Death's Acre
Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm
Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

By Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson

293 Pages - Paperback

Product #959

$14.00+s&h

 

Table of Contents

The Bones of the Eaglet
Dead Indians and Dam Engineers
Bare Bones: Forensics 101
The Unsavory Uncle
The Case of the Headless Corpse
The Scene of the Crime
Death's Acre: The Body Farm is Born
A Bug for Research
Progress and Protest
Fat Sam and Cadillac Joe
Grounded in Science
The Zoo Man Murders
Parts Unknown
Art Imitates Death
More Progress, More Protect
The Backyard Barbecue
The Not-So-Accidental Tourist
The Bloody-Beneficiary
Ashes to Ashes
And When I Die

On a patch of land in the Tennessee hills, human corpses decompose in the open air, aided by insects, bacteria, and birds, unhindered by coffins or mausoleums. This is Bill Bass's "Body Farm," where nature takes its course as bodies buried in shallow graves, submerged in water, or locked in car trunks serve the need of science and the cause of justice.

The Death's Acre, Bass invites readers on an unprecedented journey behind the gates of the Body Farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. A master scientist and an engaging storyteller, Bass reveals his most intriguing cases for the first time. He revistis the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explores the mystery of the headless corpse whose identiry astonished police, divulges how the telltale trace of an insect sent a murderous grandfather to death row-and much more.

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"In this memoir, Bass, a premier forensic anthropologist, recounts how a life spent studying dead bodies led to the creation of "The Anthropology Research Facility' (aka the Body Farm), a plot of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center where Cass and his colleagues monitor the decomposition of human corpses in various environments. Though professional and conscientious when describing the medical facts of each case, Bass, writing with journalist Jefferson, proves to be a witty storyteller with a welcome sense of humor. He also does a nice job balancing accounts of death and decomposition with decidedly not-so-morbid tidbits from his personal life. Furthermore, the poignancy of how he reacts to the deaths of his first two wives reflect the compassion he feels for the dead and their surviving family members he encounters in his working life. Bass may deal with the dead, but he has a lust for life that comes across in his writing. "Those who do pick it up might just be pleasantly surprised by how Bass bring death to life."
-Publishers Weekly

Book Reviews for "Death's Acre"

Review 1 for "Death's Acre" This book is awesome and necessary reading for those handling cadaver dogs and working closely with local and Federal Forensic Teams, also covers the crime scene do's and don'ts. This book is heavily utilized in Cadaver Dog training, some of the training methods are a little strange but a good book never the less. Thanks Wendy Wied