McKinley Monument
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York, felt very guilty about being the place where President William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz (CHOLE-goash), a crazed anarchist from Detroit. So six years later, to the day, the city dedicated a 93-foot-tall obelisk of white marble to the martyred President. The monument cost $105,000 and is guarded at all four compass points by giant marble lions, sculpted from life from a famous lion that lived at the Bronx Zoo.
The obelisk is engraved on all sides with details of McKinley's life. On the north face, pointing toward the spot where McKinley fell, the inscription concludes that the President was the "victim of a treacherous assassin" who "shot the President as he was extending the hand of courtesy."
Czolgosz wanted to kill McKinley; McKinley just wanted to shake hands.