Quality Management Practices in Service Organizations

No one has the knack of explaining forensic pathology cases quite like the Brits, and John Sanders is no exception. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about the "Forensic Casebook of Crime" was his inclusion of cases by other favorite authors, Sir Sidney Smith ("Mostly Murder") and Dr. Keith Simpson ("Forty Years of Murder") who themselves were highly respected forensic pathologists in early and mid-20th century Britain. I highly recommend their books, as Sir Sidney and Dr. Simpson were the original investigators for many of Great Britain's most shocking crimes. The first edition of "Forensic Casebook of Crime" was published in 2000, so John Sanders not only had the advantage of being able to pick and choose among Sir Sidney and Dr. Simpson's cases, he is also able to write about many of the great advances in forensic technology toward the end of the 20th Century, including what he calls "DNA--The New Wonder Detection Kit." DNA testing was first used to convict a criminal was a 1987 burglary/rape, but the most famous use of DNA was its starring role in the capture of serial murderer-rapist, Colin Pitchfork. Not only did the new technology convict the killer of Linda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, it also freed the suspect who had already been arrested by the police. Sanders doesn't spend much print on each of the various crimes that he has chosen to illustrate different forensic techniques, but he highlights the essential details. His book is a good mix of the famous and obscure successes of forensic pathologists, including a few stories where no crime was even involved. His lead story, "The Corpse That Cried" recounts the story of the woman who was certified as dead by the police doctor, but when the pathologist, Dr. Benstead arrived on the scene (a cold stretch of beach) an hour later, he was definitely puzzled. "Of the three cardinal signs of death, algor (cooling), rigor (stiffening) and livor (staining) he could see only algor." Nevertheless he had her taken to the morgue, and as he was examining the corpse, he saw "a tiny tear trickle out of one of its eyes and roll down its cheek." The woman was rushed to the hospital and revived from her deep hypothermia and the overdose of barbiturates that she had taken, and thus became one of the very few 'patients' seen by a pathologist who lived to tell her tale. "Forensic Casebook of Crime" is pithy and interesting, and I would definitely recommend it as a supplement to the classics, "Forty Years of Murder" and "Mostly Murder."