A Voice for the Dead

I would say that this book was fun to read from a historical and investigative perspective. Stretches of the book can become a bit tedious when Starrs goes through the legal proceedings, etc. in an attempt to give us all the background. However, I read it all the way through and for the most part was thoroughly entertained. Especially interesting, I thought, was the chapter detailing the "suicide" that was really the murder of a CIA agent in a fall from a ten story hotel room (or so Starrs argues). I would recommend reading a chapter or two and if it interests you proceed. The good thing is you don't have to read the whole thing if you don't have time, but can instead read any of the cases that may interest you in particular.

What a page-turner this is! The main theme in the six chapters of this book is the exhumation of human remains to help settle controversial issues, most of which are of historical value. The book is written in such an engaging style that the pages turn themselves. The cases discussed range from early nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Although forensic techniques are discussed to an adequate degree, they are not belabored at the expense of other equally important details; thus, the reader is presented with well-balanced information that helps in establishing a good overall perspective of each case. The book's forte is really in the logical and suspenseful way in which each case is developed and presented. At the end, one is left with the feeling of wanting still more cold cases to read about. This excellent work would be of great interest to those who enjoy literature on true crime, history, forensics and unsolved mysteries.

After reading some of the other reviews, I almost bailed on buying this book. However, I'm glad I got it. I agree that the writing style and vocabulary is sometimes annoying, and that the author has a giant ego. But it was a good read.

Professor James Starrs is a Professor of Law as well as Professor of Forensic Science at the George Washington University, Washington DC. His work Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases is a standard text in its field. Starrs is probably best known for his 1995 exhumation of Jesse James, done in order to verify that the body found in that grave was indeed James. Throughout the years, Starrs has participated in a number of exhumations and subsequent forensic research, and this is the story of five of them, including the James exhumation. He begins, naturally enough, at the beginning, with the story of his first exhumation, the victims of Alfred Packer. Packer was convicted in 1883 of five counts of murder, then eventually retried and convicted in 1885 of five counts of manslaughter. It was widely believed that he had committed cannibalism, though he was never charged with that particular crime. As with each case discussed the in book, Starrs discusses how he came to hear about the case, and what drove him to take it up. He also talks about the legal hurdles to such an undertaking (pardon the pun), such as finding a relative to secure permission from for the actual exhumation. Equally important, though, are the technical issues, like making sure one finds the right grave, and covering the gravesite with a sunshade during the exhumation, to prevent the sun from drying the bones. The book reads somewhat like a college lecture, which is unsurprising given Starrs' professorial background. The reader can almost picture him strolling around the front of a classroom, a piece of chalk carried loosely in the hand as he briefly saunters off on a tangent before returning to the case at hand. In other chapters, the reader might feel as though Starrs is discussing the case at a dinner party, complete with occasional asides regarding different people or aspects of the case. The cases themselves are fascinating, running the gamut from victims of a 19th century cannibal to Jesse James, Huey Long's accused assassin Dr. Carl Weiss, and Mary Sullivan, the apparent last victim of the Boston Strangler. Starrs even manages to include a case where the people he wants to talk to conveniently start dying off just before their appointments with him. Was the CIA involved in the death of Frank Olson? If not, how did he get enough of a running start to push himself through a closed 13th-story window, when the room was too short to allow even a professional athlete to reach the requisite speed? And why was a suicidal man being held in a 13th story hotel room when there was a CIA safe house just a few minutes away? The final chapter touches on cases Starrs tried to take on and how he was thwarted. Why isn't Gouverneur Morris, the author of much of the US Constitution, buried in the casket that is in his tomb? Did explorer Meriwether Lewis die by his own hand? Why is the National Park Service preventing an exhumation that could answer that question? What about L

If you've been celebrated, notorious, or people are just plum curious about what the heck ever happened to cause your demise or whether something in your body caused your notoriety, look out. Jim Starrs is likely to dig you up. Jim Starrs' curiosity and faith that science can give us answers to questions sometimes only he might contemplate have given us a grand book. Sometimes the answers are beyond the scope of anything we ever could have imagined, sometimes they are fascinating trivia. Whether Merriwether Lewis was murdered, committed suicide, was bipolar, or suffered from syphilis, Starrs is on the trail. When a participant in the CIA's LSD programs goes out a window in the Statler Hilton, Starrs is the person who goes back to try to figure out if he jumped or was pushed, was LSD-crazed, or something else. Starrs was recently hired by the House Governmental Affairs Committee to dig up the remains of Henry Aaron and George "Babe" Ruth as part of their ongoing investigation into drug use in baseball. This is the real deal--not lusty, busty forensic scientists in perfectly-equipped labs (two fantasies at work there), but using forensic science to answer questions, and coming up with ever-better questions to push the limits of forensic science. If you like the CSI stuff, find out that life can be at least as fascinating when you're tagging along on the tails of Starrs' lab coat.