Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served as an executioner. Elected Erie County Sheriff in 1870, on September 6, 1872, Cleveland pulled the lever releasing the trap door under Patrick Morrissey, a man convicted of murdering his mother. Once again, on February 14, 1873, Cleveland’s position required him to carry out the execution of John Gaffney, a man convicted of fatally shooting a man and sentenced to die by hanging.
Grover Cleveland held the Sheriff’s job for only one term, ultimately returning to his legal career, but during his Presidential campaign, his opponents referred to the man previously known as “Big Steve,” as the “Buffalo Hangman.”