Dead Men Do Tell Tales

Autobiographical/discusses author's ability to deduce the age/gender/ethnicity of a murder victim, etc.

From a skeleton, a skull, a mere fragment of burnt thighbone, Dr. William Maples can deduce the age, gender, and ethnicity of a murder victim, the manner in which the person was dispatched, and, ultimately, the identity of the killer.  In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Dr. Maples revisits his strangest, most interesting, and most horrific investigations, from the baffling cases of conquistador Francisco Pizarro and Vietnam MIAs to the mysterious deaths of President Zachary Taylor and the family of Czar Nicholas II.

Publishers Weekly

Noted forensic anthropologist Maples, whose specialty is the study of bones, and freelance journalist Browning here recount Maples's criminal and anthropological investigations over the past 20 years. The meandering text combines episodes from Maples's personal life and education with discourses on his philosophy, his teaching at the Univ. of Florida and his work. The book's strength is as a snapshot of the world of forensic scientists, vividly portraying the siege mentality of many of them when their objective data are used for purposes other than ascertaining the truth about how a victim died. Despite the two-dimensional depiction of the people who were the objects of Maples's investigations-including the ``likely'' remains of Romanov Tsar Nicholas II-his memoirs should hold readers' interest. (Nov.)

Until his death in February 1997, Dr. William R. Maples was distinguished service professor and curator-in-charge of the C. A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida. He was president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. A scholarship fund has been established in his honor. After his death, his students painted a large tribute on a memorial wall at the University of Florida, saying simply: “We have stood on the shoulders of a giant.”
 
Michael Browning was East Asia correspondent for Knight-Ridder Newspapers from 1983–1992. He now works for the Palm Beach Post and lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.