( Mental Floss ) -- Remember that goofy uncle of yours who always tried to impress you by `` stealing your nose '' or pulling the ol ' separating-his-thumb-from-his-hand move ? Well , those parlor tricks are nothing compared to the appendage stunts pulled by these 10 famous people . John Wilkes Booth 's neck bones . A painting of Napoleon in His Study by Jacques-Louis-David does n't give a hint at what body part went missing . John Wilkes Booth might have been a successful assassin , but he was a largely ineffectual escape artist . Just 12 days after murdering President Abraham Lincoln , Booth was shot in the back of the neck and killed . His body was ( eventually ) buried in an unmarked grave at Baltimore 's Green Mount Cemetery . His third , fourth , and fifth vertebrae , however , were removed during the autopsy so investigators could access the bullet . For a peek at those bits of Booth 's spinal column , just check out the display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington , D.C. Einstein 's brain . Before he died , über-genius Albert Einstein considered donating his body to science . Unfortunately , he never put his wishes in writing . When he passed away in 1955 , Einstein 's family and friends made plans to cremate him , but the pathologist who performed the autopsy , Dr. Thomas Harvey , had a different idea . Instead , he opted to remove the math man 's brain and then tell the family about it . For 30-some years , Harvey had Al 's gray matter tucked away in his Wichita home in two Mason jars . Naturally , Einstein 's loved ones were n't thrilled when they found out , but they eventually allowed the misappropriated mind to be sliced into 240 sections and disbursed to researchers for examination . Today , many of the cerebral sections remain in scientific institutions , with the bulk held at Princeton Hospital . As for Einstein 's body , that was cremated and scattered in a secret location . `` Stonewall '' Jackson 's arm . Confederate General Thomas Jackson got his nickname by sitting astride his horse `` like a stone wall '' while bullets whizzed around him during the Civil War . But that kind of bravery ( or foolhardiness ) did n't serve him well . During the Battle of Chancellorsville , Jackson was accidentally shot in the arm by one of his own men . Said arm had to be amputated , and afterward , it was buried in the nearby Virginia town of Ellwood . Only eight days later , Stonewall was stone-cold dead of pneumonia . The rest of his body is resting in peace in Lexington , Virginia . Saint Francis Xavier 's hand . Francis Xavier was a saint with a few too many fans . In the early 16th century , the Spanish missionary was sent to Asia by the king of Portugal to convert as many souls to Christianity as possible . Turns out , he was pretty good at the job . Francis Xavier became wildly popular , and after his death in 1552 , so did his relics . In fact , demand out-fueled supply . Throughout several years and multiple exhumations , his body was whittled away . Today , half his left hand is in Cochin , India , while the other half is in Malacca , Malaysia . One of his arms resides in Rome , and various other cities lay claim to his internal organs . The leftovers ? They went to Goa , India . Napoleon 's bits and pieces . Exiled emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5 , 1821 . The following day , doctors conducted an autopsy , which was reportedly witnessed by many people , including a priest named Ange Vignali . Though the body was said to be largely intact at the time of the undertaking , it seems the priest took home a souvenir . In 1916 , Vignali 's heirs sold a collection of Napoleonic artifacts , including what they claim to be the emperor 's penis . While no one knows for sure if it really is Napoleon 's , uh , manhood , people have paid good money for the penis . Currently , it 's in the possession of an American urologist . Oliver Cromwell 's head . Oliver Cromwell , the straight-laced Puritan who usurped the English throne , was n't exactly a wild man . His head , however , was sometimes the life of the party . Cromwell died in 1658 , but two years later , the reinstated English monarchy exhumed , tried , and hanged his body , then dumped it in an unmarked grave . In addition , as a warning to would-be killers , his head was placed on a pike in Westminster Hall , where it remained for 20 years . After a subsequent stint in a small museum , it was sold in 1814 to a man named Josiah Henry Wilkinson ( perhaps looking to parade it around as an exceptionally gruesome ice-breaker at parties ) . Such was the ironic afterlife of the Puritan until 1960 , when his head was finally laid to rest in a chapel in Cambridge . E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles , visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright , Mental Floss LLC . All rights reserved .
Out of curiosity , war or science , body parts kept from final grave . Comment: Saint Francis Xavier 's hands spread from Asia to Europe . Gen. Stonewall Jackson 's body buried in two Virginia towns .