These Historic Figures Should Have Been Famous for their Weird Habits

17. For a Medieval Fundamentalist, Osama Bin Laden Sure Kept a Lot of Videos

Osama bin Laden (1957 – 2011), Al Qaeda’s founder, probably history’s best-known terrorist, and the twenty-first century’s most notorious villain (so far – looking at you, Putin), hardly needs an introduction The terror attacks masterminded and carried out by his organization, particularly those of September 11^th, 2001, have seared his name in global, and especially American, memories. Less known, however, is how bin Laden liked to pass his free time when he was not running a virtual terror state.

Apparently, he did not spend all his time issuing fatwas against Jews, infidels, and backsliding Muslims, or declaring and waging Jihad against opponents of his ‘Make Islam Great Again!‘ vision. In 2017, the CIA released over 470,000 files seized from his compound in the 2011 raid that ended him. The contents included about 174 gigabytes of video, 7.4 gigabytes of image files, and 18 gigabytes of assorted documents. As it turned out, bin Laden had some hobbies and interests that stood in jarring contrast to his reputation and image.

16. A Terrorist Leader’s Crocheting Habit

For all his decrying of the infidel West and its corrupting cultural influence upon Islam and Muslims, Osama bin Laden liked to partake of Western culture. On his personal laptop was an eclectic collection of saved videos. Unsurprisingly, they included quite a bit of the gory stuff, such as beheadings. Surprisingly, they also included British slapstick comedy. As it turns out, bin Laden was a big fan of Rowan Atkinson, as evinced by the numerous episodes of Mr. Bean that were discovered in his hard drive.

Even more surprising, the terror mastermind liked crocheting – a habit that was probably as good a way as any to pass the time while in hiding. Recovered from his laptop were 30 how-to-crotchet tutorial videos, including one for how to crotchet an iPod sock. In a surprisingly not surprising twist, the man whose network tortured and ended people for smoking, drinking, dancing, or watching media depicting women not covered up in burkas, had explicit adult videos saved on his laptop. Turns out that bin Laden was just as hypocritical as most of those who bray the loudest about the licentiousness of the modern age.

15. A Kleptocrat Couple

Imelda Marcos (1929 – ) is a Philippine public figure, and the widow of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled from 1966 to 1986. During her years as First Lady of the Philippines, she held various government posts and wielded great power, such that she became a de facto co-ruler of the country towards the end of the Marcos dictatorship. Known as the “Steel Butterfly” for her combination of fashion sense and steely resolve, Imelda took full advantage of her position to enrich herself with rampant corruption and blatant graft.

The Marcos dictatorship was a kleptocracy, and the ruling couple plundered the country. They were eventually overthrown in a 1986 popular uprising, the People Power Revolution, and were forced to flee the Philippines. By then they had stashed enough wealth in secret Swiss bank accounts, and accumulated various properties overseas, to afford an extremely comfortable retirement in Hawaii. However, they were unable to take all their ill-gotten gains and goodies with them. When the revolutionaries entered the Marcos palaces, they found evidence of an extravagant and opulent lifestyle, most starkly represented by Imelda’s expensive designer shoe habit.

14. A Habit of Splurging on Designer Shoes by the Thousands

What attracted the most attention was Imelda Marcos’ apparent obsession with expensive designer shoes. The former First Lady had a habit of splurging on extremely pricey shoes, and accumulated thousands of pairs. When protesters stormed one of her former residences, the Malacanang Palace, they discovered over 2700 pairs of designer shoes in Imelda’s wardrobe. Thousands more designer shoes were found in other palaces, mansions, and villas throughout the Philippines. A single pair of those pricey pumps could cost more than residents of an entire city block in a lower-class Philippine neighborhood earned in a year.

Imelda Marcos’s shoes were displayed at the presidential palace as a symbol of the dictatorship’s corruption. Eventually, hundreds of her shoes found a permanent home in the Shoe Museum, in the northern city of Marikina. The collection became a symbol of excess in a country where many walked barefoot in abject poverty. However, because life is often unfair, Imelda Marcos never paid for her corruption. She was eventually allowed back in the Philippines, was elected to Parliament, and as of 2022, is one of that country’s wealthiest women. She even turned the shoe scandal into an asset, and has been a frequent visitor to the Shoe Museum. There, she signs autographs and proudly poses for photos next to the display cases of her collection.

13. This Randy Old Goat’s Habit of Getting it On Whenever and Wherever He Could Eventually Ended Him

Henry John Templeton (1784 – 1865), 3^rd Viscount Palmerston and better known as Lord Palmerston, dominated British foreign policy from 1830 to 1865, when Britain was at the height of its power. He served as Secretary at War from 1809 to 1828, as Foreign Secretary from 1830 to 1841 and again from 1846 to 1851, and twice as Prime Minister, from 1855 to 1858, and again from 1859 to 1865. In his private life, he was a randy old goat who was in the habit of getting it on whenever and wherever he could.

Lord Palmerston is the only British Prime Minister to have ever passed in office, and oh what an ending it was. On October 18^th, 1865, the eighty-year-old Prime Minister, who enjoyed robust health well past his biblical three score and ten, reportedly was getting it on with a maid on a billiard table. He seems to have overexerted himself, which led to his demise in the midst of his illicit romance, just two days shy of his eighty-first birthday.

12. The Kleptocrat King

Egyptian King Farouk I (1920 – 1965) reigned from 1936 until he was thrown off his throne by a coup in 1952. His years as Egypt’s last king were marked by widespread corruption, incompetent governance, and bizarre conduct. A kleptomaniac, Farouk could not resist stealing things, and was in the habit of picking people’s pockets. He also was an avid collector of adult entertainment. He was popular early in his reign when he ascended the throne as a slim and handsome young man.

The goodwill was quickly squandered by his incompetent governance, and his good looks were soon ruined by a gluttony that saw him balloon to 300 pounds. He soon became an object of derision, widely lampooned as a “stomach with a head”. His lavish lifestyle while his subjects endured the hardships of WWII further eroded his popularity. Farouk took pickpocketing lessons, and as seen below, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whom he hosted at a dinner during WWII, was one of his victims.

11. This King’s Pickpocketing Habit Was Eclipsed by His Adult Entertainment Habit

During a state dinner hosted by King Farouk, Winston Churchill discovered that his pocket watch – a prized family heirloom – had gone missing. After an outcry and search, the Egyptian king, who had been seated next to Churchill, sheepishly turned it in, claiming to have “found” it. It was just one example of Farouk’s bizarre behavior. Early in WWII, he had repeated nightmares in which he was chased by a ravenous lion. Frazzled from loss of sleep, he consulted the rector of Cario’s ancient Al Azhar University, who advised him “you will not rest until you have shot a lion“. So Farouk went to the zoo and shot two lions in their cages.

By 1952, Farouk’s corruption and maladministration had completely eroded his standing, and he was overthrown in a coup. Hastily fleeing Egypt, he left most of his possessions behind. The new government auctioned his belongings, and in the process discovered his stash of adult entertainment. This was in the days when it all was hardcopy. Farouk had entire rooms filled with the stuff, and it soon became clear that the Egyptian king had a serious adult magazine habit. So serious that he had amassed the world’s biggest adult entertainment collection. He settled first in Monaco, then in Rome, where he literally ate himself away, collapsing at a restaurant dinner table after a heavy meal in 1965.

10. The Chairman Poet

Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) was China’s main Marxist theorist, and a guerrilla fighter, soldier, and statesman, who presided over his country’s communist revolution. He led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his passing, and after the communists won control in 1949, he ruled China from that date until his demise. During his time in power, Mao was responsible for the eradication of tens of millions of Chinese. They were ended outright by his followers or starved because of Mao’s disastrous economic policies.

However, there was more to Chairman Mao than just a revolutionary man of action. He had a particular fondness for classical Chinese poetry and literature. In addition to being a horrible person who should’ve never existed, Mao was also a prolific writer and poet. Surprisingly, for a man so politically radical and revolutionary, he was in the habit of writing and penning verses in classical Chinese forms. It would be akin to a modern American anarchist who liked writing in the manner of Chaucer.

9. Mao’s Habit of Penning Old School Verse

As with most Chinese intellectuals of his era, Mao Zedong’s education was based on a foundation of classical Chinese literature. However, while most of his contemporaries moved on to modern styles and themes, Mao stuck with the old when it came to literature and poetry. From his youth, he got into the habit of composing poetry in the classical style, and he kept at it for the rest of his life. Indeed, Mao’s image as a poet was a significant part of his public persona as he rose to power in China.

Mao was actually considered a good poet. Not just by critics in China, who knew better than to pan his poetry, but also by literary critics outside China and beyond Mao’s clutches. Although a radical revolutionary in many aspects, Mao was artistically conservative, and stuck with traditional Chinese literary and poetic forms. His poetry tended to be on romantic end of things, rather than the more modern realist genre. It was reminiscent of Tang Dynasty style, from the seventh to ninth centuries.

Alone I stand in the autumn cold
On the tip of Orange Island,
The Xiang flowing northward;
I see a thousand hills crimsoned through
By their serried woods deep-dyed,
And a hundred barges vying
Over crystal blue waters.
Eagles cleave the air,
Fish glide under the shallow water;
Under freezing skies a million creatures contend in freedom.
Brooding over this immensity,
I ask, on this bondless land
Who rules over man’s destiny?
I was here with a throng of companions,
Vivid yet those crowded months and years.
Young we were, schoolmates,
At life’s full flowering;
Filled with student enthusiasm
Boldly we cast all restraints aside.
Pointing to our mountains and rivers,
Setting people afire with our words,
We counted the mighty no more than muck.
Remember still
How, venturing midstream, we struck the waters
And the waves stayed the speeding boats?

Mao Zedong – Changsha

8. A Sultan Who Grew Up in a Cage

Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I (1615 – 1648), or Ibrahim the Mad, reigned from 1640 to 1648. When his older brother Murad IV became sultan, he had the then-eight-year-old Ibrahim sent to the Kafes, or “Cage” – a secluded part of the Harem where male royal relatives were confined. There, they were kept under house arrest, under surveillance, and isolated from the outside world to prevent intrigues and plots. While Ibrahim was in the Cage, Murad executed his other brothers, one by one, until Ibrahim was the last one left, constantly terrified that he might be next. He remained in confinement until his brother’s passing without issue in 1640. When he was taken out of the Cage and told that he would be crowned sultan, Ibrahim refused at first.

He rushed back to the Cage to barricade himself inside, suspecting it was a trick to entrap him into saying or doing something that his fratricidal brother would take as treasonous. Finally, his brother’s corpse was brought to the door for him to examine. Even then, it still took the pleas of his mother, “who had to coax him out like a kitten with food“, for Ibrahim to come out and accept the throne. However, the years of isolation, and the ever-present fear of execution, had unhinged Ibrahim. His condition was worsened by depression over the passing of his brother, whom he loved in a Stockholm Syndrome type of way.

7. A Worrying Habit of Feeding Fish With Coins

The new Sultan’s habit feeding of fish in the palace pool with coins instead of food was an early worrying sign. As it became clear that Ibrahim was crazy, his mother ruled for him. To keep him busy, the sultan was encouraged to spend as much time as possible in the Harem with his nearly 300 concubines. It was intended to keep him out of his mother’s hair and out of trouble, and to father male heirs since, by then, he was the last surviving male Ottoman. For years, Ibrahim took to the Harem with relish, fathering three future sultans and a number of daughters. As a contemporary put it “In the palace gardens he frequently assembled all the virgins, made them strip themselves naked, and neighing like a stallion ran amongst them and as it were ravished one or the other”.

The insanity never went away, however: one day he woke up, and out of the blue, ordered his entire Harem tied in weighted sacks and drowned in the sea. Ibrahim also had a thing for fat women. One time he got turned on by a cow’s vagina, so he commissioned gold copies and sent them around the empire, to find a woman with a similar-looking vagina. Searchers eventually found a 350-pound woman with matching parts, who became one of his favorite concubines. He also had a fetish for fur and decorated his clothes, curtains, walls, and furniture with it. He stuffed his pillows with the stuff and liked to have intimacy on sable furs.

6. The End of a Mad Sultan

When Sultan Ibrahim saw the beautiful daughter of the Grand Mufti, the empire’s highest religious authority, he asked for her hand in marriage. Aware of Ibrahim’s depravities, the Mufti urged his daughter to decline. When she did, Ibrahim ordered her kidnapped and carried to his palace. There, he ravished her for days, before sending her back to her father. Eventually, he exiled his mother and assumed personal control of the government. The results were disastrous: after ordering the execution of his most capable ministers, Ibrahim spent like only a madman can.

Eventually, he emptied the treasury, even as he got himself into a series of wars and managed them poorly. By 1647, between heavy taxes, the bungled wars, and with a Venetian blockade bringing the Ottoman capital to the brink of starvation, discontent boiled over. In 1648, the population revolted, urged on by religious scholars, and was joined by the army. An angry mob seized Ibrahim’s Grand Vizier and tore him to pieces, and the sultan was deposed in favor of his six-year-old son. A fatwa was then issued for Ibrahim’s execution, which was carried out by strangulation.

5. A Lecherous Religious Charlatan Who Got His Congregation into the Habit of Prolonged Love groups

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (1869 – 1916) was a charlatan, mystic, holy wanderer, faith healer, blasphemer, and a notorious lecher who became one of Russia’s most powerful figures. An inexplicable ability to ease the pain of the child Alexei Nikolayevich, the hemophiliac heir to the Russian throne, earned him the gratitude of his parents, Russia’s Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra. That made Rasputin an influential figure in the Russian Empire’s final years. It was an unexpected rise. As a teenager, Rasputin was notorious for his relentless pursuit of women, from women of the night to respectable matrons. He had a magnetism that enabled him to rack up carnal conquests with ease.

Rasputin invented and led a religious cult that combined Orthodox Christianity with physical pleasure, plus bizarre rituals deemed heretical and blasphemous. A core belief of Rasputin’s cult was that nearness to God is achieved by a state described as “holy passionlessness”, which is best achieved via exhaustion. Such exhaustion was to be attained by a lot of intimacy – a religious doctrine he described as “driving out sin with sin“. So he led his cult into reaching carnal exhaustion via love groups. He and his followers got into the habit of indulging in prolonged bouts of debauchery by the entire congregation, in order to get base passions out of their system.

4. A Holy Man’s Habit of Partying in Unholy Ways

Rasputin eventually made it to the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, where he won the favor of Russia’s Tsar and Tsarina. There, he exerted his animal magnetism upon the capital’s women, and before long, he had a cult following, from lowly streetwalkers to wealthy aristocratic women. Soon, young women and old, maidens and matrons, were throwing themselves at Rasputin. They flocked to his apartment, and he was indiscriminate in his preferences, bedding working women and princesses alike. Many in high society, aware that Rasputin had the ear of Russia’s rulers, sought his favor. Some even sent their wives or daughters to seduce him into putting in a good word for them at court, or their female relatives did so on their own initiative.

Many other women visited Rasputin simply for intimacy. Lots and lots of intimacy. Rasputin was, by all accounts, a carnal addict, with enviable stamina and staying power. His habit of getting it on with all women who crossed his path astonished contemporaries. Saint Petersburg’s authorities posted plainclothes policemen at his building, and their reports described dozens of women, from working women to high-ranking aristocrats, visiting his apartment. The police reports went on to describe loud noises of drunken revelry, parties with working women, beatings, violent intimacy, and orgies that lasted until sunrise and beyond.

Related: Rasputin’s Controversial Life Not Many People Know About.

3. Overlooking This Holy Man’s Unholy Deeds Helped Set the Stage for Revolution

Reports of Rasputin’s unruly and unholy conduct – including the forced go at a nun – reached Tsar Nicholas’ ears. However, Russia’s ruler either dismissed them out of hand or laughed them off with comments such as “the holy are always slandered“. The Tsar’s confessor investigated the reports of Rasputin’s misconduct, concluded there was truth in them, and advised Nicholas to distance himself from the controversial monk. The Tsar, at the behest of his wife who was fiercely protective of the holy charlatan, sided with the Rasputin.

It was the Tsar’s confessor who ended up banished from Saint Petersburg. By 1911, Rasputin’s notorious misconduct had become a national scandal and turned the imperial family into a laughingstock. Eventually, word began to make the rounds that the unholy holy man had seduced the Tsar’s wife, Tsarina Alexandra. Whether or not that was true – and Rasputin boasted of having done so – it damaged the imperial family’s prestige. It set the stage for its overthrow in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

2. Johnny Carson Was in the Habit of Abusing All and Sundry

John William Carson (1925 – 2005), better known as Johnny Carson, hosted The Tonight Show on NBC for three decades from 1962 to 1992. In that stretch, he set the standard format and template that has been followed by TV chat shows ever since, including the guest couch and studio band. Carson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, won a Peabody Award, and six Emmys. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian award – and received a Kennedy Center Honor.

Carson worked hard to cement his perception as the funny and neighborly Midwesterner, and perfected his friendly on-air persona. As a result, Americans welcomed Carson with open arms into their living rooms as the country’s favorite late-night host. However, when he was not in front of an audience, The King of Late Night Television, as Carson came to be known, was a bitter, bullying, and mean SOB. He was in the habit of abusing just about everybody and was so awful that many famous figures boycotted his show. However, they did so quietly, out of fear that he might damage their careers. Wayne Newton, as seen below, was an exception.

1. The Time When Johnny Carson Got Slapped Around

While on the air, Johnny Carson was sunshine and sweetness, and the embodiment of the friendly guy you’d like to have as a neighbor. Away from the cameras, however, Carson was a total jerk who bullied and abused others and even physically assaulted people in fits of rage. Examples of Carson being a jackass include an attempt to strangle NBC colleague Tom Snyder, his refusal to visit his son who was institutionalized in a mental asylum, and his verbal and physical abuse of his wives.

Many celebrities abused by Carson stayed quiet to protect their careers from the notoriously vindictive icon. An exception was singer and actor Wayne Newton, who resented Carson’s cracking gay jokes about him on national TV. Newton thought that he and Carson were buddies, and begged him to cut it out. Carson persisted, however. So an incensed Newton barged into Carson’s office, and slapped him around silly. It wasn’t live at the Oscars, but it got Carson’s attention. It was one of the few times that the star TV host got his comeuppance. The gay jokes stopped.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Biography – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Brook, Timothy – The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (2010)

Bushkin, Henry – Johnny Carson (2013)

Culture Trip – 11 Bizarre Things You Didn’t Know About Imelda Marcos

Empire Times Magazine, May 4^th, 2015 – Tolouse-Lautrec: The working woman Authority

Encyclopedia Britannica – James Boswell, Scottish Biographer

Cracked – Old-Timey Icons With WTF Habits

Factinate – 42 Unhinged Facts About Ibrahim, the Mad Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

Guardian, The, June 13^th, 2012 – James Boswell and a History of Gonorrhea

Hertfordshire Life – The Dramatic Life and Passing of Prime Minister Lord Palmerston

History Collection – 10 of the Strangest Rules and Rituals for Royal Births Over the Centuries

IMDb – King Faroukh Biography

Kinross, Lord – The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977)

Las Vegas Sun, January 24^th, 2005 – Carson Had Long Vegas History

Mad Monarchs – Farouk of Egypt

Massie, Robert K. – Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia (1967)

Mote, Frederick W. – Imperial China, 900-1800 ­(2003)

Museum Facts – Egypt’s King Farouk or ‘Thief of Cairo’

History Collection – Strange Obsessions Shed New Light on these Historical Figures

National Post, April 18^th, 2017 – ‘I Want to Harm You, Be Brutal With You’: How Mussolini’s Last Love, Fueled by Power, Shaped Him

National Public Radio – Dining Like Darwin: When Scientists Swallow Their Subjects

New York Times, January 24^th, 1995 – Nijinsky’s Notebooks Are Published, Unexpurgated

Neville, Peter – Mussolini (2004)

Radzinsky, Edvard – The Rasputin File (2000)

San Francisco Gate, February 2^nd, 1995 – Nijinsky Diaries Show Dancer’s Anguish

Short, Philip – Mao: A Life (2001)

Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005 – The Evolution of Charles Darwin

Spiegel, November 26^th, 2009 – In Bed With Benito: Diaries Reveal Mussolini’s Soft Side

Tea in a Teacup – James Boswell and London working women

Vice – Whatever Happened to Imelda Marcos’ 3000 Pairs of Shoes?

Week, The, November 2^nd, 2017 – Osama Bin Laden’s Surprising Video Collection – From Mr. Bean to Chicken Little

Wikipedia – Poetry of Mao Zedong

Wired – Inside Bin Laden’s Files: GIFs, Memes, and Mr. Bean