Qualla: Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: Introduction https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library., Public domain. Harry Truman was upstairs in his underwear, napping. The White House was being gutted and rebuilt, the floors and walls so structurally compromised that the First Family had been moved across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House, the modest yellow Federal-style townhouse that normally served as guest quarters for visiting heads of state. It was just after two o'clock on November 1, 1950. Outside, on the sidewalk a few feet from where tourists could lean against a low railing, two men from New York were walking toward the front door with loaded pistols. They had taken the train down the night before. Neither expected to survive what came next.

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Image: National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: What Happened in Jayuya https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. The plan was born in failure. Two days earlier, in the mountain town of Jayuya in central Puerto Rico, Nationalist Party members had taken up arms against the United States government, declaring an independent republic and burning the post office. Uprisings spread to Utuado, Arec...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-what-happened-in-jayuya.mp3 0:06 2 full Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: Two Men, Two Pistols https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. Torresola was the gunman. He owned a German Luger and knew how to use it. Collazo, by his own admission, was not skilled with firearms, and Torresola had to teach him how to load and chamber the Walther P38 he would carry. They rode the train to Washington and scouted Blair House...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-two-men-two-pistols.mp3 0:06 3 full Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: The Gunfight https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. Collazo walked up behind Officer Donald Birdzell on the front steps, pulled out his pistol, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He had not chambered a round. The mechanical click was loud enough for Birdzell to begin turning around. Collazo racked the slide and fired, strik...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-the-gunfight.mp3 0:06 4 full Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: Forty Seconds https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. The entire firefight lasted less than forty seconds. Twenty-seven shots were fired. Leslie Coffelt died of his wounds four hours later at Emergency Hospital. He is the only White House Police officer ever killed defending a president. Torresola was dead on the sidewalk. Collazo s...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-forty-seconds.mp3 0:06 5 full Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman: Aftermath and a Plebiscite https://qualla.com/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman/ Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. The men had wanted the world to notice Puerto Rico, and in a narrow sense it did. Truman supported a 1952 plebiscite on the island's new constitution, which voters approved by 81.9 percent, formalizing the Free Associated State that the Nationalists had rejected as colonialism. T...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/c/j/attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-wp/dqcj-attempted-assassination-of-harry-s-truman-aftermath-and-a-plebiscite.mp3 0:06 6 full