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The final chapter of John Dean’s survey biography of Warren G. Harding carries the apt title, “Death and Disgrace,” because with a few months of his Aug. 2, 1923 death in the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel in San Francisco, the Teapot Dome scandal engulfed his administration.
The cause of Harding’s death wasn’t well understood at the time, which fed speculation about his demise, including a theory that persists to this day that a jealous wife, who had discovered his infidelities, fed him poison in his meals.
The handsome, dapper Harding remained popular at the time of his death. His promise of a “return to normalcy” in 1920 had swept him into office as a virile, stabilizing alternative to the stroke-stricken Woodrow Wilson and the divisive treaty that ended World Word I.
But by 1923, Harding was suffering from his own health problems, including cardiac symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. The year had begun with the Jan. 2 resignation of Interior Secretary Albert Fall, the financially strapped cabinet member who accepted bribes from oil companies to explore Wyoming land named for its teapot-shaped rock formation and Elk Hills, California.
Early that year, Harding and his entire cabinet were struck with a virulent strain of the flu and undiagnosed heart attack that forced him into bed rest until he recovered.
On Feb. 28, Charles R. Forbes resigned as director of the Veterans Bureau, which was at the time not a cabinet post, for taking kickbacks for providing contracts. Attorney General Harry Daughter’s involvement in the scheme eventually led to his removal by Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
Harding was in some ways overwhelmed by the duties of the office. “I don’t know what to do or where to go,” he wrote to a friend.
“The Voyage of Understanding” began in June, as the presidential train Super left Washington for scheduled visits to St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Helena, Spokane, Portland, and Tacoma. After returning from Alaska, Harding fell ill rom food poisoning, which led to pneumonia.
When he reached San Francisco, an exhausted Harding lay in bed in Room 8064, as wife Florence read him newspaper reports. Blood tests revealed he had bronchopneumonia. At 7:20 p.m. on Aug. 2, as Florence read aloud a “Saturday Evening Post” article about him, Harding shuddered and died.
News reports listed Harding’s death as being caused by a cerebral apoplexy (aka stroke), which was later disproved. Harding likely died of a heart attack.
At the time, Coolidge was vacationing in his Vermont village of Plymouth Notch, where his father John, a notary, eventually swore him in as president in the front room of the main farmhouse.
Conspiracy theories surrounding Harding’s death continue to this day.
In a Sept. 4, 2018 article in The Mercury News, Richard Sharon, a descendant of one-time Plaza Hotel owner Sen. William Sharon (R-Nev.), rekindled a conspiracy theory with roots in a 1930 book.
Gaston Means, a former Harding administration member, claimed Florence poisoned her husband after learning about his extramarital affairs. The claim was later debunked.