UT: Missing brains disposed of in 2002

Pictured, a brain from the collection. less "Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital" — authored by Austin photographer Adam Voorhes and journalist Alex Hannaford — shows dozens of photographs of brains of former patients treated at the State Lunatic Asylum, now the Austin State Hospital, from 1952 to 1983. The collection, housed at the University of Texas at Austin, was intended to aid mental health research. "Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital" — authored by Austin photographer Adam Voorhes and journalist Alex Hannaford — shows dozens of photographs of brains of former patients ... more Photo: Courtesy Of Adam Voorhes Photo: Courtesy Of Adam Voorhes Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close UT: Missing brains disposed of in 2002 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — More than 100 brains missing from a collection of abnormal brains belonging to former Texas mental patients dating back to the 1950s were disposed of in 2002, a spokesman the University of Texas at Austin said Wednesday.

UT spokesman Gary Susswein said Wednesday that workers with the university's Environmental Health and Safety division disposed of the brains in 2002. The brains arrived at the university in the 1980s.

"Faculty members determined they were in poor condition and not usable for research or teaching," Susswein said.

A statement issued by the university Wednesday said officials will appoint an investigative committee to determine "how the decision was made to dispose of some of these specimens and how all brain specimens have been handled since the university received its collection from the Austin State Hospital in the 1980s."

The Los Angeles Times previously reported that the brains had been found at the University of Texas at San Antonio, but Susswein said there's no evidence to suggest the brains ever arrived in San Antonio.

"We are looking at various possibilities, not just locations, about what became of these brain specimens," Susswein said earlier Wednesday.

Media outlets, including the San Antonio Express-News, reported the brain of Charles Whitman — a former U.S. Marine who shot and killed 16 people on the University of Texas campus before he was fatally shot by police on Aug. 1, 1966 — was among one of the missing brains.

"We have no evidence at this time that any of the brain specimens came from Charles Whitman, though we will continue to investigate those reports," the statement said.

The collection — shown in dozens of photographs in the book "Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital," authored by Austin photographer Adam Voorhes and journalist Alex Hannaford — was discovered when Voorhes and Robin Finlay, his wife and business partner, while on assignment to photograph a different brain in 2011.

They f0und almost 100 abnormal brains preserved in formaldehyde in several glass containers.

Though officials with the Austin State Hospital told Hannaford that records of the brains had likely been destroyed, UT professor Tim Schallert — a neuroscientist who curated the collection — knew that one brain in the collection belonged to Whitman, according to KUT.

Following the shooting spree, Austin police found a note from Whitman asking that his brain be examined by a pathologist, KUT reported.

Pathologist Coleman de Chenar — who began collecting brains for the hospital under questionable legality — found a small tumor in Whitman's brain, which led to disagreement about whether the tumor caused Whitman's sudden violence. The shooter had murdered his wife and mother prior to his spree on the UT campus.

Hannaford and Schallert found a number that matched the format on jars that contained the brains while looking at Whitman's autopsy report, according to KUT.

"So literally we ran, me and Tim and his assistant ran back into the store cupboard and went through these hundred brains to see if Whitman's might be there," Hannaford said.

They looked at each label looking for a matching number, but no luck: Whitman's brain wasn't there.

UT-Austin obtained the collection — intended to aid mental health research — after jostling with Harvard University and Yale University among others in what's been dubbed the "Battle of the Brains," according to a news release.

Schallert told Hannaford that the collection included about 200 specimens whether they were originally given to the university, Hannaford writes in The Atlantic.

Dr. Jerry Fineg, then-director of the Animal Resources Center, asked Schallert during the mid-1990s if he could move half of the jars elsewhere, then taking up shelf space at the center.

By the time Schallert did so, he found they had vanished. When Schaller asked Fineg what happened, the director told the professor that he simply got rid of them, Hannaford writes.

"I never found out exactly what happened — whether they were just given away, sold or whatever — but they just disappeared," Schallert said.

jfechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports