Murder, Law Enforcement

The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist

Name: The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist
Author: Mary H. Manheim
ISBN: 9780140291926

by Mary H. Manheim

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Overview

When a skeleton is all that's left to tell the story of a crime, Mary H. Manhein, otherwise known as "the bone lady," is called in. For almost two decades, Manhein has used her expertise in forensic pathology to help law enforcement agents--locally, nationally, and internationally--solve their most perplexing mysteries. She shares the extraordinary details of the often high-profile cases on which she works, and the science underlying her analyses. Here are Civil War skeletons, cases of alleged voodoo and witchcraft, crimes of political intrigue, and the before-and-after of facial reconstruction. Written with the compassion and humor of a born storyteller, The Bone Lady is an unforgettable glimpse into the lab where one scientist works to reveal the human stories behind the remains.

From the Author

I'm a story teller who is also a forensic anthropologist. Sharing a good story is one of my favorite things to do, and the stories in this book have been dancing in my head for years. I hope you will enjoy the more than 25 I have selected to share with you from my experience as a forensic anthropologist growing up in the south. A few of my personal favorites include "Behind the Levee," "Voodoo Woman," "Under the Porch," "Lost from the MV Mollylea," and "Fire in the Sky." Let me know yours!
— The author, [email protected], April 12,1999

Synopsis

From the Author

Bust Magazine

[Manhein has] an evangelical zeal about her life's work, rendered with all the crispness of a keen scientific mind and all the tasty detail of a homespun raconteur.

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Editorials

Bust Magazine

[Manhein has] an evangelical zeal about her life's work, rendered with all the crispness of a keen scientific mind and all the tasty detail of a homespun raconteur.

Bloomsbury Review

Mary H. Manhein, known to law enforcement personnel as "the Bone Lady," is a forensic anthropologist and bioarchaeologist. She is also a self-admitted storyteller. In The Bone Lady, she writes engagingly about her work on a number of criminal cases, describing how analysis of mere bones and other fragmentary evidence can lead to solving crimes. She also includes a few black-and-white photos and drawings to illustrate the cases. Although these tales can turn grisly, Manhein displays warmth and even humor, at one point asking a skeletal corpse crammed under a front porch, "What in the world are you doing here?" without trivializing the science or the seriousness of her work.
— May/June 1999

Charles Flowers

Adept in the language of corpses, forensic anthropologist Mary H. Manhein is both an academic researcher and, when called by desperate mysteries of death, a teller of lost tales. Whether reporting the stench, suffocating heat, or brutal sorties by biting insects in steamy bayouis or smoldering sties of oil fires, Manhein is at once straightforward and appropriately droll. Her sharp ear for dialogue has recalled some very funny remarks from those puzzled or horrified by her line of work. In quite another key, she draws upon her childhood memories—most movingly the death of an infant brother—to ponder which combination of intellectual curiosity and psychological need drives her. In a comparatively sort book, she teaches us a great deal...wisely, Manhein does not philosophize about the possible meanings to be found in disintegrating mortal remains. She solves puzzles of event, not motive; of body, not spirit. This unaffected account, though not always sharply edited, is informative and amusing, leaving us to ponder for ourselves why violence or despair renders living humans into challenges for her forensic skills.
— Bookpage, July 1999*

Kirkus Reviews

A subtly creepy collection of stories culled from the experiences of a leading forensic anthropologist. Manhein describes her role as an expert witness as the laying out of her analysis to the jury without a lot of unexplained scientific jargon—the exact technique she employs in this account. While one of her goals seems to be teaching the public about the field of forensic anthropology, she never loses sight of her main intention, the spinning of a good story. The result is a rare, effective blend of entertainment and education. As we follow Manhein into the Louisiana bayou, where she digs up the levee to claim a five-year-old corpse, into industrial fires where victims bodies lie unrecovered, into cemeteries both old, newly discovered, and improvised, under houses, and into the forest to examine the bones of potentially mistreated horses, we learn about identifying bodies through dental X-rays, bone composition, and facial reconstruction. It is the same combination of the desire to solve puzzles and a fascination with death that led Manhein into her field and which also compels the reader to move quickly from one story to the next. Whether she is describing a human skull being pulled up in a fishing net or her nervousness at testifying in court, she maintains a grounded eye for detail and a compassionately detached style which renders the subject matter interesting rather than gruesome. While many of Manhein's cases have attracted media attention, most notably the exhumation of the killer of Huey Long, the book primarily focuses on the much less glamorous side of the field—the identification of drowning victims sometimes years after their deaths, or the discovery that thosebones in the yard belonged to the previous owner's pet dog. Despite the morbid nature of her work, she loves what she does and communicates that enthusiasm in her absorbing harrative. (illustrations)