[Gunstore Commando]

...is the title of a new book by Stephen Hunter and someone named John Bainbridge Jr., dealing with the now almost forgotten 1950 attempted assasination of then-president Harry S. Truman.

It is...huh? Huh? What's that you say? You want gun content?

I just told you Stephen Hunter co-wrote it, didn't I? ;)

And it's a story that deserves to be told, or re-told. As the authors point out, if it weren't for the courage of the Secret Service agents and White House policemen who were on duty -- and an extraordinary act of warrior spirit by one of their number -- this one would have gone down a whole lot differently.

[dfariswheel]

I found it not up to Hunter's usual standards.

There were seemingly ENDLESS digressions into the shooters past lives in Puerto Rico, interspersed with descriptions literally of a second or two of the events outside Blair House.

After a while, I found myself almost screaming "Get on with it".

It was well worth the read for the information that what most of us "know" about the incident isn't true, and that there was much more to this than two wild Puerto Rican crazies.

[Unisaw]

I read it recently and almost didn't finish the book. The build-up to the actual event does drag -- of course, it is an entire book about an incident that supposedly didn't last even 40 seconds.

[jsalcedo]

Two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, attempted to assassinate President Truman on November 1, 1950. They arrived in Washington D.C. the day before from the Bronx in New York City, where they were active in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They thought the assassination would call attention to Puerto Rico and advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

On the morning of November 1, they prepared for the assault. Torresola, a skilled gunman, taught Collazo how to load and handle a gun. They familiarized themselves with the area near Blair House, across the street from the White House, where they would stage the assault. (The Truman family stayed in the Blair House during renovation of the White House from 1948 to 1952). Collazo and Torresola planned to approach the house from opposite directions and shoot their way inside. In the ensuing gun battle, Collazo and Torresola traded gunfire with White House policemen and secret service agents. They wounded three White House policemen but never reached the interior of the house. One of the wounded policemen, Private Leslie Coffelt, managed to fire one bullet and hit Torresola in the side of the head, killing him instantly. Coffelt died later that day at the hospital. Two other policemen, Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were each hit more than once but recovered from their wounds. Collazo reached the steps of Blair House before collapsing with a gunshot wound to the chest. It was later found that only one shot fired by Collazo had hit anyone—his first shot, which wounded Private Birdzell. Torresola had inflicted all the other gunshot wounds on the three White House policemen. President Truman was taking a nap upstairs in Blair House when the shooting began. He rushed to a window and saw Collazo below on the front steps. A White House guard saw the President in the window and shouted to him to him to get down. The President obeyed.

Collazo was sentenced to death for the attempt; one week before his scheduled execution in 1952, Truman commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. President Carter commuted the life sentence of Collazo in September 1979, and he was freed from prison. He died in Puerto Rico on February 20, 1994 at the age of 80.


http://www.trumanlibrary.org/trivia/assassin.htm

[Keith Wheeler]

... President Truman was taking a nap upstairs in Blair House when the shooting began. He rushed to a window and saw Collazo below on the front steps. A White House guard saw the President in the window and shouted to him to him to get down. The President obeyed.
...

The most powerful man in the free world runs to a window when he hears shooting? One has to wonder if the guard shouted "get down, dumba*%, uh sir!".

Interesting bit of history that I don't recall reading before (way before my time).

[Werewolf]

President Carter commuted the life sentence of Collazo in September 1979Somehow that isn't surprising at all... :banghead:

[Gunstore Commando]

I found it not up to Hunter's usual standards.

There were seemingly ENDLESS digressions into the shooters past lives in Puerto Rico

Those were the parts that Bainbridge wrote. :neener:

[jsalcedo]

The most powerful man in the free world runs to a window when he hears shooting?

Not surprising.

Truman re-enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in 1917, at age 33. He was elected an officer and shipped to the front in 1918. Truman was on horseback when, on 29 August, his artillery battery came under German fire. The horse was hit by shrapnel and fell into a shell hole, trapping Truman underneath. He had to be pulled from beneath the horse. About this time, several of the men broke and ran. Truman rallied the remainder "with some salty language he had learned while working on the Sante Fe railroad. The troops were so shocked to hear such language from Truman that they swung into action immediately."

http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g33.htm

[middy]

There's no period after the S in "Harry S Truman". "S" is his middle name. :)

*Sigh* Why can't the Dems field candidates like him anymore?

[dfariswheel]

The authors make some very interesting points.

First, this wasn't some cowboy, spur of the moment affair, even though the sole surviving assassin made a considerable effort to make it look like one.
The authors make a GOOD case that the "Maximum Leader" of the Puerto Rican freedom party ordered the assassination of Truman as part of a planned revolution in Puerto Rico.

When the revolution mis-fired but the assassination attempt went off, Collazo as a "true believer" spent years insuring that it looked like a simple minded plot by two men.
In spite of investigations, the conspiracy couldn't be proved.

The second point made was the totally unsuited training given to the White house police and Secret Service at the time.

Pistol training was formal NRA-type target shooting, in which the shooter stands straight, and takes careful aim, with one hand, and shoots single action only.
They had NO double action training or any sort of combat shooting skills.

This is how the police and agents shot that day, and they basically failed to get effective hits in a fast-moving, fast shooting encounter.

The most effective shooter that day was Torresola, who was apparently a well trained shooter, armed with a Luger.
He shot TWO HANDED, and was very effective at getting hits on about everybody he fired at.

[Gunstore Commando]

The authors make some very interesting points.



Also interesting to note that Coffelt was a country boy who grew up hunting and shooting.

You know, like Alvin York, Carlos Hathcock, etc. Anyone seeing a trend here?

[carebear]

HEY!

I just bought that book and you guys are posting spoilers without warnings.

Now it's ruined, cause I know Truman doesn't die in the end.










:neener: