Griselio Torresola

Overview

Griselio Torresola (1925 – November 1, 1950) was one of two Puerto Rican Nationalists who attempted to assassinate United States President Harry Truman. During the attack on the president, Torresola mortally wounded White House Policeman Private Leslie Coffelt and wounded two other law enforcement officers. Torresola was killed by a shot to the head from the mortally wounded Coffelt.

Background

Torresola came from a family which believed in the Puerto Rican independence cause. They had participated in many of the island's past revolts. Torresola moved to the City of New York on August 1948. He was employed by a New York stationery and perfume store. A divorce from his first wife affected him emotionally and eventually he lost his job. He remarried and lived with one of his two children on a welfare check of $125 a month.

Torresola was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and soon joined forces with fellow Nationalist Oscar Collazo. They participated in the attempted assassination of president Truman on November 1, 1950, while the president was residing in the Blair-Lee House while the White House was being renovated.

The Nationalist Party was led by the charismatic Pedro Albizu Campos, for whom Torresola was a bodyguard. The party had rejected political participation through balloting and advocated violent resistance to the annexation of Puerto Rico by the U.S.. Nationalists were increasingly angered by what they viewed as great injustices, including the Ponce Massacre, the extrajudicial murders of some members, the jailing of Albizu for his advocacy of violent resistance, and the impending changes of Puerto Rico's status from a non-autonomous territory to a partially self-governing commonwealth. They viewed Puerto Rico as a colony demanding independence.

On October 30, 1950 his brother and sister participated in the failed Jayuya Uprising.

The offence

Griselio and Oscar Collazo attempted to enter the President's residence and assassinate him at the Blair-Lee House.

Torresola walked up Pennsylvania Avenue from the west side while his partner, Oscar Collazo, engaged Secret Service Agents and White House policemen with his Walther P.38 from the east.

Torresola approached a guard booth at the west corner of the Blair-Lee house and noted an officer, Leslie Coffelt, sitting inside. Torresola, in a double handed, isosceles shooting stance, quickly pivoted from left to right around the opening of the booth, and fired four shots from his 9 mm German Luger, semi-automatic pistol at close range at Coffelt. Three of the shots struck Coffelt in the chest and abdomen, and the fourth went through his policeman's tunic. Coffelt slumped down in his chair, mortally wounded.

Torresola then turned his attention to plainclothes White House policeman Joeseph Downs. Downs, who had just paused to chat with Coffelt, proceeded down the walkway to the basement door at the west end of the Blair-Lee house when he heard shots being fired. Downs noticed Torresola, but was shot once in the hip before he could draw his weapon. Downs turned back towards the house, and was shot twice more by Torresola, once in the back and once in the neck. Downs staggered to the basement door, opened it, slid in, and then slammed the door behind him, depriving Torresola of entry into the Blair-Lee House.

Torresola then turned his attention to the sound of the shoot-out between his partner, Collazo, and several law enforcement officers. Torresola noted wounded policeman Donald Birdzell aiming at Collazo from the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Torresola aimed in and shot Birdzell in the left knee from a distance of approximately 40 feet. Then Torresola's gun ran dry. Torresola stood to the immediate left of the Blair House steps while he reloaded.

The president was asleep in his second floor bedroom and awoke to the sound of gunfire outside. President Truman went to his bedroom window, opened it, and looked outside. From where he stood reloading, Torresola was thirty-one feet away from that window. It is unknown whether either man saw the other.

At the same time, the mortally wounded Coffelt staggered out of his guard booth, leaned against it, and aimed his revolver at Torresola, who was approximately 20 feet away. Coffelt squeezed the trigger and fired, hitting Torresola two inches above the ear on a slight upward angle and blowing out a portion of his brain. Torresola was killed instantly. Coffelt later succumbed to his wounds.

The gunfight involving Torresola lasted approximately 20 seconds, while the gunfight with Collazo lasted 38.5 seconds.

Investigation and arrest

No arrest details were provided.

Trial

No trial details for Torresola were provided.

Sentencing

Oscar Collazo was sentenced to death, later commuted by Truman to a life sentence. He died in 1994.

President Carter commuted the life sentence of Collazo in September 1979, and he was freed from prison. Collazo died in Puerto Rico on February 20, 1994 at the age of 80.

Outcome

Torresola was killed instantly during the attack at the Blair-Lee House on November 1, 1950.

Aftermath

Torresola left behind a young wife and two young children. Some who favor independence for Puerto Rico consider him a hero.

Leslie Coffelt left behind a wife and family in Virginia. A plaque at the Blair-Lee House commemorates Coffelt's sacrifice, heroism, and fidelity to his duty and his country.

Oscar Collazo was quoted as saying:

"It would not be justice to Griselio if we merely remembered him for his ability with weapons. We must remember the brave and expert guerilla of the mountains of Jayuya as the patriot who never had doubts when his country called him to completion of his duty."

Collazo and Torresola arrived in Washington D.C. the day before from the Bronx in New York City, where they were active in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They thought the assassination would call attention to Puerto Rico and advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

On the morning of November 1, they prepared for the assault. Torresola taught Collazo how to load and handle a gun. They familiarized themselves with the area near Blair House, across the street from the White House, where they would stage the assault. (The Truman family stayed in the Blair House during renovation of the White House from 1948 to 1952). Collazo and Torresola planned to approach the house from opposite directions and shoot their way inside.

In the ensuing gun battle, Collazo and Torresola traded gunfire with White House policemen and secret service agents. They wounded three White House policemen but never reached the interior of the house. One of the wounded policemen, Private Leslie Coffelt, managed to fire one bullet and hit Torresola in the side of the head, killing him instantly. Coffelt died later that day at the hospital. Two other policemen, Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were each hit more than once but recovered from their wounds.

Collazo reached the steps of Blair House before collapsing with a gunshot wound to the chest. It was later found that only one shot fired by Collazo had hit anyone: his first shot, which wounded Private Birdzell. Torresola had inflicted all the other gunshot wounds on the three White House policemen.

President Truman was taking a nap upstairs in Blair House when the shooting began. He rushed to a window and saw Collazo below on the front steps. A White House guard saw the President in the window and shouted to him to get down. The President obeyed. Collazo was sentenced to death for the attempt; one week before his scheduled execution in 1952, Truman commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Other details

Torresola was born in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. His employment was in a New York stationery and perfume store. His welfare check was $125 a month. His body was described as being hit two inches above the ear on a slight upward angle, blowing out a portion of his brain.