When Albert Einstein passed away on April 18, 1955, he left behind specific instructions when it came to the disposal of his body. Einstein didn’t want his corpse to be worshiped or his brain to be studied, so he instructed those who were responsible for his remains to “cremate them, and scatter the ashes secretly in order to discourage idolaters.”

But Thomas Harvey, the pathologist on call when Einstein died at New Jersey’s Princeton Hospital on April 18, 1955, didn’t follow the instructions and stole Einstein’s brain. 

When Einstein’s family found out, his son apparently didn’t object to the theft and Harvey was able to keep the brain in two jars in his basement before moving it to “a cider box stashed under a beer cooler.” (Source: National Geographic investigation)