Video: 'The Man Who Murdered McKinley: Leon Czolgosz'

(Tuesday, September 24, 1901, 4:20 p.m. EST, during the Assassination of William McKinley) — Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who shot U.S. President William McKinley twice in Buffalo, New York, on Sept. 6, 1901, was found guilty of McKinley’s murder (he died Sept. 14, 1901) this afternoon following a trial and deliberation that lasted a total of 8 hours and 26 minutes.

Czolgosz went on trial for the murder of McKinley in state court in Buffalo on Sept. 23, 1901, just nine days after the president died. Prosecution testimony took two days and consisted principally of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting.

Defense attorney Loran L. Lewis and his co-counsel called no witnesses, which Lewis in his closing argument attributed to Czolgosz’s refusal to cooperate with them. In his 27-minute address to the jury, Lewis took pains to praise President McKinley; Miller notes that the closing argument was more calculated to defend the attorney’s “place in the community, rather than an effort to spare his client the electric chair”.

At 3:52 p.m., the jury retired for deliberations, and the announcement that they had reached a verdict came 28 minutes later. Jury foreman Henry W. Wendt announced the verdict at 4:26 p.m..

Two days later, on Sept. 26, 1901, Czolgosz was sentenced to die in the electric chair, with the execution scheduled for the week of Oct. 28, 1901.