Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-08-12
GAYNOR' MAY DIE.
DOCTORS THINK MAYOR CAN
SURVIVE UNLESS BLOOD
POISON SETS IN.
HIS CONDITION is GRAVE
No Attempt Yet Made to Remove Bull
let Lodged in Brain. Wouldbe
Assassin RemorselessIy Tells
of His Awful Crime.

New York. Unless blood poison
develops, physicians at St. Mary S
hospital, Hoboken, are hopeful of the
recovery of Mayor William ]. Gaynor,
who was shot in the head and serious
ly wounded
The bullet struck the mayor be-
hing the right ear and ranged down
ward, inficting a dangerous, though
not necessarily fatal, wound. At his
age, 50 years, such wound is essen
TALLY grave.
The mayor is surrounded by spe-
cialists, while members of his family
are gathered near, awaiting the out
come with anxiety. On Tuesday, six
X-ray negatives of the wound were
taken to facilitate an operation for
the removal of the bullet.
The attempted assassination took
place while the mayor stood on the
promenade deck of the steamship
Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse. The bull
let's were fired by James J. Gallagher,
a discharged and disgruntled city en-
ploye Gallagher was almost instant
ly overpowered and arrested.
The shot was fired at 9:45 O'Clock
in the morning, fifteen minutes before
the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse was
due to leave her pier at Hoboken,
n. j., and the mayor was receiving
godspeed from a group of friends pre-
paratory to vacation trip to Europe.
The big liner was gay with flags
and ringing with shouted good-bys
when the tragedy occurred. Most of
thosewwho had been aboard the ship
to say farewell to friends or relatives
had gone ashore. but a little group
remained to talk with the mayor.
They were standing on the port side
of the vessel near the promenade
deck forward, and were in the act of
posing for a group photograph when
Gallagher, unnoticed, pushed his way
almost to the mayors side and fired
point blank at his head.
He used a .3S caliber revolver and
an examination later disclosed that
the first cartridge had missed fire.
This probably saved the mayors life,
for Gallagher, when he first pulled
the trigger, was less than two feet
away, Backing away slightly in his
excitement, he pulled the trigger a
second time and sent bullet crash
ing into the mayors neck below the
ear.
William H. Edwards, commission
er of street cleaning and former
Princeton football star, lunged for
ward with his 800 pounds just as
Robert Adamson, the mayors secre-
tary, struck Gallagher's arm. AS he
did so second shot pierced Edward s
sleeve, infiicting a slight flesh wound
on the commissioners right arm,
which remained undiscovered for
hours because of the excitement. I'm
mindful of his wound, Edwards hit
the man crashing blow in the face
and they crashed to the deck to-
gether, Gallagher struggling with the
strength of desperation and pulling
viciously at the trigger in an attempt
to fire another shot.
But Edwards was too much for
him. He rained blow after blow on
Gallagher's now bleeding face, while
Adamson and Archibald r. Watson,
corporation counsel for the city, flung
themselves on the struggling two in
an attempt to grasp the weapon
When Mr., Watson had obtained pos
session of it, Edwards and Gallagher
continued a bitter struggle about the
deck, Edwards crying and shouting in
his anger and excitement and Gala
CHER painting as exhaustion began to
grip his limbs.
When completely subdued in the
former football stars viselike grip,
a pair of steel nippers were slipped on
his wrists by a special officer aboard
the ship and he was rushed through
a hooting and threatening crowd off
the vessel, into an automobile and
arraigned before Recorder McGovern
of Hoboken.
In the struggle with the man who
attempted to take his life, Mayor
Gaynor, though badly wounded and
bleeding from mouth and nose, did
not once lose consciousness. The i'm
pact of the bullet did not even throw
him from his feet, but he raised his
hands to his ears and, with his face
contorted with pain, staggered in a
daze and leaned Imply across the
ships rail until Adamson came to his
assistance.
Then some one drew a steamer
chair to his side and into this the
mayor sank with relief. A few min
utes later he was removed to a state
room, where the ships surgeon tenn
porarily bandaged the wound, prepar-
atory TO his removal to St. Mary's
hospital.
Rufus Gaynor, a son. was the only
member of the mayors family pres
ent when he was shot His wife and
other children were at the Gaynor
country place at ST. James. L. /.
When Mrs. Gaynor was notified
by telephone of the tragedy she
made a spectacular run by auto