Brief Bio:

 

 

 

 

Working Notes:

 

Coroner Files 1960's:

 

1960s

Docket numbers: 196706_216-196708_93; 196810_57-196810_214; 196910_40-196910_231

General Appearance of folders: well ordered for the most part, minimal gaps between files, all boxes were filled to capacity with folders, many of the folders were empty and said either “homicide” or “auto” on them- actual files were being kept somewhere else.

Patterns or Specific Cases: As far as I noticed, the majority of deaths were elderly, and they occurred because of a fall and subsequent hospitalizations. There were a fair amount of suicides, as well, mostly from jumping off of bridges into the river. There were minimal photographs present, but the few that were there were of railroad accident casualties and steel mill accidents. Some of the more interesting, or different, cases regarded the deaths of people at Kennywood Park, and there also a fair number of automobile accidents that were interesting because they had different paperwork, and because they usually concerned more than one person, had different names and statements present.

General Statements: The files form the 1960s were interesting because of the fact that I had not yet handled primary documents. They were very similar to each other, and the causes of death did not seem much different than they would be today. One more interesting fact was that when speaking of African Americans, the person writing out the reports used the term Negro in the race box, which I am attributing to the lack of Civil Rights at the time.

 

1900s

Docket numbers: 190111_60-190111_111

General Appearance of folders: tons and tons of files shoved into cardboard boxes. Files were folded four times over so that they were ultimately the size of an envelope. Files were extremely dirty, so that latex gloves were necessary. The files were also stuck together most of the time because there were old rubber bands that were wrapped around each file that had become extremely hardened.

Patterns or Specific Cases: the most prevalent pattern was the deaths due to being struck by trains. There were a lot of transcripts from questioning held at coroner’s office, mostly from the deaths from Steel Mills, or any work related death. There were a lot of accidental child deaths as well, mostly due to burns or catching on fire. In many instances, doctors came to houses, or people were brought back to their houses and then doctors were called, instead of bringing them straight to the hospital. There were also multiple men in their 30s who died from heart disease due to alcoholism. Many diseases that are treatable today were fatal in 1901. There was on instance of a man being shot during a card game of “five up”, and another of a woman dying because of self inflicted abortion. Victims were referred to by their nationalities, for example Negro, Italian, White, and Russian. The spelling was not that good in these files, in suicide notes, statements from family members, and those writing up the files. Pittsburgh at times is spelled without the h, as a plan was implemented to change the spelling of the city. Some of the diseases that people were dying from were croup, dropsy, and palsy. Spasms were also a common cause of death, which, today, would not be sufficient. There were very few natural causes, except for heart disease. Also, the majority of the deaths were male.

General Statements: Terminology is much less technical; murder and homicide files actually contained the files. The files were very fragile and tended to rip slightly if they were pulled apart from each other too fast. These files were much more interesting to me, because they were from much longer ago, and everything, from the names to causes of death, to the handwriting was so different from the files from the 60s.

 

 

 Coroner Files 1900's:

 

Coroner Notes

November-December 1901

 

Total number of records o far: 225

Percent Men: 77%

Percent Women: 23%

Over 18 years old: 84%

Under 18 years old: 16%

Train related deaths: 24%

Suicides: 6%

Work related deaths: 15%

 

So far, the majority of deaths have occurred because of being struck by trains. There are a number of causes of death that are different from what they would be today. They include:

 

Dropsy- swelling of soft tissue due to the accumulation of water in the body. Today, this would be edema as a result of congestive heart failure.

Apoplexy- another word for a stroke.

Spasms and Convulsions- could be a legitimate cause of death, but could be related to another cause of death. One can’t tell the exact cause of death, though.

Croup- an infectious disease of the respiratory system; most commonly found in children.

Palsy- Today, there are different types, but palsy is a disease of the neurological system.

Septicemia- Body wide illness that travels through the bloodstream resulting from a localized infection.

 

Methods of suicide:

Carbolic Acid poisoning- causes nausea or vomiting, burning of the esophagus, rapid heart rate, convulsions, or coma.

Laudanum poisoning- can cause rapid heartbeat, skin rashes; an overdose would cause death.

 

Heart disease generally happened to those in their late 30s up through those in their 70s. For people who lived that long, the cause of death was generally they "dropped dead” or “heart failure” or “apoplexy”.  There were not very many cases of those who lived until their 60s, though.

 

I also noticed a lot of racism in these files, especially in the transcripts of the inquests. The word “colored” was used on the front of files for African Americans, and the word “mase” was used as a correction by those who were questioning men who were testifying when they used derogatory terms.

 

Notes that I looked up regarding work related deaths so far:

From Journal of Social History

December 22, 2003

Edward Slavishak

 

-Crystal Eastman put out Work-Accidents and the Law in 1910 which was an expose of working class life in the city of Pittsburgh.

-Examples from her work:

-From the Homestead Steel Works: Andrew Antonik- received $150 and an artificial leg

-Artificial limbs subsequently became a way for companies to show that they cared about their injured employees after Eastman’s work came out.

-In 1910 Pittsburgh had the third highest mortality rate for men ages 15-54

-Before 1910, mills did not keep a regular account of accidents

-Pittsburgh Industries made up 26% of the state’s reported fatal accidents

-Steel mills claimed 65% of these accidents

 

Coroner Files 1903-1904:

 

As seen in my other notes, there are still an overwhelming amount of deaths from train accidents, but there are also some new causes of death that showed up after 1902. There have been a lot more children and infant deaths, mostly due to carelessness on the part of the parents. In one case, a mother left her two children, who were under the age of six, alone at home while she went to the market and one of her children subsequently caught on fire from a grate and burned to death. This was a common killer of young children, catching on fire, from open stoves, lit matches, candles, and grates. Children also often drowned in basins or bathtubs, also because of negligence on the parts of the parents. In my files, though, the parents were never held accountable for these deaths; they were all ruled as accidental deaths.

            There also seems to be a lot more racism in these files. For instance, when an African American was the deceased party, the cover would say “colored”, and in inquests, when the coroner would ask questions, men would usually respond with derogatory names for African Americans and foreign born citizens.

            In my files from 1903 and 1904, the murder cases were present, and they were usually among the most interesting cases. A lot took place in boarding houses near mines and other jobs involving heavy labor. They usually took place at night and while the men were drinking, and the crimes were usually committed against someone with a different ethnicity than the killer.

            One of the worst cases that I had involved a pregnant woman and her husband. Case 190311_162 involved a woman who was seven months pregnant whose husband killed her and then attempted to kill himself, and instead just injured himself very severely. Case 190311_169 involved a police officer being shot and five men were taken into custody and charged with the murder.

            Diseases such as consumption and pneumonia were frequent killers, which illustrates the lack of medical expertise that doctors today have. Spasms and diphtheria were also killers of children; diseases today that could be prevented or treated.

            Heart disease was very prevalent at this time. There were a handful of people who died after the age of 65 or 70, but most of those that died from “heart disease” were between the ages of 35 and 60. They died at very young ages from heart diseases, and the majority of those who suffered from this were men. In my opinion, I think that one of the reasons for heart disease was the high stress situations that some of these people lived in. Men who worked in mills and coal mines worked long hours in dangerous conditions which could contribute to heart disease. Also nutrition probably was not as important as it is today and checkups were not as frequent, nor could doctors check on the heart that much because of a lack of current medical knowledge.

            Work related accidents continued to be pretty high. People were buried under falls of stone, slate, and coal; whatever they were working with. Liquid metal frequently killed men when it spilled, men were crushed between train cars, and working conditions were generally pretty dangerous.