Cause of Death

Day 14 of the 30 Day Challenge - A Non-Fictional Book

The best non-fiction book I've read is Cause of Death by Dr. Cyril Wecht. It's a book I've read and re-read many times over.

William Beatty 0f Booklist says it all in his editorial review:

In this fascinating book, a forensic pathologist relates his experiences with a dozen murders or supposed murders. As he does, he makes clear the education, experience, and character needed to make a good medical examiner as well as what such an individual should do. Although his case studies are the kind that encourage lurid treatment, Wecht deals primarily with hard evidence and his own substantial involvement when sloppy work by police and coroners made solutions either much harder or impossible. Those whose deaths Wecht reports on range from John F. Kennedy (whose case consumes one-fifth of the text) through Elvis Presley to Delbert Ward, who was made famous by the award-winning documentary film, Brother's Keeper. Who was the second shooter in Dallas (Wecht does not buy the conspiracy theory)? Who was the second shooter with Sirhan? What actually happened at Chappaquiddick? Such are the questions Wecht sought to answer. Especially interesting are the cases of Dr. Charles Friedgood ("one of [Wecht's] most bizarre cases"), of Capt. Jeffrey MacDonald, M.D. (the most troubling for Wecht), and of others whose demises are less renowned but as provocative.

This book is again inside my bag as I'm starting to read it yet again.