Eight US presidents have died throughout their time period of workplace. Some had been assassinated – equivalent to Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and John F Kennedy – whereas others succumbed to sickness, equivalent to Franklin Roosevelt.

All of those deaths brought on a stir once they occurred, intensified by the precise context of every interval and the circumstances.

Nonetheless, within the case of Warren G Harding, the dearth of post-mortem and the lies revealed afterwards stirred ugly suspicions concerning the circumstances of his loss of life that persist even in the present day.

The scandals that marred his legacy

Harding loved important recognition in his day, profitable the 1920 election by the best margin recorded as much as that time, and although there have been instances of mismanagement and, in some cases, abuse throughout his administration, the vast majority of the scandals that marred his legacy solely got here to gentle after his loss of life.

These revelations embody the concept his sudden loss of life because of coronary heart issues and different problems on August 2, 1923, in the midst of an extended tour by varied states, was truly a homicide.

US President Warren G Harding and First Girl, Florence Harding, watch on from the White Home balcony, circa 1922. Supply: Getty

Between June and July 1923, Harding took a visit on the presidential practice – the ancestor of in the present day’s Air Drive One aircraft – to tour the western US. He departed from Washington DC and visited cities together with St Louis, Missouri; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah; Helena, Montana; and Spokane, Washington, earlier than reaching Alaska, within the first go to by a US president to that state, after which returning to the Seattle space.

Harding was not in good well being, and though his medical doctors gave him varied therapies, together with laxatives and coronary heart stimulants, they’d warned him for years that his coronary heart issues had been being aggravated by his frequent amorous affairs.

The illegitimate daughter

Between round 1917 to 1923, Harding had a romantic relationship with Nan Britton, a lady 31 years his junior, which resulted within the start of a daughter. For years, it was debated whether or not Elizabeth Ann Blaesing was truly the president’s daughter, till DNA testing in 2015 confirmed his paternity.

Story continues

5 years after Harding’s loss of life, Britton revealed her e book The President’s Daughter, which scandalised public opinion on the time because of revealing intimate particulars such because the sexual relations that allegedly came about in a coat closet within the government workplace of the White Home.

The shock was so nice that it was even speculated that the president’s loss of life needed to do together with his infidelities, together with the speculation that he was poisoned by his spouse, who was blinded by jealousy.

President Warren G. Harding shakes fingers with New York Yankee participant Babe Ruth throughout an April 4, 1923 go to to Yankee Stadium. Supply: Getty

Britton fought for years for her daughter to be acknowledged, first with the revelations within the e book after which by authorized means. However the courtroom dominated in opposition to her and she or he died in 1991, on the age of 94, with out her want changing into a actuality. Elizabeth Blaesing herself died in 2005 earlier than it was confirmed that Harding was her father.

The thriller was solved in 2015, nonetheless. Descendants of Harding and Blaesing agreed to have DNA analyses carried out, which revealed that Elizabeth, born in 1919, was in reality the president’s daughter.

The information additionally resolved a number of the most scandalous claims in Britton’s e book: Elizabeth was born in 1919, earlier than Harding was elected president in 1920, and due to this fact she couldn’t have been conceived in a closet within the White Home or wherever else within the presidential residence.

However the relationship had continued till the president’s loss of life, giving rise to the allegations that he might have been poisoned by his spouse, Florence.

The thriller of the lacking post-mortem

Harding’s loss of life was pretty sudden: he suffered rising ache and discomfort and, whereas he was in San Francisco on one leg of his lengthy tour in 1923, he was recognized with pneumonia. Lastly, after a couple of days throughout which he appeared to recuperate barely, he died unexpectedly on the age of 58.

It was first mentioned that he had died from apoplexy or one other mind downside, though his loss of life was later attributed to coronary heart failure. It was additionally rumoured that the president’s loss of life needed to do with medical incompetence or negligence.

What actually occurred partly remained a thriller, as the primary woman refused to allow them to do an post-mortem and ordered her husband’s physique to be embalmed rapidly.

These occasions fed the speculations alleged in a e book revealed in 1930 by Gaston Means, “an embittered, former Harding Administration official,” who claimed that the president’s spouse Florence had poisoned him.

The e book additionally compiled particulars on political scandals that had occurred throughout Harding’s administration, which had begun to be revealed, and included the story about his illegitimate daughter, referencing materials from The President’s Daughter by Britton, which made the poisoning story believable for a lot of.

This story was not true, nonetheless. Means had authorized issues and died in jail, and it was additionally revealed that he was not the e book’s creator; as an alternative, another person, Mae Dixon Thacker, had written it for him.

Irritated that Means had not shared the income from the e book along with her, Thacker confessed that a lot of its content material, together with the poisoning story, was made up.

However the allegation that Elizabeth Blaesing was Harding’s illegitimate daughter ended up being true and, a few years later, genetic evaluation vindicated her mom, Harding’s lover, Nan Britton.

Although it was not true, the legend that Harding was poisoned by a spouse insulted by presidential infidelities has persevered and, to a sure extent, it’s the story that many determine with the 29th president of america. In any case, apart from what folks considered him throughout his lifetime, Harding is at present one of many worst-ranked and lesser-known chief magistrates in US historical past.