In his book "Einstein's mistakes" H. C. Ohanian, the author, holds that Einstein delivered 7 proofs for $E=mc^2$ in his life that all were in some way incorrect. This despite the fact that correct proves had been published and mistakes in his proofs were sometimes pointed out to him.
The first proof e.g. contains a circular line of thought in that it falsely assumes special relativity to be compatible with rigid bodies.
Reference: stated by V. Icke, prof. theoretical astronomy at Leiden University in his (Dutch) book 'Niks relatief': "Einstein made an error in his calculation of 1905".
I found a reference on the internet discussing rigid body motion in special relativity. It quotes from Einsteins 1905 paper: “Let there be given a stationary rigid rod ...”. The referenced paper shows that dealing with rigid bodies in special relativity is at least really complicated, so one could argue that a proof for $E=mc^2$ should not use a rigid body.
Do you think Ohanian's statement is true or was/is he biased in his opinion?
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