and arrived at the conclusion that the man was suffering from a condition of mind known as paranoia, p.r.o.nounced the most dangerous form of insanity.