If the 2016 race for the White House is any indication, anyone who actually wants to become
President has to be at least a little bit off their rocker.
"You said you learned a lot of things.
What do you think you took away from today?"
"Oh, my luggage.
Hold on."
Throughout our country's history, many of the men who ultimately served as President
of the United States have had some pretty unusual facts attached to their biographies.
Here are seven U.S. Presidents who were really weird people.
John Quincy Adams, skinny dipper
Here's something that could have only happened in the age before the Internet and smartphones.
According to many reports, our sixth President, John Quincy Adams, had a thing for skinny-dipping,
and he’d often go for a quiet dip in D.C.'s Potomac River at around 5 a.m. to help him
deal with the stress of being President.
Adams' love for nude swimming was actually well-known among the press, so journalist
and convicted “public nuisance” Anne Royall was able to secure her history-making interview
with Adams by taking his clothes until he agreed to answer her questions.
Strangely enough, Adams was not the only President who loved to take his clothes off and go for
a dip.
Among the others, according to The New Republic: Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Lyndon B. Johnson, and perhaps less surprisingly, John F. Kennedy.
"Happy birthday, Mr. President."
Grover Cleveland, former hangman
According to a New York Times article published all the way back in July 1912, Grover Cleveland
actually had to execute multiple murderers by hanging while he served as the Sheriff
of Erie County.
At one point during his term, a young Irishman named "Jack" Morrissey was convicted of killing
his mother, and Cleveland "surprised the community" by announcing that he would actually go through
with performing the execution.
Much of Cleveland's motivation due to the fact that he was sick of people passing off
the difficult task of executing murderers to the office's Deputy Sheriff, Jacob Emerick,
whom the public had nicknamed "Hangman Emerick”... much to Emerick’s dismay.
After performing Morrissey's execution, Cleveland was reported to have been sick for several
days, but he did not shirk further execution... which paid him $20,000 dollars a year, or
about $350,000 dollars in today’s cash.
Jimmy Carter, UFO-observer
In 1969, Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter, along with two dozen other witnesses, claimed
he saw an unidentified flying object during a visit to the Lions Club in Leary, Georgia,
calling it, “the darndest thing I've ever seen."
"It changed color, and then it stayed there for a while.
And then it disappeared into the distance, and none of us could ever imagine what it
was.
And I still don't know what it was."
Carter filed a report on the incident four years later, and made UFO research a component
of his successful Presidential campaign in 1976.
Carter later backed off on the platform of releasing UFO information to the public, saying
that it would be a threat to national security.
However, decades later, Carter still stands by his original statements.
Carter now also claims it was "impossible" that the unidentified object was actually
aliens, leading conspiracy theorists to claim that the whole thing is a cover-up.
"I give you our 39th President, Jimmy Carter!"
"Aww, come on!"
"He's history's greatest monster!"
Calvin Coolidge, Vaseline head
Plenty of people resort to alternative medicine to stay healthy, but Calvin Coolidge may ultimately
take the cake.
According to the sleazy-sounding book, White House: Confidential, our 30th President "enjoyed
having petroleum jelly slathered on his head" every morning while he ate breakfast in bed.
(Horrible jingle about Vaseline playing)
The reason?
Coolidge apparently believed that slabbing on a bunch of jelly would be great for his
health.
To be fair, this was also around the same time that cocaine and morphine were considered
perfectly okay as over-the-counter medicines too.
John F. Kennedy, lots and lots of drugs
Our 35th president may have been one of the most charming and good-looking presidents
in U.S. history...
"He was a hyper-charismatic, telepathical knight—JFK!"
...but behind closed doors, John F. Kennedy was battling multiple illnesses, and used
just as many drugs to treat them.
Kennedy's secrets were uncovered by professor Robert Dallek’s book, An Unfinished Life:
John F. Kennedy.
Reportedly, Kennedy suffered from colitis, prostatitis, Addison's disease, and osteoporosis
of the lower back, among other things.
"By the time he was 17 years old, his health was so questionable, they sent him off to
the male clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to figure out what his problems were."
According to Dallek, Kennedy frequently took drugs ranging from codeine, to Ritalin and
a thyroid hormone, often taking as many as 12 medications at once, and more during times
of stress.
Shockingly enough, despite Kennedy's overflowing medicine cabinet, he was mostly able to keep
his ailments private from the public, which seems almost absurd nowadays.
Lyndon B. Johnson, supremely gross
It's hard to choose one detail to focus on when discussing the strange predilections
of JFK's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Do we talk about his car, which was also a boat?
Do we talk about the fact that he was, reportedly, obsessed with his manhood, and allegedly nicknamed
it "Jumbo"?
Maybe we'll just discuss his habit of holding meetings while he was on the toilet, as described
in numerous articles and books.
In Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, presidential historian Robert Dallek explained
that,
"His abuse of aides, shouting at them in public and calling them into the bathroom while he
'sat on the throne,' was well known to reporters."
Considering how much time he seems to have spent hovering over water, it's starting to
make sense why Johnson loved to drive an amphibious car…
"Daddy!
Daddy!"
(People screaming at floater)
Harry S. Truman, the ‘S’ is silent
If you thought those other Presidents were weird, wait until you hear this crazy secret.
You'd think that the "S" in "Harry S. Truman" stands for something, like "Stanley," or "Steven,"
or "Stephanie," or "Something."
But you'd be wrong!
In fact, it's just "S."
"Put it down as best as you can, okay?"
"What's the shape of the snake-letter look like?"
"You don't know what a 'S' looks like?"
"S!
Ohhhh..."
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