Napoleon's Missing Bonaparte

May 19, 2007 11:41 AM

Dr. John K. Lattimer died earlier this week. &nCThe fact that he was the former chairman of the urology department at Columbia University is the least interesting fact about him. He was an expert in ballstics and became the first private citizen granted access to Kennedy's autopsy photos (he made this drawing to explain the path of the bullet). He treated survivors of the Hindenburg explosion and Nazi defendants at Nuremberg. He was also a collector of some very odd items: a pair of Eva Braun's earrings, the cyanide ampule that Hermann Goring used to commit suicide [.pdf], the key to Lincoln's presidental box at Ford's Theater. Oh, and he bought Napoleon's penis in 1977 for $3000. Some think it should finally be allowed to rest in peace.
posted by scblackman (9 comments total)

Some say that penis explains the real source of the Napoleonic complex...
posted by jonp72 at 12:09 PM on May 19, 2007

One little-known fact is that Napoleon's Penis, while small even for a man of his stature, did have one huge (and unique) advantage: due to a rare birth defect, Napoleon's Penis actually grew where his left nipple should have been.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:53 PM on May 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Some think it should finally be allowed to rest in peace.

What the hell has it been doing?
posted by dhartung at 1:39 PM on May 19, 2007

At the 1983 festival, clad in armor and bearing a shield, he told a reporter about his fascination with medieval armaments. “In my front hall, I have a suit of armor from a Knight of Malta, with the Maltese Cross,” he said. “I also have a beheading ax.”

Dr. Lattimer would have made a great dinner guest.
posted by rotifer at 2:11 PM on May 19, 2007

So that's what happened to Napolean's penis ... anyone know where Dillinger's is now?
posted by kyrademon at 3:50 PM on May 19, 2007

"he was an expert in ballstics..."
yow!
posted by bruce at 1:31 AM on May 20, 2007

That was one curious cat. Do they make'em like him anymore?




Also, this is obit-filter done very very right! I should buy you a cup of Red Barn Coffee, dude.
posted by mds35 at 2:58 PM on May 20, 2007

What I want to know: Is the "MudGirl" who posted the question about Napoleon's penis to The Straight Dope any relation to muddgirl?
posted by retronic at 8:08 PM on May 20, 2007

FYI, when I was a med student at Columbia, Lattimer came to speak to my group of students rotating through urology -- and brought the penis to show us all. It was, to say the least, creepy.
posted by delfuego at 7:37 AM on May 21, 2007