LYNN – Freshly released from a Danvers insane asylum, 38-year-old John F. Steele headed for the State House in Boston where he intended to assassinate Gov. Curtis Guild Jr.It was Dec. 5, 1907, exactly 100 years ago today, that Steele burst into the governor’s lobby wearing a black derby and opened fire with a revolver. Three men were seated at a table in the waiting room. The first bullet slammed harmlessly into a wall. The second struck Lynn cigar maker and labor leader Edward “Teddy” Cohen in the head. A third shot hit Dennis Driscoll, causing him to slump to the floor, according to newspaper accounts.Hearing gunfire, Guild and others disarmed and subdued Steele, but it was too late for Cohen, an Ingalls Street resident who died the next day with his wife, sons and the governor at his side.Today, Cohen will be remembered when a plaque honoring his commitment to the labor movement in Massachusetts is unveiled at the State House.Cohen was 49 years old and president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Federation of Labor and considered the most powerful labor leader in Massachusetts. Driscoll, 39, was the federation treasurer. The men were seated with labor activist Arthur Huddell, 39, of Chelsea.An account of the shooting published in Commonwealth magazine earlier this year indicates Cohen and the others hoped to discuss with the governor a pardon for A.M. Kennedy, a union member jailed for murder in Essex County.Steele purportedly left his mother’s Everett home that fateful morning, bound for the city’s various newspaper offices where, despite no experience, he hoped to find work as a reporter. Three weeks earlier, he had signed himself out of Danvers State Hospital where he had been voluntarily confined, mostly due to a mental condition stemming from his Spanish American War experiences.Shortly after leaving the asylum, Steele bought a pistol but, thinking it defective, he returned it to the store. The shopkeeper found the weapon in working order and refused a refund. Steele vowed to find out what the governor had to say about the matter.Arrested for Cohen’s murder, Steele was deemed criminally insane and was committed to Bridgewater State Hospital for life. Driscoll eventually recovered.”The planning for this plaque has been ongoing for the past few years,” said Rep. Steve Walsh, a Lynn Democrat. “The goal of the plaque committee was to honor Cohen and the labor movement in Massachusetts, but I don’t think anyone anticipated how much work that would involve.”Then-acting Gov. Jane Swift signed legislation authorizing the plaque into law on Jan. 1, 2003. However, the AFL-CIO group supporting the effort to honor Cohen was never informed.When AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes approached Walsh soon after his election to the Legislature, the oversight was discovered.A Boston-area artist, Meredith Bergmann, was selected to design the plaque and, once cast, it will be located in the hallway outside of the governor’s office, where the shooting occurred. A scaled replica will be unveiled at today’s ceremony.”The great thing about this plaque is its focus on the struggles and triumphs of working families here in Massachusetts throughout the past century and a half,” said Walsh. “It’s not an overstatement to say that the installation of this plaque in the State House is one of the greatest moments in our history. Where else is there a plaque that is dedicated to a slain labor leader and which captures all the amazing contributions of the labor movement in such a prominent location as between the offices of the Governor and the Speaker in our esteemed State House? It is truly remarkable.”Cohen was born in London in 1858 and immigrated to the U.S. and his involvement with the labor movement began when he joined the Boston Cigar Makers Union. Cohen, who moved to Lynn in the 1890s with his wife, six sons and two daughters, was soon elected President of the Lynn Central Labor Union and became president of the Massachusetts AFL in 190