The thousands who were in the vicinity of the shooting clamored for Schrank's life.
Capt. Girard and Sergeant Murray fought off the crowd and literally dragged Schrank into the Hotel Gilpatrick through the main entrance, through the lobby and into the hotel kitchen.
Here Schrank was left in charge of Capt. Girard and Herman Rollfink while Sergeant Murray telephoned the central police station for the auto patrol. Upon its arrival Schrank was hustled into it and taken to the central station.
Schrank having disappeared, the crowd about the hotel hurried to the Auditorium. This vast building was filled to capacity, 9,000, and at least 15,000 were outside unable to even get to the doors, which had been closed and locked by attendants at 8 o'clock.
When Schrank was first questioned at the central station he declined to give his name. Within a short time, however, under supervision of Chief John T. Janssen, he submitted to an examination, which appears in full in another chapter.
Schrank necessarily was roughly handled immediately after firing the shot. He clung to the revolver until it was wrenched from him, and at one time he was beneath a pile of struggling men in the street car tracks immediately in front of Hotel Gilpatrick.
One of the detectives, in his efforts to get hold of Schrank, was carried down with Schrank beneath this struggling mass of men.
When Schrank arrived at the central station he was little the worse for his rough handling, except that his clothing was badly soiled, his collar torn off and his hair disheveled. He looked as though he were glad he had been rescued from the crowd crying for his life.
Searched at the central station the following letter was found in a coat pocket:
"To the People of the United States: