Leon Czolgosz Revolutionary Assassin

Leon Czolgosz was inspired to shoot and kill President William McKinley by Emma Goldman and other anarchists. At the beginning of the 20th Century leaders of France and Italy had been murdered by anarchists whose philosophy was similar to that of Czolgosz. Leon's family immigrated to the United States from Polish Germany in the late 19th Century. They settled first in Alpena and Detroit before coming to Cleveland. Paul Czolgosz, Leon's father and the head of the family, was a saloon keeper for a time. He also owned a farm that was just outside of Cleveland. Leon Czolgosz's revolutionary ideas were intensified after he took part in a failed strike at the Newburgh Wire Mill in Cleveland in 1893. Soon after this he left the factory and came to live at his dad's farm where he was idle much of the time. After McKinley's assassination it was reported that Czolgosz immersed himself in revolutionary literature. He also tortured animals and was unkind to family members.