17. The Only President to Have Ever Personally Hanged Someone?
Grover Cleveland’s path to the White House began with a career in the law. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1859, worked in private practice, and became an assistant district attorney in Erie County, NY, in 1863. He ran for District Attorney in 1865 and narrowly lost. Five years later, he ran for Sheriff of Erie County, which included Buffalo, and won. The only remarkable thing about his two years as Sheriff is that he personally hanged two murderers sentenced to death, rather than pay a deputy the then-customary $10 fee to perform the task.
That made Cleveland the only US president known to have personally hanged a man. His most infamous scandal occurred after his term as Sheriff ended, and began on the evening of December 15th, 1873, with a chance street encounter in Buffalo. That was when Maria Halpin ran into the former Sheriff. Cleveland, a stocky six-footer who had courted Halpin for months, invited her to dinner at a restaurant, and she accepted. After a pleasant meal, he escorted her back to her boarding house, and there, the pleasantness stopped.
