10 Famous Missing Body Parts

Top 10 Famous Missing Body Parts

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for when a famous person in history had body parts stolen, removed, or went missing after their passing, sometimes years later.

#10: Saint Francis Xavier

Various
As one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, Francis Xavier was a catholic missionary who spread the word of his religion. In 1552, while awaiting entrance into China, Xavier passed away on Shangchuan Island. He was placed in a casket with lime to reduce his body to bones for transport to Goa, India. However, months later, Xavier’s body was claimed to have remained the same, and this was interpreted as him being a saint. Then, in 1554, a noblewoman named Dona Isabel Carom reportedly bit his toe off in Goa. Her descendants kept it until 2009 when the toe was put on public display. Various parts of Xavier’s remains have been sent off around the world, including a hand in Japan and a shoulder blade in Macau.

#9: Thomas Paine

Skeleton
Thomas Paine was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. After helping the country get its independence from Great Britain, Paine fell out with his former allies with his views against organized religion. In 1809, Paine passed away and was buried at a farm in New Rochelle, New York. Ten years later, former rival William Cobbett dug up Paine’s remains and took them to England, hoping to give them a heroic reburial in Paine's birth country. Instead, his bones were left in Cobbett’s possessions when he passed away. Over the years, Paine’s bones have disappeared. There are allegations some were sold or handed off all over the world, with his skull apparently ending up in Australia.

#8: F. W. Murnau

Skull
Born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1888, F. W. Murnau became one of the most influential early silent film makers, including taking home multiple Academy Awards at the first-ever ceremony.. However, the wildly inventive Murnau’s career was cut short in 1931 by a tragic car accident. His body was buried in a cemetery near Berlin. But much later, in 2015, the Murnau family plot was broken into, and the director’s skull was stolen. To make it even more creepy, wax residue was found in the area, seemingly dripped from a lit candle, sparking the idea that some kind of occult ritual was potentially involved. The skull’s whereabouts are still unknown.

#7: Saint Nicholas

Various
Born in 270 CE in the Roman Empire, in what is now modern-day Turkey, Saint Nicholas became famed for purported miracles and for gift-giving. In 343 CE, Nicholas perished, and his remains ended up in Myra, Turkey. It’s believed that in 1071, with saintly relics in hot demand, sailors from Bari, Italy, carried off some of Nicholas’s bones. They brought them to their city and later stored them in the Basilica di San Nicola. There’s also a belief that some of Nicholas’s bones were taken by Venetians and placed in the Monastery of San Nicolò al Lido. In 2017, a piece of pelvis bone that turned up in the US, and was attributed to Nicholas, was indeed found to be dated to roughly the era of the saint’s passing.

#6: Mata Hari

Head
Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, was an exotic dancer and courtesan from the Netherlands who allegedly became a spy for Germany during World War One. This accusation led to her execution in 1917. With no family claiming her remains, Hari’s body was kept in France for medical research. At one point, her embalmed head was stored at the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. However, in 2000, researchers discovered Hari’s head had vanished, and it could’ve been missing since way back in 1954. There are even records that the rest of her body was also transferred to the museum in 1918, but it, too, couldn’t be located. As of 2023, the location of her remains are still unknown.

#5: Galileo Galilei

Fingers
Better known by his first name, Galileo Galilei was one of the most important scientists in human history with his work in physics and astronomy. After being found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” Galileo was placed under house arrest until his death in 1642. Due to his controversial last years, he was buried next to the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. But in 1737, Galileo’s remains were reburied in the main property. During the move, it’s believed Antonio Francesco Gori took three fingers, a tooth, and a vertebra from the scientist’s body. After passing through many hands, in 1905, two fingers vanished. In 2009, they were found at an auction and were later taken to the Museo Galileo.

#4: Albert Einstein

Brain
In 1955, after taking the world by storm with his hugely important work in physics, Albert Einstein, one of the world’s greatest minds, passed away. However, Einstein’s family discovered that his brain had been taken during the autopsy by pathologist Thomas Harvey. Harvey later received permission from Einstein’s son to keep the brain, as long as it was to be studied. Harvey proceeded with his work, even removing parts of the brain, and sending them to neurologists worldwide. He also commissioned a painting of the brain. Yet no substantive research material was published, and the brain was eventually lost. In 1978, it was rediscovered in Harvey’s possession in two mason jars. Sections of the brain have since been located and housed in various US museums.

#3: Geronimo

Skull
Born in 1829 in Arizona, Geronimo became a Bedonkohe Apache leader during the Apache Wars against the United States. After surrendering in 1886, he spent his later years as a prisoner before passing away in 1909. Decades later, speculation emerged that members of Yale University’s secret society, the aptly named Skull and Bones, had stolen some of Geronimo’s remains, including his skull, from an Apache cemetery at Fort Sill in Oklahoma around 1918. One of the members involved was purported to be Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush. While the society and relatives denied this and claimed it was a tall tale or hoax, a lawsuit was filed in 2009 for the bones to be returned from their clubhouse. However, it was dismissed the following year.

#2: John F. Kennedy

Brain
Inaugurated as the President of the United States in 1961, John F. Kennedy held the position until his infamous assassination in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. During the autopsy, the intact portion of JFK’s brain was stored away in the National Archives. However, in 1966, it was discovered the brain, along with other evidence collected from the autopsy, had vanished. To this day, no one seemingly knows what happened. But this did give rise to many, MANY conspiracy theories. Some believe the government destroyed the evidence to hide JFK’s true assassins. Other conspiracies revolve around Robert F. Kennedy taking the brain to conceal secrets about his brother.

#1: Napoleon Bonaparte

Reproductive Organ
Napoleon Bonaparte was a massively important figure in French history. After his involvement in the French Revolution, Napoleon eventually became the country’s Emperor and a conqueror before being exiled to Saint Helena and, well, that’s barely scratching the surface. But after his death in 1821, the doctor Francesco Antommarchi, who performed his autopsy, supposedly removed, uh, little Napoleon as revenge and gave it to a priest. After this, it apparently circulated among different owners and even appeared in exhibitions. In 1977, urologist John K. Lattimer purchased Napoleon’s private piece at an auction, and it was later handed down to his daughter. It has been referred to as very small, which seems a little harsh. mean. It’s no wonder he had a complex named after him.