Ballistics; Cause of Death; Disputed Documents; DNA Typing; Explosives and Fire; Fingerprinting; Forensic Anthropology; Odontology; Psychological Profiling; Identification of Remains; Serology; Time of Death; Toxicology; Trace Evidence; Voiceprints; Appendix; Index.
COLIN EVANS is the author of Killer Doctors and was a major contributor to Great American Trials. He divides his time between Florida and London.
This well-organized compendium by Evans (Killer Doctors in Britain) covers cases from 1751 to 1991, arranged according to the methodology by which they were solved. Fifteen areas are listed alphabetically, ranging from ballistics through DNA typing, fingerprinting, odontology, serology and toxicology to the still-disputed voiceprint analysis. Only a few twice-told tales like the murder of Gay Gibson and Willie Guldensuppe have been included. Otherwise, even the most dedicated devotee of the genre will find much that is new in these brief but exciting accounts of the brilliant and persistent scientific work that brought murderers like John List (through forensic anthropology), Ted Bundy (through odontology) and Jeffrey MacDonald (through trace evidence) to justice. Those still convinced of the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti or Bruno Richard Hauptmann are in for some surprises. Fifty photos include many of the pathologists and detectives whose exploits are related in the text. (Oct.)
Arranged by topic‘cause of death, DNA, fingerprinting, toxicology, trace evidence, and so on‘these are short summaries (two to three pages) of cases Evans (A Calendar of Crime: An Almanac of Sinister & Criminal Behavior, Longmeadow, 1993) considers landmarks of forensic science. While highly selective, they are representative of the evolution of the discipline and its increasingly prominent role in crime solving. Not all of them were baffling, and some conclusions‘the guilt of Sacco and Vanzetti or of Hauptmann in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case‘are debatable. Emphasis is placed on the certainties of forensics rather than on such complexities as the variant expert testimony at the O.J. Simpson trial (not mentioned here). Written in a popular style as clear as it is brief, this book is suitable for general true-crime collections, although readers wanting to know more about specific cases will regret the absence of a bibliography.‘Gregor A. Preston, formerly with Univ. of California Lib., Davis, Calif.
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