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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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AMERICAN SHERLOCK
Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI
From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air comes the story of a turbulent period in history when many of the CSI-style forensic techniques we take for granted in law enforcement today became the basis for a new type of modern criminal investigation - and the larger-than-life scientist who paved the way.
Berkeley, California, 1925: A scientist's lab filled with curiosities: beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds of books; its occupant an investigator who cracked at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Welcome to the world of Edward Oscar Heinrich, one of the world's greatest - and first - forensic scientists, a man known in his day as the American Sherlock for his knack of finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.
Heinrich was the nation's first expert witness and the force behind many new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, the use of UV rays to detect blood, and the modern presentation of evidence. With a commanding presence in the courtroom and a cool demeanor on crime scenes, Heinrich captivated America's attention during the height of Prohibition, an era in which sensationalized crimes met the systematic study of evidence.
AMERICAN SHERLOCK captures the life of the man who pioneered the science we now rely upon. Based on years of research and thousands of primary source materials, none of which has ever before been published, this book is a stunning dissection of Heinrich's career and his longstanding impact on the very foundations of the criminal and legal system. But more than that, it is a searing lens with which to examine our troubled history with crime investigation, a deep dive into the often-painful birth of forensics, and a look at the promise - and limits - of science and its experts.
Kate Winkler Dawson is a seasoned documentary producer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WCBS News, ABC News Radio, Fox News Channel, United Press International, PBS News Hour, and Nightline. She is the author of Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City and teaches journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.
Heinrich was the nation's first expert witness and the force behind many new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, the use of UV rays to detect blood, and the modern presentation of evidence. With a commanding presence in the courtroom and a cool demeanor on crime scenes, Heinrich captivated America's attention during the height of Prohibition, an era in which sensationalized crimes met the systematic study of evidence.
AMERICAN SHERLOCK captures the life of the man who pioneered the science we now rely upon. Based on years of research and thousands of primary source materials, none of which has ever before been published, this book is a stunning dissection of Heinrich's career and his longstanding impact on the very foundations of the criminal and legal system. But more than that, it is a searing lens with which to examine our troubled history with crime investigation, a deep dive into the often-painful birth of forensics, and a look at the promise - and limits - of science and its experts.
Kate Winkler Dawson is a seasoned documentary producer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WCBS News, ABC News Radio, Fox News Channel, United Press International, PBS News Hour, and Nightline. She is the author of Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City and teaches journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Book
Published 2020-02-11 by Putnam |