An acute infectious disease caused by the poliovirus and characterized by fever, motor paralysis, and atrophy of skeletal muscles often with permanent disability and deformity and marked by inflammation of nerve cells in the anterior gray matter in each lateral half of the spinal cord–called also infantile paralysis (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

The next Roosevelt who was predestined to become President of the United States was named Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Franklin was a 5th cousin of "plastic" man Teddy.

FDR began his meteoric rise by marrying Anna Eleanor Roosevelt—the granddaughter of Martha Bullock.

Eleanor and Franklin shortly after their wedding.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the granddaughter of Martha Bullock and she married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1905. By 1916, the "happy couple" had 5 surviving children. Franklin was appointed Assistant Secretary of the CONfederate Navy by President Wolfson.

By 1916, the "happy couple" had 5 surviving children.

In 1913, Franklin was appointed Assistant Secretary of the new CONfederate Navy by President Wolfson. That meant a residence in Washington City.

FDR at age 31 serving as Assistant Secretary of the CONfederate Navy.

The spry, handsome Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the CONfederate Navy in 1913. He was almost guaranteed to be the next Roosevelt in the White House. At that time he began an affair with his secretary named Lucy Mercer.

Lucy Mercer (1891–1948).

This femme fatale was extremely attractive and she had been "educated" at a convent in Austria. Eleanor found out about the affair in 1918 when Franklin returned from World War I in Europe:

In the course of unpacking Franklin's luggage, Eleanor discovered a neatly bound packet of love letters from Lucy Mercer. "The bottom dropped out of my world," Eleanor remembered. "I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time. (Smith, FDR, p.160).

When the affair became known, Lucy said that her Church would not allow her to marry a divorced man, and Eleanor knew that a divorce would ruin his chances of ever reaching the White House.

A compromise was reached when Franklin promised that he would stop seeing Lucy. However, the callous Franklin continued the affair clandestinely.

It was at that critical juncture that a "friend" of the family named Louis Howe came to the rescue and promised Eleanor that he would cure her husband of adultery.

Unhappy family photo from July 1920, after FDR's adultery was discovered.

Louis Howe was a close "friend" of the Roosevelts. He was also a deadly MI6 agent and his cover was newspaper reporter for the New York Tribune. Howe's father-in-law, Dr. James W. Hartley from England, agreed to help Eleanor and Howe cure FDR of adultery.

Louis Howe (1871–1936).

The "cure" was drastic and involved paralyzing Roosevelt from the waist down.

Every summer, Eleanor and the children spent the summer on an island off the coast of Canada called Campobello. Franklin joined his family on August 7, 1921:

FDR arrived at Campobello Sunday evening and found their eighteen bedroom "cottage" overflowing with guests. In addition to five children and the normal complement of servants, tutors, and governesses, Louis Howe and his family were visiting, as were several friends from Washington, including Romanian diplomat Prince Antoine Bibesco and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of former British prime minister Herbert Asquith. (Smith, FDR, p.188).

Roosevelt had just returned from Washington City where he was accused of involvement in a CONfederate Navy homosexual scandal in Newport, Rhode Island. Roosevelt was accused of encouraging sailors to pose as homosexuals in order to entrap "real" homosexuals.

Just a few days after his vacation began, Franklin complained of feeling ill:

About an hour later Roosevelt felt a sudden chill. He told Eleanor he thought he was catching a cold and had better not risk infecting the children. He would go straight to bed. Eleanor sent up a tray of food, but he was not hungry. He had trouble sleeping that night and continued to tremble despite two heavy woolen blankets. The next morning he was worse. When he swung his legs out of bed and attempted to stand, his left leg buckled beneath him. He managed to get up and shave and assumed the problem would pass. "I tried to persuade myself that the trouble with my leg was muscular, that it would disappear as I used it. But presently it refused to work, and then the other collapsed as well." FDR dragged himself back to bed, and when Eleanor took his temperature it was 102. (Smith, FDR, pp. 188-189).

A doctor was rushed to the island and his initial diagnosis was that FDR just had a bad fever.

The Roosevelt cottage on Campobello Island.

Shortly after arriving on Campobello Island, FDR was completely paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors diagnosed his ailment as infantile paralysis or polio. Miraculously, nobody else on the island contacted this highly contagious disease.

FDR with Eleanor on the beach at Campobello Island.

From that day onward, FDR was confined to a wheelchair and he was totally dependent on Eleanor and Louis Howe. Howe encouraged Franklin to resume his political career and to seek the Presidency as if nothing had happened.

From the beginning, ER and Howe agreed that insofar as possible Franklin should not be treated as an invalid. Louis maintained that FDR's political future was bright and downplayed the seriousness of his illness. He planted optimistic stories with the press and wrote cheery letters to Roosevelt's wide circle of correspondents.
"Do you really believe that Franklin has a political future?" asked Eleanor.
"I believe someday Franklin will be President," Howe replied.
Eleanor supported Howe in every way. She ushered a continuous stream of visitors in to see Franklin and soon undertook speaking engagements on his behalf. She joined Howe in urging FDR to persevere in his exercises–perhaps a little more sternly than Roosevelt might have desired. Howe was better at cajoling Franklin because he had a lighter touch, interspersing gossipy anecdotes among his exhortations to get on with the job.(Smith, FDR, p.195).

With Howe's fellow MI6 agents controlling the press, no photograph of Roosevelt in a his wheelchair appeared in any newspaper. This was how FDR was able to resume his political career as if nothing had happened.

The Paraplegic President!!

Thanks to the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England engineered Great Depression, FDR was elected President in 1932.

FDR's first inauguration speech in March 1933.

Louis Howe's prediction did come true and the crippled FDR did enter the White House in 1933. At his first inaugural speech, FDR said that we have "nothing to fear but fear itself." In reality, FDR was paralyzed with fear that a newspaper would publish a picture of him in a wheelchair!!

FDR, Eleanor, and outgoing President Hoover.

Beginning right after the crippling of FDR with "polio" an elaborate deception began to be implemented that would show FDR as physically normal in every way:

And so, aided and encouraged by Louis Howe and Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt began his battle to live a normal life. Louis now became a full-fledged member of the Roosevelt household, an arrangement that continued to the day of his death and took him from the Roosevelt town house in New York City to the family estate at Hyde Park, the Governor's mansion in Albany, and finally to the White House. (Stiles, The Man Behind Roosevelt, p. 85).

The Howe cover-up did work because FDR was elected President in 1932.

A very rare photo of FDR in a wheelchair.

By curing FDR of adultery, Louis Howe left him paralyzed from the waist down. Back then, the U.S. (or any nation) did not hire the handicapped, especially for the office of President of the United States. An elaborate deception was implemented to convince the world that FDR was sound in mind . . . . and body!!

FDR was paralyzed from the waist down.

After launching the career of the crippled FDR, Louis Howe joined him in the White House as secretary to the President until his death in 1936.

Eleanor continued as the President's éminence grise for the next 12 years.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962).

Eleanor was the unofficial President for the next 12 years. She was smiling and happy again because her husband was cured of adultery. Louis Howe continued as the President's unofficial adviser until his death in 1936.

Louis Howe and President Roosevelt in the White House.

From 1942 onward, Admiral William Leahy was FDR's Chief of Staff and adviser on all military matters.

Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (1875–1959).

Admiral Leahy was FDR's Chief of Staff and responsible for getting the U.S. involved in World War II. Bellicose Henry L. Stimson was Secretary of War and he supervised the development of the atomic bomb. The public were not aware that a crippled man led the nation during the most destructive war in the entire history of the world.

Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950). Sec. of War '41 – '45).

FDR was totally dependent on the Secret Service and his aides to keep the secret of his handicap.

Churchill knew all about the paraplegic President!!

Even though FDR was confined to a wheelchair . . . and at the total mercy of the warmongers, Churchill could not maneuver the U.S. into World War II without first ordering his Japanese allies to attack Pearl Harbor. This attack on Pearl Harbor took the pressure off the Russians and allowed them to move at least 15 divisions to the defense of Moscow and Stalingrad.

FDR and Churchill aboard the USS Augusta, in August 1941.

FDR wore special long pants to hide his leg braces, but Churchill was not fooled, because his own MI6 agents gave him infantile paralysis or "polio." Had Roosevelt found out that the British made him a cripple, that would have been the end of the "special relationship."

Churchill and FDR at Casablanca in North Africa.

As Churchill knew all about FDR's disability, it is certain that he shared the "secret" with his ally Adolf Hitler.

FDR was never known to read a book . . . or study U.S. history . . . so he never suspected that the British were behind the "polio" epidemics that struck the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

FDR was not a Russophobe or Russia hater like Churchill, Leahy and Stimson. As World War II raged, FDR came to realize that he could trust the Russians a lot more than the British. This idea was anathema to the CONfederates because Russia was the only ally of the United States during the darkest days of the Civil War.

FDR also refused to make Jimmy Byrnes his Vice President and that was another reason for his assassination by poison on April 12, 1945. If FDR had lived, there would have been no atomic bombing of Japan and probably no Cold War.

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References

Gallagher. Hugh Gregory. FDR'S Splendid Deception. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1995.

Klein, Jonas. Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor and the Legacy of Campobello. Paul S. Eriksson Publisher, Forest Dale, Vermont, 2000.

Oshinsky, David M. Polio: An American Story. Oxford University Press, New York, 2005.

Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. Random House. New York, 2007.

Stiles, Lela. The Man Behind Roosevelt: The Story of Louis McHenry Howe. World Publishing Co., New York, 1954.

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Copyright © 2014 by Patrick Scrivener

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