FORENSICS III

About the Book

In Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died, I reviewed twenty-eight ordinary people who were thrust into the spotlight, gaining fame not for their talents or accomplishments while living, but for the way they died. Newspaper and magazine articles ensured that stories of the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained in the public eye, so that, as Andy Warhol had predicted, their fame would last at least fifteen minutes. In some cases, it lasted much longer. While these individuals may have been “ordinary” before they died, they became extraordinary after death. Some of the people I reviewed in Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died include the “Boy in the Box,” later identified as Joseph Zarelli, who died from blunt force trauma; Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week old infant who was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock in Australia; George Floyd, whose death resulted from police brutality; Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, who were stabbed to death; Elisa Lam, who drowned in a water tank on the roof of her hotel; Michael Faherty, whose death in Ireland was attributed to spontaneous human combustion; Katherine Morris, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal grilling in an automobile; Carlos Sousa, who was mauled to death by a tiger; Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair, who committed murder-suicide; and Jayne and Corinne Peters, whose death was due to filicide-suicide, among many others. Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died reads like a mystery novel, presenting biographical and scientific information that helps readers understand how medical examiners and coroners utilized forensic analysis to determine the causes and manners of death of twenty-eight “not-so-famous” people.

About the Author

Harry A. Milman, PhD, is a pharmacologist, toxicologist, and cancer expert with more than fifty years of experience at the US National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and ToxNetwork.com. As an expert witness, Dr. Milman has assisted in over three hundred and fifty civil, criminal, and high-profile legal cases and has testified at trials and depositions. Dr. Milman is the author of the bestselling books Forensics: The Science Behind the Deaths of Famous People and the sequel Forensics II: The Science Behind the Deaths of Famous and Infamous People. Dr. Milman has also authored two award-winning mystery novels—A Death at Camp David, winner of Best Mystery Novel in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards, and Soyuz: The Final Flight, a finalist for Best Second Novel in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and for Best Science Fiction Novel in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards. Besides his bestselling books, Dr. Milman has edited five science books, authored more than seventy scientific articles, and has appeared as a toxicology expert on the History Channel, the Oxygen Channel, television and radio news programs, true-crime television shows, and numerous podcasts.