On this Day: Puerto Rican Nationalists Attempt to Assassinate Truman

Shortly after 2:00 p.m., two armed gunmen approached Blair-Lee House, where President Truman was living while the White House underwent renovation. They planned to shoot their way inside to the President, but never made it past the front door.

Secret Service agents intercepted Collazo and Torresola’s bullets, keeping Truman safe from harm. However, when the gunfire subsided, both Torresola and White House guard Leslie Coffelt lay dead at the steps of Blair-Lee House.

Tucked inside Torresola’s jacket, officials found a letter from the leader of Puerto Rico’s Nationalist Party, Pedro Albizu Campos. He had urged Torresola to “assume the leadership of the movement in the United States” and to do so “without hesitation of any kind.”

Puerto Rico had been in a state of contention with the U.S. for almost half a century. Unhappy with their status as citizens of a commonwealth, Puerto Rican nationalists demanded independence and had resorted to violent measures to attain it.

Collazo spent the next 29 years in prison, and the attempt to assassinate Truman brought Puerto Rico no closer to autonomy.

Riots continued to upset residents of San Juan and the island remained a U.S. commonwealth. In 1954, nationalists opened fire on the House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. Meanwhile, pro-independence Puerto Ricans formed the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) to continue the fight for independence.