Brief Bio:

 

Lauren Buches is currently a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh. She plans to major in both History and English Writing (journalism), and pursue a graduate degree in History. Her favorite historic topics are the Victorian Era, Napoleonic naval warfare, Middle Eastern history, and the history of ancient civilizations.

 

Lauren is also Managing Editor for Collision Literary Magazine, Design Editor for The Catholic Anchor, and a staff writer for The Pitt News.

 

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Working Notes:

 

1/17/08

 

A case of four murders and a suicide: a man shot his three children and his mother, and then turned the gun on himself. According to a copy of the police report, he left a suicide note blaming it on a certain woman and her mother. An interview from the first woman in the note revealed quite a soap opera storyline:

 

The woman had been dating the man for seven years, and had been secretly married to him for two years. The couple’s mothers thought that they were married, even though they never told anyone. The wife claimed that it was a rocky marriage.

 

One week before the murders a dispute occurred between the couple about living arrangements- the woman wanted a house of her own, but did not want her mother-in-law living there. The man proposed that they leave his mother and kids behind and get a place of their own, but the woman would not agree to it. It was noted by the man’s brother that he had been sitting around the house, depressed, before the murders occurred. 195307_59-195307_62

 

A 61-year-old man committed suicide by hanging himself from the banister of a stairway with some clothesline. He had been in poor health for the past several months, which caused him to go blind. He had been released from a Veteran’s hospital a few weeks earlier; his wife tried to postpone the release, concerned about his mental state, but his doctor told him that he did not think the man would kill himself because he had been exposed to plenty of razors at the hospital and had not tried anything while there. A note found in his shirt pocket said: “Lazarus John 11:1-45 Raised from dead” 195307_135

 

A 65-year-old woman committed suicide by hanging herself on a cupboard door with the cord of her robe. 195307_44

 

A 26-year-old man confronted his estranged wife one night after she had been out with friends about leaving him for her lesbian lover. They got into a fight and the wife took off. The husband chased her and shot her down. The friends she had been with, including her lover, witnessed the scene. The husband shot himself shortly after. 195307_147-195307_148

 

A 40-year-old black man was thought to have committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. There were several notes found- two at his place of residence, where he said that he was going to kill himself and returned the key of his apartment to his landlord, thanking him for his kindness. A note was found on his when he died that said: “Goodbye Rose I never hurt you Why did you have to hurt me I will never forgive you.” An address written on the note turned out to be the residence of a woman named Rose, although she said that she had hired him to do some work for her a few weeks earlier, and knew nothing else about him. 

 

This death appeared to be a bit suspicious to me. Although there were several suicide notes found, the gun that the man supposedly shot himself with was never recovered. The police eventually seemed to believe that it was picked up by a passerby. But who would pick up a gun and leave a body there? The man was also found in the woods, so who could have really passed by? There was an investigation for the gun, but the suspects claimed to have no knowledge of it. Another odd occurrence was when a worker at one of Pittsburgh’s inclines asked another man if he had heard of a colored man shooting himself before the body had even been discovered. Nothing was found on him either. 195307_157

 

A 45-year-old inmate at the Allegheny County Jail hangs himself with a shoestring. He had been sentenced 15 to 30 years on sodomy charges. Another inmate had heard him say that he thought it was a very tough charge for a first offense, but no other indications. He left a note that gave all of his money to his brother. 195307_170

 

A 49-year-old police officer was investigating trouble at a residence. He and other officers broke down a door to gain entry, and he was shot as he came into the house. The murderer was arrested and incarcerated in Police Station #1. He hanged himself with a chain attached to the jail cell wall. 195404_175-195404_176

 

 

1/25/08

 

I have come across a couple of similar deaths where older people have fallen out of second story windows because it is believed they mistakened the window for a door. I am baffled over how that could possibly happen. Even if they could not see the window clearly, it just seems like there is such a difference between a window and a door that it would not be all that possible. 195507_76, 195712_98

 

Another strange death was the murder of a 41-year-old widow. Her 8-year-old son found her in the basement of their house with her pants pulled down and hatchet wounds to her head. There were some newspaper clippings in the file that advised people to look for a maniacal axe-killer. But in later clippings it said that her son confessed to the murder two years later. She had been trying to hit him with a belt, so he ran to the basement, grabbed the hatchet, and knocked her down with the blunt end. Then he hit her with the sharp end until she died, and pulled her pants down to make it look like a sex crime. 195701_144

 

 

2/1/08

 

I've noticed an interesting trend in many of the carbon monoxide poisoning deaths over the past few weeks- many of the victims had been drinking before they died. My guess is that the alcohol made them really cold, so they turned up their gas stoves full blast, which sucked the oxygen out of the air and killed them.

 

One of the most interesting cases I came across this week was the joint suicide of a couple in their early 40s. The wife had multiple sclerosis for the past seven years. The disease had progressed to the point that she was nearly a quadriplegic (fully paralyzed). She had tried to kill herself two weeks earlier, and had only just been released from the hospital. The couple was found in bed together, dead from an unknown poison, although there were many pills in the house. They left a note that said:

 

"Please try to understand and forgive us it was the only way for us."

 

I think the wife convinced her husband that her life was no longer worth living, and he was so distraught over the possibility of losing her that he wanted to die too. So they agreed to die together. 195901_43-195901_44

 

 

2/8/08

 

Case 195909_38 was the suicide of  Pitt philosophy professor.  The man had tried to kill himself three times previously, and had been committed to Western Psych. He was released for the day so he could run some errands with his wife, one of which was to pick up some if his books from his office on the 13th floor of the Cathedral of Learning. His wife said that he kept going back for items as she was trying to get him to leave. Finally he thought he had left the light in his office on, and went back while she waited at the elevator. A few minutes later she went to see what was taking him so long. He had his office window open and had one leg out of the window. She grabbed the other leg and yelled for help. A geography professor, whose office was next door, ran into the room and grabbed the philosophy professor's other leg. They held on  for several minutes, and finally let go when they could not hold on any longer.

 

I have heard that several people have jumped from the Cathedral of Learning in the past, but I never came across any solid evidence of the fact until this case.

 

There were three additional cases of teenagers who got into a head-on collision on a bridge. The two drivers and one of the passengers died; the coroner's jury suspected that the teens were playing a game of "chicken" with each other, which the surviving passengers insisted that they were not playing chicken. One of the case files had pictures of the two cars, completely demolished. I wonder if there will be pictures of additional accidents in further case files. 195909_74-1959_76

 

 

2/18/08

 

There were two case files of cab drivers who died after they were beaten and robbed. I have to wonder if the cases were related. From the newspaper clippings there appears to be no other correlation to the cases except the drivers' professions. 196002_181-196002_182

 

I also came across a case of a priest who fell on his parish grounds, received an internal hemorrhage, and died later that day. Ironically, the day before he gave a sermon on the uncertainty of human life. 196012_237

 

 

2/22/08

 

I will be listing all of the carbon monoxide poisoning deaths in the files from now on.

 

A 58-year-old woman died from inhaling carbon monoxide from her gas stove. She was not found for a week, and was in a bad state of decomposition when she was discovered. 196102_32

 

A 20-year-old male was found dead in his sister's apartment. He got the key from her so make a private phone call. When he failed to return with the key that night, she went back to her apartment and broke a window to get him. The gas stove was on and he was dead on the ground. 196102_56

 

A family of five were found dead in their apartment by the father's brother. They had just moved into a new apartment two days earlier. Tests showed that the husband, 48, wife, 51, and three sons, 13, 14, and 17, died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to poor ventilation in the apartment. 196102_80-196102_84

 

There was an industrial death involving a 30-year-old worker for the Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical Co. He was working at a blast furnace, keeping it going to prevent the pipes from freezing in the frigid weather. He got too close to the fumes from the furnace for too long, and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. 196102_114

 

A 61-year-old man died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a running car in his garage underneath his house. It did not appear to be a suicide because the body was found in the kitchen, so it was ruled an accidental death. 196103_212

 

 

3/5/08

 

I spent time this weekend editing most of the case file pages on this wiki, excluding the time period ones (1910-1615, 1935-1940, etc.). I made sure that misspelled words were corrected, rewrote a few strangely worded sentences, ages were all described in the same way (ex: 5-year-old instead of 5-year old or 5 year old) and the font and size of the words was consistent throughout.

 

 

3/7/08

 

The files are becoming less detailed- there are fewer police reports, newspaper clippings, or descriptions of events in general in many homicide files and other apparently newsworthy deaths. I am baffled as to why the information seems to be scarcer in the 1960s than it was in the 1950s.

 

Some interesting deaths:

 

A terrible accident occurred on a bridge. It started when a white man in one car supposedly yelled racial epithets at four black men in another car as he was driving by. They began to race the white man, driving on the wrong side of the road. While they were on the bridge another car came in the opposite direction. That car stopped, while the car with the four men in it collided into the neutral car. One of the lack men got out of the car, which then burst into flames, killing the other three instead. The driver of the neutral car was not hurt, while the car the men were racing fled the scene. 196310_16-196310_18

 

Police received a call from a woman saying that her son had died one hour after she gave birth to it alone in her house. When the police got there the woman told them that she was separated from her husband, and went into labor from 2 to 6 p.m. the day of the birth. One of her young sons helped her by getting her a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord. The woman said that the baby was breathing and seemed healthy, so she laid it down and went to feed her two sons. When she came back an hour later the baby was dead. The coroner found the cause of death to be hemorrhage from unligated umbilical cord and non-resuscitation. When asked why she had not gone to a hospital or gotten help from a neighbor, she said that she did not know anyone who could help her. One of her neighbors who knew her well, though, said that she did not even know the woman was pregnant and had seen her around 5 p.m. the day of the delivery, talked to her and was told that the woman was going grocery shopping. Despite the conflicting stories, the police appear to have not taken any further action with her. 196309_62

 

 

3/13/08

 

This particular case description seemed simple enough at first- a 45-year-old man had been depressed lately, and had been in and out of hospitals for the past few months. His wife caught him at his tuxedo shop writing a suicide note, so she took him to the doctor, where they made arraignments to have him admitted to a hospital. Shortly thereafter, the man's wife called him at the shop, and he did not seem like he wanted to talk to her. She tried to call again sometime later, but he did not pick up. So she went to the shop with her brother-in-law, where they found him dead from a gunshot wound to the right temple, the gun at his feet. In an affidavit written the week after his death, the deceased man's wife expressed her belief that her husband had killed himself.

 

Fourteen letters in the case file, however, tell a different story. Postmarked from July 1965 all the way to 1974, the wife of the deceased, the same one who was recorded as saying that her husband must have killed himself, changed her mind. Her letters all say variations of the same thing- her husband was murdered because there was no gunpowder found on his fingers and he was shot in the back of the head, not in the right temple (the latter which the funeral director can affirm to). The first letters ask the coroner to fix the mistake. The later letters berate the coroner and the police for not doing their jobs, the writer insisting that she will have justice, she knows who the killer is and will kill him herself and make the front page of the newspaper. She said that money was taken from the safe in the shop and the murderer left his gloves in the shop. She also told the coroner, and successive coroners, that her five children know the truth as well and they deserve to have justice too; the coroner should think of the children. She said that she would pray for God to either give her an answer as to why her husband's death was still considered a suicide after all of those years or punish the coroner and the police for not doing their jobs. She continued these letters even when she moved to Florida years later. 196502_79

 

Several teenage girls were visiting a friend of theirs and her brother one afternoon. One of the girls asked the brother, who was about their age, for some wine because she had a sore throat. The boy went to the basement, where his parents kept the wine, took a wine bottle and poured out some wine for the girl. He went back upstairs and gave the glass to her. She drank some of it, but spit it out, saying that it tasted awful. The girl's sister also tasted it, saying that it was bad. Soon afterward the girl who had asked for the wine got sick and vomited on and off for over an hour. She was finally taken home, and then to the hospital, where she died of gastro-enteritis.

 

A few days later the boy was being questioned by his parents when his father asked the boy to show him from which bottle he had poured the wine. When the boy pointed it out the father turned the bottle around. On the other side was a homemade label that said "Poison." The bottle contained weed killer, which had 28% arsenic in it. 196502_180

 

 

3/24/08

 

While working on this Coroner's Project over spring break, I had the chance to start bringing down the last 60 or so boxes of case files from the storage floor, starting in the 70s. Today I started bringing down the last 30 boxes. I have a little over two weeks left on this project, so I am hoping that we can complete the rest of the boxes from the 70s before I leave. That would really be going out on a bang.

 

 

3/28/08

 

I have noticed that there are more deaths in these files of people from other counties. In one case file, a 20-year-old Westmoreland County man working at Latrobe Sheet Metal, Inc., received second and third degree burns over 50% of his body when a gasoline can exploded. He was later transferred from Latrobe Hospital to mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he died. I am from the Latrobe area, so I found this case very interesting. 197104_124

 

I have also noticed that many cases outside of Allegheny County were brought to Pittsburgh hospitals. The medical system in Pittsburgh must have been very good in the early 70s.

 

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4/3/08

 

Yesterday I brought down the last of the 1970s case files down from the fourth floor. I only have five hours left to work at the Archives Service Center, but it does appear that most, if not all of the boxes will be done by that time. It is a shame that I will miss working with the files from the 1880s, but I have enjoyed the time period I have worked with. I started at 1953, and I must say that I have noticed the case files change significantly. In the 1950s there were many more deaths listed as "undetermined natural cause," more industrial deaths, and more descriptive accounts of the decedents' deaths and the events surrounding them. There were more newspaper clippings, which sometimes gave photographs, and gave me, also a journalism student, excellent incite as to what news stories were like in the 1950s. Although all newspapers have generally followed standard AP style format since the 1920s, it is important to note that news stories do not read today like they did 50 years ago.

 

As the years passed in the case files, I noticed the files become better organized, but also smaller and less detailed as to the events surrounding a person's death. Hospital records and graphic photos of particularly violent or odd suicides or accidental deaths were included in the files. Although these are not the skull fragments or bullet casings common in case files from the 1920s or 1930s, they gave me a better understanding of what the coroner had to face while examining the bodies, and what initial reactions the police or civilians may have had while coming across the decedents.

 

This project gave me an insight into the lives and deaths of thousands of Pittsburghers over a period of 20 years. One does notice the changes if one works with the files continuously and diligently. I have enjoyed my experience with these coroner's case files.

 

 

 

CO Deaths:

 

195404_113- male, 68, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from coal boiler

 

195412_25- male, 70, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

195412_199- male, 33, CO poising due to gas stove

 

195412_206- male, 54, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto gas fumes (suicide)

 

195503_19- male, 53, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

195503_20- male, 69, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

195503_21- male, 69, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

195711_96- male, 26, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto; was running car when he fell asleep

 

195711_126- male, 28, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

195711_147- male, 38, CO poisoning from kitchen gas range

 

195711_147- female, 25, CO poisoning from kitchen gas range

 

195711_147- female, 32, CO poisoning from kitchen gas range

 

195812_95- male, 58, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas range

 

195901_83- female, 72, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from a gas range

 

195901_98- male, 45, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from a gas stove

 

195903_129- male, 38, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto gas fumes (suicide)

 

195903_228- male, 73, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from a gas hot plate

 

195904_77- male, 2, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust

 

195904_78- male, 45, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust

 

196102_32- female, 58, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

196102_56- male, 20, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from gas stove

 

196102_80- male, 48, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes in not well-ventilated house

 

196102_81- male, 14, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes in not well-ventilated house

 

196102_82- male, 17, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes in not well-ventilated house

 

196102_83- female, 51, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes in not well-ventilated house

 

196102_84- male, 13, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes in not well-ventilated house

 

106102_95- male, 58, CO poisoning from inhaling fumes from auto exhaust

 

106102_96- female, 37, CO poisoning from inhaling auto fumes

 

196102_114- male, 30, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from blast furnace

 

196103_110- male, 43, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196103_222- male, 29, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196105_81- male, CO poisoning, found lying on garage floor, had spark plugs on chest

 

196107_29- female, 60, black, burns and 80% CO saturation due to fire in her home

 

196107_100- male, 43, 95% CO saturation (suicide)

 

196108_139- female, 66, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196109_87- male, 59, 95% CO saturation due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196109_116- male, 35, 95% CO saturation due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196110_41- male, 43, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196111_52- female, 35, &2% CO saturation

 

196111_81- male, 52, 90% CO saturation (suicide)

 

196111_82- female, 64, 90% CO Saturation (suicide)

 

196111_111- female, 22, white, 70% CO saturation due to inhaling fumes from house fire

 

196201_19- female, 76, smoke inhalation and CO poisoning from fire in home, cause unknown

 

196201_250- male, 44, 95% CO saturation due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196202_99- male, 62, 90% CO saturation due to inhaling fumes from kitchen range

 

196202_162- female, 41, white, acute CO poisoning, extensive burns of the entire body due to fire; cause undetermined. Had MS; could not escape burning house because struck in wheelchair

 

196202_220- male, 56, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from auto exhaust (suicide)

 

196202_222- male, 85, black, asphyxiation by CO poisoning from smoke inhalation due to fire in home

 

196202_223- female, 64, black, asphyxiation by CO poisoning from smoke inhalation due to fire in home

 

196202_224- male, 48, black, asphyxiation by CO poisoning from smoke inhalation due to fire in home

 

196203_06- male, 40, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196203_07- male, 48, white, CO inhalation and severe burns of body due to fire in home

 

196203_22- male, 49, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196203_40- male, 52, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196203_221- male, 20, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196203_224- female, 86, white, extensive third degree burns of body due to fire in home

 

196203_225- male, 33, white, CO inhalation, first degree burns of body, arms and legs due to fire in home

 

196203_260- female, 62, black, CO inhalation and burns of entire body due to fire in home

 

196203_47- male, 53, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196307_05- female, 39, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

196309_146- male, 23, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause undetermined

 

197109_256- female, 66, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

197109_283- male, 53, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

197201_272-male, 21, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

197202_29- male, 57, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

197204_12- male, 80, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

197204_12- male, 52, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

197204_12- female, 65, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

197204_12- female, 47, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause undetermined

197211_98- male, 53, black, hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, CO poisoning; accidental

 

197211_114- male, 49, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

197211_12- male, 53, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause undetermined

 

197212_30- female, 35, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car (suicide)

 

197212_39- male, 83, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke from housefire

 

197212_40- female, 9, black, housefire resulting in conflagration of body and CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke

 

197212_41- male, 93, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling fumes from a gas stove, cause accidental

 

197212_46- male, 8, black, housefire resulting in conflagration of body and CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke

 

197212_47- male, 2, black, housefire resulting in conflagration of body and CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke

 

197212_51- female, 8, black, housefire resulting in conflagration of body and CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke

 

197212_52- female, 4, black, housefire resulting in conflagration of body and CO poisoning due to inhaling smoke

 

197306_44- male, 22, white, CO poisoning due to inhaling auto fumes from car, cause accidental

 

 

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Summary of Experience with Coroner's Case Files:

 Pittsburgh’s Life as Perceived in its Deaths

 

 

The Coroner’s Case Files Project has been an invaluable experience that given me a plethora of information about the history of Pittsburgh and the daily lives of Pittsburghers from the 1950s to the 1970s through the causes of death, the practices of the coroner and the media, and the increasing importance of the medical facilities in the city.

When I first began the project I started at 1953. In the 1950s case files I read not only the Coroner Jury’s verdict of the various causes of death, but also police accounts if they happened in public places or were violent deaths of what the scene looked like. I read several witnesses’ accounts of most of the deaths, and even newspaper stories covering the more unusual deaths or those of public figures in Pittsburgh. There was a tendency for many deaths to be listed as "undetermined natural cause" and more industrial deaths. The newspaper clippings often included photographs of the scenes where car accidents or fires took place and gave me, also a journalism student, excellent incite as to what news stories were like in the 1950s. Although all newspapers have generally followed standard AP style format since the 1920s, it is important to note that news stories do not quite read today like they did 50 years ago. Journalists in the 50s tended to use extreme adjectives such as “horrific” and “tragic” to describe particularly gruesome deaths, putting their personal opinion into the story; today, journalists tend to let witnesses to an event describe it for them in quotes, to describe an event while remaining neutral reporters themselves.

As the years passed in the case files, I noticed the files become better organized, but also smaller and less detailed as to the events surrounding a person's death. Hospital records and graphic photos of particularly violent or odd suicides or accidental deaths were included in the files, which gave me a better understanding of what the coroner had to face while examining the bodies, and what initial reactions the police or civilians may have had while coming across the decedents. There was one file, however, from 1973 that I came across in my last days working with the files that included skull fragments with hair still attached to them in two envelopes at the bottom of the file. They appeared to be the entrance and exit wounds of the bullet that killed the decedent in that file. I was surprised to find that physical evidence, especially since other interns have not found any skull fragments in files since the 1920s and 1930s.

The lack of industrial deaths in the 1970s files may be an indicator that industrial practices and procedures were safer for employees. Another characteristic of the 1970s appears to be that more people from other counties were being sent to hospitals in Pittsburgh for treatment after accidents. Perhaps it was at this time in Pittsburgh’s history that the medical facilities became renowned for their expertise in medicine, and why so many people were transferred to Pittsburgh hospitals for treatment after automobile, industrial, and other accidents.

It also appears that people were starting to realize the dangers of carbon monoxide- while I came across many accidental carbon monoxide inhalation deaths, usually due to the decedents turning up gas stoves heat in the winter while in poorly ventilated apartments in the 1950s files, by the 1970s files, these accidental carbon monoxide deaths had gone done, while most of the carbon monoxide-related suicides had drastically gone up. The number of women suicides also went up from the 50s to the 70s, with many of them inhaling carbon monoxide from auto exhaust, one of the less painful and violent ways to kill oneself. This increase in women suicides may have helped the suicide rate by carbon monoxide poisoning go up.

This project gave me an insight into the lives and deaths of thousands of Pittsburghers over a period of 20 years. The changes in Pittsburgh’s demography throughout time are most prevalent if one works with the files continuously and diligently. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with these coroner's case files- an entire generation’s cycle of life and death really does tell a lot about how a society can change over even a short period of time.