Irrefutable Evidence by Michael Kurland

Author:Michael Kurland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
Published: 2009-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

The first step in the forensic examination of a body is a positive identification by a family member or close friend. Morgues handle this in various ways, from the ritual drawing back of the sheet to New York City’s practice of showing a photograph of the deceased.

Then comes the autopsy, where it is the job of the medical examiner or one of his assistants to determine the actual cause of death. Ideally, one of the homicide detectives working the case is present at the autopsy. This gives the detective a chance to ask questions and to have them answered immediately and in plain language. There is a chance too that this will spare the medical examiner a day in court, since the detective can then testify to what was found at autopsy.

If the case is a prominent one, the district attorney will probably send an investigator to the autopsy. This is a signal to the medical examiner that every cut, every assay, and every statement will be reviewed at trial. Pictures will (or should) be taken at every step of the autopsy. If there are questions afterward (or even years later), the possibility then exists of obtaining an answer.

On July 4, 1850, Zachary Taylor, four months into his second year as the twenty-second President of the United States, attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington Monument and fell ill shortly afterward. It was explained that he had eaten too many cucumbers and cherries while standing in the hot sun. Five days later, after suffering extreme diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps, the sixty-five-year-old president suddenly died.

For political reasons having to do with the slavery question, Taylor had made many strong enemies in his year and a half in office. The official cause of his death was gastroenteritis, but for more than 150 years rumors have circulated that he was poisoned, probably with arsenic.

On June 17, 1991, at the request of his closest living relative, Taylor’s remains were exhumed and taken to the offices of the chief medical examiner of Kentucky. Samples of his hair, fingernails, and tissue were taken, and he was reburied with appropriate honors.

The samples were subjected to neutron-activation analysis, which revealed the presence of arsenic, but at levels that were hundreds of times lower than they would be if he had been poisoned. Arsenic had probably leached into the body from the soil he was buried in.

But conspiracy theories never die. In his 1999 book History as Mystery, Michael Parenti suggests that the neutron-activation analysis was performed incorrectly. He asserts that Taylor was poisoned by arsenic after all.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, everything about the killing and its aftermath assumed great importance. In the national effort to come to terms with the facts of this terrible event, one of the most critical pieces of information would be the results of the president’s autopsy. It was conducted at Bethesda Naval Hospital by three examining pathologists. One of them, Dr. James Humes, a navy commander, wrote

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