Grave Secrets: Leading Forensic Expert Reveals Startling Truth abt O J Simpson David Koresh Vin - Softcover

Wecht, Cyril H.; Curriden, Mark; Wecht, Benjamin; Baden, Dr. Michael M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451406001 ISBN 13: 9780451406002

Publisher: Berkley, 1998

Synopsis

A frequent commentator on such television programs as 20/20 and Nightline, a forensic expert produces eyewitness testimony and factual evidence to reveal the truth behind the cases of O. J. Simpson, Vincent Foster, and others. Reprint.

About this title

Review

In the foreword to this book, Michael (Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner) Baden, M.D. says that Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D. ("no shrinking violet") has selected from his 35-year career "a fascinating batch of cases in which his knowledge as a forensic pathologist was crucial in exposing official mistakes or otherwise illuminating weaknesses in the criminal justice system."

Grave Secrets brings out interesting forensic details in the following cases in which Dr. Wecht was personally involved: (1) the O. J. Simpson murder and civil trials (Wecht has an intriguing theory), (2) the death of Vincent Foster, (3) the Branch Davidian tragedy at Waco, (4) a racially-charged shootout in Cleveland in 1968, (5) a 1969 Black Panther episode, (6) alleged negligence after the 1989 Oakland earthquake, (7) a 1977 nightclub fire in Kentucky, (8-9) two unrelated deaths in Taiwan--a visiting Chinese-American professor and a Chinese activist, (10) the alleged poisoning of a Pakistani general, (11) the controversial murder of a Filipino maid in Singapore, (12) the swine flu scare of 1976, (13) a possible mob connection in the suspicious conviction of a Connecticut man for murdering his family, and (14) the "alien autopsy" footage from Roswell, New Mexico. (Note: Dr. Wecht, along with coauthors Mark Curridwen and Benjamin Wecht, also wrote Cause of Death>. --Fiona Webster

From Library Journal

Pathologist Wecht, author of Cause of Death (Dutton, 1993), relates 14 cases involving forensic detection. Ignore the hyperbole of the tag line: "A leading forensic expert reveals the startling truth about O.J. Simpson, David Koresh, Vincent Foster, and other sensational cases." There is nothing very startling in Wecht's discussion of Vincent Foster and David Koresh, and, in the book's longest section, he is uncharacteristically circumspect about O.J. Simpson. His less recent investigations, including the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton, the 1989 earthquake-caused Oakland, California, freeway collapse, and the Legionnaire's Disease case of 1976 and his sojourns to Taiwan, Pakistan, and Singapore, are more intriguing. A common theme in his book is the misdiagnosis or injustice caused by forensic incompetence, overzealousness, or corruption. Popular forensic accounts seem to be in vogue (Colin Evan's The Casebook of Forensic Detection is coming in October from John Wiley) and Grave Secrets is a suitable addition where interest warrants.
-?Gregor A. Preston, formerly with Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451406001
• ISBN 13: 9780451406002
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384