FORENSICS III

Book excerpt: In Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died, I reviewed twenty-eight ordinary people who were thrust into the spotlight, gaining fame not for their talents or accomplishments while living, but for the way they died. Newspaper and magazine articles ensured that stories of the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained in the public eye, so that, as Andy Warhol had predicted, their fame would last at least fifteen minutes. In some cases, it lasted much longer. While these individuals may have been “ordinary” before they died, they became extraordinary after death. Some of the people I reviewed in Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died include the “Boy in the Box,” later identified as Joseph Zarelli, who died from blunt force trauma; Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week old infant who was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock in Australia; George Floyd, whose death resulted from police brutality; Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, who were stabbed to death; Elisa Lam, who drowned in a water tank on the roof of her hotel; Michael Faherty, whose death in Ireland was attributed to spontaneous human combustion; Katherine Morris, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal grilling in an automobile; Carlos Sousa, who was mauled to death by a tiger; Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair, who committed murder-suicide; and Jayne and Corinne Peters, whose death was due to filicide-suicide, among many others. Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died reads like a mystery novel, presenting biographical and scientific information that helps readers understand how medical examiners and coroners utilized forensic analysis to determine the causes and manners of death of twenty-eight “not-so-famous” people.