Assassination Attempt on President Truman at Blair House

On November 1, 1950, two days after the Jayuya Uprising and related revolts across Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attempted to storm Blair House (the President's temporary residence during White House renovations) to assassinate President Harry Truman.

The attack was part of the same coordinated Nationalist action that included the Jayuya Uprising led by Blanca Canales and attacks on government buildings across the island. Collazo and Torresola approached Blair House from different directions and engaged in a gun battle with White House police and Secret Service agents.

Torresola was killed during the attack. White House Police Officer Leslie Coffelt was also killed; he managed to shoot Torresola before dying of his wounds. Collazo was wounded and captured. Truman was unharmed.

Collazo was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment by Truman himself. He served 29 years before President Jimmy Carter commuted his sentence in 1979, along with the sentences of the Nationalists who had attacked Congress in 1954.

The attackers stated that their goal was not personal violence against Truman but to draw international attention to Puerto Rico's colonial status and the violent suppression of the Nationalist uprising.