The 1901 assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York, had a bizarre and tragic echo in Muncie, Indiana, soon thereafter. A short article from the September 20, 1901 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Muncie, Ind.–Omer Peolee, aged 10, was fatally shot at Winchester last evening while posing as President McKinley at Buffalo for Emil Miller of the same age, who was the pretended anarchist in the case.

The lads were playmates and undertook to enact the Buffalo tragedy. Miller secured his brother’s rifle for the work. The ball passed almost through the child’s stomach and he will die. The parents are distracted.”

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McKinley inauguration, 1901: