20 historical figures whose remains were stolen after they were buried

In 1876, a gang of forgers hatched a far-fetched plot to steal the president’s body from his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Secret Service agents managed to infiltrate the group and ambushed these clumsy thieves just as they were lifting the marble lid of the sarcophagus. To prevent anyone from attempting such a feat again, Lincoln’s son eventually had the coffin buried under a massive concrete slab.

The famous silent film star was buried quietly in a peaceful Swiss cemetery near Lake Geneva at the end of 1977. Just a few months later, two mechanics exhumed his coffin and disappeared into the night with this cinema icon. They called his widow to demand a colossal sum in exchange for the return of her husband’s remains, but she categorically refused to negotiate with them.

This brilliant physicist had clearly stated that he wanted his body to be completely cremated and his ashes scattered in secret to discourage any cult of personality. The on-call medical examiner, Thomas Harvey, decided that these rules did not apply to him and discreetly stole Einstein’s brain during the routine autopsy. He spent the following decades transporting that brain across the United States in two simple glass jars.

The famous political activist and author of Common Sense died in New York and was buried on his modest farm in 1809. An eccentric admirer named William Cobbett exhumed his remains a decade later and had them shipped to England. He intended to erect a magnificent monument in honor of this revolutionary writer, but he ran out of money before he could even begin the project.

This musical genius was buried in Vienna in a simple mass grave without a cross, in accordance with the customs of the city at the end of the 18th century. Ten years later, a cemetery employee, claiming to remember the exact location of the musician’s body, decided to sneak in and steal his skull. This relic then passed from hand to hand among various scientists and anatomy enthusiasts for generations.

The controversial Lord Protector of England died of natural causes and was given a grand funeral, fit for a king, at Westminster Abbey. When the monarchy was restored a few years later, the new king, furious, ordered Cromwell’s body to be exhumed so that he could be posthumously executed. They decided to humiliate Cromwell even after his death.

Argentina’s much-loved First Lady died prematurely, and her body was carefully embalmed to be displayed in a massive monument. Shortly thereafter, a military coup overthrew her husband’s government, and the new leaders were seized with utter terror at the thought that her body might become a rallying symbol for the resistance. They stole her remains and hid them for years.

The Sun King, who reigned for many years, was buried in the majestic Basilica of Saint-Denis, alongside several generations of French monarchs. At the height of the turmoil of the French Revolution, angry mobs stormed the royal crypts, dug up the king’s body, and discarded his heart. A wealthy British lord eventually purchased the desiccated organ and displayed it on the mantelpiece in his living room.

This tragic Portuguese noblewoman was murdered on the orders of her lover’s father, the king, and then buried in a remote monastery. When her lover finally inherited the throne, he had her decomposing body exhumed, dressed it in royal robes, and forced the entire court to swear an oath of allegiance to her remains. He then had her placed in a magnificent royal tomb where she could finally rest as the official queen.

This infamous dancer, convicted of espionage during World War I, was executed in 1917. Since no one claimed her body, it was donated to a Parisian anatomy school. Her head was preserved separately at the university’s anatomy museum, alongside those of several other notable figures.

For generations, Florence has tried to recover Dante’s remains after his death in exile in Ravenna. Fearing that the pope might force them to return the remains, Franciscan monks dug a tunnel from their monastery to his crypt. They smuggled his skeleton out in a small wooden box.

Looters broke into King Tutankhamun’s tomb shortly after his burial. They left the heavy golden coffin untouched and went straight for the mummy. Searching for jewelry that might have been close to his skin, they tore off his bandages.

Santa Claus was buried in his hometown of Myra, in what is now Turkey. When the country was ravaged by war, Italian pirates decided that the remains of Saint Nicholas were too valuable to leave behind. So they ransacked his tomb and stole his remains.

The writer Mary Shelley was buried alongside her parents in London. When her son had their graves moved to a cemetery in Bournemouth, he discovered that his father’s heart was missing. His father, Percy Bysshe Shelley, had in fact had his heart removed from his funeral pyre so that someone could keep it.

Sitting Bull was buried in Fort Yates, North Dakota, after his death in 1890. His great-grandsons exhumed his remains in 1953 and had them reburied in South Dakota. They paid thieves to break into the fort and steal his remains so that he could be buried on his ancestral land.

This naval hero of the American Revolutionary War died in Paris and was buried in a royal cemetery that was eventually abandoned and forgotten. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt launched a massive search operation to locate the remains of this legendary commander and repatriate them to the United States. Workers spent years digging through the city’s underground before finally discovering his lead coffin.

Apache Chief Geronimo died in captivity. He was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but his remains were reportedly exhumed by members of a secret society at Yale. They allegedly stole his remains in order to display certain parts of them.

The grave of the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven was exhumed twice in the hope of finding answers. Scientists wanted to examine his skull to determine the causes of his deafness and, perhaps, to unravel the mystery of his musical talents. On both occasions, visitors took small fragments of his skeleton as souvenirs.

The famous Spanish painter died in Bordeaux, France, and was buried in a local cemetery, far from his homeland. When Spanish authorities finally obtained permission to repatriate his remains to Madrid several decades later, they opened the coffin and were left speechless. Goya’s skeleton was perfectly intact, but his skull was missing.

The seventh president of the United States was buried at his plantation in Tennessee, called “The Hermitage.” A man had won at auction the former marble coffin of Alexander Severus, a former Roman emperor. He had offered it to Jackson for his tomb, but Jackson had indignantly refused it.