The former chief medical examiner for Rockland County, N.Y., who wrote the definitive textbook on forensic pathology, provides a firsthand look inside eleven of his most notorious cases, following the scientific investigative process and the work of the pathologist from the crime scene to the world of high-tech criminal detection. Dr. Zugibe takes us through the whole process: we visit the often grisly crime scene; we inspect the body, palpate the wounds, and search for clues in the hair and skin; we employ ultraviolet light and strange measuring devices; we see how a forensic pathologist determines the hour of death, the type of weapon used, and the killer's escape route; then we enter the lab, the world of high-tech criminal detection: DNA testing, fingerprinting, gunshot patterns, dental patterns, and X-rays. In a closing chapter Dr. Zugibe examines some recent high-profile cases in which blunders led to killers going free.--From publisher description.

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