Remembrance Hospital

Remembrance Hospital was a hospital in Washington, DC, near the White House. In January 1933, Hal Jacobs was being treated for cancer in the veterans' ward. He only barely qualified for that part of the hospital. He had not formally been a soldier in the Great War, but had a Distinguished Service Medal for his espionage activities.

On January 5, Jacobs' wife Nellie was arguing with Doctor Baumgartner that her husband should be allowed cigarettes to ease his final moments, as any damage to his health would be academic at this point. At that moment, an ambulance escorted by armed police delivered an unusual patient: Calvin Coolidge, the President-elect of the United States, who had collapsed in his bathroom that morning. Baumgartner pronounced Coolidge dead on arrival, having likely been dead since the moment of his collapse.