Would-be, Assassin Is John Schrank, Once Saloonkeeper Here.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 15, 1912:
A MANIAC ON THIRD TERM
Obsessed with Belief That He Was Commissioned to Remove Peril to Nation.
HAD DREAM OF McKINLEY
Martyred President, He Says, Told Him That Roosevelt Had Him Slain.
STARTED ON COLONEL'S TRAIL
Went South After Buying Revolver and Followed ex-President Closely.
WAS BAFFLED IN CHICAGO
Then He Went Early to Milwaukee and Planned Carefully to Make Sure of His Victim.
Special to The New York Times.
    MILWAUKEE, Wis., Oct. 14,— For a time the man who shot ex-President Roosevelt refused to give his name, but he finally admitted that he was John Schrank of 310 East Tenth Street, New York.
    In making a full confession he told of a carefully laid plot to shoot the Colonel, often frustrated, but finally successful. The man talked freely after his first refusal to give his name. He said:
    "I formerly ran a saloon at 410 East Tenth Street, between Avenues B and C, New York City. I was born in Erding, Bavaria, two hours out of Munich, the capital. I am 36 years old and came to this country when 9 years old, with my parents. I have been engaged in the saloon business as proprietor and as an employe nearly all my life, until I decided that it was my duty to kill Col. Roosevelt.
    "I have been personally acquainted with Roosevelt since the former President was Police Commissioner of New York in 1895. I was first attracted to him as a politician during the convention in Chicago. Then I began to think seriously of him as a menace to his country, when he cried 'Thief' at that convention. I looked upon his plan to start a third party as a danger to the country.
    "My knowledge of history, gained through much reading, convinced me that Roosevelt was engaged in a dangerous undertaking. I was convinced that if he was defeated at the Fall election he would again cry 'Thief,' and that his action would plunge the country into a bloody civil war.

Dreamed McKinley Came to Him.
    "I deemed it my duty, after much consideration of the situation, to put him out of the way. I was living at my home address at the time, but soon after I had a dream in which former President McKinley appeared to me. I was told by McKinley in this dream that it was not Czolgosz who murdered him, but Roosevelt. McKinley, in this dream, told me that his blood was on Roosevelt's hand, and that Roosevelt had killed him so that he might become President.
    "I was more deeply impressed by what I read in the newspapers than others, and after having this dream was more convinced than ever that I should free the country from the menace of Roosevelt's ambition.
    "On Sept 21 I removed to the White Hotel at 156 Canal Street, near the Bowery. I did this as my first step in a plan to kill Roosevelt. I went soon afterward to a gun store on Broadway and purchased a revolver.
    "I then purchased a ticket to Charleston, S. C., and went to that city by steamer. My first plan was to catch the Roosevelt party in New Orleans, but I found that to be impossible. Starts on Colonel's Trail.
    "I accordingly went to Charleston. and upon my arrival there had $300 left. I left a bag at the Hosley House in that city, which contained, besides the box in which the revolver I had purchased, had been packed, a deed to property on Eighty-first Street, in New York, worth $25,000, and my naturalization papers. That bag is there now.
    "Not being able to carry out my plan in Charlestown I proceeded to Atlanta, Ga., thence to Chattanooga, Tenn., and from there to Evansville and Indianapolis, Ind., and to Chicago. "In each one of these cities I tried to shoot Roosevelt, but was unable to waylay him. I decided to shoot him as he arrived in Chicago, and waited for him at the Chicago & Northwestern Station, but the intended victim did not arrive there. I then decided to do the shooting at the Coliseum, but in this case, as in others, Roosevelt left the building by an entrance other than the one at which I had stationed myself.

Meant to Make Sure.
    "During all this time I had traveled under the name of Walter Roos, except at Charleston, where I gave my right name.
    "While in Chicago on Saturday I was at the Jackson Hotel, and decided after my failure at the Coliseum to come to Milwaukee in advance of the party and lay my plans so carefully that I could not fail.
    "I came to Milwaukee Sunday morning, and went to the Argyle, a lodging house on Third Street. I then purchased newspapers to inform myself as to Roosevelt's Whereabouts and learned on Monday that he was to arrive at 5 o'clock. I learned also that he was to be a guest at the Gilpatrick, and managed to gain a position near the entrance where I could shoot to kill when Roosevelt appeared.
    "I am sorry I have caused all this trouble for the good people of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, but I am not sorry that I carried out my plan."

Rush to Lynch Him.
    When he was hurried to the police station from the hotel hundreds of persons followed the patrol wagon as it was driven at breakneck speed down the streets and across the Oneida Street Bridge. Men and boys ran shouting behind the wagon and crying "Lynch him!" "Kill the brute!" and "Get a rope!"
    Scores reached the Central Police Station in automobiles and carriages, and before the wagon could be backed up to the station doors the more fleet-footed ones were drawn up in line. As the man was taken from the patrol the crowd pushed forward.
    "Lynch him!" was the cry again.
    Sergt. Hebert Flood had expected a demonstration and had several patrolmen stationed along the walk so that the crowd did not try to take the man from the officers.
    With an officer on each side of him the man was led into the station and up to the desk. He was then hurried into the Sergeant's office, where he was questioned, but he positively refused to talk. Every attempt was made to get something out of the man, but for a long time it was of no avail.
    "Any man looking for a third term ought to be shot," was all that the man had to say then, but it was enough to show that he was willing to confess. He repeated this several times, and it was the only answer that he would give the police.
    The would-be assassin is 5 feet 5 inches in height, weighs 170 pounds, light complexion, bald, and was fairly well dressed.
    He had on his person a copy of the Colonel's itinerary written on a sheet of note paper, taken from the Bismark Hotel and Cafe, Nashville, Tenn.
    When Schrank was taken in charge by the police he offered resistance, but was helpless in the sturdy, willing hands that grasped him. He was half carried, as he was hurried through the corridor of the hotel into the dining room, and thence into the kitchen, where he was put through a hurried and pressing questioning by Sergeant Mooney and the others present, but without eliciting a single statement.
    He declined, time and again, to give his name, and finally was slipped out of the rear door of the hotel into the alley, where the police wagon had been summoned to receive him.