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Death in Paradise: An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner
Unnatural celebrity deaths and unnaturally celebrated murders pockmark the history of Los Angeles, looming as large in the public imagination as the Hollywood stars themselves. Death in Paradise is the first authorized history of Los Angeles by way of its coroner's office, revisiting important or high-profile cases that remain shrouded in mystery. With many never-before-published photographs documenting the notorious deaths of Bobby Kennedy, Sam Rummel, Dorothy Dandridge, Bugsy Siegel, Sharon Tate, Janis Joplin, and others, this book presents an unflinching view of Tinseltown's dark underbelly. The book includes over 100 photographs of infamous crimes from every decade of the 20th century.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 31, 2022
Focusing on a handful of curious deaths and the sensational deaths of the famous (though still just a handful) this book takes us through the LA Coroners office from its founding in the 1850s to the end of the 20th century when the office had a world class reputation in forensic science. This book isn't particularly deep and with illustrations throughout and larger print, it's a quick read, but it held my interest as well as any true crime podcast or documentary.
February 18, 2023
I never went to the gift shop of the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner, Skeletons in the Closet, before it closed in 2019! The Museum of Death in Hollywood closed in 2019 and Dearly Departed Tours ended in 2022 (but moved online to YouTube). What's next, no more Goth Day at Disneyland? Say it ain't so!
I first became aware of this book in 2005, added it to my Amazon wishlist back then and I forgot about it for almost 20 years, until I read Myriam Gurba's Mean, where Death in Paradise has a minor role in the plot. In this book, I liked the history of Los Angeles, history of coroner as a job in the Wild West, the popular science aspects of forensics, and biographical details of Dr. Thomas Noguchi "coroner to the stars," but the majority of the pages are dedicated to infamous 20th century crime scenes in Los Angeles County. I was familiar with most of those grisly tragedies except the Owens Valley aquifer disaster perpetrated by William Mulholland, because I wasn't really paying attention during Chinatown.
If you are fascinated by the macabre, this is the book for you.
I first became aware of this book in 2005, added it to my Amazon wishlist back then and I forgot about it for almost 20 years, until I read Myriam Gurba's Mean, where Death in Paradise has a minor role in the plot. In this book, I liked the history of Los Angeles, history of coroner as a job in the Wild West, the popular science aspects of forensics, and biographical details of Dr. Thomas Noguchi "coroner to the stars," but the majority of the pages are dedicated to infamous 20th century crime scenes in Los Angeles County. I was familiar with most of those grisly tragedies except the Owens Valley aquifer disaster perpetrated by William Mulholland, because I wasn't really paying attention during Chinatown.
If you are fascinated by the macabre, this is the book for you.
March 5, 2008
Archived at http://web.archive.org/web/2002082911...
Death in Paradise: An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner by Tony Blanche and Brad Schreiber
With the cover's dramatic black-and-white photograph of a toe tag, stamped over with a bloody red blotch that proclaims in block black letters, "As seen on Entertainment Tonight," you'd think this was nothing but a gossipy tome full of The Grisly Details of The Deaths Of Hollywood (gasp)! But it is actually quite more than that. This book really does illuminate the activities of the LA County Coroner's Office, laying out the facts as concisely, fully and accurately as, well, a coroner's report.
The prologue presents the county of Los Angeles, both its dreamy Hollywood mythology and its gritty "To Live and Die in LA" reality, working in the statistics that, at present, nearly 200 people die in the county each day, and that the staff of the Department of the Coroner, including its photographers, perform 20-odd autopsies per day. The first chapter recounts the history of the coroner as a profession and the development of forensic medicine and pathology into respected sciences (once these disciplines got past the periodic accusations of being abominations against God and man, that is). The second chapter chronicles the history of the original El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles, from the stream of wild west murders in the dangerous Calle de los Negros area in the 1800s to the suspicious St. Francis Dam Disaster in the early 1900s.
Later chapters fill us in on more recent history, explaining how Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the so-called "coroner to the stars" who served as chief medical examiner of the department from 1967 to 1982, was a true visionary who moved the Department of the Coroner quite literally out of the dark and into the light, taking it out of the dank, ill-equipped, and poorly ventilated basement of the Hall of Justice and moving it into the fresh new four-story Los Angeles County Forensic Science Center in 1972, along with a funding plan to ensure the facility would stay on the cutting edge of forensic technology. Further, Dr. Noguchi pioneered the concept of "total investigation," and the idea of having all of the various scientists and investigators conduct their case work under the same roof. Currently the LA County Coroner's Office handles not only work in their own jurisdiction, but occasionally takes on difficult cases referred to them from other states as well as other countries. And the book includes sketches of a few particularly difficult cases, explaining how they were eventually solved.
But obviously this book wasn't featured on "ET" because of its Autopsies 101 bent. At its heart are indeed The Grisly Details of The Deaths Of Hollywood. And, as mentioned in the book's subtitle, they come with pictures. The illustrations are mostly black and white photographs, many coming directly from the Coroner's Office files. (Don't read this while you're eating.) When the photographs of actual corpses are used, some are whole, some aren't. The photos are horrific in a way that movies only hint at.
Which brings us to the disturbing Black Dahlia and Lipstick Murder case files of the late 1940s, both of which consisted of not only the killing but also the brutal mutilation of a young woman. Two decades later, eight-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate would be savagely attacked in the home she shared with husband Roman Polanski, along with four of her friends, by Charles Manson and his associates, who managed to bring a vicious end to the lives of Gateway supermarket chain owner Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, before they were captured. And just moments after winning the 1968 California Democratic primary election in an increasingly hopeful bid for the White House, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was struck by two shots to the body and one shot to the head from a .22 caliber revolver by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
Drug abuse and depression have worked together to claim the lives of various talents within Hollywood, from forgotten silent film star Barbara La Marr to 1970s TV icon Freddie Prinze. There's some bitter irony in that everyone knows how one particular actress took her own life, but no one really knows her name, and she killed herself because she was not able to transfer her successful stage career into becoming a big name in films: Peg Entwistle, who took a flying leap off the 50-foot "H" of the famous "Hollywoodland" sign in 1932.
There's a whole group of cases which continue to mystify simply because in some ways they don't add up to suicides--and here, the authors are relatively restrained in an attempt to balance the dozens of authors who have used the mystery to craft fanciful stories about the imagined causes of their deaths. Enough of the right questions were asked about the long-assumed suicide of 1950s TV "Superman" George Reeves that the case was officially reopened to allow for the strong possibility of murder. But did legendary 1950s sex symbols Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Dandridge both ingest lethal doses of drugs accidentally--or did they both actually plan not to see another day? Did either 1930s actress Thelma Todd or 1960s singer Janis Joplin make a similar decision?
The most shocking deaths in LA County remain the various unsolved murders. Some cases are considered unsolved due to the technicality of not having enough evidence to convict the suspected killers, such as the murders of silent film director William Desmond Taylor, famed gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and mob lawyer Sam "The Great Mouthpiece" Rummel, who were all "mysteriously" gunned down in cold blood. Some murders did get to trial, but the outcomes remain controversial, such as the stabbing of hardened gangster Johnny Stompanato, which was confessed to by petite 14-year-old Cheryl Crane, who came away with an all-but-guaranteed justifiable homicide ruling, much to the relief of her mother--and abused Stompanato girlfriend--Lana Turner. No police officers, including Deputy Thomas Wilson, were ever disciplined despite their clearly and unjustifiably causing the death of journalist Ruben Salazar with tear gas bombs during the "Days of Rage" Vietnam war protests. And the final case file detailed in the book, in which professional football player and actor O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, does deliver the sobering note that even compelling evidence assembled by the best possible forensic technology mean almost nothing if mistakes are made by officers of the court.
Throughout the book Blanche and Schreiber make note of how Hollywood has reflected back the history of the LA County Coroner's Office through films like "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential." But most significant to them is the Glen A. Larson television series "Quincy," which ran on NBC from 1976 through 1983. The series starred actor Jack Klugman as Los Angeles Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Quincy--and, perhaps as a nod to Dr. Noguchi, co-starred actor Robert Ito as Quincy's sidekick lab assistant, Sam Fujiyama. Coroner's Office staff served as script and technical consultants for the series, which showed Dr. Quincy as a kind of superhero forensic pathologist who would let nothing get in his way of finding out the truth, even if it meant bumping heads with crooked politicians or dangerous criminals. "Quincy" developed a following all over the world, and brought an even higher profile to the real Coroner's Office. The show's crowning achievement has to be when its 1982 episode, "Give Me Your Weak," spurred Congress into passing the Orphan Drug Act, and in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. From then on, drug companies who devoted time and resources into curing so-called "orphan," or rare, diseases would receive tax breaks from the government.
Unfortunately, this book was originally completed in 1998, and so has no mention of the current hit CBS TV show, "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation," which is set in Las Vegas, or the popular NBC series, "Crossing Jordan," based on the Boston Coroner's Office. The authors also neglect to mention that few episodes of any of the various "Law & Order" shows are complete without a visit to their forensic scientists. Further, Blanche and Schreiber noticeably omit from their book deaths well known to LA County, including the fatal drug overdose of actor John Belushi, the accidental drowning of actress Natalie Wood, and the shotgun murders of Beverly Hills couple Jose and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Lyle and Erik. It can only be assumed that they chose to include only those cases that could be most fully examined and reported from a coroner's point of view. For example, the cause of death in these three cases was never uncertain; it was the fact of the deaths themselves and the somewhat unknown circumstances leading up to them that spawn the questions.
Blanche and Schreiber conclude their tour with a trip to the gift shop. Yes, the Coroner's Office has an actual gift shop, called "Skeletons in the Closet," where they sell such items as toe-tag key chains and chalk-outline beach towels. The gift shop actually provides the funding for the Coroner's Office's many community programs, including those centered around drunk driving and child abuse, as well as their programs for educating future coroners.
As you might expect, only in Hollywood. Three stars.
Published by Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000, $18
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
Death in Paradise: An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner by Tony Blanche and Brad Schreiber
With the cover's dramatic black-and-white photograph of a toe tag, stamped over with a bloody red blotch that proclaims in block black letters, "As seen on Entertainment Tonight," you'd think this was nothing but a gossipy tome full of The Grisly Details of The Deaths Of Hollywood (gasp)! But it is actually quite more than that. This book really does illuminate the activities of the LA County Coroner's Office, laying out the facts as concisely, fully and accurately as, well, a coroner's report.
The prologue presents the county of Los Angeles, both its dreamy Hollywood mythology and its gritty "To Live and Die in LA" reality, working in the statistics that, at present, nearly 200 people die in the county each day, and that the staff of the Department of the Coroner, including its photographers, perform 20-odd autopsies per day. The first chapter recounts the history of the coroner as a profession and the development of forensic medicine and pathology into respected sciences (once these disciplines got past the periodic accusations of being abominations against God and man, that is). The second chapter chronicles the history of the original El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles, from the stream of wild west murders in the dangerous Calle de los Negros area in the 1800s to the suspicious St. Francis Dam Disaster in the early 1900s.
Later chapters fill us in on more recent history, explaining how Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the so-called "coroner to the stars" who served as chief medical examiner of the department from 1967 to 1982, was a true visionary who moved the Department of the Coroner quite literally out of the dark and into the light, taking it out of the dank, ill-equipped, and poorly ventilated basement of the Hall of Justice and moving it into the fresh new four-story Los Angeles County Forensic Science Center in 1972, along with a funding plan to ensure the facility would stay on the cutting edge of forensic technology. Further, Dr. Noguchi pioneered the concept of "total investigation," and the idea of having all of the various scientists and investigators conduct their case work under the same roof. Currently the LA County Coroner's Office handles not only work in their own jurisdiction, but occasionally takes on difficult cases referred to them from other states as well as other countries. And the book includes sketches of a few particularly difficult cases, explaining how they were eventually solved.
But obviously this book wasn't featured on "ET" because of its Autopsies 101 bent. At its heart are indeed The Grisly Details of The Deaths Of Hollywood. And, as mentioned in the book's subtitle, they come with pictures. The illustrations are mostly black and white photographs, many coming directly from the Coroner's Office files. (Don't read this while you're eating.) When the photographs of actual corpses are used, some are whole, some aren't. The photos are horrific in a way that movies only hint at.
Which brings us to the disturbing Black Dahlia and Lipstick Murder case files of the late 1940s, both of which consisted of not only the killing but also the brutal mutilation of a young woman. Two decades later, eight-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate would be savagely attacked in the home she shared with husband Roman Polanski, along with four of her friends, by Charles Manson and his associates, who managed to bring a vicious end to the lives of Gateway supermarket chain owner Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, before they were captured. And just moments after winning the 1968 California Democratic primary election in an increasingly hopeful bid for the White House, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was struck by two shots to the body and one shot to the head from a .22 caliber revolver by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
Drug abuse and depression have worked together to claim the lives of various talents within Hollywood, from forgotten silent film star Barbara La Marr to 1970s TV icon Freddie Prinze. There's some bitter irony in that everyone knows how one particular actress took her own life, but no one really knows her name, and she killed herself because she was not able to transfer her successful stage career into becoming a big name in films: Peg Entwistle, who took a flying leap off the 50-foot "H" of the famous "Hollywoodland" sign in 1932.
There's a whole group of cases which continue to mystify simply because in some ways they don't add up to suicides--and here, the authors are relatively restrained in an attempt to balance the dozens of authors who have used the mystery to craft fanciful stories about the imagined causes of their deaths. Enough of the right questions were asked about the long-assumed suicide of 1950s TV "Superman" George Reeves that the case was officially reopened to allow for the strong possibility of murder. But did legendary 1950s sex symbols Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Dandridge both ingest lethal doses of drugs accidentally--or did they both actually plan not to see another day? Did either 1930s actress Thelma Todd or 1960s singer Janis Joplin make a similar decision?
The most shocking deaths in LA County remain the various unsolved murders. Some cases are considered unsolved due to the technicality of not having enough evidence to convict the suspected killers, such as the murders of silent film director William Desmond Taylor, famed gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and mob lawyer Sam "The Great Mouthpiece" Rummel, who were all "mysteriously" gunned down in cold blood. Some murders did get to trial, but the outcomes remain controversial, such as the stabbing of hardened gangster Johnny Stompanato, which was confessed to by petite 14-year-old Cheryl Crane, who came away with an all-but-guaranteed justifiable homicide ruling, much to the relief of her mother--and abused Stompanato girlfriend--Lana Turner. No police officers, including Deputy Thomas Wilson, were ever disciplined despite their clearly and unjustifiably causing the death of journalist Ruben Salazar with tear gas bombs during the "Days of Rage" Vietnam war protests. And the final case file detailed in the book, in which professional football player and actor O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, does deliver the sobering note that even compelling evidence assembled by the best possible forensic technology mean almost nothing if mistakes are made by officers of the court.
Throughout the book Blanche and Schreiber make note of how Hollywood has reflected back the history of the LA County Coroner's Office through films like "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential." But most significant to them is the Glen A. Larson television series "Quincy," which ran on NBC from 1976 through 1983. The series starred actor Jack Klugman as Los Angeles Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Quincy--and, perhaps as a nod to Dr. Noguchi, co-starred actor Robert Ito as Quincy's sidekick lab assistant, Sam Fujiyama. Coroner's Office staff served as script and technical consultants for the series, which showed Dr. Quincy as a kind of superhero forensic pathologist who would let nothing get in his way of finding out the truth, even if it meant bumping heads with crooked politicians or dangerous criminals. "Quincy" developed a following all over the world, and brought an even higher profile to the real Coroner's Office. The show's crowning achievement has to be when its 1982 episode, "Give Me Your Weak," spurred Congress into passing the Orphan Drug Act, and in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. From then on, drug companies who devoted time and resources into curing so-called "orphan," or rare, diseases would receive tax breaks from the government.
Unfortunately, this book was originally completed in 1998, and so has no mention of the current hit CBS TV show, "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation," which is set in Las Vegas, or the popular NBC series, "Crossing Jordan," based on the Boston Coroner's Office. The authors also neglect to mention that few episodes of any of the various "Law & Order" shows are complete without a visit to their forensic scientists. Further, Blanche and Schreiber noticeably omit from their book deaths well known to LA County, including the fatal drug overdose of actor John Belushi, the accidental drowning of actress Natalie Wood, and the shotgun murders of Beverly Hills couple Jose and Kitty Menendez by their sons, Lyle and Erik. It can only be assumed that they chose to include only those cases that could be most fully examined and reported from a coroner's point of view. For example, the cause of death in these three cases was never uncertain; it was the fact of the deaths themselves and the somewhat unknown circumstances leading up to them that spawn the questions.
Blanche and Schreiber conclude their tour with a trip to the gift shop. Yes, the Coroner's Office has an actual gift shop, called "Skeletons in the Closet," where they sell such items as toe-tag key chains and chalk-outline beach towels. The gift shop actually provides the funding for the Coroner's Office's many community programs, including those centered around drunk driving and child abuse, as well as their programs for educating future coroners.
As you might expect, only in Hollywood. Three stars.
Published by Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000, $18
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
October 31, 2018
Fun little coffee table book, right? Well, it is what is says, the story of the creation of the LA coroner's office, beginning in the late 1800s. Famous celebrity cases in brief as highlighted along the way. A lot of photos with little sensational gore factor. I learned a few new tidbits here and there, but not a lot here, easy to read in one sitting.
January 30, 2019
2.75 or so for me.
May 15, 2011
What an odd little book this is. While it purports to be a history of the LA Coroner, it focuses a large portion of its attention (84 pages of its 192) on the Department’s “Star-Studded Caseload.” Some of the details are juicy (although the coroner went over Marilyn Monroe’s body with a magnifying glass—just imagine—he found no needle marks), but the number of unsolved or disputed cases detailed in the book casts an astoundingly unflattering light on our purported subject. For instance, the coroner originally blamed Dorothy Dandridge’s death on blood poisoning caused by a broken toe, even though two doctors in New York suggested she might have overdosed on prescription antidepressants. Cause of death remains unsettled, as does the question of whether her death was accidental or suicide. The section on the Nicole Brown/Ronald Goldman murders recaps Simpson’s slo-mo flight in the Bronco, but does not discuss the deaths he was fleeing. The text says that “the cause of death was clear,” but describes it only as “slashed to death.” How? If there’s any truth to the “Colombian necktie” rumor, you’ll have to go elsewhere to find it.
L.A. Times columnist Ruben Salazar was killed during the 1970s riots. I think he was killed in a bar when a tear gas canister fired by police struck him in the head, but the text in the book is remarkably unclear. I would’ve liked to know more about the coroner’s investigation, but the story focuses on the coroner’s inquest. Although this is neither defined nor described, it is likened to the Simpson trial. We know how much press it garnered, but not exactly what it was.
The book was purchased for me on the strength of one image: a black and white photograph the Black Dahlia’s nude and dismembered body lying in the grass, surrounded by staring men. Unfortunately, the rest of the images are much more pedestrian. The recap of the Manson Family’s spree is illustrated by Sharon’s bloody sofa. Better photos exist. Why weren’t they used? And why does a photo of Patty Hearst’s arrest illustrate the story of the police shootout with the SLA, even though the caption admits there is no connection? Perhaps the answer lies in Tony Blanche’s biography, in which he is described as “developing” books, rather than authoring them.
In a county were the coroner’s office handles 19,000 cases annually, where 20-plus autopsies are performed each day, the job done by the men and women of the Department of Coroner is simply heroic. I wish Death in Paradise had focused on that heroism instead of the tabloid stories rehashed here.
This review comes from Morbid Curiosity #3.
L.A. Times columnist Ruben Salazar was killed during the 1970s riots. I think he was killed in a bar when a tear gas canister fired by police struck him in the head, but the text in the book is remarkably unclear. I would’ve liked to know more about the coroner’s investigation, but the story focuses on the coroner’s inquest. Although this is neither defined nor described, it is likened to the Simpson trial. We know how much press it garnered, but not exactly what it was.
The book was purchased for me on the strength of one image: a black and white photograph the Black Dahlia’s nude and dismembered body lying in the grass, surrounded by staring men. Unfortunately, the rest of the images are much more pedestrian. The recap of the Manson Family’s spree is illustrated by Sharon’s bloody sofa. Better photos exist. Why weren’t they used? And why does a photo of Patty Hearst’s arrest illustrate the story of the police shootout with the SLA, even though the caption admits there is no connection? Perhaps the answer lies in Tony Blanche’s biography, in which he is described as “developing” books, rather than authoring them.
In a county were the coroner’s office handles 19,000 cases annually, where 20-plus autopsies are performed each day, the job done by the men and women of the Department of Coroner is simply heroic. I wish Death in Paradise had focused on that heroism instead of the tabloid stories rehashed here.
This review comes from Morbid Curiosity #3.
September 28, 2019
This had some factual errors, but it was still pretty entertaining. There's nothing new here, so if you read a lot of books on this subject it's not very exciting. If you're new to this subject, this book is a good intro. For further reading, I highly recommend LA coroner Thomas Noguchi's books about some his famous cases, some of which were touched on here.
August 12, 2012
It's an interesting peek at the Los Angeles County Coroner's office but that's all it really is: a peek. The prose is sometimes as purple as an ugly bruise and the facts that are imparted are thumbnail sketches in length and depth.
Published in 1998, this book is a somewhat interesting gander at what exactly a coroner does, and what cases specifically the Los Angeles County office has dealt with. Unfortunately half the book covers the celebrity cases and while they might be interesting, they're... well, they're celebrity cases, so most will be familiar. Since each case only gets a couple of pages of widely spaced text and a photo or two there's nothing new for anyone who has even passing knowledge of the incidents covered here.
The other three chapters (one chapter, which takes up half the book, is wholly devoted to the celebrity cases) deal with the history of forensic work, "early" forensic work in Los Angeles (basically anything that isn't a celebrity case that takes place before "Hollywood" becomes Hollywood), and a handful of cases where forensics was key to solving the case.
Everything is covered to a superficial depth, and a majority of the pictures aren't compelling enough for their inclusion. (One picture that claims to be showing cracks in a skull due to blunt force trauma actually shows the natural sutures found in any skull!) This is an interesting glimpse of crime in Los Angeles history but for such a storied department it makes one wish this were done with more depth, candor and breadth.
The publication date (1998) makes me wonder if this was an attempt to improve their public image since it's only a few years after the O.J. Simpson debacle. That particular crime is covered but the text comes off as a bit defensive.
Overall the book is interesting but don't expect too much if you're a crime or forensic aficionado.
Published in 1998, this book is a somewhat interesting gander at what exactly a coroner does, and what cases specifically the Los Angeles County office has dealt with. Unfortunately half the book covers the celebrity cases and while they might be interesting, they're... well, they're celebrity cases, so most will be familiar. Since each case only gets a couple of pages of widely spaced text and a photo or two there's nothing new for anyone who has even passing knowledge of the incidents covered here.
The other three chapters (one chapter, which takes up half the book, is wholly devoted to the celebrity cases) deal with the history of forensic work, "early" forensic work in Los Angeles (basically anything that isn't a celebrity case that takes place before "Hollywood" becomes Hollywood), and a handful of cases where forensics was key to solving the case.
Everything is covered to a superficial depth, and a majority of the pictures aren't compelling enough for their inclusion. (One picture that claims to be showing cracks in a skull due to blunt force trauma actually shows the natural sutures found in any skull!) This is an interesting glimpse of crime in Los Angeles history but for such a storied department it makes one wish this were done with more depth, candor and breadth.
The publication date (1998) makes me wonder if this was an attempt to improve their public image since it's only a few years after the O.J. Simpson debacle. That particular crime is covered but the text comes off as a bit defensive.
Overall the book is interesting but don't expect too much if you're a crime or forensic aficionado.
July 10, 2012
I agree that this book could have been a lot more. I did enjoy some little details that I had never heard of in some of the famous deaths. It was a quick read and not overly gruesome. Some photos might be tough for the squeamish.
August 5, 2008
This could have been so much more...interesting photographs but not much in the way of content.
January 18, 2016
death in paradise is unfortunately way too short at 192 pages and i think more than anything this has inspired me to dig out my copy of the hollywood book of death.
September 2, 2013
Nice, very nice.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews