In 1955, the doctor performing Einstein's autopsy stole his brain. He carted it around for the next 50 years
The decision would haunt Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey for the rest of his life
The brain of Albert Einstein has never been laid to rest.
Although the iconic genius died in 1955, pieces of the brain that changed our view of the universe have roamed the world ever since, stored in mayonnaise jars, cardboard boxes and car trunks. The man behind the brain's bizarre afterlife has remained a shadowy figure — until now.
The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain reveals the bizarre, stranger-than-fiction saga of Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey. A Yale-educated Quaker, Harvey was the chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital who, while performing the autopsy on Einstein, stole the dead scientist's brain hoping it could solve the mystery of genius and make him a scientific hero.
When Einstein's family demanded that the brain be returned, Harvey struck a secret deal with Einstein's estate: by vowing to safeguard it from publicity and souvenir hunters, and use the brain for scientific study only, Harvey was given permission to keep it.
After cutting the brain into 240 pieces for research, Harvey learned that 1950s brain science was not up to the job.
Instead of becoming his ticket to scholarly fame, the brain led to Harvey's undoing. He lost his Princeton job, his medical licence, three marriages failed and he spent 40 years drifting from place to place, hiding Einstein's brain in basements as he struggled to make ends meet.
All the while, Einstein's estate and a stream of reporters hounded him for results from the brain study.
He kept Einstein's brain in the closet
But as Harvey refused media requests from all over the world, he became an urban legend, the slippery doctor who pulled off the heist of the century. Meanwhile, Harvey was showing off his jars of brain to fellow Quakers and co-workers and giving out pieces to professors he liked.
By the time Harvey was in his 80s, the former Ivy League doctor worked night shifts at a plastics factory, shared a cramped apartment with a university student and kept Einstein's brain in the closet.
Only near the end of Harvey's life was he able to let Einstein's brain go. He turned it over to another Princeton physician, identified only as Dr. X, to be its new keeper – and history repeated itself. Dr. X has been hiding Einstein's brain for more than 20 years and is currently deciding where it should go next.
The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain examines humanity's age-old fascination with genius, the seductive maw of celebrity and the price of ambition.
It features a rich archive, rare access to Harvey's own recorded words and letters, and interviews with a colourful cast of characters, among them Harvey's children, co-workers and the chicken-raising, Appalachian-dwelling manager of Albert Einstein's social media accounts, who posts messages for Einstein's 20 million followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Watch The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain on CBC Gem.
