It’s natural to assume that a former president receives an honorable and secure final resting place. For most leaders, this holds true. However, history reveals a surprising number of strange and unsettling incidents involving presidents’ remains after their deaths. From America’s first president to more recent world leaders, the ways they’ve been memorialized – and sometimes disturbed – can be quite shocking. Some haven’t even been allowed to rest in peace as they should.
Prepare to uncover ten astonishing tales about the peculiar fates that befell former presidents after they passed away.
1. George Washington
When George Washington passed away in 1799, his will was very specific: he wished to be buried near his home in Virginia. However, the mausoleum at his Mount Vernon plantation needed significant repairs to properly house the first U.S. President. Washington himself had noted this, writing about the need for a new, larger brick tomb.
Unfortunately, his wishes were not immediately honored. Congress considered building a crypt for him in the U.S. Capitol building instead. By 1830, three decades after Washington’s death, this Capitol memorial was still unbuilt. His remains were still at Mount Vernon, but the vault there hadn’t been renovated either.
This is where the story takes a strange turn. In 1830, a disgruntled gardener, recently fired by Washington’s nephew, sought revenge. He broke into the crypt intending to steal Washington’s skull. Thankfully, the president’s body had been encased in lead. However, the crypt was in such disrepair that the bones of many family members were scattered and mixed. Instead of Washington’s skull, the gardener mistakenly grabbed one belonging to a distant relative. A year later, a new, more secure crypt was finally built to honor the president.
2. James K. Polk
James K. Polk, the 11th U.S. President, died merely months after his term ended in 1849. He succumbed to cholera, which, at the time, often meant a swift burial in a mass grave to prevent the disease’s spread. Such a burial wasn’t fitting for a former president. After a year in a common grave in Nashville, Tennessee lawmakers ordered his remains moved to Polk Place, where he had died.
For a while, he rested there. But in 1893, the Polk family sold the property. Consequently, Tennessee officials moved Polk’s remains again, this time to the State Capitol grounds in Nashville. The story doesn’t end there. In 2017, discussions resurfaced about his final resting place. His will requested burial at Polk Place, but the original property had been demolished. Lawmakers proposed moving his remains to another property he had owned in Columbia, Tennessee, arguing it would align with his wishes. In 2018, the state legislature approved another move. However, the Tennessee Historical Commission put a hold on it. For now, James K. Polk remains at the State Capitol Building.
3. Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor, Polk’s successor, died in office just over a year into his term in 1850. He was 65, an advanced age for the era. His death was sudden; days before, he seemed healthy at a Fourth of July event. This abrupt passing led supporters to wonder if he’d been poisoned. Taylor strongly opposed expanding slavery into western territories, leading to theories that pro-slavery advocates might have tainted the milk and cherries he consumed on July 4th. However, no solid proof of poisoning emerged at the time.
Taylor was buried in his home state of Kentucky. For many years, he rested peacefully. But the poisoning rumors persisted. Over a century later, in 1991, his body was exhumed for an autopsy. Kentucky’s chief medical examiner conducted the examination and found no evidence of poisoning. His report stated Taylor died from natural diseases that could cause gastroenteritis symptoms. Satisfied with these findings after 140 years, officials had Taylor reburied. He now rests in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville.
4. John Tyler
John Tyler, America’s tenth President, died in 1862, during the Civil War. A Southerner, he had been elected to the Confederate legislature in his final days. As a result, the Confederacy claimed the Virginia native’s body. This situation angered people on both sides of the conflict and affected how his final resting place was handled. The New York Times published a harsh obituary, stating he went “down to death amid the ruins of his native State,” and that he “himself was one of the architects of its ruin.”
Tyler had requested a simple funeral at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. This didn’t happen. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, seeing a chance to boost rebel morale, organized a “grand event” for Tyler. Davis even draped Tyler’s coffin in a Confederate flag. In reaction, Union lawmakers refused to officially recognize the former president’s resting place. John Tyler is still interred in Richmond, and according to cemetery officials, his grave remains the only one of a former U.S. president not officially recognized in Washington, D.C.
5. Abraham Lincoln
After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, his body was taken on a train tour across the country so millions of Americans could mourn. His body was embalmed for the journey, a relatively new practice at the time that hadn’t been perfected. The 19-day rail trip required morticians to travel with Lincoln’s corpse and re-embalm it at each stop. Despite their efforts, they couldn’t prevent its decay. A reporter in New York noted the body’s deteriorating condition due to constant shaking, air exposure, and dust.
Finally, after three weeks, Lincoln was laid to rest in an Illinois tomb. But his remains weren’t safe yet. In 1876, a group of criminals planned to steal Lincoln’s body and hold it for ransom. The tomb was unguarded, and the marble sarcophagus was lightly sealed. Unbeknownst to the thieves, they had revealed their plan to a government informant. The Secret Service was waiting when the crew arrived at the tomb. After this near-theft, Lincoln’s remains were secretly buried in the tomb’s basement. In 1901, he was disinterred again and reburied inside a steel cage beneath ten feet of concrete for ultimate security.
6. Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly at a San Francisco hotel in 1923 while on a nationwide speaking tour. He had recently suffered from food poisoning, but his death was still a shock. His wife, Florence, made swift decisions: no autopsy and immediate embalming. Harding’s doctors were upset, as they wanted to determine the cause of the sitting President’s sudden death. One frustrated doctor even wrote that they would “never know exactly the immediate cause of President Harding’s death.”
Initially, the public blamed Harding’s doctors. However, years later, unsettling details emerged. In 1928, Nan Britton published a book claiming an affair with Harding. Then, in 1930, a former staffer wrote a book alleging Florence had poisoned her husband after learning of his infidelity. Decades later, Britton’s descendants sought to confirm their lineage through Harding. Before Harding’s body could be exhumed for DNA testing, his known descendants conceded. They admitted Harding did have an affair with Britton that resulted in a child, settling a long-standing mystery without disturbing his grave.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of America’s most impactful presidents, guided the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. He died in 1945 after a long illness, though his death was not immediately anticipated. Roosevelt was at one of his vacation homes, reportedly with an alleged mistress, when he collapsed, stating he felt “a terrific pain in the back of my head.” He died three hours later. Despite knowing the importance of quick embalming, officials were slow to act. An undertaker wasn’t called for four hours, as aides waited for Eleanor Roosevelt to arrive.
Nine hours after his death, the embalming process finally began. The undertaker, F. Haden Snoderly, documented significant challenges. “Rigor mortis had set in,” he wrote, and Roosevelt’s abdomen was “noticeably distended.” Furthermore, FDR’s arteries were “sclerotic,” making it extremely difficult to inject embalming fluid. These difficulties later fueled false rumors that Roosevelt had been poisoned and his body had turned black. As for his final wishes, FDR had requested simplicity: a plain coffin, a low-key funeral, and no lying in state.
8. John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy’s body rests in Arlington National Cemetery, but a crucial part of him is missing: his brain. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, during the autopsy, his brain was placed in a stainless-steel container. Secret Service agents stored it securely in a file cabinet, and it was later moved to a “secure room” within the National Archives.
Then, something disturbing occurred. Three years after Kennedy’s death, officials discovered that the late President’s brain had vanished. No one knew when or how it had been removed from the National Archives. Author James Swanson detailed this mystery in his book End Of Days, writing, “the brain, the tissue slides, and other autopsy materials were missing—and they have never been seen since.” This missing brain has only fueled the many conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s death. Swanson proposed his own theory: that JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, took the brain. Swanson suggested RFK might have done this “not to conceal evidence of a conspiracy but perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy’s illnesses… or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking.”
9. Tassos Papadopoulos
Tassos Papadopoulos, the former President of Cyprus, passed away from lung cancer in 2008. Revered as a political hero in the island nation, his body was interred in a Nicosia cemetery. However, a shocking event occurred just before the first anniversary of his death: his remains were stolen. On the morning of December 11, 2009, one of Papadopoulos’s former bodyguards visited the gravesite to light a candle. He found an empty hole and a pile of dirt where the grave had been, likely disturbed after heavy rain the previous night. He immediately alerted the police.
Authorities were initially stumped by the grave robbery. For weeks, they had no suspects. Three months later, an anonymous tip led police to another cemetery in Nicosia, where they found Papadopoulos’s body reburied in a different grave. The tip also provided a lead. It turned out a man had stolen the body hoping to use it as leverage to demand his brother’s release from prison. The scheme unraveled when an accomplice contacted Papadopoulos’s family requesting money instead. The grave robbers were caught and received relatively light sentences of less than two years in jail. Thankfully, Papadopoulos was peacefully reburied.
10. José Eduardo dos Santos
When José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola for decades after seizing power in 1979, died in early July 2022, it sparked a period of tension. His regime had overseen a brutal civil war. He died in Spain, far from his political adversaries in Angola. The timing was particularly sensitive, as Angola was on the brink of an already contentious election campaign when the 79-year-old dos Santos passed away in Barcelona.
His daughter publicly alleged foul play in his death and demanded an autopsy in Spain. The autopsy was conducted, but no evidence of wrongdoing was found. A Spanish judge ruled that dos Santos had not been a victim of foul play and ordered his body released to his widow, Ana Paula, rather than his children. His grieving wife flew his remains back to Angola just days before the August elections.
The Angolan government initially protested this decision but eventually permitted it. Longtime supporters greeted the late president’s casket at the Luanda airport and mourned as it processed through the city. Finally, in August, after what was described as “a long waiting period,” José Eduardo dos Santos was laid to rest in the capital.
Conclusion
The final chapters of these leaders’ lives reveal that even in death, peace is not always guaranteed. From political disputes and criminal acts to simple neglect or bizarre accidents, the earthly remains of these presidents have faced fates as tumultuous and complex as their lives. These stories serve as a curious reminder of how legacies can be shaped, and sometimes quite literally disturbed, long after a person is gone.
What are your thoughts on these unusual post-mortem journeys? Do any of these stories particularly surprise you? Leave your comment below and share your perspective!
