American Gunfight

The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--and the Shoot-out that Stopped It

Stephen Hunter, John Bainbridge

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2005
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780743281959
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

A fast-paced and breathtakingly suspenseful account of an extraordinary historical event—the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman in 1950 by two Puerto Rican Nationalists and the bloody shoot-out in the streets of Washington, DC, that saved the president’s life.

November 1, 1950, was an unseasonably hot afternoon in the sleepy capital. At 2:00 PM in his temporary residence at Blair House, President Harry Truman took a nap. At 2:20 PM, two men approached Blair House from different directions. Oscar Collazo—a respected metal polisher and family man—and Griselio Torresola—an unemployed salesman—didn’t look dangerous, not in their new suits and hats, not in their calm, purposeful demeanor, not in their slow, unexcited approach. What the three White House policemen and one Secret Service agent could not guess is that under each man's coat was a 9mm automatic pistol and in each head, a dream of assassin’s glory.

At point-blank range, Collazo and then Torresola drew and fired, then moved toward the president of the United States.

Now, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Hunter and journalist John Bainbridge, Jr., have pieced together the story of the conspiracy that nearly doomed the president and how a few good men—ordinary guys who were willing to risk their lives in the line of duty—stopped it. They are the first to report on the inner workings of this conspiracy, examining the forces that led the perpetrators to conceive the plot. The authors also explore the story of the men themselves, from their youth and the worlds in which they grew up to the women they loved and who loved them to the moment the gunfire erupted.

Vivid and meticulously researched, American Gunfight commemorates the heroism and quiet commitment to duty of the men who, in moments of crisis, saw people through an ordeal, even at the expense of their lives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Colophon
• Also by Stephen Hunter
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Authors’ Note
• Introduction
• 1. A Drive Around Washington
• 2. Griselio Agonistes
• 3. Revolution
• 4. The Odd Couple
• 5. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. De Silva Go to Washington
• 6. Early Morning
• 7. Baby Starches the Shirts
• 8. Toad
• 9. The New Guy
• 10. The Buick Guy
• 11. The Guns
• 12. The Ceremony
• 13. Indian Summer
• 14. The Big Walk
• 15. Oscar
• 16. “It Did Not Go Off”
• 17. Pappy
• 18. The Next Ten Seconds
• 19. Resurrection Man
• 20. So Loud, So Fast
• 21. Upstairs at Blair
• 22. Downstairs at Blair
• 23. Borinquen
• 24. Oscar Alone
• 25. The End’s Run
• 26. Good Hands
• 27. The Colossus Rhoads
• 28. Oscar Goes Down
• 29. The Second Assault
• 30. Pimienta
• 31. Point-Blank
• 32. The Man Who Loved Guns
• 33. The Dark Visitors
• 34. Mortal Danger
• 35. The Neighbor
• 36. American Gunfight
• 37. The Good Samaritan
• 38. The Policemen’s Wives
• 39. The Scene
• 40. Inside the Soccer Shoe
• 41. Who Shot Oscar?
• 42. The Roundup
• 43. Taps
• 44. Oscar on Trial
• 45. Deep Conspiracy
• 46. Cressie Does Her Duty
• 47. Oscar Speaks
• 48. - - R - I - -
• Epilogue: Destinies
• Source Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index