It’s a bit difficult to imagine, but a man who wears a rubber chicken around his neck and seemingly has never worn a pair of shoes in his life may just have changed Memphis history.

We are talking, of course, about Prince Mongo, otherwise known as Robert Hodges. In its history, Memphis has been littered with folks called odd or eccentric, but it’s unlikely those words have ever been said about anyone as much as they’ve been said about Hodges.

Hodges is a 78-year-old sometimes-Memphian who claims to hail from the planet Zambodia. He has been known to appear in court wearing green body paint. He often wears goggles and a silver wig, sometimes with a bone or that rubber chicken around his neck. It’s possible no one alive today has ever seen him wearing shoes. He has run for mayor umpteen times and lost umpteen times, but the posters advertising those races have become collector’s items to some who still hang them in their homes and pubs.

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