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**Alexander I** · April 17, 2007, 11:36

And another, Alkibiades of Athens! (c. 450–404 BC) He's the one being dragged away by Socrates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades

**ElTigre** · April 17, 2007, 11:44

Wilhelm Voigt, the "Captain of Köpenick":

On October 16, 1906 Voigt was ready for his next caper. He had purchased parts of used captain's uniforms from two different shops and tested their effect on soldiers. He had resigned from the shoe factory ten days previously. He took the uniform out of baggage storage, put it on and went to the local army barracks, stopped four grenadiers and a sergeant on their way back to barracks and told them to come with him. Indoctrinated to obey officers without question, they followed. He dismissed the commanding sergeant to report to his superiors and later commandeered 6 more soldiers from a shooting range. Then he took a train to Köpenick, east of Berlin, occupied the local city hall with his soldiers and told them to cover all exits. He told the local Police to "care for law and order" and to "prevent calls to Berlin for one hour" at the local Post Office.

He had the town secretary Rosenkranz and mayor Georg Langerhans arrested, supposingly for suspicions of crooked bookkeeping, and confiscated 4002 marks and 37 pfennigs - with a receipt, of course (he signed it with his former jail director's name). Then he commandeered two carriages and told the grenadiers to take the mayor and the treasurer Wiltberg to the Neue Wache in Berlin for interrogation. He told the remaining guards stand in their places for half an hour and then left for the train station. Later he changed to civilian clothes and had disappeared.

Wilhelm Voigt - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt

**Alexander I** · April 17, 2007, 11:49

Originally posted by ElTigre
Wilhelm Voigt, the "Captain of Köpenick":

Great one!

The funny thing is that now he's even got a statue at their city hall! When they told the Kaiser about the debacle, he laughed!

**ElTigre** · April 17, 2007, 12:01

Originally posted by Alexander I

Great one!

The funny thing is that now he's even got a statue at their city hall! When they told the Kaiser about the debacle, he laughed!

He certainly deserves that statue, he made Köpenick famous!

Another one:

Kaspar Hauser - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser

Kaspar Hauser or Casparus Hauser (April 30, 1812–December 17, 1833) was a mysterious foundling in 19th century Germany with suspected and theorised ties to the royal house of Baden.

Sad story.

**Alexander I** · April 17, 2007, 13:37

Originally posted by ElTigre
Another one:

Kaspar Hauser - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser

Sad story.

I know this one also. I saw "Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle" in my university German literature class. Indeed very sad.

**Cartimandua** · April 17, 2007, 14:19

Caligula was both a jerk and a weirdo. Along with all the scandulaous sex orgies, murders, and self-indulgences, he also favored his horse over many of his political advisors.

"Incitatus was the name of Roman emperor Caligula's favored horse. Some have indicated that the horse was attended to by eighteen servants, and was fed oats mixed with gold flake; according to Suetonius, Incitatus had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones. Suetonius wrote also that Caligula planned to make Incitatus a Consul. Caligula even procured him a wife, a mare named Penelope. It has also been said Caligula claimed his horse to be a 'combination of all the gods' and to be worshipped as such."

Incitatus - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitatus

Gee, and my fish are lucky if they get fed every day...

**Alexander I** · April 17, 2007, 15:05

Originally posted by Cartimandua
Caligula was both a jerk and a weirdo.

Nice one, Carti. Here's another along those same lines.

NERO: Matricide, Incendiary, Antichrist

Nero - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero

**Cartimandua** · April 17, 2007, 15:22

Nero's neck beard is hideous...

An unexpected weirdo, very little is known about Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, his nickname being 'Silent Cal'. However, he had quite a few eccentricities, one of which was that he would ring the front door of the White House, and run, hide, and watch the butler open the door time and time again just to find nobody standing there.

**Lord Avalon** · April 17, 2007, 17:07

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one

She was actually acquitted, though.

Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber - mathematician who moved to a shack in Montana and became a terrorist.

**Bugs ****ing Bunny** · April 17, 2007, 17:36

Sir Francis Dashwood (1708- 1781)

The Daddy. The unequalled, hell-raising, damn-your-eyes Daddy. Others may have been equally debauched, but none were quite so darned stylish about it.

Dashwood first entered public attention when he started his first "Grand Tour" of Europe. Being a charming and handsome man, with no discernable moral standards whatsover, he rogered his merry way from royal court to royal court, leaving scandal, broken marriages and the occasional duel in his wake. His alarmed tutor took him to a Good Friday scourging ceremony at the Sistine Chapel, in the hope of instilling some Christian values in his pupil. Dashwood reacted by wrestling a whip out of the hands of a priest and merrily thrashing the living daylights out of the panicking congregation, which fled screaming "Il diavalo!".

Impressed by that? Well he moved to Russia and entered the Russian Court pretending to be the King of Sweden. If you think that's impressive, bear in mind that Sweden was a long-time enemy of Russia at the time. If you that that's even more impressive, bear in mind that he managed to seduce the Tsarina Anna in the process. Now that's beyond impressive, isn't it?

Returning to England, he founded the Hellfire Club at Medmenham Abbey, enabling the great and good to spend pleasant evenings doing odd things to the rude bits of ladies while attempting to summon the occasional god or demon. While blind drunk, of course. Among the members were John Wilkes, Lord Sandwich (yes- inventor of the bread-based convenience food), the painter William Hogarth, Lord Bute (later Prime Minister), the Prince of Wales and (occasionally) Benjamin Franklin. In founding the Hellfire Club, Dashwood is hailed as the creator of what became modern Satanism, by marrying primitive heresies with the libertarian doctrines found in the works of Rabelais. "Do what thou will" was the motto of the order.

Dashwood had a formidable collection of porn, including the first ever English translation of the Kama Sutra (beating Sir Richard Burton by a century). His library was greatly appreciated by Lord Bute, who repaid the favour in 1762 by appointing Dashwood as Chancellor of the Exchequer. This was a curious appointment as Dashwood was notoriously for being useless with figures. By his own admission he was totally unable to even contemplate any sum over five figures, so placing him in charge of the nation's economy was never the brightest move Bute made.

His career in high office was brief- in 1763 he was forced to resign after he imposed a tax on cider that caused riots from enraged scrumpy drinkers. The Hellfire Club was also breaking up at this point, largely due to feuding sparked off by the antics of John Wilkes. Dashwood switched to the quieter life, and (somewhat astonishingly) produced a revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer with his lifelong friend, Benjamin Franklin. He died in 1781, leaving the bulk of his estate to one of his illegitimate daughters.

The experts are still divided as to whether Dashwood was a "real" Satanist or not. Personally, I get the impression he was just doing it for laugh. I heartily recommend the same approach be taken to every faith- the world would be a happier place for sure.