Editing Jack Parsons (section)

===Personality===
Parsons was considered effeminate as a child; in adult life he exhibited an attitude of [[machismo]].{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 176}} Jane Wolfe described him as "potentially bisexual" and he once expressed experiencing a [[latent homosexuality]].{{sfn|Carter|2004|pp = 55-56}} The actor [[Paul Mathison]] said he had had a gay relationship with Parsons in the 1950s, though this was disputed by others who knew him and Cameron.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 319}} Parsons had the reputation of being a womanizer, and was notorious for frequently flirting and having sexual liaisons with female staff members at JPL and Aerojet.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 88}}{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 238}} He was also known for personal eccentricity such as greeting house guests with a large pet snake around his neck, driving to work in a rundown [[Pontiac (automobile)#Pontiac 1926–1942|Pontiac]], and using a mannequin dressed in a tuxedo with a bucket labelled "The Resident" as his mailbox.<ref name="Pendle"/>{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 83}}

As well as a fencing and archery enthusiast, Parsons was also a keen [[Shooting|shooter]]; he often hunted jack rabbits and cotton tails in the desert, and was amused by mock dueling with Forman while on test sites with rifles and shotguns. Upon proposing to his first wife Helen, he gave her a pistol.<ref name="Pendle"/>{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 176}}{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 87}} Parsons enjoyed playing pranks on his colleagues, often through detonating explosives such as [[firecrackers]] and [[smoke bombs]],{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 226}} and was known to spend hours at a time in the bathtub playing with toy boats while living at the Parsonage.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 242}}

As well as intense bursts of creativity, Parsons suffered from what he described as "manic hysteria and depressing melancholy".{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 296}} His father Marvel, after suffering a near-fatal heart attack, died in 1947 as a psychiatric patient at [[St. Elizabeths Hospital]] in Washington, D.C., diagnosed with severe [[Major depressive disorder|clinical depression]], a condition Pendle suggested the younger Parsons inherited.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 103–105}}