Italian Government Still Hates Anarchist's Pickled Brain

In 1878, Italian anarchist Giovanni Passannante tried to kill King Umberto I. He failed, but the punishment that was meted out to him was stunning: not only was he tortured, he was jailed for life, along with his entire family. Even more bizarre, his hometown was forced to change its name.

But it gets even weirder:

At the anarchist's death, the head and brain were removed to be studied by sociologists, an act in keeping with the scientific eugenicist theory made popular at the time by a criminologist named Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso believed that criminality was inherited and could be identified by physical traits.

For the last 70 years the brain and skull have been in a neon-light display case, framed by old anarchist manifestos on the second floor of the Criminology Museum, just off the Via Giulia.

But this week the skull and brain were to leave the museum in front of reporters and photographers, for burial with the body, under pressure brought by an eclectic group of hundreds of petition signers. Instead, on Thursday, under a cloak of secrecy, the remnants were whisked away and buried in his hometown in the Basilicata region of southern Italy....

It seems that even 97 years later, the Italian government does not want to give publicity to an anti-monarchist.

Dead anarchist becomes cause célèbre in Italy [International Herald Tribune]