Axes, Sharks and Alcoholism: The Strange Stories of 5 Unique Political Careers

Despite what you might think based on current events, eccentricity and scandal are not new concepts in politics - and some historical examples make our own fearless leaders seem outright tame. Let's take a look at...

• Brook Watson and the Shark
• Jörg Jenatsch and the Axe
• Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina)
• The Great Sasuke
• Clay Henry, the Horned Mayor

Brook Watson and the Shark

The peg-legged Brook Watson may have become a British banker and politician, but he spent his teens serving on merchant ships... and it was on one of those voyages that he lost his foot to a shark!

In 1749, Watson was swimming in the harbor of Havana in Cuba when he fell foul of the predatory fish. The creature bit off his foot on the first pass, but his crewmates were able to rescue him before the shark returned to finish the job. Watson would later commission a painting of the event from artist John Singleton Copley - the piece depicts a wounded Watson in the water, a blood-cloud emitting from his shortened leg as he struggles near a rescue launch. Central to the piece is a Black sailor casting him a rope as a White sailor aims a harpoon at the shark.

Watson didn't seem to have been put off maritime pursuits by his encounter. He helped found the bespoke insurance company "Lloyds of London" and brokered trade between Revolutionary America and the UK... but in 1775 he was accused of espionage and beat a hasty retreat back to England. He would go on to serve as a Member of Parliament for London, become Lord Mayor and finally take up high level posts in the Bank of England!

Jörg Jenatsch and the Axe

Jörg (or Georg) Jenatsch was a Swiss politician during the Thirty Years' War. He's noteworthy for having assassinated a rival with an axe... and meeting his end in the same way years later.

Jenatsch actually started off in religion. He became the Protestant vicar of Scharans in 1617, but soon became embroiled in the turbulent politics of the region - specifically an ongoing struggle over the Grisons-controlled Valtellina, a valley contested by Spain, Austria, France and Venice. This conflict wasn't simply one of words, and in 1621 Jenatsch murdered the Spain-supporting Pompeius Planta with an axe.

The favor would be returned in 1639 during a carnival in Chur. In the interim period Jenatsch had secured a French-Grissons alliance, taken service with Venice, spent some time in prison, converted to Roman-Catholicism and helped a French campaign to drive the Spanish from Valtellina.

The story goes that Jenatsch was celebrating with friends when they were approached by a group of costumed revelers (including one dressed as a bear) who asked to join them. Jenatsch acceded, but shortly afterwards the latecomers attacked him with an axe - which some claim was the same weapon he had used to slay Pompeius Planta, possibly wielded by Planta's offspring.

The whole situation sounds pretty unbelievable, but modern researchers have identified the body of Jenatsch in Chur Cathedral, still clad in blood-soaked party finery and bearing an axe wound to the head!

Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina)

A sex scandal can torpedo a political career (just look at the British "Profumo Affair" if you want an example.) Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that it would be the Italians who bucked this trend with Ilona Staller, an adult entertainer who performed under the name Cicciolina but ended up serving in the Italian Parliament.

The Hungarian-born Staller started off modeling before moving to Italy and entering the adult entertainment industry. She became interested in politics and unsuccessfully ran for the Greens, but managed to secure a seat for the Radical Party in 1987. Her policies and promises were a little off the wall to be sure - as well as supporting the legalization of sex work (she even filmed an erotic film while in office) she's said to have offered to sleep with Saddam Hussein to help secure peace in the Middle East!

The Great Sasuke

Though infrequent, there have been a few professional wrestlers who've made their way into politics... but one of the strangest examples has to be that of "The Great Sasuke" who decided to retain his trademark mask while assuming the Iwate prefectural assembly seat in Japan.

The wrestler had combined a mixture of martial arts and lucha libre to make his own personal style, which meant that he included a luchador mask in his wrestling costume. This posed quite a conundrum for legislators - while there was a well established and bitterly upheld dress code, it said nothing about the appropriateness of lucha libre masks!

Clay Henry, the Horned Mayor

Clay Henry was a past mayor of Lajitas, Texas, and he probably never should have held office. Clay had a evil stare, a serious drinking problem (some say he'd knock back 40 beers in a day) and a habit of headbutting constituents. Of course, the fact that he was a goat should buy him a little latitude.

Clay Henry was once merely a mascot at the Lajitas trading post with a taste for beer, but his fortunes changed in 1986 thanks to Houstonian Businessman (and would be investor) Walter Mischer. Mischer wanted to turn the town into a resort destination and thought that having a mayor (specifically fellow Houstonian Tommy Steele) would help.

The locals pushed back with their own candidate, the surly, alcoholic but ultimately local goat... and with townsfolk pitching in to run the campaign, Clay Henry won a landslide victory.

The goat's thirst for booze grew alongside his new station - not only did his pen have a beer dispenser like a hamster's water bottle, he would solicit drinks from passersby, pawing the dirt until someone put a long-necked bottle to his lips. The alcoholic animal would then engulf it and tip his head back, pouring the contents down his throat.

Clay Henry didn't die of the alcoholism you might have expected - instead, he perished at the age of 23 when his son (who also had a penchant for booze) beat him to death over the affections of a nanny goat. Though he inherited the mayoral office, Clay Henry Jr. didn't match the original in either character or capacity for alcohol, only reaching similar levels of consumption at around age 12 and dying soon after.

Clay Henry III beat a wooden mannequin and a dog to become the next mayor, but he was attacked and castrated two years later. Jim Bob Hargrove was identified as the culprit and charged with animal cruelty after the severed testicles were found in his freezer - apparently he was angry about beer being provided to a goat while humans had to deal with Sunday licensing laws.

It turns out that the current Clay Henry isn't one for drinking, but he will magnanimously accept food pellets bought from a nearby store!

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Sources and Further Info:

• The Life and Times of Sir Brook Watson
• Watson and the Shark
• Georg Jenatsch
• Multidisciplinary Identification of the Controversial Freedom Fighter Jörg Jenatsch, Assassinated 1639 in Chur, Switzerland
• Italy's most famous porn star, Cicciolina, 68, launches political party after government cut her pension - three decades after she was elected as an MP
• Cicciolina’s Sexual Politics: A Porn Star Uses Sex as Her Claim to Power
• Masked wrestler wins Japan election
• The Legend of Clay Henry
• The mayor of this West Texas town is a goat — and it’s been so since 1986