The Cantor Dimension (9 page)

"Bob Weissmuller. That does ring a bell," she offered. "I think the Weissmuller's were friends of my father years ago. My father's family used to live in Spring Valley when he was a boy. Yes, Weissmuller."

"Is there anyone else there that I can talk to?"

"Pardon me? Oh yes! My daughter Becky is here. Hold on a moment..."

There were muffled voices in the background. A youngish female voice came on the phone. "Hello, this is Becky."

"Becky Weaver? I'm Chief Hunsinger over in Utica. I'm trying to locate Ann Weissmuller."

"Ann Weissmuller? Who's she?"

"I was told she was your aunt. Do you know Bob or Eric Weissmuller?"

"No, sorry. The names aren't familiar. Why?"

"Never mind. Sorry to have bothered you, m'am."

Chief Hunsinger scratched his head, perplexed. Oh well, Weaver was a common name. He must have called the wrong one. He picked up the phone to try another Weaver but Ed Stokes poked his head in the door interrupting him.

"Hey Chief, any luck yet? Anything I can do?"

"No Ed, but thanks. I'm trying to get ahold of Eric's mother. She doesn't know yet."

"Ooooh, bad news. I hate giving out bad news."

"Yeah well, somebody's got to. Kind of strange though. I can't seem to locate her."

"Don't worry, you will. Look at it this way... gives you some extra time to prepare for it, you know?"

"Yes, I know," Chief Hunsinger sighed.

Table of Contents

March 5, 1684: Edmond Halley the soap-boiler departed from his house on Winchester Street in London and disappeared. Forty days later, a poor boy walking along the shore of the River Medway spotted the body of a naked dead man with only his shoes and stockings on. The body had been cast up by the tide onto the shore at Temple Manor in Strood.

The body was that of Edmond Halley the soap-boiler and salter. He had been most heinously and gruesomely murdered. His face and body were disfigured, particularly in one eye. His body was in such a state that identification could only be made through his footwear.

Five days before his disappearance, he had cut out the lining of his shoes to make them fit more comfortably, complaining that his feet were tender and that his shoes pinched him. His body was identified by these shoes. The cause of his death was never determined and his murderer was never caught.

There were a great number of theories as to who murdered Edmond Halley casting doubt upon both his wife and son, along with the possibility of suicide or mistaken identity.

Table of Contents

Brody read the newspaper clipping detailing the murder of the senior Edmond Halley which was among the many odd facts that Max had collected in his notes. Brody had never heard that the famous astronomer's father had been murdered. Even more interesting was the fact that his body had been found at the same place which had once been owned by the Knights Templar. Max had scrawled a question on separate page regarding the murder: "Who killed Edmond Halley and more importantly, why? Did the killer get the compass? If so, who has it now?"

As Max collected old compasses, Brody assumed that Max was just focused on filling in gaps in his collection. Perhaps he was off tracking down a lead on the compass so that he could acquire it. This was yet another link to Kent, England and Brody was becoming more convinced that Kent was where Max had gone.

He wondered why the police were interested in Max. Was there any chance that Max's collections were stolen? Was he jetting around the world stealing rare and valuable artifacts?

Brody had read through stacks of Max's papers and they all sounded like essays about some of the greatest names in history, similar to what you might write for a college assignment: Einstein, Cantor, Halley, and now Isaac Newton was being added to the mix along with another unusual artifact.

Isaac Newton, one of the shining stars of science today, was once immersed in the study of alchemy and the occult. He was determined to rediscover the occult wisdom of the ancients and Newton was referred to as 'the last of the magicians.'
Newton believed in an object called the 'Philosopher's Stone' which was reputed to turn base metals into gold, turn ordinary crystals into precious gems, restore health, and as the 'elixir of life' to offer longevity and possibly even immortality. The Philosopher's Stone goes back to biblical times and would have been known during the life of the biblical Jacob.
Thomas Aquinas, another Catholic saint who had achieved the rare honor of being called a Doctor of the Church
¹⁰
along with Albertus Magnus, was reputed to actually possess the Philosopher's Stone. According to legend it was handed down to him from his teacher Albertus Magnus, a Catholic bishop and saint born in Bavaria, Germany. Coincidentally, Bavaria was the location of Josef Grimm, the priest murdered by Nazis during World War II who may have had a family link to Georg Cantor.

Brody's head was spinning. The Philosopher's Stone was apparently connected to the Catholic saints. Surely Max wasn't collecting religious artifacts from the church? Brody wasn't overly religious but still he wouldn't want to go messing around in matters that might send your soul straight to hell for eternity.

He thought about Max's expensive hobbies, lack of a known job, and frequent disappearances. He was beginning to see a pattern in Max's notes that was all about valuable collectibles, gypsy treasures, old Roman coins, rare artifacts, and other such things. Perhaps this was the connection that Max didn't want the police to know about. Maybe this was the big secret and Brody was just a pawn in some international treasure hunt. Could Brody be considered an accessory if Max were committing international burglary and Brody was hiding the evidence?

He didn't want to turn the Cantor papers over to the police without being absolutely certain of Max's guilt, but he didn't want to go to prison for aiding and abetting either. Brody was torn. If he could get through all of the papers, he'd know whether to turn Max in or not.

Albertus Magnus, one of the most honored saints of the Catholic church, possessed extensive knowledge of astrology, astronomy, mineralogy, and the study of the human brain. Magnus passed some of his knowledge to Aquinas along with the Philosopher's Stone. In one of his writings, Magnus mentions 'the power of stones' but does not elaborate.
Toward the end of his life, Aquinas had an occult experience during which he spoke directly with Christ. After their brief conversation he experienced a supernatural event, 'seeing' something which he later refused to speak of and which ultimately changed his life. Whether this event or the Philosopher's Stone were connected to the many reports of his ability to levitate, is unknown.
Thus was the world of Isaac Newton who dedicated a portion of his life to alchemy and the search for the Philosopher's Stone. It was astronomer Edmond Halley who convinced Isaac Newton to write the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, published in 1687, detailing Newton's laws of motion and universal gravitation. Halley's encouragement refocused Newton on the physical sciences over the occult sciences and changed the course of science forever.
The third book in Newton's three-book series dealt with the motion of comets which relied in part on information provided by Halley. He was not only instrumental in spurring Newton to publish his theories on gravity, Halley actually financed the publishing of the books.
This friendship would expose Halley to the world of Newton's occult beliefs and his quest for the Philosopher's Stone. Not long after the publishing of Newton's book, Halley introduced the concept of a liquid-filled compass to stabilize the movement of the magnetic compass needle. Halley invented the liquid-filled compass which was particularly useful when used aboard ships.
Few people connect Halley's name with Isaac Newton or the compass, but everyone knows of Halley's connection to astronomy. Halley was the first to connect the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 to the same comet, which came to be known as Halley's Comet.

Brody thought about the autographed photo of Halley on Max's wall and the many conversations between Max and Brody about astronomy. He wondered if there really were a connection between Newton and Halley, or Halley and the compass. He also wondered whether Max's extensive crystal and meteorite collection were in any way connected to a belief in the Philosopher's Stone.

Max seemed overly fixated on these famous men and the little-known facts about them such as the death of Edmond Halley's father and what may have happened to his possessions. The more Brody read, the guiltier Max appeared to be in a quest for worldly treasures.

Wednesday, March 5, 1684: Edmond Halley, the father of astronomer and physicist Edmond Halley of which Halley's Comet is named for, left his home and never returned. The senior Halley's naked body was found in the river at Temple-Farm near Rochester in Kent, England, nearly five weeks later. Authorities called it murder but no person was ever charged for the crime. The senior Halley died without leaving a will and an expensive legal battle took place between his son Edmond, and his second wife, Joanne. Rochester is located in Kent County, England, about 30 miles from London on the
River Medway
.

Max followed Halley's murder with the biography of Georg Cantor, his connection to World War II, and his possible relation to Max along with some items Max had inherited. There was also a mention of Max's two brothers and the significance of the name
Grimm
. If any of it were true, Max's lineage boasted quite a few very famous people.

Though World War II only lasted for a few years from 1939-1945, the movement against the Jewish people began long before that. Georg Cantor lived from 1845-1918, his final years filled with the hunger and misery of World War I which was raging through Germany and the rest of Europe during his last years. Georg lived during a time when being Jewish put the mark of hatred against you.
Georg lived openly as a Protestant, was married by a Protestant minister, and he was buried as a Protestant. The various biographies of Georg do not agree on whether Georg was actually Jewish, but the personal letters that he wrote made references to his Jewish roots.
In tracing his family tree you don't get much farther than his grandfather and his children and even then the details are sparse. It was as if they went into hiding and according to one biography, in a sense they did.
Georg Cantor wrote at great length about the various pseudonyms he used that gave hints of his Portuguese-Jewish origins. One pseudonym that he favored was Vincent Regnas. The last name spelled backward is Sanger which means Cantor.
We know that Georg had six children, one of which died when he was only 12 years old. That leaves five children to carry on the lineage but only three are ever named including the one who died, and two who were daughters. No reference is made as to who the daughters married so their names disappear without a trace. If he had sons, they are never named except as a brief reference that Georg had two sons and four daughters. All of his children would have lived through the horrors of World War II so one could only guess as to whether they disappeared into death camps, fled to other countries, or kept a low profile of their lineage using pseudonyms.
Cantor's brother Constantin married an Italian baroness and was living on the Isle of Capri in Italy when he died. Prior to his marriage, Constantin fought in World War I as a Hessian Dragoon in the German army.
Georg Cantor married Vally Guttmann (aka Gutmann), who was living in Berlin with her three brothers. Vally lived from 1849-1923. We don't know much about the Gutmann family but an interesting coincidence in names concerns a fellow named Hugo Gutmann who lived from 1880-1971.
Hugo Gutmann was Adolf Hitler's commanding officer in World War I, the same war that Georg's brother Constantin fought in. Hugo went so far as to recommend Hitler for an Iron Cross medal, which Hitler proudly displayed on his chest through the rest of his life. Hugo also received an Iron Cross medal. Little did Hugo know the horrors that would follow for the Jewish people under Hitler's regime.
Hugo Gutmann, who was himself Jewish, was arrested by the Gestapo when Hitler came into power. Because of his special history with Hitler, Hugo was released and his family escaped to Belgium, finally immigrating to the United States in 1940. Gutmann settled in St. Louis under the name Henry G. Grant, later moving to San Diego. According to an obscure reference in a family tree, the 'G' stands for Georg.
There is no reference to any connection between Georg Cantor's wife Vally Gutmann who was living in Berlin, and Hugo Gutmann of Nuremberg who later changed his name to Henry Georg Grant. However, the coincidence is incredible as we've never been able to explain how my brother came to be named Grant Henry Cantor, or how he came to be in the possession of an Iron Cross medal and the personal papers of Georg Cantor, a world-renowned mathematician who our family never claimed an ancestral link to.
When my older brother Grant died a few years ago, he left me the Iron Cross medal and the personal papers of Georg Cantor. He left our brother Parry a box of musical memorabilia from Germany circa World War I.
Another mystery in the family tree is the name of Grimm. The only reference to the name Grimm is that Georg Cantor's aunt married Josef Grimm, a musician. There is no other information available for Josef Grimm such as what children they may have had. They were alive in the mid-1800s and their various families lived in Denmark, Russia and Germany. That's all we know of the Grimm family.
In researching the name Josef Grimm, we do find a Josef Grimm who lived from 1900-1945 in Germany. We find no information on his ancestors so it is not known whether he was descended from the Josef Grimm who married Georg Cantor's aunt.
The latter Grimm was another casualty of World War II persecution. Josef, who had spent much of his life studying to become a priest, became ordained in 1925 and spent the next 13 years as an assistant priest. In 1938 he took over the parish of St. Martin near Munich, then moved to Gottingen, Germany to be closer to his home.
World War II was coming to an end and the Allies were sweeping across Europe putting an end to the Nazi regime of Hitler. News of Allied victories reached Gottingen and upon hearing the news, Grimm and others threw down the swastika flag that had been flying near the church and hoisted the Bavarian flag in its place. The Nazi flag blew up into the eaves of the church which is where the Nazi's later spotted it.
A radio broadcast urged the good citizens to eliminate any Nazi's in their towns and several citizens of Gottingen rose up against the Nazi's, damaging their cars. The SS paramilitary branch of the Third Reich, having spotted the flag in the church eaves, took Grimm in for questioning and his body was later found dead in a ditch, covered with pine branches and holding a rosary in his hand. He had been brutally stabbed and shot. Two days later Hitler committed suicide, signaling the end of the terror of the Third Reich.
Another instance of the name Grimm also occurs in Gottingen. The famous Brothers Grimm who wrote the Grimm's Fairy Tales such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella, held positions at the University of Gottingen. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived at the same time as the Josef Grimm who married Georg Cantor's aunt. Another coincidence is that the Brothers Grimm spoke in a Hessian dialect. Georg Cantor's brother Constantin fought in World War I as a Hessian Dragoon in the German army.
Jacob Grimm died in Berlin in 1863, the same year that Georg Cantor's father died. Wilhelm Grimm took a great delight in music, and Jacob Grimm attended the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. Coincidentally, Georg Cantor's great-uncle Josef Grimm was the director of the Vienna Conservatory of Music, though not at the same time of Jacob's attendance there.
My father never told me the origin of my middle name of Grimm, or my brother Parry's middle name of Sanger. We assumed that our brother, Grant Henry, was named after Ulysses S. Grant and the capturing of Fort Henry in the Civil War. I now believe he was named after Henry Georg Grant aka Hugo Gutmann, and that Hugo was related in some way to Vally, who was Georg Cantor's wife.