"Texas university missing brains from medical collection" New York Times December 04, 2014
NEW YORK — Call it the case of the missing brains of Texas.
The University of Texas at Austin has started an investigation into the disappearance of 100 jars of brains preserved in formaldehyde — probably including that of Charles Whitman, the clock tower sniper whose 1966 rampage terrorized the campus and killed 16 people.
“We are investigating the situation surrounding the collection, to determine the whereabouts of these specimens,” said Gary Susswein, a spokesman for the university.
The missing brains, which made up about half of the university’s collection, were transferred to the university from the Austin State Hospital about 28 years ago, a coup for the state at a time when several other research universities were also seeking to the specimens, including Harvard, which wanted more brains from schizophrenics.
The brains, harvested in autopsies from as far back as the 1950s, were in heavy glass jars, each carrying an identification label, a diagnosis, and the date of death, according to Alex Hannaford, author of a new book, “Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital.”
Sometime in the early 1990s, when space in the university labs became tight, the curator of the collection asked that half of the brains be removed. They were moved to the basement of the university’s Animal Resource Center.
--more--"
