Eccentrics

Stephen Gough, popularly known as the "Naked Rambler", is a British pro-nudity activist and former Royal Marine. In 2003 and 2004, he walked the length of Great Britain naked, but was arrested when he did it again in 2005 and 2006. Since then, he has spent most of the intervening years in prison, having been repeatedly rearrested for contempt of court for public nudity and imprisoned. He has been convicted of public order offences at least 40 times. Gough brought a lawsuit in the European Court for Human Rights, arguing that laws requiring him to wear clothing violated his rights to privacy and free expression. His claim was rejected in 2014.

Anna Russell was an English–Canadian singer and comedian. She gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano. Among her best-known works are her concert performances and famous recordings of The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis) – a humorous 22-minute synopsis of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is an Equatoguinean politician who has served as the first vice president of Equatorial Guinea since 22 June 2016. He is a son of Teodoro Obiang, the authoritarian leader of Equatorial Guinea, by his first wife, Constancia Mangue. He has been appointed to numerous government positions by his father's regime, including Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and "Second Vice-President", in charge of defense and security, in May 2012. He was promoted to the position of First Vice-President in June 2016. Known for his lavish lifestyle, he has been the subject of a number of international criminal charges and sanctions for alleged embezzlement and corruption. His net worth is $600 Million including his yacht, private jets, and luxury cars.

Michael Rockefeller was an American adventurer and member of the prominent Rockefeller family. Rockefeller was known for his passion for art and anthropology, which led him on expeditions to various remote regions of the world. In 1961, at the age of 23, Rockefeller embarked on an expedition to the Asmat region of western New Guinea in search of primitive art. It was during this expedition that tragedy struck. On November 19, 1961, Rockefeller's boat capsized off the coast of New Guinea, leaving him stranded in shark-infested waters. Despite initial efforts to rescue him, Rockefeller disappeared, sparking a massive search-and-rescue operation. In the years following his disappearance, rumors circulated regarding Rockefeller's fate. One theory, supported by anthropologist Carl Hoffman in his book "Savage Harvest," suggests that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by members of the Asmat tribe, who were known for their practice of ritualistic cannibalism. However, definitive evidence regarding Rockefeller's fate remains elusive, and his disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.

In the summer of 1973, five men and six women embarked on a 101-day scientific sea-adventure, drifting on a small raft named ‘Acali’ across the Atlantic. In an experiment initiated by Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés, the project’s aim was to explore the origins of violence and the dynamics of sexual attraction. The eleven members of the crew were handpicked from around the world with the objective of mixing religion, gender and nationality to maximize friction on board. Genovés called the expedition a ‘Peace Project’ but it did not take long for the international press to rename it ‘The Sex Raft’, a nickname which still upsets some members of the crew. As leader of the experiment, Genovés had hoped that violent conflicts and sex orgies would result from the close quarters in which his human guinea pigs were forced to live, but what ultimately happened on that drifting raft was entirely unexpected. Instead of fighting or having sex, the group slowly turned against him. Mutiny was discussed and at one point there was even a plan to kill him.

Jim Tully was an American vagabond, pugilist, and writer. He enjoyed critical and commercial success as a writer in the 1920s and 1930s. Born near St. Marys, Ohio, to James Dennis and Bridget Marie Lawler Tully, an Irish immigrant ditch-digger and his wife, Tully enjoyed a relatively happy but impoverished childhood until the death of his mother in 1892. Unable to care for him, his father sent him to an orphanage in Cincinnati. He remained there for six years. What further education he acquired came in the hobo camps, boxcars, railroad yards, and public libraries scattered across the country.

Baron Rokeby was an English landowner, politician and nobleman. He became an enthusiastic supporter of baths during a holiday in the spa town of Aix-la-Chapelle. When he returned to Kent, he began to make daily trips to the seashore to swim in salt water regardless of the weather. He preferred this environment to such an extent that his servant had to persuade him to come home. Sometimes he fainted and had to be rescued. He had a hut built for him on the sands at Hythe and drinking fountains along his route to the beach. He walked all the way and let his servant follow him in the carriage with full livery. If he found people drinking from a fountain, he gave them a half-crown coin. He also let his beard grow, which was against the contemporary fashion. Eventually, it was so thick that it stuck out under his arms and could be seen from behind. In a couple of years, he decided to build a swimming pool in his mansion - it was built under glass and was heated by the sun. There he spent hours at the time, preferably alone. He refused to have a fire in his house even in the coldest weather. His increased isolation bred rumours, including one that he was a cannibal or ate only raw meat - when he ate mainly beef tea and nibbled at venison. He also refused to see any doctors. As for church service, he claimed that God was best worshipped at natural altars of the earth, the sea and the sky - not to mention that the sermons were boring.