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Lesser Known But Intriguing Historic Criminals

Khalid Elhassan October 17, 2019 32 min

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History - Crime

3. Roosevelt’s Miraculous Escape

The speech that saved TR’s life. History Channel

After getting shot by John Flammang Schrank, Teddy Roosevelt reached inside his shirt and felt around, until he encountered a dime-sized hole. TR told an aide “He pinked me “. He then coughed into his hand a few times, and seeing no blood, determined that his lung had not been pierced. TR then directed that he be driven to the Milwaukee Auditorium, to address the waiting audience.

Roosevelt’s hefty speech, squeezed into his jacket pocket, had combined with a glass case and a dense overcoat to slow Schrank’s bullet. It was later recovered lodged against his fourth rib, on a trajectory to his heart. As to Schrank, he shot TR because the assassinated president William McKinley had urged Schrank in a dream to avenge him by killing his vice president and successor, TR. Schrank was found legally insane, and institutionalized until his death in 1943.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.