Murder Of A Mathematician
Netherlands.
Dutch mathematician Willem “Wim” Klein was noted for his remarkable feats of mental arithmetic, earning him the moniker of “The Human Computer.” Born in Amsterdam in 1912, he first developed his skills of lightning-fast calculations into a circus act which he performed throughout Europe.
During the 1950s, he worked as a scientific calculator as he was much quicker and more reliable than computers of the day. In 1958, Klein was employed by CERN and moved to Switzerland, where he stayed for almost two decades.
Wim retired in 1976 and moved back to Amsterdam. He kept doing performance shows and focused on breaking records. That same year, Klein entered the Guinness Book of Records for calculating the 73rd root of a 500-digit number in two minutes and 43 seconds.
Willem Klein was murdered on August 1, 1986. His housekeeper found “The Human Computer” in his home, dead from multiple knife wounds. Although a young man was soon arrested for the crime, he was eventually released due to lack of evidence. The killer was never identified. Some believe that Klein was killed because he was gay, while others opined that it was a botched robbery.
