18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee .. - Bruce Goldfarb Audiobook

Written by Bruce Goldfarb
Read by Nan McNamara
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern
Forensics

also titled — Unexplained Deaths: How One Woman Changed Homicide Investigation Forever

Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: February 4, 2020
Duration: 08:35:52

The story of a woman whose ambition and accomplishments far exceeded the expectations of her time, 18 Tiny Deaths follows the transformation of a young, wealthy socialite into the mother of modern forensics…

Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes, and made it her life’s work.

Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of dollhouses that appear charming, until you notice the macabre little details: an overturned chair, or a blood-spattered comforter. And then, of course, there are the bodies splayed out on the floor, draped over chairs, clothed in garments that Lee lovingly knit with sewing pins.

18 Tiny Deaths, by official biographer Bruce Goldfarb, delves into Lee’s journey from grandmother without a college degree to leading the scientific investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old techniques and into the light of the modern day. Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today. 18 Tiny Deaths transports the reader back in time and tells the story of how one woman, who would never have even been allowed into the classrooms ended up teaching in it and changed the face of science forever.

Library Journal…
Goldfarb (Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Maryland Dept. of Health) pays tribute to Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962), the patron of medical examiners. In 1929, Lee, a wealthy Chicago native, became reacquainted at age 51 with the Suffolk County, MA, medical examiner when both were hospitalized in Boston. At that time, legal medicine, while established in Europe, was still in its infancy in the United States. Goldfarb covers Lee’s life chronologically, showing her devotion to forensic science. At the same time, the author addresses the national development of death investigation science. As Goldfarb points out, there are continuing problems with non-medical death investigations in the United States. Lee’s funded Harvard’s Department of Legal Medicine, became the first female police captain in the United States, and built meticulous miniature models of death scenes for investigators to study. VERDICT Goldfarb’s clearly written and well-researched book is recommended for history and legal studies audiences. For further reading, suggest Corinne May Botz’s The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

She died with many honors–Erle Stanley Gardner wrote an obituary–but her battle is far from won. Coroners still serve about half the U.S. population in less than 30 states, and less than a third of those require scientific training. A genuinely compelling biography.