The Strange Death of Warren Harding
Warren G. Harding is one of four presidents to die in office of natural causes. Or was he? Conspiracy theorists surmise that Harding was actually murdered and that his murder was covered up. My favourite conspiracy theorist webspace is that of the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency found here.
It was around this time of year, in June of 1923, some 87 years ago that President Harding set out on a cross-country "Voyage of Understanding", a kind of national dog-and-pony show in which Harindg hoped to showcase his policies and escape the stench of scandal back home. During this trip, he became the first president to visit Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington by this time, and while in Alaska, Harding received a long message which seemed to shake him. The message apparently detailed illegal activities previously unknown to him. At the end of July, while traveling south from Alaska through British Columbia (where I live), he developed what was thought to be a severe case of food poisoning. He arrived at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where it is believed that he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923, at the age of 57.
Naval physicians surmised that he had suffered a heart attack. However, this diagnosis was not made by Dr. Charles Sawyer, the Surgeon General, who was traveling with the presidential party. Sawyer recommended to Mrs. Harding that an autopsy be performed to determine the actual cause of death, but Mrs. Harding refused permission for the autopsy. Her refusal brought out the conspiracy theorists of the day, leading to speculation that the President had been the victim of a plot.
Harding was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in by his father, a justice of the peace, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Harding's body was returned to Washington, where it was placed in the East Room of the White House pending a state funeral at the United States Capitol. White House employees at the time were quoted as saying that the night before the funeral, they heard Mrs. Harding speak for more than an hour to her dead husband. One of the most controversial remarks attributed to Mrs. Harding at the time was: "They can't hurt you now, Warren."
Harding was entombed in the receiving vault of the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, in August 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death on November 21, 1924, she too was temporarily buried next to her husband. Both bodies were moved in December 1927 to the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, which was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.
In 1930, a former private investigator with a sketchy reputation named Gaston Means wrote an exploitative book, called The Strange Death of President Harding. In the book, Means suggested that many people had a motive to murder the President, including Mrs. Harding. Means claimed it was possible that Mrs. Harding poisoned the President, a rumor that has clouded the facts of Harding's death and heart condition.
In 1933, a story in Liberty magazine denounced Means as a fraud who used a ghost writer for the book. The theories advanced by Means, who had previously been imprisoned for his suspicious activities while an FBI agent, have never been proven.
If only Means had employed some adolescent assistants and a dog, so that when the mystery was solved, the killer could have said "and I'd have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!"
It was around this time of year, in June of 1923, some 87 years ago that President Harding set out on a cross-country "Voyage of Understanding", a kind of national dog-and-pony show in which Harindg hoped to showcase his policies and escape the stench of scandal back home. During this trip, he became the first president to visit Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington by this time, and while in Alaska, Harding received a long message which seemed to shake him. The message apparently detailed illegal activities previously unknown to him. At the end of July, while traveling south from Alaska through British Columbia (where I live), he developed what was thought to be a severe case of food poisoning. He arrived at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where it is believed that he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923, at the age of 57.
Naval physicians surmised that he had suffered a heart attack. However, this diagnosis was not made by Dr. Charles Sawyer, the Surgeon General, who was traveling with the presidential party. Sawyer recommended to Mrs. Harding that an autopsy be performed to determine the actual cause of death, but Mrs. Harding refused permission for the autopsy. Her refusal brought out the conspiracy theorists of the day, leading to speculation that the President had been the victim of a plot.
Harding was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in by his father, a justice of the peace, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Harding's body was returned to Washington, where it was placed in the East Room of the White House pending a state funeral at the United States Capitol. White House employees at the time were quoted as saying that the night before the funeral, they heard Mrs. Harding speak for more than an hour to her dead husband. One of the most controversial remarks attributed to Mrs. Harding at the time was: "They can't hurt you now, Warren."
Harding was entombed in the receiving vault of the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, in August 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death on November 21, 1924, she too was temporarily buried next to her husband. Both bodies were moved in December 1927 to the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, which was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.
In 1930, a former private investigator with a sketchy reputation named Gaston Means wrote an exploitative book, called The Strange Death of President Harding. In the book, Means suggested that many people had a motive to murder the President, including Mrs. Harding. Means claimed it was possible that Mrs. Harding poisoned the President, a rumor that has clouded the facts of Harding's death and heart condition.
In 1933, a story in Liberty magazine denounced Means as a fraud who used a ghost writer for the book. The theories advanced by Means, who had previously been imprisoned for his suspicious activities while an FBI agent, have never been proven.
If only Means had employed some adolescent assistants and a dog, so that when the mystery was solved, the killer could have said "and I'd have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!"