Thomas Stoltz Harvey

Thomas Stoltz Harvey ( born October 10, 1912 in Louisville, Kentucky, † April 5, 2007 in Titusville, New Jersey) was an American pathologist and neurologist who thus became known that he stole the brain of Albert Einstein in 1955.

Against the will of Albert Einstein, which are burned at his death immediately and wanted to know his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location, in the presence of Harvey took Einstein's friend Otto Nathan in Princeton Hospital in New Jersey, the brain of the physicist. This, however, got his own life out of joint. He lost his license and made ​​his way as a factory worker. Harvey moved from one place to another, always with the brain of Albert Einstein in the luggage, and landed in Wichita, where he was visited in 1978 by Steven Levy, who wanted to bring the retention of the brain in experience. Only 40 years after he had stolen the brain, he decided to bring it back to the locus delicti, where he had once taken it. The organ was stored in two preserving jars, as Harvey dissected and cut into cubes the brain then conserved. Harvey presented the brain, various scientists available for examination and decided in 1997 to give it to Einstein's granddaughter, who lived on the west coast of the United States. He was accompanied by the reporter Michael Paterniti, who wrote a book about it.

As of 1996, Thomas Harvey was retired and lived in New Jersey.