Burgled Body Parts

Alas, poor William: researchers in the U.K. who analyzed Shakespeare’s grave with radar imaging said March 23 his skull was likely stolen more than 200 years ago. The playwright joins other noted victims of graveyard robbery.

ST. NICHOLAS

Sailors stole the remains of St. Nicholas (whom you might know as Santa Claus) in 1087 from what is now Turkey and took them to Bari, Italy, where they are today. The bones are said to emit a healing balm called manna.

GALILEO GALILEI

Supporters took three fingers and a tooth from the astronomer’s grave in 1737, some 95 years after his death. The fingers went their separate ways until 2010, when they were reunited for display in a Florence museum.

JOSEPH HAYDN

After the composer died in 1809, two admirers bribed a grave digger to give them his skull so they could check for a “bump of music” that might explain his genius. The cranium was only returned to his tomb in 1954.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The physicist left behind instructions to cremate his body, but when he died in 1955 a doctor gave his eyeballs to Einstein’s ophthalmologist, who saved them in a jar that’s now kept in a safe-deposit box.