In the Spring of 2007 a urologist named N.J. John K. Lattimer died in California. According to the New York Times, what made this man’s death interesting were the strange collectibles he left behind, including Napoleon’s penis, “Lincoln’s blood-stained collar and Hermann Göring’s cyanide ampoule.” Yes, that’s right. Napoleon’s penis.

Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the southern Atlantic island of Saint Helena on May 5, 1821. The following day an autopsy was conducted by the emperor’s doctor … [who] removed Napoleon’s heart (the deceased had requested that it be given to his estranged wife, the empress Marie-Louise, though it was never delivered) …

In 1916 … [the] collection of Napoleonic artifacts [was sold] to a British rare book firm, which in 1924 sold the lot for about $2,000 to a Philadelphia bibliophile, A.S.W. Rosenbach. Among the relics was “the mummified tendon taken from Napoleon’s body during the post-mortem.” A few years later Rosenbach displayed the putative penis, tastefully couched in blue morocco and velvet, at the Museum of French Art in New York. According to a contemporary news report, “In a glass case [spectators] saw something looking like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel.” The organ has also been described as a shriveled sea horse, a small shriveled finger, and “one inch long and resembling a grape.” (source)

Ouch!

Napoleon Bonapart image by Dunechaser.