John Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States of America, was out of his head and stark naked.
In a suite at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, he had just had a massive injection of drugs from a mysterious German medic known variously as Dr Feelgood, Dr Needles and Miracle Max.
Now, the dynamic leader of the Western world was completely wired. He stripped off his clothes and began to dance around the room.
Then he bounded off down the corridor in search of female company.
It was a desperately worrying moment for his Secret Service detachment. What if he made it to the hotel lobby, full of reporters and photographers?
Kennedy would be finished, the presidency a laughing stock, the U.S.’s standing in the world fatally undermined.
They kept him out of trouble — this time. He was persuaded back to his suite, where a proper doctor gave him a sedative.
Kennedy calmed down: the crisis was over. But what if it happened again, which seemed terrifyingly likely?
As the CIA and other powerful organisations in Washington knew full well, President Kennedy was an addict: hooked on the painkilling shots concocted in his laboratory by the creepy Dr Max Jacobson, using a dangerous amphetamine derivative mixed with weird substances such as animal placentas.
The White House log showed 30 visits to the Oval Office by Jacobson, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The shabbily dressed doctor, with his medical bag of tricks, had had many more unofficial meetings; he had accompanied the president on summit meetings and even flown on Air Force One.