The Secret Plot to Kill McKinley: Conspiracy, Curses, and Ghosts in Western New York

by John Koerner

Local historian John Koerner has crafted a dramatic recasting of the assassination of President McKinley.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is divided into two,sections, the first is historic looking at the plot to assassinate McKinley and who likely was involved, and the second examines paranormal occurrences related to buildings and places loosely affiliated with McKinley's death. The first part was very enlightening as I know almost nothing about the who, what, and why of McKinley's assassin and killing. It is relatively short but in-depth and well documented with endnotes. Very interesting. The second part at times seemed a stretch, and really only the places and buildings directly related to McKinley interested me. The final chapters about his laying in State and the failure of the Pan-Am Expo are also quite interesting. This is a local author and historian, and. I look forward to reading his other books.

[Sally]

This is a basic book about McKinley's assassination, putting forth the theory that Leon Czolgosz was not acting alone. There's a lot of supposition and "perhaps" but I didn't find much to convince me. The second half of the book is about haunted sites in Buffalo, several of which only have a tenuous connection to the assassination. It isn't a long book to begin with, and the haunted section feels like padding.

A much better book on the McKinley assassination is The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller.