Truman Assassination Attempt - Aftermath

Aftermath

Coffelt's widow, Cressie E. Coffelt, was asked by President Truman and the Secretary of State to go to Puerto Rico, where she received condolences from various Puerto Rican leaders and crowds. Mrs. Coffelt responded with a speech absolving the island's people of blame for the acts of Collazo and Torresola.

Oscar Collazo was convicted in federal court and sentenced to death, which Truman commuted to a life sentence. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted Collazo's sentence to the time served, and the former revolutionary was released. He returned to live in Puerto Rico, where he died in 1994.

At the time of the assassination attempt, the FBI arrested Collazo's wife, Rosa, on suspicion of having conspired with her husband in the plan. She spent eight months in federal prison but did not go to trial. Upon her release, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from an execution.

Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rican independence, in 1952 Truman allowed a plebiscite in Puerto Rico to determine the status of its relationship to the U.S. The people voted 81.9% in favor of continuing as a Free Associated State, as established in 1950.