Oscar Collazo
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Oscar Collazo (January 20, 1914 – February 21, 1994) born in Florida, Puerto Rico, was one of two Puerto Ricans who attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman.
In 1920, Collazo's father died and his mother sent him to live with his brother in Jayuya. His brother was a member of the Liberal Party which had independence beliefs. When Collazo was 14 years old, he participated in a student demonstration, which was considered illegal, commemorating the birth of Jose de Diego. In 1932, when Collazo was 18 years old, he again participated in another demonstration commemorating Jose de Diego. This time however, the main speaker was Pedro Albizu Campos, the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. That day he was so impressed by Albizu Campos' leadership that he joined the Nationalist Party.
In 1941, Collazo moved to New York City and married a divorcee called Rosa Collazo. Rosa had two daughters and Collazo had one, both from a previous marriage. Collazo worked in a metal polishing factory and led a normal life. He met and became friends with Albizu Campos when the latter was hospitalized at the Columbus Hospital. Collazo became the secretary and later president of the New York branch of the Nationalist Party. Collazo met Griselio Torresola in New York and they soon became friends.
On October 28, 1950, they received the news that the Jayuya Uprising led by the nationalist Blanca Canales in Puerto Rico, had failed. Torresola's sister had been wounded and his brother Elio was arrested. Collazo and Torresola then decided to assassinate President Truman with the intention of bringing world attention to the independence cause of Puerto Rico.
On October 31, 1950, Collazo and Torresola arrived at the Union Station in Washington D.C. and registered in the Harris Hotel. On November 1, 1950, Collazo and Torresola with guns in hand attempted to enter the Blair House with the intention of assassinating the President, who was residing there while the White House was being renovated. During the attack one White House police officer, Private Leslie Coffelt, was killed and multiple others wounded. Torresola was killed by the mortally wounded Coffelt, and Collazo was shot in the chest and arrested. Collazo's wife, Rosa, was also arrested by the F.B.I. on suspicion of having conspired with her husband, and spent eight months in federal prison.
Upon her release from prison, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from the electric chair.
In 1952, Collazo was sentenced to death, but President Truman commuted his sentence to a life sentence. He was sent to the federal prison at Leavenworth in Kansas. Collazo received a presidential pardon from President Jimmy Carter in 1979, after spending 29 years in jail. He was pardoned along with fellow nationalists Irving Flores, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Lolita Lebron. Upon their return to Puerto Rico, they were received as heroes by the different independence groups.
In 1979, Collazo and the other nationalists were decorated by Cuba's President Fidel Castro. In the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, Illinois, there is a mural painted honoring Puerto Rico's independence leaders which include the images of Collazo and Torresola.
Among the books written about Collazo and Torresola are: "Los Indomitos" by Antonio Gil de Lamadrid Navarro; "Oscar Collazo" by Oscar Collazo and "Oscar Collazo: Portrait of a Puerto Rican Patriot" by Jonah Raskin, and Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr., "American Gunfight: The Plot To Kill Harry Truman - And The Shoot-Out That Stopped It".
Oscar Collazo continued to participate in activities related to the independence movement. On February 21, 1994, Oscar Collazo died of a stroke.
