Paper saved Theodore Roosevelt

One show that my entire family loves to watch together is MythBusters.  Last week, we were completely captivated by the episode where the hosts were trying to prove whether or not Japanese warriors wore paper armor.  They were surprised by the strength of the paper as it deflected knives, swords, and bullets.  I, however, was not surprised by the power of paper.  I already knew a story where a famous president was saved by paper.

Even though Teddy Roosevelt was no longer in office, he decided that he could do a better job than the current president, William Howard Taft.  He came out of retirement and even created a new political party in order to run in the 1912 Presidential election.  The Bull Moose Party, officially dubbed the Progressive Party, was gaining in popularity.  Roosevelt's followers were excited about the possibility of having the charasmatic president in office again and were daily entertained by his witty critiques of President Taft.  At one point, Roosevelt even called Taft a "fat head with the brains of a guinea pig." 

The main concern that some Americans had with Roosevelt's campaign was that, if he won, this would be his third term as President.  Up to this point, no one had ever served more than two terms.  It had become a unofficial rule that no one would serve more terms than the beloved George Washington.  One infuriated man, named John Schrank, had followed Roosevelt for weeks just waiting for an opportunity to get close to the former President.  He got his chance to shoot Roosevelt in Milwalkee, Wisconsin. 

Roosevelt had planned on giving a rather long campaign speech that night in October to a group of his supporters.  His 50 page speech was neatly folded in half and tucked away in his coat's breast pocket.  As he entered the building in which his admirers were waiting, Schrank was finally able to get close enough to Roosevelt.  It was a direct shot in the chest, and by all accounts, it should have killed the presidential candidate.  Luckily for Roosevelt, the bullet was slowed down by the lengthly speech in his coat pocket.  While the bullet still punctured his chest, the speech literally saved his life.

Schank was immediately apprehended and Roosevelt went on to give one of his most memorable speeches.  He stood up on the podium and told the audience that he had just been shot.  In fact, the bullet was still inside him.  "But it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose," he boldly announced.  Roosevelt took out his blood-stained speech which still had the bullet hole and proceeded to read the entire script. 

Schrank eventually achieved his goal, in that Roosevelt never won his third term as president.  The victor of the Election of 1912 was Woodrow Wilson, another great president in his own right.  And the would-be assassin, Schrank, spent the rest of his life in a  mental institution.