On Sept. 6, 1901, William McKinley, president of the United States, was attending an exposition at Buffalo, N.Y. and was greeting people who had formed a line. Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, concealed his gun in a handkerchief, and when he reached the head of the greeting line, shot McKinley twice in the abdomen.

On Sept. 14, 1901, President McKinley died from that attack. Czolgosz, put on trial for murder nine days after McKinley’s death, was found guilty, sentenced to death on Sept. 26, 1901 and was executed by electric chair on Oct. 29, 1901.

A U.S. president died and his convicted killer executed in about six weeks. How would that work today? Do readers see in this timeline of events from 1901 any grain for the gristmill of justice, then and now?

The writer lives in Myrtle Beach.