Assassination Attempt Against Theodore Roosevelt
Secret Service Thwarted Armed Lunatic’s Mission to See President
© Jim Rada
Jan 3, 2009
On September 1, 1903 President Roosevelt was vacationing at his family home at Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Assassin’s Attempts to See President
That night Henry Weilbrenner drove out to Sagamore Hill in a buggy. Sagamore Hill was the name of the President's Home, though he sometimes called it "the summer White House."
When a Secret Service agent patrolling the property stopped him, Weilbrenner said he had a personal engagement with the President. The agent sent him away because it was well past the hours that the President had appointments.
Weilbrenner returned shortly insisting he needed to see the President, if only for a minute. He was again turned away and ordered not to return.
But he did return around 11 p.m. Suspicious that his insistence meant trouble for the President, the Secret Service agent removed the man from his buggy and put him in the stables under the guard of two stablemen to whom he gave pistols. The agent then searched the buggy and found a loaded .32-caliber revolver in it.
Investigating the Incident
The Emmitsburg Chronicle reported, “Footprints near the house aroused the suspicions of the Secret Service companions that Weilbrenner had companions. A telephone message was sent to Oyster Bay, and the entire squad of Secret Service men there—five in number—sprang upon horses and galloped top speed to Sagamore Hill.”
However, no other intruders, suspected or otherwise, were found during the search.
Weilbrenner was taken to the nearby town and locked up.
Henry Weilbrenner
Weilbrenner was 28 years old and from a respectable family. Weilbrenner was one of five children. He lived Syosset, New York, about five miles from Oyster Bay. His father was a truck farmer there.
The New York Times reported that a year or two earlier Weilbrenner had had a “nervous attack, which rendered him mentally helpless for a day or two.” Since then, he had appeared to be fine, his father testified in court.
Weilbrenner was arraigned on the second and seemed quite calm during his appearance in court. However, his replies “indicated, apparently beyond doubt, that the man is crazy,” the New York Times reported. Some of his replies to questions indicated that he wanted to marry the President's daughter, Alice.
Some newspaper reports also said it was believed that Weilbrenner had intended to kill the President.
Declared Insane
Doctors George Stewart and Irving Barnes interviewed Weilbrenner and declared him insane.
Weilbrenner was then taken to Mineola, Long Island, where he was held by the county authorities. The following day he was committed to the Kings Park Asylum.
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