Date: Monday, May 10
Time: 7 pm EDT

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In May, 2021, Francophiles will mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte's death in exile on the island of St Helena, and (of more interest to Morbid Anatomists) his gruesome autopsy the next day, where it was alleged that various pieces of the Emperor's body were removed — including, notoriously, his penis. The profane relic was smuggled back to Europe and passed between specialists for generations, until it was purchased in 1977 by a famous American collector, Dr John Kingsley Lattimer, who kept it in a box under his bed in Englewood, New Jersey

While researching his book Napoleon's Privates, historian and journalist Tony Perrottet traveled back and forth to interview the elderly doctor, who turned out to be the world's top urologist, D-Day hero, Nazi hunter at the Nuremberg war crime trials and Warren Commission ballistics expert. Perrottet was invited to explore the Lattimer mansion, which had been turned into an extraordinary private museum filled with grisly historical artifacts — from the bloodstained vinyl seat of JFK's car to Herman Goerring's suicide vial and Abe Lincoln's gore-covered collar.

For this talk, to celebrate the anniversary of Napolaon’s death and autopsy. Perrottet will recount the untold story of his heroic attempts to get the Lattimer family to show him the Napoleonic "specimen," which had been hidden from historians for decades, while perusing the other dark celebrity relics secreted in New Jersey. The climax will be when the author reveals a precise replica of la baïonette, which has been long housed in a tasteful leather presentation case.

Australian-born, New York-based writer Tony Perrottet started his career as a foreign correspondent in South America, where he covered guerrilla wars in Peru, drug running in Colombia and military rebellions in Argentina. From his current home in the East Village of Manhattan, he commutes to Iceland, Tierra del Fuego, Havana and Zanzibar, while contributing to the Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times and WSJ Magazine, amongst others. His travel stories have been selected seven times for the Best American Travel Writing series, and he is a regular guest on the History Channel, where he has spoken about everything from the Crusades to the birth of disco. His sixth book, Cuba Libre!, about the Cuban revolutionary war of the 1950s, was published by Penguin in 2019.

Image: Napoleon on his Death Bed, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet