Why famous people's body parts often end up in several places
Who stole JFK's brain? It has been a mystery since 1966 when, three years after the president's assassination, it was discovered that his brain, removed during the autopsy, was missing.
Who stole JFK's brain? It has been a mystery since 1966 when, three years after the president's assassination, it was discovered that his brain, removed during the autopsy, was missing.
The latest theory puts forward a less juicy cover-up. James Swanson, author of a new book on the Kennedy assassination, suggests the brain was taken by his younger brother Robert, "perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy's illnesses, or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications [he] was taking".
Kennedy is just one of a number of famous people whose body parts were taken.
Brains have long held a fascination for those wanting to study the secrets of the intelligent and powerful. After Albert Einstein's death in 1955, his brain was removed by pathologist Thomas Harvey, much of it sliced and mounted on hundreds of slides, many of which have been lost.
Composer Joseph Haydn's head was stolen from his grave by two men, motivated by their interest in phrenology, the belief insights could be had from feeling the shape and size of the head. The skull found its way to the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna, 80 years after his death.