Death's Acre

Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

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Paperback
$20.00 US
5.94"W x 8.92"H x 0.67"D  
On sale Oct 05, 2004 | 320 Pages | 9780425198322
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB

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“Fans of the forensics-oriented novels of such mystery writers as Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell...not to mention television series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, will make an eager audience for this one.”—Booklist

On a patch of land in the Tennessee hills, human corpses decompose in the open air, aided by insects, bacteria, and birds, unhindered by coffins or mausoleums. This is Bill Bass’s “Body Farm,” where nature takes its course as bodies buried in shallow graves, submerged in water, or locked in car trunks serve the needs of science and the cause of justice.

In Death’s Acre, Bass invites readers on an unprecedented journey behind the gates of the Body Farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. A master scientist and an engaging storyteller, Bass reveals his most intriguing cases for the first time. He revisits the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explores the mystery of a headless corpse whose identity astonished police, divulges how the telltale traces of an insect sent a murderous grandfather to death row—and much more.

INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, science writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writing has been featured by The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science. View titles by Jon Jefferson
Death's AcreForeword by Patricia Cornwall

1. The Bones of the Eaglet

2. Dead Indians and Dam Engineers

3. Bare Bones: Forensics 101

4. The Unsavory Uncle

5. The Case of the Headless Corpse

6. The Scene of the Crime

7. Death's Acre: The Body Farm Is Born

8. A Bug for Research

9. Progress and Protest

10. Fat Sam and Cadillac Joe

11. Grounded in Science

12. The Zoo Man Murders

13. Parts Unknown

14. Art Imitates Death

15. More Progress, More Protest

16. The Backyard Barbeque

17. The Not-So-Accidental Tourist

18. the Bloody Beneficiary

19. Ashes to Ashes

20. And When I Die

Appendix I: Bones of the Human Skeleton
Appendix II: Glossary of Forensic and Anthropological Terms
Acknowledgments
Index

About

“Fans of the forensics-oriented novels of such mystery writers as Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell...not to mention television series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, will make an eager audience for this one.”—Booklist

On a patch of land in the Tennessee hills, human corpses decompose in the open air, aided by insects, bacteria, and birds, unhindered by coffins or mausoleums. This is Bill Bass’s “Body Farm,” where nature takes its course as bodies buried in shallow graves, submerged in water, or locked in car trunks serve the needs of science and the cause of justice.

In Death’s Acre, Bass invites readers on an unprecedented journey behind the gates of the Body Farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. A master scientist and an engaging storyteller, Bass reveals his most intriguing cases for the first time. He revisits the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explores the mystery of a headless corpse whose identity astonished police, divulges how the telltale traces of an insect sent a murderous grandfather to death row—and much more.

INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Author

Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, science writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writing has been featured by The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science. View titles by Jon Jefferson

Table of Contents

Death's AcreForeword by Patricia Cornwall

1. The Bones of the Eaglet

2. Dead Indians and Dam Engineers

3. Bare Bones: Forensics 101

4. The Unsavory Uncle

5. The Case of the Headless Corpse

6. The Scene of the Crime

7. Death's Acre: The Body Farm Is Born

8. A Bug for Research

9. Progress and Protest

10. Fat Sam and Cadillac Joe

11. Grounded in Science

12. The Zoo Man Murders

13. Parts Unknown

14. Art Imitates Death

15. More Progress, More Protest

16. The Backyard Barbeque

17. The Not-So-Accidental Tourist

18. the Bloody Beneficiary

19. Ashes to Ashes

20. And When I Die

Appendix I: Bones of the Human Skeleton
Appendix II: Glossary of Forensic and Anthropological Terms
Acknowledgments
Index