Notes from 1945-1950

Observations:

Sometimes within the coroner case files there are newspaper clippings regarding the incident.  It seems that newspaper articles were much more descriptive in the 1940s when compared to those of present day.  Often there is a dramatic narrative of the accident and minor details are mentioned.  In one example, there was an article about a husband who killed his wife and small son with a sledgehammer before shooting himself "with a large caliber deer rifle."  In addition to describing the last few days of the husband's life, seemingly to insinuate that he was mentally disturbed, the writer also noted what type of clothing the boy was wearing when he died and its color.  Stirring emotion appears to have been an important motive for the writer, an attribute we do not see as much of today. 

ZB 27 Nov 2007

1950

The files in the 1950's have a few significant changes from the files I've looked at before. First, most of them say "black" instead of "colored" in the "Color" category. Next there is a drop in the number of violent deaths in this year, there are a total of 4 suicides, 1 train accident, and 5 automobile accidents. Instead, Coronary Occlusions take over most of the files, 16 in all.

AFS 23 May, 2008