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:
It shows that smart and talented people can sometimes have a darker side. Dr. Mann is another example. He was a medical doctor in my home state of Arkansas. Mann is obviously quite intelligent to have made it through medical school. But he ruined his medical career and his life. Dr. Mann overprescribed pills to his patients. That can cause patients to overdose. Dr. Mann lost his medical license. Then he attempted to murder one of the people on the board who had been involved in revoking his medical license. Mann is now serving a life sentence in the Arkansas state prison.
Your friend was brilliant in some ways. But I get the impression that he let it go to his head. Some people who make excellent achievements become so egotistical that it causes them to abandon common sense and do detrimental things.
Well said Neal--he was mentally far above most of humanity and let it go to his head. None of the 1984 correspondence is extant, but Bruckman had a very big ego. Unlike Mann he actually killed somebody and for no reason except his belief the guy was worthless and no loss to anyone. Even after we broke up, I kept faith with Bruckman and never told anyone about the murder, or at least didn't mention his name. Now that he's gone it's no problem.
Btw I saw Saturn and its rings last evening--a nice pretty sight even in a rather small, 90mm telescope.:)
Btw I remember he used PO Box 25472 in Sacramento CA. For all I know, the box or even the whole PO may not exist anymore. The Broad St PO here was shut down in '91 and torn down afterwards.
You're right, Tim. Bruckman can't be prosecuted now, since he is deceased. You and I have both made some good intellectual achievements, but we keep our egos under control. We are both humane minded people. Saturn is a fascinating planet. It's good that you have that telescope for observing planets and stars. My father had a telescope that he built. I remember how my family would look at the stars and planets through that telescope on clear nights. We could see some of the moons of Jupiter.
Well, Neal, I dunno...we'll be in a better position to claim intellectual achievements when we get some recognition. But compared to Bruckman, we're the epitome of modesty. He felt so superior, so exalted he once wrote: "If there was a god I'd spit in his face." To his credit he kept his inner feelings to himself, and didn't let his drinking or womanizing get out of control. His marriage survived and he continued to do fantastic mathematical work. It's remarkable that most people had no clue what he really thought. I do recall an exception, an Al Moser (probably long deceased) that Bruckman knew personally. Moser was fond of nazi insignia and marches "but when you talk about intellectual fascism (the real bread and butter of it) you've lost him." Bruckman once told Moser about me and the theories we had discussed. Moser, who thought the system invulnerable, was impressed.
I've seen Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings for many years. The rings were open to the viewer unlike at other times when they're edge on.
Our situation on claiming intellectual achievements hinges on whatever we can get published. The dinosaur book is our present project. If it doesn't get much recognition, we'll have to try something else. As I've mentioned, I may write a book on mammal paleontology. I might also write a book on micropaleontology, one that focuses on the fossil history of fungi. As you know, I'm acquainted with plenty of medical doctors and also some nurses. Twenty nine members of my class at Hendrix College are M.D.s.
History is full of examples of leaders whose egos got out of control. Hitler was one of them. In terms of manipulating people to gain political power, Hitler could be called a genius. But he did not have a good understanding of military strategy and did not listen to his generals. Hitler pulled some huge blunders. Invading Russia brought disaster to Germany. Another goof was Hitler's refusal to listen to a suggestion by some of his Air Force officers. Germany had some function jet planes and those officers felt that it would be a good idea to mass produce jets and make the German air force an all jet air force. Hitler turned down that proposal.
Most people would not be able to understand Bruckman's ideas. As a philosophy major (both as an undergraduate and a graduate student) I studied the philosophy of Nietszche. It has some parallels with the Nazi ideology, though there are some differences.
Sure, Nietzsche wasn't anti-jewish like the nazis. There was, however, a book entitled NIETZSCHE AND THE JEWS EXALTATION AND DENIGRATION. Evidently he wasn't wholly favorable.
Bruckman's mathematical proofs were far beyond the comprehension of most people. But unfortunately, "dismissal of the negro race" as he once put it, has long been widespread. At least three other penpals agreed with him on that. But all four men are deceased. A fifth I once knew--Engstrom--is very old by now. It seems racism has pretty much died with a past generation.
Although I'm not a racist myself, I'll have to admit that there have been some very smart people who have been racists. You're right; racism has become quite unpopular. As we know, General Patton played a major role in defeating the Nazis in World War II. He did not approve of the concentration camps that the Germans established, but he was definitely not pro-Jewish.
To understand mathematics on an advanced level requires an exceptionally high degree of intelligence. Mathematics can be extremely difficult. Philosophical writings that deal with metaphysics on a high level are often extremely hard to understand. While I was a philosophy major, I studied the works of various philosophers. Hegel is the most difficult of all the philosophers whose works that I have read. None of the others seemed too hard, but Hegel required a lot of concentration.
I was never great at math. Bruckman thought scientists would be the rulers of the future but I didn't buy that. There is another racist I encountered--David Wayne Sims, formerly of Alabama, now in West Virginia(?). At the time I corresponded with him (1990-1994) we discussed mostly astronomy--he had a degree in that field from Valdosta State college. I had no idea he was a racist until I saw some of his more recent online writings. Like Bruckman, Sims concealed much of his thoughts.
Btw I saw Saturn around 8 PM last evening. This time I used a 70mm refractor with a 5.1mm eyepiece. It looked beautiful.
I also disagree with the idea that Bruckman and some others have about scientists being the rulers of the future. I don't think that it would be desirable for scientists to rule. Scientists do a lot of great things in their research, but governing requires a different type of skill.
I couldn't agree more about scientists. It should be obvious that governing requires a different kind of skill. I pointed out to Bruckman that scientists tend to be narrowly focused whereas a leader or statesman must have a broad view of his world. I didn't sway him. Bruckman was so egotistical he wouldn't accept another point of view, and even wrote he resented "being preached to like a schoolboy" when I tried to talk him out of his racist position.
And yes, astronomy can be interesting and exciting at times, though sometimes frustrating when seeing is bad or I have a hard time getting some object into the field of view (FOV) of a telescope.
Some blacks have been scientists, for example, George Washington Carver. In studying the archaeology of African cultures, I have learned that some West African black tribes developed metallurgy. Various Native American tribes knew how to mine and use metals. The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas are examples. Some racist whites have gotten angry with me when I have mentioned that. It shows how racists are prone to deny facts. They want to believe that Native Americans were total savages. They also want to think that about black Africans. I think that many racists don't want to study archaeology because they don't wish to find facts that will contradict their racist views.
Well said Neal. Over a decade ago, I had a penpal from Malawi in East Africa. This guy was very adept at math--undoubtedly far more so than Robert, who maintained blacks are naturally less intelligent. But Robert himself couldn't get past 8th grade or get a GED because his math ability was so poor. When I mentioned the ability of the African penpal, he said "genes from white slave traders may account for his ability to take college courses." Some people just don't have a clue....
Mr Bruckman was a brilliant man of course in solving problems concerning maths theorem. That is his personal life. If your brilliant doesn't means you have to commited murder which lead you to a very huge problem
There wasn't any problem for him in part because I didn't turn him in after he told me. :)
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