Editing Emma Goldman (section)

=== McKinley assassination ===
{{further|Assassination of William McKinley}}
[[File:First photograph of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley, in jail.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Leon Czolgosz]] insisted that Goldman had not guided his plan to assassinate US President [[William McKinley]], but she was arrested and held for two weeks.]]
On September 6, 1901, [[Leon Czolgosz]], an unemployed factory worker and anarchist,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Parker |first=LeRoy |date=December 1907 |title=The Trial of the Anarchist Murderer Czolgosz |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/783764.pdf |journal=The Yale Law Journal |publisher=The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=80–94|doi=10.2307/783764 |jstor=783764 }}</ref> shot US President [[William McKinley]] twice during a public speaking event in [[Buffalo, New York]]. McKinley was hit in the breastbone and stomach, and died eight days later.{{sfn|Chalberg|1991|pp=65–66}} Czolgosz was arrested, and interrogated around the clock. During interrogation he claimed to be an anarchist and said he had been inspired to act after attending a speech by Goldman. The authorities used this as a pretext to charge Goldman with planning McKinley's assassination. They tracked her to the residence in Chicago she shared with Havel, as well as with Mary and [[Abe Isaak]], an anarchist couple and their family.{{sfnm|1a1=Drinnon|1y=1961|1p=68|2a1=Chalberg|2y=1991|2p=73}} Goldman was arrested, along with Isaak, Havel, and ten other anarchists.{{sfn|Wexler|1984|p=104}}

Earlier, Czolgosz had tried but failed to become friends with Goldman and her companions. During a talk in Cleveland, Czolgosz had approached Goldman and asked her advice on which books he should read. In July 1901, he had appeared at the Isaak house, asking a series of unusual questions. They assumed he was an infiltrator, like a number of police agents sent to spy on radical groups. They had remained distant from him, and Abe Isaak sent a notice to associates warning of "another spy".{{sfn|Wexler|1984|pp=103–104}}

Although Czolgosz repeatedly denied Goldman's involvement, the police held her in close custody, subjecting her to what she called the "third degree" ([[wikt:third degree|intense interrogation by police]]).{{sfn|Goldman|1970a|p=300}} She explained her housemates' distrust of Czolgosz, and the police finally recognized that she had not had any significant contact with the attacker. No evidence was found linking Goldman to the attack, and she was released after two weeks of detention. Before McKinley died, Goldman offered to provide nursing care, referring to him as "merely a human being".<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Chalberg|1991|p=76}}.</ref> Czolgosz, despite considerable evidence of [[mental illness]], was convicted of murder and executed.{{sfn|Drinnon|1961|p=74}}

Throughout her detention and after her release, Goldman steadfastly refused to condemn Czolgosz's actions, standing virtually alone in doing so. Friends and supporters—including Berkman—urged her to quit his cause. But Goldman defended Czolgosz as a "supersensitive being" and chastised other anarchists for abandoning him.{{sfn|Chalberg|1991|p=78}} She was vilified in the press as the "high priestess of anarchy",{{sfn|Falk|2003|p=461}} while many newspapers declared the anarchist movement responsible for the murder.{{sfn|Wexler|1984|pp=106–112}} In the wake of these events, [[socialism]] gained support over anarchism among US radicals. McKinley's successor, [[Theodore Roosevelt]], declared his intent to crack down "not only against anarchists, but against all active and passive sympathizers with anarchists".<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Chalberg|1991|p=81}}.</ref>