The files are towards the end and there have not been any trends that would not make sense compared to making sense.  There is a good mix of causes of deaths in the 1970 files since they changed the format. Everything in the files is more precise with information. What I found interesting is "coronary occlusion" comes up maybe 4 times as a cause of death.  Partly because there is, a high sense of technology that can help determine the cause of death more accurately than before when in a box of files there would be 25 files that listed coronary occlusion and assorted cases of other heart diseases. The contexts of the files have changed. Information is harder to obtain.  In the 50's and 60's, the cause of death followed an explanation on the press report now for example: its acute cardiac failure. If you wanted to find out how you have to piece together many reports, toxicology reports, autopsies, and so on.

One other thing about the files is the auto and drug cases went to another branch in the government for investigation.  The files are empty.  Sometimes five files will appear in a row, indicating a multi pile up in an auto accident, or a massive drug overdose killing more than one person. We have no access to these files and cannot examine them. On the contrary, today I encountered a house fire killing four people inside. The folders appeared four in a row, and contained information about the accident unlike the auto accidents and drug accidents.  Who knows if eventually, all house fires will be treated the same as homicide, auto, and drug.

 The coroner's office has marked on the files W.W.I. The marking is not related to World War I, which the deaths vary in age and have no history of begin the World War one time range. Three things I can think of that might relate them is: Place, Hospital, and Natural causes.  For the place, many of the files were sent elsewhere to different places such as homicide that was sent of somewhere else in the state, Drug files and homicides. In addition, the word morgue written in the upper left hand corner can refer to where the body comes from. Which makes me think that W.W.I. is a place somewhere in Pittsburgh or the state? I went to the coroner's office website and found nothing. One correlation i found was the natural causes. Many of the deaths happen of natural causes and the death took place in the hospital. It makes little sense to the main question: what does W.W.I. stand for? Who knows, I try to research this and see what happens to pop up.

    Finishing from 1973 files on Friday, I encountered again many W.W.I. files.  I can only assume that the files departed to different departments within the coroner's office. The only reason is assumption. The files concerning W.W.I. are nothing different from the morgue ones other than natural causes and I had many believes that it had to do to hospital deaths and age, but the results vary so much its tough to tell.   When leaving the 1970 files, I could not really pin point it. I hope that other coroner project teams can look into this later.

            Now we are jumping into the older files that consist of railroad accidents and "dropping dead." in 1893, It was and is only imagined that the deaths couldn't be pin pointed accurately due to cause of death due to technology begin not advance in the slightest.  Certain heart conditions fall to floors, or head conditions, I have not seen these typical deaths that occurred in the 50, 60, 70's occur in the 1890's yet. I assumethe process of listing never will till doctors start to narrow in on a proper analysis and the coroner's office advances in organzation skills.

I have just finished my final box on the corner case files. what did I encounter? Same old same old.  There was train deaths and sucides.  "Oil of cedar" and "Rat be gone" are my favorite digestive killers of choice, but it seems the majority have chosen the hanging of tree route. Something in particular I found intresting was how many homeless deaths there are. How do you find a homeless death? Do thing list homeless? No, the files do not have a social status marked (some lack age and race); however, you can tell from the "unknown man" status.  during this time period it was awfully hard to find someone, becasue files were all paper, not digtal. Dective work was more valued, and most people had witnesses and ID one them.  My assumption, unless the state of the homeless death altered his/her appearance, to be determined homeless was no validation of idenitifation of body by witness. there have been quite a through that i have seen over the past month working with the older files, and 3 today.

well, I guess this is where I say good-bye.  It was a pleasure working with these files and group of people. I don't cry much, only during sappy movies. Well this is no exception, no crying for me. however, now that I'm writing (quite possibly) my last bio entry the experience is over whelming, I had great times, read SO many intresting things that it hit me ever so slightly and especially hard,  that this internship was actually benifical towards my not just my career but my life.

4-22-08

                                                                                 Reflection Letter on the project

For the past 4 months, starting in January 2008 to April 2008, I have been taking part in an internship at the Archives Service Center at the University of Pittsburgh working on the Corner Case Files of Allegheny County.  The Experience has been a great one.  As a senior history major, this has been one of the most beneficial opportunities that helped me acquire more necessary skills in being a historian.  How has this been a beneficial opportunity?  From different classes in the past, I learned how to apply past events to determine the outcome of the files, increase my writing skills, and the experience to work with physically with hard copy documents and use them to make my own interpretation and elevations of the supposed deaths.

In January we (corner case interns) started in the year 1953.  By April we had completed up to 1973 and 1893 to 1896.  The last twenty years documents were fascinating to work with. Some had pictures, readable reports, logical explanations, autopsy reports, and other documentation to explain the cause of death.  This part was easier for me at least to determine the way people died and why.  I connected a lot of questions together, for example, on many (when I mean many, I mean fifty out of two hundred a box) cause of deaths listed “coronary occlusion.”  This meant heart complications, heart attack, and heart disease.  As the years went on, there were less “coronary occlusions” and more cardio vascular accidents and myocardial infarctions. Medical advancements were growing at this point in time.  The ability for doctors to diagnose heart problems became easier and the breakthroughs in modern medicine allowed doctors to track these problems.  Another example would be, if the Coroner Case Files only report unusual deaths that undergo investigation why would it be listed in the files?  Being able to read different documents and put together pieces helped me with understanding my major. Like the occurrence of heart attack victims in the files, I read and found out that they were usually found dead on a street, in a car, at a home, and there was no reason (sometimes) for the decease to have died of a heart failure, perfect health and such.  The City Coroner investigated because it was odd term of events, and were looking to see if there was a hand of foul play involved.

A difficulty with the files occurred, this was toward the end, or you could say the beginning.  In April we had just started the 1893 files, and because of the condition of these files being tattered, fragile, old, and the writing being very hard to examine, finding information for an entry or cause a death was hard to determine.  However, as a personal experience regarding the files, it was rather entertaining.  The amounts of unusual deaths were piled high in the 1890’s.  Because after a while it became easier to determine the deaths and read the cursive ink pen on the documents.  So, finding out how many people became intoxicate and walked in front of a train accidentally was amusing.

On that note, that was one negative or positive thing I absorbed from this project:  I acquired a sick sense of humor.  After reading 100 files about people dying, committing suicide, car accidents, and even baby deaths, you have to build a stronger emotional feeling towards this case or it becomes overwhelming. The first day I read a suicide note, and I became sad and cried. After a week I realized that I will be seeing this for the next 4 months and I have to become stronger to deal with it.

Overall, I enjoy the opportunity of this internship.  I found out about events and heard about all the places in the city of Pittsburgh. I have been a resident of Pittsburgh for 10 years and believe it or not I have from these files created an appreciation for this city.  People died, and it made me like Pittsburgh more, go figure.  The internship let me meet a lot of good people and these people were interested in the same thing I was.  The archiving also helped me narrow down that this would be something I would like to do in graduate school and for my career afterwards.  The Corner Case Project has been an amazing experience and I do not regret it one iota.

BG 4-28-08