Medical Detectives (43 page)

Barker, Dudley:
Lord Darling’s Famous Cases
, London (1936)

Becchofer Roberts, C.E.:
Sir Travers Humphreys: His Career and
Cases
, London (1936)

Bedford, Sybille:
The Best We Can Do
, London (1958)

Blundell, R.H. and Wilson, G. Haswell (Eds):
Trial of Buck Ruxton
,
Edinburgh (1937)

Bosanquet, Sir Ronald:
The Oxford Circuit
, London (1936)

Bowen, David:
Body of Evidence
, London (2003)

Bresler, Fenton:
Lord Goddard
, London (1977)

Browne, Douglas G. and Tullett, E.V.:
Sir Bernard Spilsbury: His Life and Cases
, London (1951)

Butler, Ivan:
Trials of Donald Hume
, London (1976)

Byrne, Gerald:
John George Haigh: Acid Bath Killer
, London (n.d.)

Camps, Francis E.: with Barber, Richard:
The Investigation of Murder
, London (1966)

Camps, Francis E.:
Medical and Scientific Investigations in the Christie
Case
, London (1966)

Camps, Francis E.:
Camps on Crime
, Newton Abbot (1973)

Camps, Francis E. (Ed.):
Gradwohl’s Legal Medicine
, Bristol (1976)

Casswell, J.D.:
A Lance for Liberty
, London (1961)

Cherrill, Fred:
Cherrill of The Yard
, London (1954)

Connell, Nicholas:
Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen
, London (2005)

Cornwell, Rupert:
God’s Banker
, London (1983)

Cullen, Tom:
Crippen:The Mild Murderer
, London (1977)

Devlin, Patrick:
Easing the Passing
, London (1985)

Dew, Walter:
I Caught Crippen
, London (1938)

Dewes, Simon:
Doctors of Murder
, London (1962)

Eddowes, John:
The Two Killers of Rillington Place
, London (1954)

Erzinclioglu, Z.:
Forensics
, London (2006)

Evans, Colin:
The Father of Forensics
, London (2007)

Fabian, Robert:
Fabian of The Yard
, London (1950)

Felstead, S.T.:
Sir Richard Muir
, London (1927)

Foot, Paul:
Who Killed Hanratty?
, London (1971)

Furneaux, Rupert:
The Two Stranglers of Rillington Place
, London (1961)

Gaute, J.H.H. and Odell, Robin:
Murder Whatdunit
, London (1982)

Gaute, J.H.H. and Odell, Robin:
Ladykillers 2
, London (1981)

Glaister, John and Brash, James Couper:
Medico-Legal Aspects of the Ruxton Case
, London (1937)

Glaister, John:
The Power of Poison
, London (1954)

Glaister, John:
Final Diagnosis
, London (1964)

Goodman, Jonathan:
The Crippen File
, London (1985)

Graham, Evelyn:
Lord Darling and his Famous Trials
, London (1929)

Grice, Edward:
Great Cases of Sir Henry Curtis Bennett
, London (1937)

Gurney, Larry:
The Calvi Affair
, London (1983)

Haines, Max:
Bothersome Bodies
, Toronto (1988)

Haines, Max:
Canadian Crimes
, Toronto (1998)

Hallworth, Rodney and Williams, Mark:
Where There’s a Will…
, London (1983)

Hastings, Macdonald:
The Other Mr Churchill
, London (1963)

Helpern, Milton with Knight, Bernard:
Autopsy
, New York (1977)

Hill, Paull:
Portrait of a Sadist
, London (1960)

Humphreys, Sir Travers:
A Book of Trials
, London (1953)

Humphreys, Christmas:
Both Sides of the Circle
, London (1978)

Hyde, H. Montgomery:
Norman Birkett: The Life of Lord Birkett of Ulverston
, London (1964)

Hyde, H. Montgomery:
Lord Reading (Rufus Isaacs)
, London (1967)

Jackson, Robert:
A Case for the Prosecution: A Biography of Sir Archibald Bodkin
, London (1962)

Jackson, Robert:
Coroner: The Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase
, London (1963)

Jackson, Robert:
The Crime Doctors
, London (1966)

Jackson, Robert:
Francis Camps
, London (1975)

Jackson, Stanley:
The Life and Cases of Mr Justice Humphreys
, London (1955)

Kennedy, Ludovic:
Ten Rillington Place
, London (1961)

La Bern, Arthur:
The Life and Death of a Lady Killer
, London (1967)

La Bern, Arthur:
Haigh: The Mind of a Murderer
, London (1973)

Leach, Charles E:
On Top of the Underworld
, London (1933)

Lebourdais, Isabel:
The Trial of Steven Truscott
, London (1966)

Lefebure, Molly:
Evidence for the Crown
, London (1975)

Lucas, Norman:
The Lucan Mystery
, London (1975)

Lustgarten, Edgar:
The Chalkpit Murder
, London (1974)

Lyons, Frederick J:
George Joseph Smith
, London (1935)

Marham, Patrick:
Trail of Havoc
, London (1987)

Marjoribanks, Edward:
The Life of Sir Edward Marshall Hall
, London (1929)

Montague, Ewan:
The Man Who Never Was
, London (1953)

Moore, Sally:
Lucan:Not Guilty
, London (1987)

Morris, Terence and Blom-Cooper, Louis:
A Calendar of Murder
, London, 1964

Muncie, William:
Crime Pond
, Edinburgh (1979)

Napley, Sir David:
Not Without Prejudice
, London (1982)

Narborough, Fred:
Murder on My Mind
, London (1959)

Neustatter, W. Lindesay:
The Mind of the Murderer
, London (1957)

Oddie, S. Ingleby:
Inquest
, London (1941)

Odell, Robin:
Exhumation of a Murder
, London (1975)

Odell, Robin:
Landmarks in 20th Century Murder
, London (1995)

Oswald, H.R.:
Memoirs of a London County Coroner
, London (1936)

Picton, Bernard:
Murder, Suicide or Accident
, London (1971)

Randall, Leslie:
The Famous Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury
, London (1936)

Reading, Marquess:
Rufus Isaacs
, London (1942)

Rentoul, Gervais:
This is My Case
, London (n.d.)

Rentoul, E. and Smith H.:
Glaister’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology
, Edinburgh (1973)

Rose, Andrew:
Lethal Witness
, Stroud (2007)

Russell, Lord:
Deadman’s Hill: Was Hanratty Guilty?
, London (1965)

Saunders, Kenneth C.:
The Medical Detectives
, London (2001)

Simpson, Keith:
Forensic Medicine
, London (1969)

Simpson, Keith:
Police: The Investigation of Violence
, Plymouth (1978)

Simpson, Keith:
Forty Years of Murder
, London (1978)

Smith, Sir Sydney:
Mostly Murder
, London (1959)

Smith, Sir Sydney and Fiddes, Frederick Smith:
Forensic Medicine
, London (1949)

Taylor, Bernard and Knight, Stephen:
Perfect Murder
, London (1987)

Totterdell, G.H.:
Country Copper
, London (1956)

Tullett, Tom:
Portrait of a Bad Man
, London (1956)

Tullett, Tom:
Strictly Murder
, London (1979)

Whittington-Egan, Richard A.:
The Riddle of Birdhurst Rise
, London (1975)

Willcox, Philip H.:
The Detective Physician
, London (1970)

Williams, John:
Hume: Portrait of a Double Murderer
, London (1960)

Wood, Stuart:
Shades of the Prison House
, London (1932)

Young, Filson (Ed.):
The Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen
, Edinburgh (1920)

Blackwood’s Magazine

Bombay Medical News Guide

British Medical Journal

Daily Express

Daily Mail

Daily Sketch

Dublin Medical Journal

Glasgow Herald

News of the World

Sunday Telegraph

The Lancet

The Law Journal

The Sunday Times

THE TERMS DEFINED HERE
reflect contemporary knowledge and use during the greater part of the twentieth century. Huge advances have been made in forensic pathology in recent years with the emergence of new techniques and procedures. This process of natural development has been aided by the advent of more sophisticated serology and toxicology and, of course, DNA profiling and information management. A new forensic landscape has been created and, with it, a new vocabulary. By accessing expertise in a wide range of new disciplines, such as forensic odontology, entomology and anthropometry, today’s forensic practitioners can call on an unprecedented bank of knowledge with its own terminology. In part, this is the legacy of the pioneering forensic pathologists who initiated new realms of discovery and understanding.

ADIPOCERE:
Condition of a human corpse when natural body fat solidifies into a yellowish-white, waxy substance. This occurs when a body has been exposed to a damp, airless environment. It is a slow process, also known as saponification, when the neutral body fats are hydrolysed into a mixture of fatty acids and soap. Adipocere adheres to the bones and tends to maintain the shape of the body.

ARSENIC:
An irritant poison with a sinister history. White arsenious oxide was at one time used in a variety of products, such as weedkiller, sheep dip and rat poison, regularly employed by gardeners and farmers. The Arsenic Act of 1851 controlled sales and required white arsenic to be mixed with a colourant to distinguish it from commodities such as sugar, salt and flour and thereby prevent accidental poisoning. Purchasers were required to sign the pharmacist’s Poisons Register.

Acute arsenical poisoning causes vomiting and diarrhoea, while chronic poisoning involves weight loss, general debility, peripheral neuritis and pigmentation of the skin. A characteristic of arsenic once it enters the body is that it lingers in the hair and fingernails, thereby enabling toxicologists to map the course of poisoning. A minimum lethal dose of arsenic is 2 to 3 grains.

ASPHYXIA:
Interference with the respiratory function which restricts breathing and oxygen intake, leading to death. Suffocation, strangulation, choking and drowning are among the causes. Post-mortem indications include cyanosis, congestion of the blood vessels, lividity and petechial haemorrhages in the skin, eyes, and membranes of the heart and lungs.

BLOOD GROUPS:
Every human individual’s blood falls into one of four internationally recognised groups, designated, A, B, AB and O. These characteristics were defined by Dr Karl Landsteiner in 1900 and are the basis of blood grouping. The individual groups are a function of the red blood cells and the presence in them of agglutinogen. Each group forms a distinct proportion of the population, with AB the most rare at 3 per cent. Every individual’s blood group characteristics are inherited and are an unalterable part of that person’s identity.

CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING:
When breathed in, carbon monoxide combines with haemoglobin in the blood and inhibits its capacity to carry oxygen around the body. Poisoning results once the life-sustaining supply of oxygen is diminished. Death from carbon monoxide poisoning produces a characteristic cherry-red colouring of the skin. This develops as the blood in the underlying vessels changes colour. Blood samples are taken by the pathologist for chemical and spectroscopic tests and, particularly, analysis for the presence of carboxyhaemoglobin (HbCO).

CORONER:
The office of coroner is one of the oldest legal appointments in England, dating back to the reign of King Richard I, around 1200. Originally charged with enquiring into any felony, a coroner’s duties have, since 1887, been concerned with enquiries into deaths where the circumstances are sudden, violent or unnatural. A coroner must be a solicitor, barrister or medical practitioner and the proceedings he presides over are an inquest or enquiry and not a trial. The law whereby a coroner’s court had authority to find a person guilty of murder or manslaughter was abolished in 1977 with the introduction of the Criminal Law Act.