The possibility of traumatic brain injury from his 1968 car accident where he was in a coma for awhile. Even Daily Kos has a diary on it.

I'd like to have a link to a list of his "pranks" too, including his sons talking about how he pushed their faces down into butter.

I read something on DU within the last week about that.
I believe the article said he was released within a few days
and his injuries were not that serious

Now THERE'S a name I hardly expected in the DU....or outside of Nurnberg Germany for that matter. Although I hardly recognized the spelling this IS a name I first heard somewhere around the early 1960s. ('61?). Our 2nd or 3rd grade class was presented with his tale in one of the halls of Nurnberg Castle itself. What he did with those shoes is a memory now lost to time for me but it had something to do with Till Eulinspigel doing a high wire act to distract the crowds and I think a co-hort may have knotted everyone's shoe laces together or something like that.

On edit: where on earth did you come across that name, Eulinspigel anyway?

Till Eulenspiegel popped to mind.

'Weiss nicht warum.

Apparently happened at a race recently

Not exactly a prank, but it speaks to his character. Never in a million years would the men in my family have done that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021214512

I can tell you that.