When Einstein died on April 18, 1955 in Princeton Hospital, there was one question on the scientific community's mind: does he have a special brain? Even though this question is an interesting one to ponder, most of us would leave at that. However, Thomas Harvey, the man responsible for Einstein's autopsy, was not a normal person because he straight up stole Einstein's brain in order to examine it.

To make matters worse, if that's possible, Einstein never wanted to be studied after his death. According to National Geographic, he had explicit instructions for his family, which stated that he should be cremated and scattered secretly to avoid people trying to get ahold of his remains.

A few days later, after someone realized that he stole the brain, Harvey contacted Einstein's son, Hans Albert Einstein, and somehow received permission to use his father's brain. Hans Albert only have one stipulation: Harvey must use the brain for strictly scientific study, which Harvey agreed to honor.

Despite having Hans Albert's approval to meddle with his father's brain, Harvey was fired from Princeton a short while later. Undeterred by his recent unemployment, Harvey took the brain to Philadelphia where he had it cut up into 240 pieces, which he then had preserved in two jars and kept in his basement.

It get's crazier still. After a brief stint in Philadelphia, Harvey moved to Kansas where he kept the brain inside a cider box next to his beer in the fridge, reports National Geographic.

While in Kansas, Harvey started to ship small bits of the brain to different universities for them to study. However, even after countless studies have been done to see if Einstein's brain was special in anyway, all of the researcher indicates that it wasn't, which means that Harvey stole it for relatively no reason.

Einstein's brain currently resides at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.

(h/t National Geographic)