Lauren's Death's Acre Essay

Death’s Acre by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson was a fascinating memoir! It was filled with personal stories and actual investigations that occurred in the 1900s told by Dr. Bill Bass, the facility's founder and one of the world's leading forensic scientists. The memoir takes place on an area of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Dr. Bass himself had personal experiences with deaths of two loved ones and so he found that he was very capable of relating his experiences to his career. He tells of the thrilling adventure through bones from thousands of bodies that he and his young colleagues took part in. Many cases were mentioned including the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder of his baby boy. It was very clear that uncovering the mysteries of death is not always safe. In the process of Dr. Bass and his young students went to search for the dead bodies of the ancient Arikaraians, there were snakes that could take your life in a blink of the eye. This chronicle is written very well, full of facts and even some humor wrapped around the shocking discoveries that were found. Dr. Bass was able to bring the story to life as he spoke to the reader and told of his career and the several criminal cases in which he was involved with. For those people who are unfamiliar with forensic language so to say, Dr. Bass made his account understandable so it isn’t hard to follow his many detailed descriptions of the human skeleton. It was particularly interesting to learn about his life and also there was a section of pictures which really was a great visual aid in understanding the reminiscences even clearer. The book was full of mysteries and Dr. Bass never gave up because the dead was a major part of him and it was in his heart to accomplish his goals and be successful in doing what he loved to do. The memoir was very enjoyable and inspiring.

Alex's Death's Acre Essay

In his memoir, Dr. Bill Bass, one of the nation's leading forensic anthropologists, recounts how a life spent studying dead bodies led to the creation of "The Anthropology Research Facility" (aka the Body Farm), a plot of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center where Bill Bass and his colleagues monitor the decomposition of human corpses in various environments. While the novel’s earlier chapters focus on Bass's need for further development in the science of forensics, the later chapters allow the reader to appreciate how the scientific analysis of the Body Farm’s corpses has helped Bill Bass and other anthropologists solve some of the toughest and most bizarre cases of their careers. Readers will be surprised by how Dr. Bill Bass brings life to the dead.

Over the years, Bill Bass and his colleagues had developed and perfected numerous techniques to aid them in forensic dilemmas. In one case, Bill Bass and his team were requested to aid in the identification of a cremated corpse. Bill Bass could not confirm whether the ashes were even human. Bill had the ashes sent to a commercial lab where they went through a spectrographic test, “ICP-OES.” During the procedure the ashes were burned at ~18,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the spectrograph captured the wavelengths of light emitted from the material. This chemical “fingerprint” was then matched to known elements, particularly silicon. The test revealed that the ashes contained nearly five times the amount of silicon normally found in cremated corpses, proving the ashes were not human. Instead they were actually composed of concrete and powdered limestone. Technology has come a long way to aid forensic science thanks to Bill Bass and his development of the Body Farm.

This is a fantastic novel not just because it shows how fascinating and important forensics is, but also because of how much this particular field has developed thanks to the important contributions of Dr. Bill Bass and his Body Farm.

Thomas' Death's Acre Essay

In this book, Dr. Bill Bass, takes the reader through his interesting life as a forensic anthropologist, and how he came to form the Body Farm, while he was teaching at the University of Tennessee. Beginning as an undergraduate, Dr. Bass grew a great interest in anthropology, and developed close relationships with his teachers and mentors. One of his first experiences with this type of work, was with one of his teachers, while examining a car crash victim’s body, and identifying whose it was. This sparked an immediate interest that would lead Bill Bass towards his new life journey. Another one of his cases was re-examining the Lindbergh child’s bones, at the request of the widow of the accused kidnapper. This was interesting how easily he was able to extract clues and other information such as age, so quickly, as he confirmed the child’s age at 20 months. Even more intriguing was how Dr. Bass, taught his students to identify the sex, race, age, and stature of the remains in order to set a good basis for further investigation. He was able to determine all of this from a femur, and a skull with a jaw. Based on his observations of the shape and other characteristics of the skull, as well as the length of the femur, Bass was able to conclude that this murder victim was a black woman, about 5 foot six, in her early thirties. With this information police were able to conclude that these remains were Mary Louise Downing’s, who was reported missing in the area. Although Dr. Bass deals with corpses in such a routine and ordinary manner, he does hold great respect for the bodies he works on, and even thinks about Mary Louise often, for he now uses her skull, everywhere he teaches as a precedent, to show others how to solve murder puzzles elsewhere in the world. It was moments like these, along with his passion for his work, that made him continue his career, and expand his field at the University of Tennessee, and later create the humble beginnings of the worlds only Anthropology Research Facility, Death’s Acre.

Christie's Death's Acre Essay

Death’s Acre is narrated by Dr. Bill Bass, as he tells how he worked his way up to eventually become the Tennessee State forensic anthropologist. He would even assist the TBI and FBI on some cases with his expertise. In his book he describes several cases he worked on, as well as the start of his research facility that would come to be known as the body farm. Dr. Bass describes how his forensic career began, and how he looked up to Krogman, the most famous “bone detective” of the 1940s and 1950s. His first time exposed to an actual case, however, was with his anthropology professor at the University of Kentucky. His professor took him to help identify and confirm the identity of a person in a truck accident. Dr. Bass later went to the University of Pennsylvania, turning down Harvard, because he wanted to work with Krogman. He then went on to teach at universities and work on extraordinary cases. While working on these cases, it became apparent that more information needed to be obtained about the time of death of the victims, and decomposition of bodies, in order to prove the cases more easily. It was when he estimated the time of death of a body and was off by nearly 113 years that he realized he needed to do research himself. The body farm, located on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is where he examined hundreds of bodies in different situations to study the body’s decomposition when influenced by different factors. Many of the techniques used in the cases to identify the bodies are incredible.

The four things that one must identify, as Dr. Bass explains, are sex, race, age, and stature. This can help narrow down the possibilities when identifying a body. There are many techniques used to identify these, for example the pubic bone, as well as the teeth, can help determine age. How fused the joints are in the cranium is also an indicator of age. By using a body’s teeth, dental records can be matched to them, and the body can be identified more quickly. Another interesting fact is that in a fire, arms and legs flex because water evaporates and muscles and tendons shrink. If a burned body is not found in this position, it is an indication that the person was tied up when they were killed. Insects can also give clues to what happened to a victim. If a person has been stabbed, the flies lay their eggs there because they are attracted to the blood. If there are injuries, such as stab wounds, to a body, the body will be more decayed in areas other than the face, which has moist crevices the insects are also attracted to. A very interesting way to obtain fingerprints was also described, by fuming the body with superglue, and then dusting with ultraviolet powder.

Morgan's Death's Acre Essay

Death’s Acre is an in depth description of the Body Farm, a forensic lab that was established by Dr. Bill Bass in order to study and observe bodies in the postmortem stages. His book is an account of various crimes that he dealt with, from his educational career to his years as a professional forensic scientist. It also discusses many techniques that scientists use to uncover extensive amounts of information about a decomposing body and how these observations help them to crack difficult crimes. For example, Dr. Bass and his colleagues were studying the remains of thousands of Native Americans. Dr. Bass stated that they were able to calculate “their size, their strength, their diet, their average life span, infant mortality rates, and a wealth of other information.” One of the most incredible strategies that they used was observing the insect life in the surrounding area. They soon noticed anthills near small objects and artifacts. Underneath the anthills were hundreds of burials. Insects are studied in many cases, usually to figure out a time of death, or perhaps the environment that the corpse had been in. H.B. Reed discovered that the number of insects on or in the body increased during the spring and summer, and therefore bodies found during those seasons will decompose at a faster rate than one found in the fall or winter. Insects usually fill areas such as the nose, mouth, and eyes and lay thousands of eggs that very quickly hatch into maggots. Other insects then come to the body to feed on the maggots and their eggs, further elaborating on a time line of the body’s death. In a later case, an eighteen-year-old girl’s body was found in the woods and had been infested with insects. Her face was practically gone, however, it had not decomposed as it usually would. The amount of insects led scientists to believe that there was a blood wound somewhere on the body. When blood is present, a phenomenon called “differential decomposition” occurs, in which bugs will eat away at areas of the body where blood is present at a much faster rate than they would if blood was not present.
Finally, Dr. Bass also goes into detail about the four major stages of human decomposition. The body goes through the fresh stage, the bloated stage, the decay stage, and the dry stage. In the fresh stage hair and skin begin to decompose, along with the teeth. During the bloated stage bacteria begin to consume the stomach and intestines. The abdomen will begin to bloat due to the release of waste gases from microbes. In the decay stage hair and skin continue to disintegrate and most of the bones become exposed. Finally, in the dry stage any remaining skin dries out and shrivels, similarly to fallen leaves. This is an important note because the dried skin could often be confused for leaf litter at a crime scene.
Through Dr. Bill Bass’s intricate description of forensic science, I have come to realize how important every detail is. To successfully solve a crime, no matter how simplistic it may appear, it is imperative to take each detail into account.