Jazz Age Forensics: the Precursor to CSI
The terms toxicology, trace evidence and DNA have become part of the vernacular thanks to television shows like CSI, Law & Order and the Court TV network. Yet, less than a century ago, forensics was a nascent discipline. Science writer, Deborah Blum, profiles two of the early pioneers in forensic science in her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (Penguin Press, 336). In 1918, Charles Norris was appointed as the first chief medical examiner in New York City. Norris, along with his lead toxicologist Alexander Gettler, made great strides in the study of toxicology, developing new tests to detect different poisons, even in small amounts. The chief’s efforts helped reform a previously corrupt coroner’s office and emphasize the importance of toxicological evidence, which had largely been ignored.
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In February, concerns were raised about the veracity of one of Charles Pellegrino’s sources in his new book The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, which documents the experiences of Japanese blast survivors as well as the American flight crews that dropped the atomic bomb. Joseph Fuoco (now-deceased) claimed to be a last-minute substitution on the flight crew of one of two escort planes accompanying the Enola Gay during its fateful mission on Aug. 6, 1945. But, Fuoco’s account of the bombing and his claim that an accident while readying the weapon killed an American scientist and weakened the bomb’s power, have been vehemently denied by historians and the surviving flight crew members. The Seattle Times reports that evidence has come to light that proves flight engineer, James Corliss, actually flew in the escort plane, not Fuoco. Though, it is possible that he did participate in reconnaissance flights over Hiroshima before and after the blast.
Last week, blogger and radio host Rob Port set the conservative blogosphere ablaze when he presented photographic “evidence” that “Michelle Obama Keeps Socialist Books in the White House Library”. During a recent tour of the White House, Port found two books on socialism in its library, snapped a photo, and blogged about it on the web. His post created a controversy, inflaming both sides of the political aisle, and inciting numerous comments. Yet, it turns out that his “evidence” and the surrounding controversy is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. The Washington Post reports that a First Lady did indeed choose those books for the White House library, but it was Jacqueline Kennedy, not Michelle Obama, who chose the books in 1963. The books have been in the White House for almost 50 years, through both Democratic and Republican administrations (yes, even the Reagan years). Port said in his post that his tour guide credited Michelle Obama with selecting the books, but it is unclear if the facts were misstated by the guide or misheard by the blogger. Perhaps if Port, a self professed bibliophile, had done a little more reading and a little less inflammatory finger pointing, he would have been able to report the facts more accurately.
In 1951, before Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in the Johns Hopkins Hospital “colored” ward, doctors took a small sample of her tumor. The tissue sample, taken without Lacks’ knowledge, stunned scientists when the cells successfully grew in the research lab. This marked the first time a line of human cells had survived without a human body. Lacks’ cells, later known as HeLa, proved extremely robust and flourished in the lab environment. Since their initial harvest, at least 50 million metric tons of the cells have been grown, and have contributed to advances and breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases like polio and AIDS. Yet, Lacks’ family were never told of (or compensated for) this research, and only learned of her miraculous afterlife in the 1970′s when the scientists at Johns Hopkins contacted the family in hopes of further testing. Science writer Rebecca Skloot combines Lacks’ personal history and her family’s reaction to the situation, along with scientific accounts, to tell a compelling story in her new book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, 330pgs).
Upon reading James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential, former journalist Henry E. Scott developed a deep fascination of Confidential magazine (fictionalized in the novel as Hush-Hush magazine). The result, Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, “America’s Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine” (Pantheon, 240pgs), delineates the history of the original scandal rag that gave birth to today’s purveyors of titillating tales, such as Us Magazine, Entertainment Tonight and TMZ. Publisher Robert Harrison introduced the bi-monthly magazine in 1952, its blazing yellow and red masthead and catchy headlines gleefully exposing the infidelities, sexual orientation and political leanings of the day’s biggest stars. Through his research, Scott was surprised to find that each published article was carefully fact checked, and most of the stories reported the facts accurately. Though more respectable publications, like Time, derided the scandal sheet as “a cheesecake of innuendo, detraction, and plain smut”, the public devoured every issue and circulation soon rose to more than 3 million.
Historian Alison Weir builds a case for Anne Boleyn’s innocence in the charges of adultery and treason that lead to her death sentence, in her new book The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn (Ballantine, 464pgs). Boleyn has remained a striking historical figure through the centuries, and volumes have been written about her life and marriage to King Henry VIII. “She’s the Other Woman in an eternal triangle,” states Weir in an interview with NPR, “and Katherine of Aragon is the Good Wife whom Henry dumps for her.” In this latest book, Weir conducts “a forensic investigation” of the queen’s downfall and focuses on the last four months of her tragic life.
