Truman Assassination Attempt
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| Newsreel scenes in English of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S Truman | |
On November 1, 1950, would-be assassins Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, Nationalists who supported independence for Puerto Rico by the United States, attacked officers at the Blair House in order to assassinate President Truman. He was living there because of a major renovation at the White House was under renovation for structural problems.
Torresola approached from the west side while Collazo engaged Secret Service agents and White House policemen from the east. Torresola approached the guard booth at the west corner of the Blair House and fired at Coffelt from close range. His three shots struck Coffelt in the chest and abdomen, mortally wounding him. A fourth shot passed through the policeman's tunic.
Torresola shot two other policemen before running out of ammunition, then moved to the left of the Blair House steps to reload. Coffelt went out of his booth and fired at Torresola from 31 feet away, hitting him behind the ear and killing him instantly. Coffelt limped back to the booth and blacked out. He died of his wounds four hours later in a hospital.
Read more about this topic: Leslie Coffelt
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