Assassination attempt[edit]
On the evening of July 2, 1915,
Eric Muenter, a one time German professor at
Harvard and
Cornell universities, who opposed American support of the Allied war effort, broke into the U.S. Senate and, finding the door to the Senate chamber locked, laid dynamite outside the reception room, which happened to be next to Marshall's office door. Although the bomb was set with a timer, it exploded prematurely just before midnight, while no one was in the office. (Muenter may not have been specifically targeting the vice president.).
[74][75]
On July 3, Muenter (who went under the pseudonym Frank Holt) burst into the
Glen Cove, New York home of
Jack Morgan, son of financier
J.P. Morgan, demanding that he stop the sale of weapons to the Allies. Morgan told the man he was in no position to comply with his demand; Muenter shot him twice non-fatally and escaped.
[74][75] Muenter was later apprehended and confessed to attempted assassination of the vice president.
[76] Marshall was offered a personal security detachment after the incident, but declined it.
[77] Marshall had been receiving written death threats from numerous "cranks" for several weeks. "Some of them were signed," Marshall told the press, "but most were anonymous. I threw them all into the waste basket." Marshall added that he was "more or less a fatalist" and did not notify the Secret Service about the letters, "but that he naturally was startled when he heard of the explosion at the Capitol."
[78]
