Private Leslie Coffelt of the Secret Service White House Police attentively sits at his post in the west guard station of Blair House. It is November 1, 1950 and President and Mrs. Truman are living at Blair House while the White House is undergoing renovation. Two inconspicuous men pass by Blair House. Unbeknownst to Coffelt, they are plotting to assassinate the President.
The men return to the building, this time approaching from different directions. At the east end, Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Collazo draws his pistol and shoots. His target is Private Donald T. Birdzell who is standing at the entrance to the building. But Collazo's gun does not fire immediately. It produces only a click and allerts Birdzell who swings around to see Collazo. The gun goes off an instant later, striking Birdzell in the leg. Despite his wound, Birdzell runs to the center of the street in an attempt to draw Collazo's fire away from the building.
Meanwhile, Collazo's partner, Griselio Torresola, walks to the west guard booth. He fires three shots into the booth, striking Coffelt in the left side and abdomen. Coffelt collapses.
Back at the doorway, bullets are flying. Ricocheting bullets slice through Collazo's hat, nick his ear, and cut his nostril. Finally, he is shot in the chest. Torresola rushes to Collazo's aid and fires at Private Birdzell who is still shooting from the street. A bullet lands in Birdzell's other leg, this time in his left knee.
Coffelt, now bleeding and mortally wounded, leans out of his guard booth doorway. He takes aim at Torresola and kills him with a bullet to the head. The assassination attempt is thwarted, but not without a price. Three hours and forty minutes later, Officer Leslie Coffelt dies on the operating table.
Overview of the Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is perhaps best known for its responsibility of protecting the President. When the Service was formed in 1865, however, its mission was unrelated to Presidential protection. In fact, there was no official Presidential protection in 1865; that would come years later after more than one President had met his death by an assassin's bullet. Ironically, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated the very day Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch approached Lincoln about the idea for the Secret Service.
One might wonder why the Secret Service was needed by and formed under the United States Department of Treasury. During the 1860s, the United States was plagued by counterfeiters; estimates are that one-third of the currency in circulation was fake.
At the time, paper bills were issued by private banks. A bank in New York, for example, printed money that was only good in New York; this seriously complicated Inter-State trade. Also, because there were over 1600 banks printing money, each with its own design, businesses could not tell which bills were genuine and which were counterfeit.
Then in 1862, Congress passed a legal-tender act that authorized the Federal Government to issue United States legal-tender notes. The notes became known as "greenbacks," because they were printed with green ink on one side. The Treasury Department hoped the green ink would eliminate the counterfeiting problem, but the new note was soon duplicated.
People lost faith in paper bills and hoarded coins, which could at least be melted and sold for their metallic value. The government needed to restore faith in the nation's currency or they might soon face economic panic.
Recognizing the need for reform, the Federal Government enacted a National Bank System in 1863. However, the system was not fully operational until 1865. On July 5 of that year, the Secret Service Division of the Department of the Treasury was officially established. Its mission was to investigate and arrest counterfeiters, and to restore and maintain the nation's confidence in our currency.
