1. Leslie William Coffelt was an officer of the White House Police, a branch of the Secret Service, who was killed while successfully defending US President Harry S Truman against an attempted assassination on November 1,1950, at Blair House, where the president was living during renovations at the White House.
Leslie Coffelt was born to Will Coffelt and Effie Keller in the Shenandoah Valley town of Oranda, Virginia.
Leslie Coffelt had four siblings; Harry, Hollis, Norman, and Mildred.
Leslie Coffelt was the second in his family to graduate from high school, and he was described by those who knew him as an expert sharpshooter.
Leslie Coffelt met Cressie Elinor Morgan of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, who was training to become a nurse.
In 1928, Leslie Coffelt left Oranda to look for a job in Washington, DC, and became a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in 1929.
Leslie Coffelt was assigned to Precinct 3, which ran the length of K Street.
That year, as the US entered World War II, Leslie Coffelt was drafted and assigned to B Company, 300th Infantry Regiment, United States Army.
Leslie Coffelt served less than two years and never made it overseas; the Army gave him a medical discharge.
Leslie Coffelt is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Cressie.
Leslie Coffelt was living there because of a major renovation at the White House for structural problems.
Leslie Coffelt went out of his booth and fired at Torresola from 31 feet away, hitting him behind the ear and killing him instantly.
Leslie Coffelt died of his wounds four hours later in a hospital.
Leslie Coffelt was survived by his wife, Cressie Elinor Coffelt, and stepdaughter, Cora Jane Wilson.
Mrs Leslie Coffelt made a speech acknowledging that the island's people were not responsible for the acts of Collazo and Torresola.
Leslie Coffelt's epitaph reads, "White House Policeman: Who Gave Leslie Coffelt's Life in Defense of the President of the United States During an Assassination Attempt at the Blair House, Washington, DC" To this day, Coffelt is one of only four Secret Service members to take a bullet while defending the President, the others being Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, who were wounded during the same incident, and Tim McCarthy, who was wounded in the abdomen by John Hinckley Jr.