The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt Part 31

A. Yes, sir.

Q. What you read about it then, did that rouse you up to anger at all?

A. Well, not exactly anger but I was getting more and more convinced that this man's ambitions is nothing else but a blow to McKinley's death and he wants to get a third term and he shouldn't have it, and that is all.

Q. When did you make up your mind to that--in August?

A. I made up my mind pretty much in August and then I was corroborated during the vision I had on the 14th day of September.

Q. When you say you made your mind up pretty much in August after the meeting of the party, what do you mean by that, that you thought of killing him then?

A. Yes, sir, I thought of killing him then.

Q. In August. Had you made any plans then to kill him?

A. No, I had made none until the 14th.

Q. And you thought then of doing this same thing?

A. I thought about it, yes, sir; although I was making up my mind as to how or whether I would do it and I thought about it.

Q. What time in August was that that you thought about it--just after you read in the papers?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. After the formation of the party?

A. After the formation of the party--wasn't that the 7th of August?

[Ill.u.s.tration: Schrank in County Jail.]

Q. What particular thing in the accounts of the papers impressed you at that time that gave you or caused you to make up your mind?

A. Nothing particular but simply the fact that he built the new party; that he was going to take a third term presidents.h.i.+p.

Q. Did you have any grip with you when you went to Chicago?

A. No, sir.

Q. You had no baggage when you went to that hotel?

A. I never had any baggage since I left it in Charleston.

Q. Bought no underwear?

A. Yes, I bought underwear, certainly, and I threw the old underwear away.

Mr. Zabel:

I think that is all.

CHAPTER XV.

REPORT OF THE ALIENISTS.

The report of the sanity commission follows:

To the Honorable A. C. Backus, Judge of the Munic.i.p.al Court of Milwaukee County:

Pursuant to your appointment of the undersigned on the 12th day of November, 1912, as a Commission to examine John Schrank with reference to his present mental condition, we respectfully submit our report.

This report consists of:

First: The examination of John Schrank with reference to his personal and family history, his present physical state, and his present mental state.

Second: Inquiry by means of data furnished by the New York Police Department, the Magistrate of Erding, Bavaria, reports furnished by the Milwaukee Police Department and other officials brought in contact with him, and certain doc.u.ments furnished by the defendant himself, and others found in his possession, some of which are herewith submitted as exhibits, duly numbered.

Third: Summary and conclusions arrived at.

PERSONAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.

Age 36. Single. Born in Erding, Bavaria, March 5, 1876. Father born in Bavaria, and mother born in Bavaria. Occupation, bar tender and saloonkeeper. No regular occupation in the last one and one-half years.

Education, common schools in Bavaria from the seventh to the twelfth year; three or four years in night school in New York, in English.

In early life a Roman Catholic; not a practical Catholic for the past 15 years.

His father died at the age of 38 of consumption; was a moderate drinker; the mother living at the age of 56 or 57. One brother and one sister living, in good health. One brother and one sister died in infancy.

A sister of mother insane, suffered from delusions of persecution; died of softening of the brain, so-called, in 1904, in Gabersee Asylum, Bavaria. Certified by Magistrate of Erding, Bavaria.

Patient states he was never seriously sick. Knows of no serious accident or injury. Never suffered from headaches.

Lived with grandparents from three to nine years of age; worked in a vegetable garden during that time, and then returned to parents.

HABITS.

Denies excesses; no use of tobacco until two years ago, never more than five or six cigars a day, average two or three cigars. Has generally taken about five pint bottles of beer in twenty-four hours, of late years. For two years, in 1902-1903, drank no intoxicants at all. He states he drank to slight excess at most half a dozen times a year.

Never used drugs of any kind. Denies all venereal diseases, and presents no physical evidence of them. His usual habit was to retire before 10 o'clock at night.

PRESENT PHYSICAL STATE.