Girard and Sergeant Murray fought off the crowd and literally
dragged Schrank into the Hotel Gilpatrick through the main entrance,
through the lobby and into the hotel kitchen.

Here Schrank was left in charge of Capt. Girard and Herman Rollfink
while Sergeant Murray telephoned the central police station for the
auto patrol. Upon its arrival Schrank was hustled into it and taken to
the central station.

Schrank having disappeared, the crowd about the hotel hurried to the
Auditorium. This vast building was filled to capacity, 9,000, and at
least 15,000 were outside unable to even get to the doors, which had
been closed and locked by attendants at 8 o'clock.

When Schrank was first questioned at the central station he declined to
give his name. Within a short time, however, under supervision of Chief
John T. Janssen, he submitted to an examination, which appears in full
in another chapter.

Schrank necessarily was roughly handled immediately after firing the
shot. He clung to the revolver until it was wrenched from him, and at
one time he was beneath a pile of struggling men in the street car
tracks immediately in front of Hotel Gilpatrick.

One of the detectives, in his efforts to get hold of Schrank, was
carried down with Schrank beneath this struggling mass of men.

When Schrank arrived at the central station he was little the worse for
his rough handling, except that his clothing was badly soiled, his
collar torn off and his hair disheveled. He looked as though he were
glad he had been rescued from the crowd crying for his life.

Searched at the central station the following letter was found in a
coat pocket:

"To the People of the United States:

"September 15, 1901--1:30 A.M.

"In a dream I saw President McKinley sit up in his coffin pointing
at a man in a monk's attire in whom I recognized Theodore
Roosevelt. The dead president said--This is my murderer--avenge my
death.

"September 14, 1912--1:30 A.M.

"While writing a poem some one tapped me on the shoulder and
said--let not a murderer take the presidential chair, avenge my
death. I could clearly see Mr. McKinley's features. Before the
Almighty God, I swear that the above written is nothing but the
truth.

"So long as Japan could rise to be one of the greatest powers of
the world despite her surviving a tradition more than 2,000 years
old, as Gen. Nogi demonstrated, it is the duty of the