Live Science
ByHarry Baker
January 17, 2024
Never-before-seen documents from an autopsy on assassinated U.S. President William McKinley reveal that after the president’s death, a doctor performed unorthodox experiments in which he injected bacterial samples from the president’s wounds into rabbits and a dog. The notes are now on sale for the first time.
On Sept. 6, 1901, Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley twice at close range while feigning to shake his hand at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. The first bullet safely ricocheted off a button on the 25th president’s jacket but the second entered his abdomen, piercing the front and back walls of his stomach. McKinley was rushed to a nearby hospital where gynecological surgeon Dr. Matthew Mann performed surgery on the president. After initially showing signs of making a full recovery and moving out of the hospital, McKinley’s condition suddenly worsened, and he died on Sept. 14, according to PBS. (Czolgosz was later sentenced to death by the electric chair.)