The last words and final moments of 40 presidents

American presidents have met their end in virtually every way known to human beings, some suddenly in hails of gunfire, some shortly after leaving office and some of old age years or even decades after their time as the country's leader. There is no official office that certifies the last words of presidents, and because much of what we know about the leaders of the early American Republic is secondhand or perhaps even altogether apocryphal, there is a considerable amount of guesswork involved in reconstructing the last moments of some of the most powerful men who have ever lived. And of course, not all of them were in any condition to offer last words. Some, like Ronald Reagan, were in the final throes of Alzheimer's, and others, like 100-year-old Jimmy Carter, were no longer able to comm