Notes from 1970-1973

 

Observations:

 

1970

 

Aside from the obvious difference in the looks of the files, here are a few observations:

1. They stopped putting the nationality of the victim in the files. I guess by now almost everyone was an American citizen in Allegheny County.

2. For race, they either put down a W or N. Slightly less racist now.

3. I'm seeing a lot of arteriosclerotic diseases. More so than coronary occlusions. Perhaps they had better technology in 1970 that allowed them to differentiate arteriosclerotic disease from other conditions.

4. Some of the files have photographs of autopsies. 197009_125 had a bunch of photos of the various stages of cutting a man's head apart. It's disgusting yet fascinating. 

 

BF 20 Mar 2008

 

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I have also noticed more files with photographs of the deceased- one included a man who shot himself in the head. Surprisingly the bullet made quite a clean puncture wound, so the graphic photo was not too graphic for me.

 

Many of the papers in the file folders are also missing- usually the file folder that has a case file name and number on it is completely empty. I have noticed that this happens for the "juicier" deaths, such as homicides; auto accident file folders are also found empty fairly frequently. We have been told that the state took these folders for one reason or another. I wonder why.

 

LB 24 Mar 2008

 

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In the 1970s, two forms of suicide become more numerous: setting yourself on fire and suffocating yourself with a plastic bag.  Usually, older women in the past hanged themselves, but now the plastic bag deaths are all older women. 

 

NM 26 Mar 2008

 

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I have also noticed the increase in suicides with plastic bags. Another thing that I've noticed is that when they finalize these files, they are very behind compared with the previous coroner. For example, the files from December 1970 are all people who died in August. The previous coroner did theirs only a few weeks after death at the most. Also, some of these files have no signature at the bottom of the main page, no date of death, and some don't even have a cause of death!

 

BF 27 Mar 2008

 

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1972

 

In the files from 1970 and later, I have noticed that deaths due to cancers of various kinds have become increasingly frequent.  In addition to the greater frequency of cancer deaths, it appears that diagnosis has become more specific.  A fair number of the cancer deaths I've recently encountered were metastatic.  This means that the cancerous cells originating in a malignant tumor in one oragan entered the bloodstream or lymphatic system and traveled to another organ, where they would settle and lead to the development of other tumors.  This more specific diagnosis is clearly evident of a heightened attention to cancer as a cause of death and the development of better medical knowledge and technology.

 

TG 28 Mar 2008

 

An observation I have noticed due to the war at Vietnam is soldiers who come back and die of certain causes. It is noticeably in the identification files of relatives informing police of past experiences with the war. I would not be surprised if some of the cancer related deaths are partly because of the Agent Orange genocide in Vietnam. Most accounted for cancer case came with the advancements in technology, but would not be surprised if the deaths were Agent Orange induced.

 

BG 31 MAR 2008

 

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1973

 

In this period I have noticed what appears to be a significant increase in the frequency of deaths due to chronic alcoholism.  These deaths are primarily caused by either cirrhosis of the liver or, "fatty change of the liver."  Cirrhosis is characterized by the development of excess connective tissue in the liver that leads to organ failure.  Fatty change, according to Wikipedia, "is the accumulation of fat in liver cells which can be seen as fatty globules under the microscope." This accumulation of fat disrupts the normal functioning of the cells in the liver and can eventually lead to the destruction of the cells.  Seeing as how the origin of liver disease can be difficult to classify, it would appear that improved technology and medical knowledge were again responsible for more accurate diagnosis of ailments in the files.  It would be interesting to review, if available, any statistics on deaths due to alcoholism in Allegheny County over time.  It is unclear whether there are more instances of death due to chronic alcoholism in this period, or just more accurate diagnosis of such instances. 

 

TG 3 Apr 2008

 

This can be applied to the entire 1970's, but I've noticed that now there are either exactly 200 or 300 files to a month. I wonder how they get this even number every month.

Another thing I noticed is on the paper with the anatomical models. This is childish of me, but I couldn't help but notice the penises the coroners draw on the models. Some of the deputy coroners seen to draw them as an obligation, but others put a little bit of thought into them. In my opinion, I really don't think they're necessary at all; a simple M or F would do.

 

BF 3 Apr 2008

 

I have noticed that under nationality of the subject, instead of putting that African Americans are Americans they are often listed as "Negro" or "colored." This bothered me because before this time they were still listed as Americans, what caused this change? Why are they no longer Americans?

Also, the fact that many of the more interesting cases, such as the homicide, suicide, drug related deaths and auto accidents, were removed from the file I was quite disappointed and became bored with these cases quite easily

AFS 2 June 2008