Milwaukee’s Presidential Assassins: Two Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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In 1981, John Hinckley tried to kill President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington D.C. hotel. The bullet caused serious internal bleeding, and Reagan almost died in a hospital ER. Obsessed with actress Jodie Foster, Hinckley tried to win her love by becoming important. 

Seventy years earlier, a mentally unbalanced bartender shot a presidential candidate who was visiting Milwaukee. Like John Hinckley, the gunman failed to carry out his mission.

A Ghost Told Me to Do It

When presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt came to Milwaukee in October 1912, no one had any idea that the campaign stop would become a legendary footnote in American history, Roosevelt first became president in 1901 when William McKinley was assassinated six months into his term. Roosevelt was reelected in 1904 but declined to run again in 1908, citing George Washington’s recommendation that no one hold the office more than twice. But he changed his mind in 1912 and entered the race.

New York City saloonkeeper John Flammang Schrank, 36, sells his tavern and a large parcel of real estate. Although he is now a wealthy man, Schrank has become a recluse and emerges only to debate the Bible with an opponent. He has a nightmare in which President McKinley’s rotting corpse holds up a picture of Theodore Roosevelt, saying “Avenge me.” Obeying the spectral McKinley’s wishes, Schrank stalks Roosevelt to New Orleans, and then to Milwaukee, looking for an opportunity to kill him. A morning newspaper says the candidate will be at the Gilpatrick hotel for a fundraising dinner.

At 5 p.m., the existential loner joined a large group of well-wishers near the hotel entrance at Third and Kilbourn. When Roosevelt was less than 10 feet away, Schrank stepped out of the crowd with a .38-caliber pistol and fired it point-blank at Roosevelt’s chest. The impact knocked him down and two men restrained Schrank as Roosevelt slowly got to his feet. “What did you do it for?’ he asked Schrank. When no answer was forthcoming, he said, “Turn him over to the police.” He asked an officer to make sure no harm came to the prisoner.

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‘I’ve Just Been Shot’

The assassin’s bullet plowed through a steel eyeglass case and a folded copy of the 50-page speech Roosevelt was to give at the Auditorium. “I’ve just been shot,” he told the audience, displaying the blood-soaked shirt and bullet-shredded pages. “But it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” Playing to the crowd’s cheers, the Moose gave an 84-minute address before going to Johnston Emergency Hospital at Third and Michigan. X-rays showed the bullet to be lodged in his chest close to a lung. The doctors said it was more dangerous to remove the bullet than to just leave it where it was. Roosevelt proudly carried it in his chest for the rest of his life.

When John Schrank arrives at the police station, he and Chief John Janssen smile for a photograph. Read out loud in front of the reporters is a warrant charging the prisoner with "Intent to kill one Theodore Roosevelt". Coffee along with a plate of sausage and bread are brought to the room. “My appetite fails me,” Schrank says, pushing the food away. He tells reporters, “I’m only sorry I didn’t kill him.” During a lengthy trial for attempted murder, a psychologist testifies that the defendant has “insane delusions, grandiose in character.” The jury proclaims him not guilty by reason of insanity. “I can stand the consequences of my act,” he says. “No man has a right to a third term.” In 1914 Schrank is remanded to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun. He lives there for 29 years, passing away in September 1943. The body is donated to the Marquette University medical school for anatomical dissection and examination.

Hey World! Have I Got Your Attention Now?

On the afternoon of May 15, 1972, Arthur Bremer listened while George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, spoke at a Maryland presidential campaign rally. After the speech Wallace stepped off the bulletproof platform and began to shake hands and mingle with the crowd. That’s when 21-year-old Bremer fired five rounds from a .38-caliber pistol into Wallace’s body. Cornelia Wallace shielded her husband’s body from any more bullets while peace officers and bystanders subdued the goofy-looking guy in black sunglasses and removed the gun from his hand. 

Arthur’s father, William Bremer, is quoted as saying, “Anybody who would do something like this has got to be out their mind.”

That was an odd statement coming from one of Arthur’s parents. William Bremer was an unhappy truck driver who lived on Planet Jack Daniels. His wife, Sylvia, was a mentally unstable homemaker who savagely beat their children in a regular basis. Bremer emerged from the dysfunctional home as a lonely, friendless outcast who was taunted and teased in school. “I escaped the ugly reality by pretending I lived with a television family, and there was no yelling and no one to hit me,” he said in 1972.  

After high school, Bremer takes photography and art classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College but drops out after one semester. He finds work bussing tables at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, but diners complain that he talks to himself, whistles, and marches in time to the overhead music. When the manager demotes him, Bremer quits. He’s employed as a janitor at Story Elementary School when he meets a 15-year-old girl in the recreation center. His quirky, intense behavior causes her to stop seeing him after two months. She will be the only girlfriend Bremer ever has.

Bremer sank into a deep depression after being dumped. He shaved his head and bought a snub-nosed Charter Arms Undercover .38-caliber revolver at Casanova’s Gun Shop in West Allis. He learned how to use it the $89 gun at Flintrop’s shooting range. If any of this sounds familiar, screenwriter Paul Schrader freely admitted that the character of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver was inspired by Bremer’s story.

Bremer initially considered shooting Richard Nixon or George McGovern, but dropped those plans when he saw how hard it would be to get close to either candidate. That left George Wallace as the target that would make him famous. Bremer trailed the Wallace campaign to five Michigan cities and then to Maryland. He had misgivings about shooting the controversial segregationist because the act would not be remembered like the Kennedys or Dr. Martin Luther King. After Bremer was arrested for attempted murder, the governor’s surgical team told reporters that a bullet lodged against his spine meant Wallace would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

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In August 1972, Bremer’s trial is water-cooler fodder for a few weeks before tapering off. The failed political assassin’s moment of fame will be gone by the end of the year and he is sentenced to 63 years in prison. 

In 1982, a diary in Bremer’s handwriting is sold at auction for $5,500 and given to the University of Alabama. The pistol used to shoot George Wallace is sold privately for $28,000. In 1998, Wallace writes a letter of forgiveness to the man who tried kill him. He thanks Arthur Bremer for helping him change his opinions on segregation.