12. Gerald Ford Had an Affair With a Communist Spy
Ellen Rometsch was an East German spy, tasked with befriending and reporting back on American politicians. She ended up in Washington, DC, where she got a job as a hostess at a salon organized by Bobby Baker, an LBJ aide, as a private club for male politicians. Rometsch’s tasks included arranging hookers for club members, and going on dates with some of them every now and then. A stunner who looked like Elizabeth Taylor, she was introduced to then-president John F. Kennedy, and reportedly blew him away with her oral sex skills.
Rometsch got around, and Gerald Ford was among her conquests. When JFK was killed, Ford was appointed to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover grew frustrated when the Commission failed to share its findings with him, but he had a workaround: dirt on Ford, because of his affair with Rometsch. So Hoover used that to blackmail Ford into sharing the Commission’s findings. As described by a contemporary: “Hoover had this tape where Jerry Ford was having oral sex with Ellen Rometsch. You know, his wife had a serious drug problem back then… Hoover blackmailed Ford to tell him what they were doing“.