Meet Billy Carter - President Jimmy's Beer-Swilling, Colonel Gaddafi-Repping Brother

For anyone who misses the days when most every Commander-In-Chief seemed to have a screw-up sibling.

You know what I miss? The days when an American presidency could be threatened by an appearance from a 'colourful' sibling.

Over the years, candidates' routes to the White House have been cluttered with all sorts of eccentrics, from Bill Clinton's washed-up actor brother Roger to Neil Bush, Dubya's prostitute-obsessed younger bro. The pick of this exceptionally bad bunch, however, must be Billy Carter, youngest brother of the US's 39th president.

Unlike other career-complicating siblings, William Alton Carter III (that’s him in the middle of the photo, clutching a beer) only became a hindrance to brother Jimmy after the latter came to power. Upon defeating Gerald Ford in the election of 1976, James Earl Jr had to place his family's peanut-growing business in trust. This proved particularly problematic for Billy Carter who, without a source of income, had to find new ways to make a living.

Cue the star-spangled launch of Billy Beer, a beverage aimed at the common man and designed to cash in on the youngest Carter's reputation as a creek-swimmin', truck-drivin' redneck. "I had this beer brewed just for me," he said at the launch. "I think it's the best beer I ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot."

Alas, despite having a fan in the young Homer Simpson, America never acquired a taste for Billy Beer - should you ever stumble upon a can, hang on to it: they're worth thousands. The coffers emptier than ever, Billy Carter believed he had no choice other than to follow his brother into politics.

As an previous run for mayoral office hadn't gone well, Billy decided he might be better off as a lobbyist. Sure enough, one of the key political figures of the time was prepared to pay him $200,000 for his services - the only problem being that the person in question was Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

With the fee swiftly repaid and all ties with the Colonel immediately cut, Billy Carter lurched from one fresh scrape to another until his premature death from pancreatic cancer in 1988. Asked how he stacked up next to the other Carters, Billy robustly replied: "My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was 68. My one sister is a motorcycle freak, my other sister is a Holy Roller evangelist, and my brother ran for president. I'm the only sane one in the family."