The Bricklayer and President Franklin Roosevelt Miami, Florida February 15, 1933

Giuseppe Zangara has been compared to Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of William McKinley. Czolgosz was electrocuted at Auburn Prison in upstate New York within weeks after he shot and killed McKinley in a receiving line at the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York in 1901. Like Czolgosz, Zangara was an anarchist and was found to have received no aid from others who opposed government leaders. Zangara was driven by a hatred of kings and presidents. The small unemployed bricklayer came from Italy to the United States in 1923 along with an uncle. Throughout his short life he was burdened by a constant stomach disorder that was made no better by an operation he underwent. A drifter Zangara arrived in Philadelphia before settling in Hackensack, New Jersey. He hoped that his sick stomach might get better when he moved on to Los Angeles. When it continued to bother him he moved to Miami where his cousin was a cigar manufacturer.