Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1958-03-20
Zone of a Series) Fir. p. l
I'm the Coroner

liz AAAoJoAAty are ii d u L d j,
though.
III deaths from natural causes
were not in the majority. 1
wouldn't have this job. A death
from any other cause may keep
me in court for three days. get
paid SIS case.
A routine Investigation starts
like this: l get a call, usually
from police, after a person has
been pronounced dead by some
doctor. / never make move un-
til announcement If the death
appears to have been of natural
causes, / have the body removed
either to hospital or q mortuary
for an autopsy.
/ used to do all autOpsies but
now they are performed by sew
eral Psychologists. 1t takes high
" skilled man to determine the
causes of death in some cases.
and these men are experts i'm their
field.
After the Psychologists pass
their findings on to me for study,
issue certificate of death. Rela-
tives have no say in the matter
of an autopsy if death occurs
under the conditions I described.
Law permits an autopsy, at my
discretion.
More than once, "posts," as
autopsies sometimes are called
have revealed some very interest
ing facts.
There was the case of well-to-
do lady who left the house after
telling her husband she was go
ing to the store. When she didn't
return for several hours, he start
ed looking. He found her dead
in their new car, parked in the
garage.
1t looked like a heart attack.
The couple was very happily mar
ried and she was in good health.
She was sitting in the car with
its windows open. The motor
had been running but was stop.
ped. There was plenty of gas in
the tank. The motor must have
stalled.
The garage doors, which could
be opened electronically from in
side the car, were closed.
AT first we thought the woman
had started the car, and was
about to open the garage door
when she suffered a heart at
tack. An autopsy proved, how.
ever, that there was no damage
to the heart and that death was
caused by carbon monoxide pois-
oning. l issued a certificate of
suicide.
My work even has some ele-
ments of danger. There was the
time some policemen and l had
to pick up drowned man from
the Virginia side of the Potomac.
It was night. We found the
body, all right, and started back
to Maryland. Well, we got lost
We had pretty rough time of it
because there were no stars and
no moon. We almost upset a
couple of times by running into
rocks.
We finally made it and that's
the last time I am going out in
a boat. From here on in I'm go
ing to use a bridge or wait until
the body is brought ashore.
Once / found the decomposed
body of a man under a rock
ledge near Seneca. He had been
there for many months. All that
was left was the skeleton, cloth
ing and an empty bottle next to
the body. 1t had contained
strvchnine.
But I issued a certificate Of
undetermined cause. How could
tell IL the man had taken the
poison? There was nothing left
to autospy.
Another interesting thing cor
oners all over the country have
come to believe is that you sell
dom find case of an infant or
small child accidentally suffo-
eating to death. Improved path
ology and other investigative
methods show that most of these
cases are of asphixiation. tied in
with upper respiratory infection.
Most of our homicides are by
gun, few by stabbing. In this
connection I was instrumental in
1913 in changing police regula-
tons to allow dead bodies to be
removed from public places be-
fore they were seen by a coroner.
Earlier, sometimes four or more
hours passed before\ coroner
could get to the death scene. OF
course, the person must be pro-
nounced dead by physician be-
fore the body is removed.
/ have seen lot. from greats"
like Secretary of Defense James
Forrestal who fell to his death
from the 18th floor Of the Be-
thesda Naval Hospital - I issued
a certificate Of suicide - down TO