President McKinley - Assassination

The official cause of death was "the gangrene which affected the stomach around the bullet wounds as well as the tissues around the further course of the bullet." James Creelman, a "yellow journalist" who was outside the Milburn House where McKinley lay for eight days, wrote a first-hand account of the President's last days. Rarely has a tough-minded journalist written so movingly about an American head of state.

The President's body was initially taken by funeral cortege to the Buffalo City Hall. It was then transported by train - first to Washington, D.C. and then to Canton, Ohio where the President and Mrs. McKinley had lived.

Thomas Edison's company once again recorded the events by moving film. The new President, Theodore Roosevelt, was on the scene as the dead President's coffin was removed from the train in Canton. TR followed the coffin to McKinley's home.

A huge crowd of people, anxious to view his body, gathered at the President's house. The description of Edison's movie (which the company sold for $12) is interesting:

Here we present probably the most interesting and valuable of the McKinley funeral series. Our camera is located opposite the McKinley home on Market street, Canton, at 9 A.M. on the day of the funeral, September 19th, 1901. As the camera revolves, immense crowds of people who are slowly passing the house come into view. The soldiers of the National Guard of the State of Ohio are everywhere visible. In the center of the film we present an absolutely perfect view of the McKinley home and at the front door can be seen a soldier and a sailor on guard. The camera continues revolving until the McKinley house passes out of view and the strip ends with the camera looking down Market Street toward the Court House.

With the President laid to rest, the country's attention turned to the prosecution of his murderer.