John Flammang Schrank (born Johann Nepomuk Schrank; March 5, 1876 – September 15, 1943) was a German-American tavern owner who attempted to assassinate former President Theodore Roosevelt outside of the Gilpatrick Hotel in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912.
Schrank claimed to have experienced visions of the ghost of assassinated U.S. President William McKinley, telling Schrank that Roosevelt was his murderer, and that Schrank needed to avenge his death, as well as prevent Roosevelt from being elected to a third term as President of the United States. His shot hit Roosevelt in the chest at very close range, but the assassination attempt was not successful; he was immediately arrested, and was later adjudicated insane.
When he was brought before Judge August C. Backus in Milwaukee Municipal Court he quickly pleaded guilty to shooting Roosevelt. Judge Backus did not accept the guilty plea, and appointed a panel to determine if Schrank was mentally fit. The panel decided that Schrank was insane, and in November 1912 he was committed to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for 31 years until his death.
Background
Early life Johann Nepomuk Schrank was born in Erding, Kingdom of Bavaria, on March 5, 1876, to carpenters Michael and Katharina Schrank (née Auer). The Herald-Press stated that his birth certificate listed him as John Nepomuk Schrank while a letter from Friedrich Herbig, the mayor of Erding from 1905 to 1929, gave his birth name as Johann Nepomuk Schrank. He had four siblings, two of whom died in infancy. His maternal aunt, Anna Binghammer, suffered from persecutory delusions and was committed to an asylum, , in Gabersee, where she died on November 21, 1904, from encephalomalacia. The Herald-Press also reported that Schrank's paternal grandfather was recorded as having suffered a sudden mental decline and died shortly after.
When Schrank was three, his father Michael died from consumption at the age of 38. His mother Katharina subsequently shuffled between homes, sometimes living with her brother Joseph Auer and his family and sometimes with her elderly parents, until Schrank was nine years old. Joseph acted as a paternal substitute for Schrank in his childhood, showing him how to tend to the vegetable garden and helping with his school work. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended public school in Bavaria from the ages of seven to twelve, where he was noted to be an "outstanding student".
In the fall of 1889, Schrank, aged twelve, was informally adopted by his paternal aunt Anne Flamming (née Anna Schrank) and her Luxembourg German husband Dominick Flamming (also known as Dominikus Flamang); they were visiting from the United States, to which they had both immigrated in the 1850s. The adoption agreement was made because the Auer family were already caring for four other children (Schrank's surviving brother and sister, as well as his two cousins, Joseph's daughters) and the middle-aged Flammings had no children of their own. He accompanied them on their return trip from Bremerhaven on the SS Fulda, being listed as their son on the passenger list, and arrived in Manhattan, New York, on October 22, 1889.
Life in the United States During his early years in America, Schrank was known as John Flamming, having anglicized his original first name Johann to the English equivalent and taken on the last name of his foster parents, with whom he lived in a tenement in the Kleindeutschland neighborhood in Lower East Side. He learned English at night classes for the next four years, gaining a keen interest in history and American politics through the newspapers and other literature he read for his courses and began writing poetry in both German and English at 15. Schrank worked at his aunt and uncle's tavern starting at the age of twelve, first as a bus boy and later as a bartender. Schrank became a lapsed Catholic, partially because his foster parents did not attend church, writing "I am a Roman Catholic. I love my religion but I hate my church as long as the Roman parish is not independent from Rome, as long as Catholic priests are prevented from getting married, as long as Rome is still more engaged in politics and accumulation of money contrary to the teachings of the Lord." He became a naturalized citizen on July 23, 1897.
According to family and friends, Schrank developed a great admiration for American ideals and the Founding Fathers, naming historical figures such as George Washington, James Madison, Tadeusz Kościuszko, and Abraham Lincoln as his personal heroes, and kept tags and documents from his immigration process as mementos. He was described as "mild-mannered, reserved but cheerful, with a wry sense of humor" and well-liked by his neighbors, but also quiet, shy, and withdrawn, and, by his own account, never formed friendships.
In the spring of 1904, his uncle Dominick retired and passed ownership of the tavern to Schrank. Dominick and his wife also sold off the tenement room they had been sharing with him so that they could afford an apartment in Yorkville, so Schrank began lodging with the Zieglers, consisting of mother Melanje "Minnie" Ziegler and three of her children, Alfred, Elisa (also called Ella), and Emily Ziegler, as they had space for him after Emily's brother Edward moved to Baltimore for work. Schrank and Emily, who was nine years his junior, were close friends, having known each other since childhood; according to some sources, both from the 1920s and contemporary, Schrank had told them that the two were a romantic couple. Emily died at the age of 19 in a fire on the PS General Slocum on June 15, 1904, after which Schrank identified Ziegler's body to pathologist William O'Gorman, though his name was misspelled as "John Schrenck" in news reports, variously calling her his girlfriend or fiancée. Edward Ziegler denied that Schrank was ever engaged and said that his sister was only casually acquainted with Schrank as roommates. Regardless of their relationship, her death greatly affected Schrank, who referred to it as "the greatest tragedy of [his] life" and later said, "I never had a friend in my life, except for one girl who was killed in a steamship accident." After successfully applying for a passport the year before, Schrank briefly returned to Germany in spring 1906 to visit his family in Erding, where he collected an inheritance from his deceased godmother, presumed to have been his maternal grandmother.
Following the General Slocum disaster, the population of Kleindeutschland dwindled over the years, with the Ziegler family being among the first to move away. The tavern's revenue had already plummeted since many of the regulars stopped showing up when Schrank took over as owner, so upon returning from his trip, he sold it to a man named Charles Wolfert and joined his foster parents in Yorkville, paying off their mortgage of US$20,000 () as well as covering numerous other expenses. His aunt died the next year on November 27, 1907, at Presbyterian Hospital, after reportedly suffering a sharp mental decline, followed by her husband on February 11, 1911. Schrank, as the sole grantee in both of their wills, inherited several properties in New York. He sold those properties for US$25,000 () and moved to Brooklyn to be closer to the graves of his foster parents in The Evergreens Cemetery, where he became a frequent visitor. Following his uncle's death, Schrank kept no known social contacts and became forlorn and depressed. He was described as a disconnected and awkward man who did not associate with other people. Around that time Schrank began drinking heavily, his daily intake averaging five pints of beer, and also took up smoking cigars, sometimes as many as six in a day.
Left with a sizable amount of money but no job, Schrank tried to invest in real estate and the insurance branch in January 1912. Within the month, the venture proved unsuccessful and Schrank fell behind on his own mortgage payments, amassing a debt of $13,000 (). In February 1912, Schrank found work as a waiter, lunchman, and porter at a tavern in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for four weeks, with frequent complaints about his "peculiarities" and "inability to stand any kind of discipline". His former boss, Theodore Thurmann, recalled Schrank to be "abusive", "too stupid or clumsy", "a weakling", as well as appearing unused to manual labor. In March, Schrank attempted to sue Thurmann over $11 () in unpaid wages, with the case being dismissed after Schrank called the judge "the oppressor of the poor people" during the proceedings. Schrank's last employment was as a translator for a local German-language newspaper. His last known residence in New York City was at Homestead Hotel.
Mental health and obsession with Roosevelt According to Schrank's testimony during his trial, he had a vivid dream in the early morning of September 15, 1901, a day after 25th U.S. president William McKinley died of gunshot wounds sustained in his assassination a week prior. In this dream, Schrank said he saw McKinley's body rise from the casket during his funeral to say "Avenge my death!", pointing at a corner where a "form clad in Monkish garb" stood; Schrank recognized the form in the corner as Theodore Roosevelt. He did not find significance in the dream until Roosevelt announced his bid for the presidential candidacy in February 1912. Schrank, who followed the developments of the 1912 presidential elections with great interest through newspapers, was opposed to Roosevelt and believed seeking a third term violated Schrank's interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington's Farewell Address, in what he termed "The Unwritten Laws". He claimed that Roosevelt was attempting to dismantle the U.S. Constitution to give himself the power to replace the democratic system with a dictatorship and that Roosevelt, as McKinley's vice president, had orchestrated McKinley's murder to secure the president's office for himself. Schrank also believed that Roosevelt was being backed by "foreign powers" with plans to annex the Panama Canal, which he considered a violation of the Monroe Doctrine that would result in another civil war breaking out. Schrank concluded that his 1901 dream was a vision sent by God and that it was his mission to prevent this from happening, even if it meant killing Roosevelt, seeing the Decalogue commandment "thou shalt not kill" as overridden in such a case, as he would be acting as an instrument of God.
Schrank recalled that a few months later in the early hours of September 14, 1912, following the presidential nomination of Roosevelt in August, he had finished a poem entitled "Be A Man" about the McKinley assassination when he heard a voice say "Let no murderer occupy the presidential chair for a third term. Avenge my death!", followed by a tap on his shoulder. Schrank turned around to see what he described as an apparition of the late President McKinley, staring at him with "dying eyes". He may have also had other hallucinations involving Emily Ziegler. Pre-trial psychiatric examinations attested to chronic paranoia. Following his trial, doctors diagnosed Schrank with "dementia praecox, paranoid type", roughly equivalent to schizophrenia by modern standards.
Assassination attempt
Preparation and travel