Death's Acre: Inside The Legendary Forensic Lab The Body Farm Bill Bass (howl and other poems TXT) 📖

ischium. Lower portion of the hipbone; the part you sit on.

lateral. Toward the side (of the body); the opposite of medial.

lesser trochanter. The smaller, medial epiphysis, just below the head of the femur.

maggot. The caterpillarlike larva of a fly.

mandible. The lower jawbone.

maxilla. The upper jawbone.

medial. Toward the center (of the body); opposite of lateral.

medical examiner (ME). A physician who works with law enforcement officers to determine cause of death.

metatarsal. Literally, “beyond instep”; any of the five long bones of the foot located between the ankle and toes.

ninhydrin. A chemical used to reveal latent human fingerprints; when it reacts with the oils in fingerprints, it turns purple.

occipital. The bone forming the back and base of the skull.

orbit. The bony socket that cradles the eyeball.

ossify. To turn to bone; at birth, the skeleton is formed by cartilage, which gradually ossifies as calcium and other minerals reinforce it.

osteoarthritic lipping. A degenerative, aging-related process in which joint surfaces acquire jagged edges through the buildup of additional bony material.

osteology. Literally, “bone science”; the study of bones.

parietal. Literally, “of a wall”; the bone forming either side of the skull.

pathologist. A physician specializing in disease, particularly diseased tissues and organs; forensic pathologists perform autopsies to determine cause and manner of death.

pelvis. Literally, “basin”; the pelvis is the structure formed by the innominates and the sacrum.

perimortem. At or around the time of death.

phalanges. Bones of the fingers and toes.

postcranial. Below the cranium, generally referring to the postcranial skeleton (that is, everything from the neck down).

posterior. Toward the rear (of the body).

postmortem. After death.

proximal. Near; in bones, close to the center of the body (opposite of distal), as in “the proximal end of the femur.”

pubic bone (pubis). Anterior portion of innominate, where the two hipbones meet at the midline of the abdomen.

pubic symphysis. The junction at the midline of the pelvis where the left and right pubic bones meet; the features of the pubic symphysis reveal much about skeletal age.

pupa (plural: pupae). Insect in transition from larval stage to adult stage.

puparia. Hard, cocoonlike shells in which insect larvae mature into adults; blowfly puparia are often found by the thousands on or near decomposed bodies or skeletons.

putrefaction. Decomposition of the body’s soft tissues, especially by bacteria.

radius. The lateral (thumb-side) bone of the forearm.

sacroiliac crest. The seam in the hipbone—normally wide, raised, and prominent in adult females—where the sacrum is joined to the ilium.

sacrum. Literally, “holy bone”; a triangular bone formed by the fusion of three to five sacral vertebrae; the sacrum is the posterior part of the pelvis.

scapula. The shoulder blade.

sciatic notch. Gap in the hipbone through which the sciatic nerve passes when it emerges from the lower spine; wider in females than in males.

sphenoid. A U-shaped bone making up the middle floor of the skull.

sternum. The breastbone.

suture. In the context of this book, any of several joints in the skull.

temporal. The bone surrounding the ear.

time since death (TSD). The postmortem interval between death and discovery.

thoracic. In the region of the chest.

tibia. The larger, medial bone of the lower leg: the “shinbone.”

ulna. The medial bone of the forearm: the one that includes the sharp bump of the elbow.

vertebra (plural: vertebrae). A bone of the spinal column.

zygomatic. The cheekbone.

Acknowledgments

MANY THOUSANDS of people have contributed to making this book a reality. First, I want to thank my mother, the late Jennie Bass, for being a guiding light, especially after the death of my father, all the way up to her death in 1997 at the age of ninety-five. Second, I have been blessed with three wonderful wives (not at the same time, mind you): Ann Owen, who was the mother of our three sons; Annette Blackbourne, who was a wise adviser at work and a great comfort after Ann’s death in 1993; and Carol Miles, who has known me since childhood. Carol, who knew both Ann and Annette, came to Knoxville to take care of me when Annette died in 1997; thankfully, she has been here ever since.

I owe a big debt to the thousands—no, tens of thousands—of students who took my classes at the universities of Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Kansas, and Tennessee, and who garnered me for many teaching awards. I’ve always said that I’ve had two families: my biological family of three sons and my academic family of all the graduate students who made this pioneering research possible, many of whom you’ve met in these chapters. I also thank Donna Patton Griffin, one of the able secretaries in the University of Tennessee Anthropology Department, who has typed reports and kept records of hundreds of forensic cases during my years at the university. The Body Farm would not have been a reality without continuous support from the administrators of the University of Tennessee. From the deans in the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the Anthropology Department, through the chancellors of the Knoxville campus, to the presidents of the statewide UT system, I have received nothing but the greatest support. It’s nice to work in an environment where you respect and admire your superiors.

Almost every television crime series portrays friction or conflict between forensic scientists and the police, district attorneys, medical examiners, or coroners they work with. In my fifty years of working with members of local, state, national, and international law enforcement agencies, though, I don’t recall a single bad encounter with any of them. I thank them all for the many things they’ve taught me about arson investigation, ballistics, criminal justice, and other fields I’ve had to learn in on-the-job training.

I especially want to thank my three sons, Charlie, Billy, and Jim Bass, who have always given me strength, but particularly after the deaths of Ann and Annette. All three of my sons have been very successful: Those education dollars were clearly well spent after all!

Last but not least, I want to thank Jon Jefferson, whose writing has helped make this an engaging story. Jon has become a