Some of the most celebrated figures in history are known for their accomplishments, but they had sinister secrets hidden behind their fame.
Roald Dahl
The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had very blatant anti-Semitic feelings that he proudly confessed in interviews towards the end of his life.
In an interview in 1983, Dahl said outright that Jews had a characteristic that “provokes animosity” and that Hitler didn’t single them out for nothing. Dahl held these opinions until he died in 1990 and his estate had to apologize many years later.
Lord Byron
Romantic poet Byron was involved in an incest scandal that rocked British society in the 1800s. He kept a physical relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh.
Augusta bore Byron a daughter whom they nicknamed Medora. Byron had to flee England for good when news of the affair and allegations of domestic violence against his wife became public in 1816.
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)
Beyond creating stories for kids, Geisel had quite the dark private life. In 1967, his wife of four decades died by suicide as she fought with a serious illness.
Her note explained she felt like a burden, but was driven to such thoughts because of Geisel’s prolonged affair with a close family friend. He married his mistress only eight months after Helen’s death.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison fought a cutthroat and morally bankrupt corporate battle to defend his investments. During part of the late 1880s “War of the Currents” against Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse’s alternating current (AC) system, Edison hosted barbaric public electrocution demonstrations.
He hired local neighborhood kids to round up stray dogs and cats and then electrocuted them on stage in front of an audience with AC power to scare the public into thinking Tesla’s new technology was too dangerous to use in their homes. Edison even financed the creation of the first electric chair and made sure it was powered by Westinghouse’s AC current to forever associate the rival technology with death.
Steve Jobs
The computer pioneer was notoriously cruel to his first-born daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Upon her birth in 1978, he denied being her father, stating in legal paperwork he was infertile and leaving her biological mother to live on welfare.
Though he later had a DNA test done that showed they were 99.4% matched, he stayed emotionally and financially distant through her upbringing, having also named one of Apple’s earliest computers after her and subsequently denying it.
Henry Ford
The founder of modern automaking was also one of America’s greatest anti-Semites. In 1919, Ford purchased a newspaper called “The Dearborn Independent” and had his dealers across the country distribute it.
The newspaper ran stories about Jewish people causing world problems for eight years. These articles were later compiled into a book called “The International Jew.” Adolf Hitler idolized Ford, wrote about him in “Mein Kampf”, and had a picture of Ford on the wall of his office.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi had some shocking personal practices later in life. As part of his experiments to see whether he could remain spiritually master of his own libido, Gandhi routinely slept nude with young women.
This included teenage girls, such as his own grandnieces. Family members and advisers were horrified, but Gandhi claimed these were necessary spiritual discipline.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa’s hospices for the poor in Kolkata had horrifyingly unsanitary and unsafe medical practices, even though they raised tens of millions of dollars from donors around the world.
Hygiene was poor, there was almost no capacity for diagnosis or treatment, and pain was left untreated; hospices reused needles after rinsing them in tap water. Dying cancer patients were only given aspirin for pain.
Medical journals described how her ministry disregarded medical treatment in favor of spiritual suffering, stating once that there was beauty in the poor who accepted their pain.
H.G. Wells
The founder of modern science fiction was a passionate supporter of Eugenics and population control. In non-fiction books such as Anticipations, Wells wrote of ridding the world of “inferior” or weak people through carefully managed means. He endorsed government-mandated sterilization and the gradual extinction of non-white races so he could create his ideal world.
Benjamin Franklin
Restorers working on Franklin’s former London residence discovered a buried pit underneath the basement floor in 1998. The pit held over 1,200 bones from 15 human skeletons.
Franklin’s friend and mentor Dr. William Hewson had been conducting an illegal anatomy school out of the residence, obtaining corpses from body snatchers for anatomical study, then burying dissected remains under the floorboards so they would not be discovered by authorities.
Alfred Hitchcock
The legendary director harassed and psychologically abused actress Tippi Hedren while working on his movie Birds. After she refused his sexual advances, Hitchcock retaliated by actually having frightened gulls thrown in her face for five days straight, causing her to bleed. When she refused to work with him again, he blackballed her career.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
15 marriage laws from history that ruined women’s lives
Besides teaching you a few history lessons, these 15 marriage laws from around the world will show you how a woman’s life was broken piece by piece in the name of marriage.
