- Pre-order Price Guarantee! Order now and if the Amazon.com price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
|||||||||
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science (College Edition) (9th Edition) by Richard Saferstein (15)
$98.08
|
The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes by Colin Evans (38)
$10.20
|
Crime Scene: The Ultimate Guide to Forensic Science by Richard Platt (5)
$11.53
|
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Despite the subtitle, many of the cases recounted by Benecke, a German forensic scientist specializing in the use of insects, were not solved by forensics. For example, Peter Kurten, the sadistic sex killer known as the Düsseldorf Vampire, was turned in to the police by his wife. Among the scientific issues Benecke does touch on are facial reconstruction (and the importance of knowing the victim's hairstyle) and studying pollen from the nasal cavities of corpses to determine the date of death. Still, Benecke's exhaustive knowledge of criminal history is not always presented in the best light. Although he attempts to use classic cases to illustrate his points, the examples are not always apposite. For example, his handling of the Lindbergh kidnapping is confusing: he begins by building a case that the famed aviator, a legendary prankster, was responsible for his baby's abduction, a practical joke that went horribly wrong; then Benecke abandons that outrageous theory for the official one to bolster his thesis about the primacy of scientific evidence over fallible eyewitness testimony, but overlooks the value of testimony tying the kidnap ladder to Bruno Hauptmann, the man eventually convicted of the crime. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Forensic scientist Benecke examines the underpinnings of famous--and frequently gruesome--criminal cases in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, so that O. J. Simpson stands in the dock with Peter Kurten, "The Vampire of Dusseldorf." Boxed features relay tidbits anent certain chapter topics, including "Hitler and Genetic Improvement: Nonsense Masquerading as Science" and "Lenin's Corpse." Benecke walks readers through the notorious Lindbergh kidnapping, en route recounting a raft of seemingly incriminating actions by and attributes of Lindbergh himself, which seem to suggest that the whole affair may have sprung from a strange practical joke (alas, typical of the Lone Eagle) gone awry. Eventually, though, Benecke finds the evidence regarding the source of some of the materials used in the kidnapper's ladder to be persuasive. Moving on, Benecke educes the down low on Jeffrey Dahmer and his confrere, "The Forgotten Cannibal," Karl Denke; genetic fingerprinting; and serial killer Jurgen Bartsch's use of the anesthetic halothane. Informative, and a worthy companion to Cyril Wecht's Tales from the Morgue (2005). Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the
Despite the subtitle, many of the cases recounted by Benecke, a German forensic scientist specializing in the use of insects, were not solved by forensics. For example, Peter Kurten, the sadistic sex killer known as the Düsseldorf Vampire, was turned in to the police by his wife. Among the scientific issues Benecke does touch on are facial reconstruction (and the importance of knowing the victim's hairstyle) and studying pollen from the nasal cavities of corpses to determine the date of death. Still, Benecke's exhaustive knowledge of criminal history is not always presented in the best light. Although he attempts to use classic cases to illustrate his points, the examples are not always apposite. For example, his handling of the Lindbergh kidnapping is confusing: he begins by building a case that the famed aviator, a legendary prankster, was responsible for his baby's abduction, a practical joke that went horribly wrong; then Benecke abandons that outrageous theory for the official one to bolster his thesis about the primacy of scientific evidence over fallible eyewitness testimony, but overlooks the value of testimony tying the kidnap ladder to Bruno Hauptmann, the man eventually convicted of the crime. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Forensic scientist Benecke examines the underpinnings of famous--and frequently gruesome--criminal cases in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, so that O. J. Simpson stands in the dock with Peter Kurten, "The Vampire of Dusseldorf." Boxed features relay tidbits anent certain chapter topics, including "Hitler and Genetic Improvement: Nonsense Masquerading as Science" and "Lenin's Corpse." Benecke walks readers through the notorious Lindbergh kidnapping, en route recounting a raft of seemingly incriminating actions by and attributes of Lindbergh himself, which seem to suggest that the whole affair may have sprung from a strange practical joke (alas, typical of the Lone Eagle) gone awry. Eventually, though, Benecke finds the evidence regarding the source of some of the materials used in the kidnapper's ladder to be persuasive. Moving on, Benecke educes the down low on Jeffrey Dahmer and his confrere, "The Forgotten Cannibal," Karl Denke; genetic fingerprinting; and serial killer Jurgen Bartsch's use of the anesthetic halothane. Informative, and a worthy companion to Cyril Wecht's Tales from the Morgue (2005). Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the