Witnesses from the Grave: The Stories Bones Tell

by Christopher Joyce and Eric Stover

Book Overview

The world of forensic anthropology, through the work of Clyde C. Snow, is explored in this book. It recounts, among other cases, his examination of the skeleton of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, his discovery of new evidence about Custer's last stand and his search for Argentina's disappeared.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316473995
• ISBN13: 9780316473996
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Reading

Closest thing to a biography for Clyde Snow that you can find. The book details his career and contains some extremely interesting details on the history of forensic anthropology.

How Dead Men Tell Tales to Forensic Anthropologists

The Prologue tell of Clyde Snow's visit to Bolivia. Their law allowed the police to arrest anyone off the street and send them to a work camp without a trial. Some of these died from being shot while in custody. Clyde Snow's father was an M.D. who practiced in the Texas panhandle, east of Lubbock and beside the railroad. Chapter 1 tells of Snow's life and career. Hunters, and gatherers of wild crops, are famed for discovering lost bodies (p.33). Chapter 2 tells of the trial of Dr. John Webster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman. It gives the history of forensic identification by Bertillon and Vucetich. Chapter 3 tells of the trial of Adolphe Luetgert, who killed his wife and boiled her body in lye to destroy the evidence. The influence of Bertillon advanced forensic anthropology in Europe (p.77). Diet and modern medicine have changed bones (p.83). Anthropologists helped to identify the remains of dead soldiers, and recalculated height from the femur (p.84) Page 101 tells of the "human error" involved in body identification after an airplane crash (Chapter 4). Chapter 5 tells how the identity of murder victims can be established by recreating a face from a skull, but its not perfect. It won't work if the family will not identify the victim. Chapter 6 tells how the identity was found for a modern mummy. Chapter 7 tells of identifying the bones found at the site of "Custer's Last Stand". Was George Armstrong Custer really buried in General Custer's tomb (p.146)? Chapter 8 tells how Snow identified the skeleton of Josef Mengele. Was there conflict amount the government agencies (p.162)? Chapter 9 has the final solution to the identity of Josef Mengele with "reasonable scientific certainty" (p.200). Chapter 10 tells how they found Mengele's dental records (p.208). They could not do DNA testing (p.211). Chapter 11 tells of the Argentina politics that killed thousands of its people. Under Peron the life of the people improved, until he was overthrown (p.219). When Peron returned, conflict continued and thousands were made to disappear (p.220). This terror was described on pages 222 to 228. One effect was to loot the country by skyrocketing foreign debt (p.227). Clyde Snow and his colleagues came to Argentina to identify the unnamed remains. [There is no mention of what the Ford and Carter administrations were doing.] Snow gathered a group of students to learn his techniques for identifying people from their bones. Chapter 12 tells of the identification of one of the victims, Liliana Pereyra. She had given birth before she was murdered, and the child also disappeared. Chapter 13 explains how Snow used the statistics of anonymous burials to prove the murder of thousands (p.27). Most anonymous burials are of old men, not people in their twenties. Another statistic was the high number of those dying from gunshot wounds (p.273). Snow's Argentine team was invited to the Philippines by President Aquino (p.277). A new Argentina law excused "torture, murde

Good, but a bit melodramatic and tedious toward the end

As an anthropology enthusiast, I've been devouring books about anthropology, particularly forensic anthropology. Clyde Snow figures into most texts about the exploits of the intrepid forensic anthropologist, so I chose to read this one, as well. Generally speaking, the book is well written. We are introduced to Dr. Snow in a retelling of some skeleton identification work he did in Bolivia--a good way to entice the reader. We next learn a bit about Clyde Snow himself--his childhood, his years as a hard-living underachieving young man, and finally his entre into the forensic sciences. We also learn a bit about the history of forensic anthropology, which provides a nice framework for the reader.The remainder of the book focuses on Snow's more exciting work, such as the identification of Josef Mengele's bones in Argentina. It deals a lot with Snow's work with human rights organizations, identifying the bones of those slaughtered by their oppressive governments. Snow continues that work around the world to this day, and it is interesting reading--to a point. The authors give good details concerning the events that lead to the untimely demise of thousands of innocent people, mostly in Argentina during late 1970's when the military junta was in power, and explains why Snow is involved in vindicating the dead there. However, they get a bit melodramatic in their descriptions of everything from the grave openings to Snow's work the several students who served as his assistants. After a while, we get the picture that Snow's work has served to put many a would-be despot in prison, and we come to understand Snow's view that the worst crime of all is a crime against a person by that person's own government. But there reaches a point where the human rights discussion just becomes tedious. Yes, you want to read more about Snow's exploits, but you find yourself wishing that they will be anywhere but Argentina, and that they will involve someone other than a person murdered by an oppressive government.On the whole, it's a good read, and I'd recommend it to others interested in forensic science. Don't feel bad if you don't read it cover to cover though. To be honest, by the time you decide to put it down you have probably read enough that, if you don't finish it, you won't be missing anything.

Fascinating forensic stories!

I have run across the name of Clyde Snow referenced in other works and found this book to fill out his personal story of searches and discoveries relating to tragedies and horrific murder cases. It is fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in special cases like John Gacey or the mass government murders in Argentina or the "Angel of Death" Joseph Mengele.