Nobody who seeks the highest office in the land – arguably the most powerful position in the modern world – can really be considered “normal.” They’re usually born with a silver spoon in their mouth and a terrifying, borderline sociopathic level of personal ambition. So perhaps it’s not that surprising that bizarre facts, stories and habits surround US presidents. Let’s take a look at some of the wildest stuff here…

10. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826

One of the most eerily coincidental events in American presidential history surrounds two of America’s Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. These two giants of early American politics were sometimes friends, sometimes fierce rivals, but their destinies were curiously intertwined. Both played instrumental roles in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, both helped lead the fledgling USA during its revolution and helped design its government. And both, of course, served as U.S. President.

But you could say the same about a lot of Founding Fathers. What really binds these two guys together is that both Jefferson and Adams passed away on the same day: July 4, 1826 — the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Adams’ last words reportedly were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Ironically, he was mistaken. Jefferson had died a few hours earlier. 

9. Grover Cleveland’s secret surgery

Today’s politics has its fair share of secrets, but with smartphones in every hand and an internet that allows information to rocket around the planet before anyone can strangle it, it’s harder to keep things under wraps now that it probably ever has been. But that hasn’t always been the case. Let’s rewind to 1893. Grover Cleveland, the only U.S. president to serve two non-consecutive terms, was in the middle of a financial crisis when he discovered a troubling bump on the roof of his mouth. It was cancer. The last thing the country needed was panic over the president’s health. So, instead of going public, Cleveland and a team of doctors hatched a discreet plan.

They performed the surgery aboard a moving yacht, the Oneida, cruising through the Long Island Sound. With the pretense of a four-day fishing trip, Cleveland had a portion of his upper jaw and the tumor removed, all while the yacht gently rocked on the water. A rubber prosthetic was later placed in his mouth, and the secret was so well-kept that the public remained clueless until a quarter-century later when one of the surgeons finally spilled the beans. Imagine that story coming out about contemporary leaders now. 

8. Andrew Jackson’s parrot

Andrew Jackson was a rough and tumble dude, famous for his fiery nature, duels, being on the $20 bill, ignoring the Supreme Court, and his horrendous treatment of indigenous Americans (oops, were we supposed to mention that part?). With such a boisterous personality, perhaps it’s not surprising that his pet parrot, Poll, picked up a bit of that same rebellious streak. During Jackson’s funeral in 1845, as mourners gathered at The Hermitage to pay their respects, Poll began to screech a barrage of expletives. The parrot’s irreverent outburst was so unexpected and inappropriate for such a somber occasion, that it had to be quickly removed from the scene.

The incident adds a touch of humor to an otherwise solemn event, making one wonder if the parrot was echoing Jackson’s sentiments from beyond the grave or simply giving one last audacious salute to its notorious owner. It sounds like something out of Arrested Development. 

7. James Buchanan’s bachelorhood

It’s hard to imagine a president without a First Lady. That’s because only one POTUS has ever served while single. James Buchanan stands out in the annals of U.S. presidential history as the only president who never got married. Serving from 1857 to 1861, his bachelor status was a topic of much interest and speculation. Some historians believe that personal tragedies might have played a role in his decision to remain single. Buchanan was once engaged to Ann Coleman, but the relationship ended abruptly and tragically when she died suddenly in 1819, well before he got to the White House.

While the nature of his private life and reasons for his bachelorhood have been subjects of debate and curiosity, what’s certain is that his niece, Harriet Lane, took on the traditional duties of First Lady during his tenure. Serving as the White House hostess, she became a beloved figure of her time and is credited with establishing many of the roles and expectations associated with First Ladies today.

6. Abraham Lincoln’s wrestling career

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most famous Americans for a number of reasons. This scrawny self-educated guy was not just a president, but held the Union together against all odds during the Civil War and helped end the institution of slavery once and for all. Add to that impressive list the fact that he had quite a reputation as a formidable wrestler. Standing at 6 feet 4 inches, with long limbs and remarkable strength, young Lincoln was a force to be reckoned with on the wrestling mat. He took part in approximately 300 matches and is said to have lost only one.

His impressive skills earned him respect and even an informal title as the “wrestling champion” of his region in Illinois. Beyond just his physical prowess, Lincoln was also known to display great sportsmanship. He rarely boasted about his victories, but he wasn’t above using his reputation to intimidate political rivals. There’s even a famous anecdote that after one political debate, Lincoln challenged the crowd, asking if anyone wanted to “try it on” with him. It’s no wonder he couldn’t be beaten during the Civil War. 

5. John Quincy Adams’ skinny-dipping

The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, had some rather unique morning routines. Among them was his fondness for early morning swims in the Potomac River, a habit he indulged in nearly every day. But what made this ritual even more unconventional was that Adams preferred to take these swims in the buff. Something presidents definitely couldn’t get away with in the age of smartphones and social media. 

In a well-known anecdote from 1826, Anne Royall, a trailblazing journalist, sought an interview with the president. Having been previously refused, she decided to use Adams’ predilection for skinny dipping to her advantage. She went to his usual swimming spot and sat on his clothes, effectively forcing the president to talk with her if he wanted his attire returned. Consequently, Royall became the first woman to interview a sitting president, all thanks to Adams’ rather revealing habit.

4. Benjamin Harrison’s electricity fears

In the era when homes were transitioning from gas lamps to electric lights, President Benjamin Harrison found himself residing in the White House during this technological shift. In 1891, the White House was equipped with electricity for the first, a major advancement for the day. However, this newfangled innovation didn’t sit well with Harrison.

Despite the convenience it brought, Harrison was downright terrified of being electrocuted. He and his wife, Caroline, were so wary of the electric switches that they often refused to touch them, fearing they would get shocked. Consequently, they would sometimes go to bed with the lights on rather than risk touching the switches. They would often rely on staff to operate the lights for them.

It’s a humorous and humbling reminder that even presidents, with all their power and prestige, can have fears and apprehensions about the unknown, especially when faced with the rapid technological advancements of their time.

3. Rutherford B. Hayes’ controversial election

Politics is a nasty business now, but this isn’t the first time elections have been less than peaceful. The U.S. presidential election of 1876, pitting Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, was arguably one of the most controversial and tumultuous in American history. Tilden won the popular vote by about 250,000, but he was one electoral vote shy of the necessary majority. Hayes, on the other hand, was 20 electoral votes short. The heart of the dispute lay in 20 electoral votes from four states: Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon. Both parties claimed victory in these states, leading to multiple sets of electoral vote returns being sent to Congress.

To address the issue, Congress set up the Electoral Commission, which, in a series of 8 to 7 votes (mirroring the party lines), awarded all disputed electoral votes to Hayes. Behind closed doors, a compromise was reached, known as the Compromise of 1877.

Democrats acquiesced to Hayes’s election, and in return, Republicans agreed to end military occupation in the South, essentially bringing an end to the Reconstruction era. Hayes became president, but the compromise had lasting implications, including the solidification of “Jim Crow” laws and the suppression of Black voting rights in the South for decades.

2. Rutherford B. Hayes’ telephone

In the rapidly changing world of the late 19th century, technology was making leaps and bounds. And the White House was in line to get upgraded with the latest tech of the day. Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, holds the distinction of being the first sitting president to have a telephone installed in the White House in 1877, just a year after its invention. The White House’s telephone number was simply “1.” That’s right! If you wanted to reach the president, all you had to dial was a single digit. Today you’d have to do a bunch of things that we can’t say here because the secret service would put a bag over our heads in minutes. 

The novelty of the device meant that not many people had telephones at the time. In fact, for a while, the only direct line from the White House was to the Treasury Department. Hayes is said to have been initially fascinated by the device, but with such limited connectivity, it wouldn’t become a crucial communication tool for the presidency until later years. 

1. Calvin Coolidge’s fondness for animals

An adorable pet can put a nice face on any administration. But Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, took things to a whole new level. Silent Cal, as he was often known, had a penchant for animals that went beyond the usual presidential dogs and cats.

His menagerie at the White House included a pair of raccoons named Rebecca and Reuben, which he originally received to be part of a Thanksgiving meal but chose to adopt instead. He also had a donkey named Ebenezer, a bobcat called Smoky, and several birds, like Enoch the goose and a pair of canaries named Nip and Tuck. And of course, there were the more conventional pets: multiple dogs of various breeds and a whole slew of cats. Imagine trying to concentrate on any job in that building with all of those animals running around. But hey, politicians tend to be surrounded by the sleaziest types of power hungry people. So we can’t say we blame Coolidge for preferring the company of animals instead.

It seems obvious that a former president should be given an appropriate and honorable final resting place. For most who have served their country, that has been true. But there have also been a surprising number of issues with former leaders’ deaths. From George Washington to the present day, presidents have been memorialized in some strange ways. Worse still, some of their remains haven’t been allowed to rest as they should.

Here are ten tales of the strange fates of former presidents after death.

Related: Top 10 Faux Pas Committed By US Presidents

10 George Washington

When George Washington died in 1799, his will was clear: He wanted to be buried close to his Virginia home. But the mausoleum at his plantation, Mount Vernon, needed considerable renovation to hold the first President’s remains. Prior to his death, Washington himself laid out the issue. He wrote about repairs that had to be done to the vault: “I desire that a new [tomb] of Brick, and upon a larger Scale, may be built at the foot of what is commonly called the Vineyard Inclosure… In which my remains, with those of my deceased relatives… may be deposited.”

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Congress ignored his request and conspired to erect a crypt in the U.S. Capitol building. But by 1830, three decades after Washington’s death, that memorial hadn’t been built. Washington’s remains were still in Mount Vernon—but no renovation had been done on the vault there, either.

That’s when things got strange. That year, Washington’s nephew and last surviving heir, John Augustine Washington II, fired a gardener who had been employed at Mount Vernon. The landscaper was upset about the dismissal and sought revenge. He crept into the crypt with the intention of stealing the late president’s skull. Thankfully, Washington’s body had been encased in lead to prevent post-death tampering. Even so, the crypt was in such bad shape that the bones of dozens of people were scattered and mixed together inside. Instead of taking a piece of Washington, the gardener swiped the skull of one of his distant relatives. A year later, the surviving Washington heir erected a new crypt to honor the president, and—pardon the pun—the rest is history.^[1]

9 James K. Polk

James K. Polk died only a few months after his term ended in 1849. The nation’s 11th President died of cholera, which at the time meant a quick burial in a mass grave to slow the disease’s aggressive spread. That burial was unbecoming for a former president, though. After a year in a common grave in a city cemetery in Nashville, lawmakers in Tennessee ordered the remains moved. The intended final resting spot was to be Polk Place, where the president died. And for a while, that was that. But in 1893, the Polk family sold the expansive property. When that happened, Tennessee officials moved Polk’s remains to the State Capitol in Nashville—and again, for a while, that was that.

In 2017, Polk’s final resting place came back into question. At issue this time was the late president’s last will and testament. In the document, he requested to be buried at Polk Place. That property was demolished not long after his family sold it back in 1893, though. So state lawmakers began the process of moving the remains to a property in the city of Columbia, an hour outside Nashville.

Polk had also owned that home during his life, and politicians reasoned the move would essentially fulfill the request in his will. In 2018, the Tennessee legislature passed a resolution to move Polk yet again. However, six months later, it was put on hold when the Tennessee Historical Commission refused to grant permission to disturb the remains. Today, Polk rests at the State Capitol Building—for now.^[2]

8 Zachary Taylor

Not long after Polk’s death, his successor died. Zachary Taylor had the unfortunate distinction of dying in office when he perished a year into his term in 1850. He was 65 years old upon death, which was an advanced age at the time. However, just days before passing, he was in good spirits at a Fourth of July ceremony. The sudden death left supporters wondering if he was poisoned. Taylor had been strongly against allowing slavery in the west at the time. Thus, his supporters wondered whether pro-slavery insurgents poisoned the milk and cherries he ate on the Fourth of July. But no definitive proof of poisoning was ever revealed.

Taylor was buried in his home state of Kentucky. For a while, he rested peacefully. But over the next century, the possibility of poisoning continued to be debated. In 1991, the former President was exhumed for an autopsy. Kentucky’s chief medical examiner performed the procedure. He conclusively found Taylor had not been poisoned. In his report, the death doc wrote Taylor died of “a myriad of natural diseases which could have produced the symptoms of gastroenteritis.” Satisfied at the conclusion, 140 years later, lawmakers had Taylor reburied. Today, he rests in the National Cemetery that bears his name in Louisville.^[3]

7 John Tyler

John Tyler was America’s tenth President, serving before Polk. The Southerner died in 1862, during the middle of the Civil War. He had been elected to the insurgent Confederacy’s legislature in his final days. Thus, rebels held the Virginia native’s body on their side of the horrifically bloody war. This riled up men on both fronts of the conflict and altered how Tyler’s final resting place was designated. The write-up of Tyler’s passing in The New York Times was vicious, asserting he went “down to death amid the ruins of his native State.” The obituary continued: “[Tyler] himself was one of the architects of its ruin; and beneath that melancholy wreck his name will be buried, instead of being inscribed on the Capitol’s monumental marble, as a year ago he so much desired.”

That obituary writer would be proven correct. Tyler had requested a simple funeral at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virgina. That did not happen. Seeing an opportunity to promote rebel pride, Confederate President Jefferson Davis threw a “grand event” for Tyler. Davis even draped Tyler’s coffin in a Confederate flag. In response, Union lawmakers refused to acknowledge the former president’s resting place. Today, Tyler is still interred in Richmond. The old bitterness has carried on, too. According to cemetery officials, he is still the only former president whose resting place is not recognized in Washington.^[4]

6 Abraham Lincoln

After Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination, his body was taken by train around the country. Millions of Americans mourned their murdered leader. The body was embalmed for the trip—a relatively new procedure at the time. It hadn’t been perfected yet, though. The 19-day rail journey required morticians to travel with Lincoln’s corpse and re-embalm it at every stop. However, the experts were unable to prevent the corpse’s ultimate decay. When the train stopped in New York, a reporter wrote: “It will not be possible, despite the effection of the embalming, to continue much longer the exhibition, as the constant shaking of the body aided by the exposure to the air, and the increasing of dust, has already undone much of the… workmanship.” Thankfully, after three weeks, Lincoln was finally laid to rest in an Illinois tomb.

A decade later, in 1876, a group of criminals devised a plan to steal Lincoln’s remains and hold them for ransom. There were no guards at the late president’s tomb, and the marble sarcophagus serving as his resting place had only been lightly sealed. Unbeknownst to the group, they revealed their scheme to a man who was a government informant. He told the Secret Service, and on the day the crew went to the tomb, officers were waiting. Following that near-theft, Lincoln’s remains were secretly buried in the vault’s basement. In 1901, he was disinterred once more and reburied inside a steel cage under ten feet of concrete.^[5]

5 Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding suddenly died at a San Francisco hotel in 1923. At the time, he was in the midst of a nationwide speaking tour. He’d also recently suffered food poisoning. But nobody expected him to pass without warning. His wife, Florence, was adamant about the aftermath: no autopsy and immediate embalming. Harding’s doctors were furious. They wanted to know what had suddenly killed the sitting President. One frustrated medical professional even wrote: “We shall never know exactly the immediate cause of President Harding’s death since every effort that was made to secure an autopsy met with complete and final refusal.” The grieving widow was unmoved, though, and her late husband was buried.

For a while, the public blamed Harding’s doctors for his death. But a few years later, the truth started to come out. In 1928, a woman named Nan Britton wrote a tell-all book about an alleged affair she had with Harding. And in 1930, a former administration staffer wrote a book alleging Florence poisoned her husband after learning of the infidelity. Then, almost a century later, Britton’s descendants wanted answers about their lineage. Ancestry documentation linked them to Harding, and they took the late president’s offspring to court over it. Before Harding’s body could be exhumed for DNA proof, though, his progeny relented. They admitted Harding did indeed have an affair with Britton that produced a child.^[6]

4 Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of America’s greatest presidents. He saw the country through a bit more than three terms spanning much of the Great Depression and World War II. When he died in 1945, he had been very sick for a very long time. Still, his death was not expected. Roosevelt had been at one of his vacation homes with an alleged mistress when he perished. He told her he felt “a terrific pain in the back of my head” and passed out. Three hours later, he was dead. But while officials knew the importance of embalming quickly after death, their response was slow. An undertaker wasn’t contacted until four hours after the president’s death. All the while, aides waited on Eleanor Roosevelt to arrive as the next of kin.

Nine hours later, the embalming process finally began. The undertaker, F. Haden Snoderly, recorded a detailed 15-page memo about the significant issues he faced at that point. “Rigor mortis had set in,” he wrote, and Roosevelt’s abdomen had been “noticeably distended” by the time embalming began. Worse still, FDR’s “arteries were sclerotic,” which meant it was nearly impossible for Snoderly to get embalming fluid into the great man’s veins. The process was so difficult that accusations later appeared in books that Roosevelt had been poisoned and his body had turned black upon death. Those claims were false, but rumors persisted. As for FDR’s afterlife, the president wanted to keep things simple. He wrote out a very detailed set of instructions demanding a bare-bones coffin, a low-key funeral, and no lying in state.^[7]

3 John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy’s body rests in the Arlington National Cemetery. His brain, however, is missing. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. During the autopsy, his brain was placed in “a stainless-steel container with a screw-top lid.” Secret Service agents stored it in a secured file cabinet for safekeeping. From there, it was later brought to a “secure room” within the National Archives. But then something horrible happened. Three years after Kennedy’s death, officials discovered the late President’s brain had vanished. But nobody knew when or how it had been removed from the National Archives.

Author James Swanson reported on the macabre caper in the book End Of Days, writing: “the brain, the tissue slides, and other autopsy materials were missing—and they have never been seen since.” There is no shortage of conspiracy theories focused on Kennedy’s death, but his missing brain has only added to the lore. Swanson played right into it with his own theory too. The author claimed JFK’s brother Robert F. Kennedy was the one who swiped the organ. “My conclusion is that Robert Kennedy did take his brother’s brain—not to conceal evidence of a conspiracy but perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy’s illnesses,” Swanson wrote, “or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking.”^[8]

2 Tassos Papadopoulos

Tassos Papadopoulos, the former President of Cyprus, succumbed to lung cancer in 2008. Papadopoulos had been a political hero in the island nation. After his death, his body was interred in a cemetery in the city of Nicosia. But on the day before the first anniversary of his passing, the remains were stolen. On the morning of December 11, 2009, one of Papadopoulos’s former bodyguards went to the gravesite to light a candle of remembrance. It had rained hard the night before. When the mourning man arrived, he found an empty hole and a pile of dirt where the grave had been. The shocked man immediately called the police.

Officials were baffled by the heist. For weeks, they failed to determine any suspects. Then, three months later, an anonymous tip led police to a different cemetery in Nicosia. There, they found Papadopoulos’s body reburied in another grave. The tip gave investigators a lead, too. It turned out the late president’s body had been dug up by a man seeking leverage to ask for his brother’s release from prison. The scheme came apart after another accomplice called Papadopolous’s family and asked for money instead. The grave robbers were caught and quickly punished. Each man received less than two years in jail for the crime. Thankfully, Papadopoulos was reburied peacefully.^[9]

1 José Eduardo dos Santos

When José Eduardo dos Santos died in early July 2022, it kicked off a series of tense exchanges. Dos Santos had ruled over Angola for decades after taking power in 1979. During that time, his regime oversaw a brutal civil war. He died in Spain, thousands of miles away from his political opponents. But the geography and timing were both tough: Angola was on the eve of an already-tense election campaign when dos Santos succumbed in Barcelona.

His daughter openly claimed foul play had felled the 79-year-old man. She demanded an autopsy in Spain to determine his cause of death. The autopsy was performed, but the evidence of misdeed was not there. Certain of an unsuspicious death, a Spanish judge ruled weeks later that dos Santos was not the victim of foul play. The judge also ordered dos Santos’s body be released to his widow, Ana Paula, and not his children. The grieving wife flew it back to his homeland days before the August elections.

The current Angolan government protested that choice but eventually allowed it. Longtime supporters met the late president’s casket at the airport in Luanda and mourned as it traveled through the city. Finally, in August, dos Santos was laid to rest in the capital “after a long waiting period.”^[10]