A Mathematician's Secret Life
I just saw that Paul S. Bruckman, an old penpal, had passed away. Born on January 22, 1939, in Germany, he died on May 3, 2013, in Boulder Creek CA.
I first encountered Bruckman early in 1984, when we were in MENSA, the high IQ society. He replied to an ad I had placed inviting Mensans to join a new SIG, or special interest group, I had founded. For several months in 1984 we corresponded frequently.
At the time Paul did actuarial work. He was an accomplished mathematician. He was so brilliant in proving theorems and solving problems a math journal published a tribute to him. It appeared online and tipped me off that he had died.
To his coworkers and fellow mathematicians, Paul was ordinary in most respects. He had a wife and seven kids--two sons and five daughters. The appearance of normality persisted to his death. It was however, deceptive. Feeling a special affinity to me and a few others, Paul revealed certain things he usually kept secret.
Ever since he was a kid, Paul was favorable to nazis. He was this way despite his own Jewish background, and the fact that his family fled the reich after his birth. Paul wasn't unique in this respect. His peers included jews with the same outlook. One, Ed Kahn, was smart and crazy. Kahn directed the speeches of Hitler via loudspeaker toward the residence of a holocaust survivor, until he left. In his letters, Bruckman mentioned himself and friends dressing and acting as nazis when they were kids. He said they made home movies of this.
Bruckman wasn't just a show nazi. Noting the lesser achievements of the negro race compared to the white, he considered the former inferior. Bruckman's greatest ambition was to acquire great power, mainly through acquisition of wealth. Considering himself far above the "herd," he wasn't enamored of present government. Nor was I, but we disagreed on how change might be brought about.
Paul also revealed unsavory personal things. He was prone to frequent drunkenness, and infidelity. Bruckman used a PO box in part to maintain the secrecy of liaisons with mistresses. There was another secret he told me--how he committed murder and got away with it.
Bruckman had no problem with killing. He wrote had he not been married he would probably be working as a hit man for an underworld organization. Marriage did not, however, prevent at least one homicide.
According to what he wrote in 1984, one day about 15 years earlier, in 1969, he met a derelict at a bar and pretended to befriend him. He bought the derelict a drink and then went for a walk with him in the desert. There he strangled the man to death.
Bruckman was brilliant and contributed much in his field. But his outward appearance was largely a facade.
I first encountered Bruckman early in 1984, when we were in MENSA, the high IQ society. He replied to an ad I had placed inviting Mensans to join a new SIG, or special interest group, I had founded. For several months in 1984 we corresponded frequently.
At the time Paul did actuarial work. He was an accomplished mathematician. He was so brilliant in proving theorems and solving problems a math journal published a tribute to him. It appeared online and tipped me off that he had died.
To his coworkers and fellow mathematicians, Paul was ordinary in most respects. He had a wife and seven kids--two sons and five daughters. The appearance of normality persisted to his death. It was however, deceptive. Feeling a special affinity to me and a few others, Paul revealed certain things he usually kept secret.
Ever since he was a kid, Paul was favorable to nazis. He was this way despite his own Jewish background, and the fact that his family fled the reich after his birth. Paul wasn't unique in this respect. His peers included jews with the same outlook. One, Ed Kahn, was smart and crazy. Kahn directed the speeches of Hitler via loudspeaker toward the residence of a holocaust survivor, until he left. In his letters, Bruckman mentioned himself and friends dressing and acting as nazis when they were kids. He said they made home movies of this.
Bruckman wasn't just a show nazi. Noting the lesser achievements of the negro race compared to the white, he considered the former inferior. Bruckman's greatest ambition was to acquire great power, mainly through acquisition of wealth. Considering himself far above the "herd," he wasn't enamored of present government. Nor was I, but we disagreed on how change might be brought about.
Paul also revealed unsavory personal things. He was prone to frequent drunkenness, and infidelity. Bruckman used a PO box in part to maintain the secrecy of liaisons with mistresses. There was another secret he told me--how he committed murder and got away with it.
Bruckman had no problem with killing. He wrote had he not been married he would probably be working as a hit man for an underworld organization. Marriage did not, however, prevent at least one homicide.
According to what he wrote in 1984, one day about 15 years earlier, in 1969, he met a derelict at a bar and pretended to befriend him. He bought the derelict a drink and then went for a walk with him in the desert. There he strangled the man to death.
Bruckman was brilliant and contributed much in his field. But his outward appearance was largely a facade.
posted by starman at 7:54 AM
16 comments
