Lauren's Death's acres essay

Death’s Acre

Death’s Acre by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson follows Dr. Bass’ journey as a forensic scientist. He first was introduced to forensics while uncovering Native American graveyards in the Dakotas as part of a project for the Smithsonian museums in Washington D.C. From there, he went on to teach and help establish Forensics as a field of study on the collegiate level. At the same time, he helped police try to solve mysteries on a number of murder cases. In some cases, such as the Lindbergh baby, there simply isn’t enough evidence for a forensic scientist to be able to positively identify a body. In others though, such as the Fat Sam and Cadillac Joe case, Dr. Bass was vital in correctly identifying the victim’s body, which helped create enough evidence to convict the murders. Thus, forensics has become a vital part of criminal investigations that can help to serve justice. This book describes many different cases Dr. Bass worked on, with varying conditions ranging from a missing toddler to a murder that was attempted to be covered up by a house fire.
However, he is also known for creating the Body Farm, where human corpses are allowed to naturally decay. This has given scientists a better understanding of what happens to a body after the murder, so that forensic scientists can better predict what happened to a murder victim and how much time has past since they were killed. At the Body Farm they were able to study the effects of various conditions, such as heat, dampness, and the effect of bugs to the decomposing process. The Body Farm was well known, but it became more famous after Patricia Cornwell wrote a fictional mystery story about it. However, this did not stop protesters who disapproved the Body Farm who were angry that it was located near a hospital, or that it used dead veteran’s bodies. However, the Body Farm was saved in a Senate vote, and remained open to further scientific research. Dr. Bass was also instrumental in developing other techniques to determine how much time had passed since the death occurred, such as Arpad’s soil samples. He has truly helped establish and revolutionize the field of Forensics.
One of the most interesting parts of the book is when Dr. Bass explains how from just studying the bones, he can figure out the Big Four; sex, race, age, and stature. These are used to help make a positive identification of a body. It was very enlightening to actually be told the information that he uses as clues to identify a body. It made the process seem more realistic and understandable. It was fascinating to learn that enough information could be determined purely from the bones to identify a body as a missing victim. For example, a person’s sex and race can be determined from studying the skull. The bony bump called the external occipital protuberance is only found on male skulls, which can clue a forensic scientist into the skeleton’s gender. Gender can also be determined in the skull by the shape of the jaw, chin, and brow ridges above the eyes. In addition, the shape of the jaw can determine the skeleton’s race.
It was also fascinating to learn that teeth can play such an important role in identifying a body. How many teeth there are and the state of them can determine a person’s age. The development of the molars clues a scientist, since this doesn’t occur until around eighteen. But more interestingly, a body can be identified if the teeth found match the person’s dental records. It was surprising to learn that such small bones can have such an important role in forensics.
This book is key to understanding forensics. It not only laid out the basic procedure of identifying a skeleton, it also illustrated how research is conducted to learn more about the natural decomposition of the human body. It combined this factual knowledge with interesting murder cases to keep the reader intrigued. Overall, it gave a good introduction to the study of forensics.