Product Description

In 44 B.C. a Roman doctor named Antistius performed the first autopsy recorded in history—on the corpse of murder victim Julius Caesar. However, not until the nineteenth century did the systematic application of scientific knowledge to crime detection seriously begin, so that the tiniest scrap of evidence might yield astonishing results—like the single horsehair that betrayed the sex murderer in New York’s 1936 Nancy Titterton case. In this massive and compelling history of forensic detection, the internationally recognized criminologist Colin Wilson charts the progress of criminalistics from the first attempts at detecting arsenic to the development of an impressive array of such modern techniques as ballistic analysis, blood typing, voice printing, textile analysis, psychological profiling, and genetic fingerprinting. Wilson also explores the alarmingly modern phenomenon of serial sex crime with a discussion of notorious cases that includes Jack the Ripper, Lucie Berlin, Mary Phagan, the Black Dahlia, Charles Manson, and Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called Yorkshire Ripper. Wilson shows how the continual sophistication of forensic detection and the introduction of computerized information retrieval has increasingly stacked the odds against the sex killer. Whatever the case, Written in Blood never fails to enlighten and intrigue.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #703252 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

Student
This book is chalk-full of tons of information!! It tells about almost every recorded crime, including famous ones such as The Black Dahlia, Charles Manson, and Jack the Ripper; including an interesting turn on who Jack the Ripper really was. There are also a couple pages of pictures from crime scenes such as Madeline Smith, Leonard Lake, John George Haigh, and the trial of Ted Bundy. If you're looking for an interesting read and you love forensics and crime, then this is the book for you!