Overview
Visit a class where students blow mouthfuls of their own blood onto one another in order to better understand blood-spatter patterns. Attend a workshop studying the effects of temperature and humidity on the life cycle of maggots populating a corpse. Learn how much of someone's history of drug use can be detected in a single strand of hair. Wander the aisles at the annual conference of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, where booths display the latest in body bags and where the giveaway of choice is an ergonomic squeeze toy in the shape of a human kidney.Forensic science used to be a specialized field virtually unknown to the general public. In recent years, news reports of crimes solved through the analysis of DNA evidence have given everyone a glimpse of this astonishing field. But behind the crime-scene tape and the doors of the morgue is a world never seen by the public. Now famed pathologist and medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden and award-winning writer Marion Roach take readers on a tour of sites otherwise closed to visitors.
In his forty-year career, Dr. Baden has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies and has consulted on numerous high-profile cases, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Nicole Brown Simpson -- Ron Goldman murders. In Dead Reckoning, the authors take readers into the laboratory, to the autopsy table, onto the witness stand and out in the field to show how advances in forensic science can solve the crucial questions in a criminal case, often with startling accuracy.
Dead Reckoning examines cases both famous and little-known to explain why the first hours at a crime scene are crucial. Baden and Roach reveal, for example, how a key clue to the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson was lost when her body was moved to the morgue, and why the JonBenet Ramsey case can never be solved. They show how no clue is too small to be analyzed; in one homicide case, the imprint of a button on the victim's skin was overlooked until months later when, while reviewing crime-scene photos, Dr. Baden saw it, causing the case to take an astonishing turn. In another case, the presence of certain insects on a body helped to pinpoint the time of death and discredit the killer's alibi. Even crimes that took place decades earlier can be reexamined, as in the case of Medgar Evers's assassination or the murders of the Romanovs in Russia.
Ultimately, however, the new tools of forensic science are only as incisive as those who use them, which is why forensic pathology is in many ways as much an art as it is a science. "The fact is that we die as we live," Baden says. "This is especially true when death is due to unnatural causes ... All can be read at death like a biography." Full of the behind-the-scenes drama that only cops, prosecutors, and medical examiners usually see, Dead Reckoning is a fascinating look at how forensic science is changing forever the way we convict the guilty and free the innocent.
An irreverent, raunchy, but pragmatic manual for survival in the excruciating 80's.
Editorials
Patricia Cornwell
"If you've ever wanted to explore the mind of a brilliant chief medical examiner and wander through the secret rooms of the morgue with their gleaming stainless steel tables and tragic tales of naked truth, this is your chance. Dr. Baden is honest, relentless-simply one of the best!"Ann Rule
"Few readers know what a medical examiner's world is really like. Now they will. The secrets of the dead and the way Dr. Baden discovers them taught me so much that I never knew-even after decades as a true crime writer. Dead Reckoning is like no other book you've ever read. Intensely readable! Marvelous!"—author of And Never Let Her Go and The Stranger Beside Me
Jeffrey Toobin
"Yuck! Gross! But, especially, gee whiz! Michael Baden can make dead bodies say more than most talk show guests. Dead Reckoning is a completely fascinating study of modern pathology, and Baden-on-autopsies never fails to astonish, educate, and (I swear) entertain."—author of Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election
Publishers Weekly
Baden, a leading forensic pathologist and host of HBO's Autopsy, and Roach (Another Name for Madness) are a dynamic pair, delving into delightfully creepy material that can potentially bring murderers to justice or free an innocent on death row. Baden is a methodical and ethical medical examiner and consummate scientist. Every page reveals another aspect of the forensic sciences, leading the reader into the Cimmerian world of autopsies, murder scenes, blood-splatter analysis, the life cycles of blowflies in carrion, DNA fingerprinting and the methods for identifying unknown victims by their skulls, teeth and bones. The authors also touch upon the obscure yet fruitful fields of forensic botany and climatology. The material is exhaustive, yet the journey is never less than fascinating. For the reader (with a strong stomach) interested in the juncture of crime, law and science, this book is chock-full of practical information about death by unnatural means. The account is replete with a cast of weird, amiable characters, historical insights (where else this year will readers learn that Paul Revere took the first step in forensic odontology?), and reverence for the scientific study of the dead. Baden and Roach invite the outsider into the laboratory with a gripping sense of immediacy, and conversely, they bring the usually hidden forensic sciences into the light of day. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Blood spatter, witnesses, exhumations, and incompetent forensic pathologists this book takes us deep into the world of forensic science, where an accurate reading of blood spatter can mean the difference between guilt and innocence. Baden (Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner), former New York City medical examiner and current codirector of the New York State Police Medicolegal Investigation Unit, takes on these topics plus some not commonly discussed: blow flies, autoeroticism, and the one aspect of his work that is "scary and unsettling even terrifying." One feels part of the autopsy team as Baden who has performed more than 20,000 such procedures describes how the body arrives (bagged and tagged) at the morgue, how the autopsy is performed, how to know the difference between cause and manner of death, and how a body is read by police and medical examiners for evidence. This book is more than the cases Baden handled; it is an in-depth, engrossing look, even for the squeamish, at how medical examiners work and why you want a competent one on your side. Recommended for all libraries. Karen Evans, Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Forensic science is a fascinating and complex subject. Baden and Roach simplify the details but retain the interesting aspects and serve up exciting and illuminating cases culled from Baden's extensive background as former Chief Medical Examiner for New York City. His curriculum vitae includes a stint as the chief forensic pathologist for the Congressional Select Committee on Assassinations investigations into the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. Readers follow along during an autopsy, learn about bloodstain pattern analysis, discover the importance of insect analysis performed on corpses, and are introduced to the methods used to reconstruct faces from skeletons. All the information is presented in an easy-to-understand format, with plenty of grizzly detail. The crime-scene gaffs that derailed the O. J. Simpson trial, how DNA evidence has established the innocence of some wrongfully imprisoned prisoners, and the tests that determined the cause of Princess Diana's fatal accident are also addressed. Black-and-white photos add interest. Those who are interested in crime, criminal sciences, or just intrigued by science in general will find it difficult to put down this well-written and authoritative book.-Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.From the Publisher
Patricia Cornwell If you've ever wanted to explore the mind of a brilliant chief medical examiner and wander through the secret rooms of the morgue with their gleaming stainless steel tables and tragic tales of naked truth, this is your chance. Dr. Baden is honest, relentless — simply one of the best!Ann Rule author of And Never Let Her Go and The Stranger Beside Me Few readers know what a medical examiner's world is really like. Now they will. The secrets of the dead and the way Dr. Baden discovers them taught me so much that I never knew — even after decades as a true crime writer. Dead Reckoning is like no other book you've ever read. Intensely readable! Marvelous!
Jeffrey Toobin author of Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election Yuck! Gross! But, especially, gee whiz! Michael Baden can make dead bodies say more than most talk-show guests. Dead Reckoning is a completely fascinating study of modern pathology, and Baden-on-autopsies never fails to astonish, educate, and (I swear) entertain.
Kathy Reichs author of Deadly Decisions Candid as a Y-incision. Dead Reckoning describes forensic science in vivid, living color.
William Kennedy Marion Roach and Michael Baden have written a genuinely fascinating and entertaining book of tales that reveal just how garrulous the dead really are. This is the most fun you'll ever have in the morgue.
Tracy Kidder This book is about the work of one of our era's foremost forensic pathologists. It is a fascinating window into the world of the medical detective.
Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S. author of Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques (3rd edition) Dead Reckoning is a must-read for anyone who has a passionate enthusiasm for forensic science and its application to the investigative process. A captivating read.