VOICE FOR THE DEAD, A (A Witness for the Dead)

Author: James Starrs
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Book Description
James E. Starrs takes us behind the scenes and on the sites of several exhumations. He intends to set the record straight on the coldest of cold cases, to right the wrongs done by tall tales, cover-ups, and cherished historical legends. Among the exhumations he writes about are those of Alfred Packer, a nineteenth-century Colorado prospector accused of cannibalism; of a body buried in a grave purported to be that of Jesse James; of Mary Sullivan, supposedly a victim of Albert DeSalvo, who may or may not have been the Boston Strangler; and of Frank Olson, a Cold War government scientist who fell to his death from a high floor of a New York hotel: Did he jump, or was he pushed? Was the verdict of suicide a government cover-up? Starrs reveals the complicated fights he wages in his pursuit of the truth to be founding raves. Opposed sometimes by governmental authorities, sometimes by the descendants of his subjects, he is unwavering and indomitable in his determination to be a voice for the dead.
From Publishers Weekly
With the CSI craze showing no sign of abating, there will undoubtedly be an eager audience for Starrs's intriguing but quirky accounts of the noteworthy and notorious exhumations he has participated in. Starrs, a pioneer in forensic science, recounts his dogged, almost obsessive involvement with seven historical mysteries, ranging from the assassination of Louisiana demagogue Huey Long to the Boston Strangler. Using clues from Dr. Carl Weiss's exhumed skeleton, Starrs makes a powerful case that the young doctor widely believed to have been Long's assassin was probably innocent. Starrs will also probably change the minds of many who have discounted challenges to the veracity of Albert DeSalvo's confession to the sex murders that plagued Boston in the 1960s. His narrative isn't for everyone—it's occasionally repetitive (he explains several times that remains with flesh still attached are "stinkies"), and it's filled with "humor" that many will find distasteful. Furthermore, despite his assertions of respect for the dead, he displays a cavalier attitude toward some of the here covers, which are occasionally on the verge of being damaged in airplane overhead bins. These oddball aspects should not overshadow the significance of Starrs's accomplishments, but they easily might. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, John Silbersack with Trident Media Group. (Feb. 17)
From Booklist
Starrs is a law professor who gained media attention in the 1990s for exhuming the corpora delicti in historical cases of suspicious deaths. In these accounts of six such cases, an affinity for publicity appears to be entangled among Starrs's motivations, plainly so in his digging up of Jesse James. (Yup, that was Jesse in the grave.) Also palpable, however, is Starrs's desire to rectify injustice when he encounters deficiencies in the official investigation. Often descendants of victims requested that Starrs reinvestigate a case. So began his scrutiny of the murder of Huey Long, the 1953 death-by-defenestration of a CIA agent, and the Boston Strangler murders; for each, Starrs concludes officialdom got it wrong. Other matters Starrs opened because they intrigued him, including his attempt to unearth Meriwether Lewis (request denied) and his excavation of the 1874 victims of Colorado cannibal Albert Packer. Like memoirs written by forensic experts (e.g., Emily Craig's Teasing Secrets from the Dead [BKL Ag04]), Starrs's work enhances a green enjoying pronounced popularity. Gilbert Taylor
From Book News
Annotation
In recent years, the world of forensic science has been glamorized and popularized through a number of Hollywood television shows and movies. In this text, Starrs (law and forensic sciences, George Washington U., Washington, D.C.) takes readers behind the scenes, as he explores real-world exhumations of individuals in several famous cases, to demonstrate the value and importance of forensic science.