Tag Archives: Forensic

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT ADOLF HITLER’S REMAINS

The name “Adolf Hitler” is synonymous with evil. Pure evil. Hitler, or the Fuhrer as he self-titled, ruled Germany as chancellor and dictator from the rise of Nazism in 1933 until his death by suicide in 1945. During that time, millions of civilians and soldiers died and the Motherland was destroyed — a truly atrocious era in human history. Horrific as that time was, today there’s a terrible possibility a new monster could arise from Adolf Hitler’s remains.

From the moment Adolf Hitler expired, rumors circulated about what really happened to the Fuhrer’s body. Many witnesses were at Hitler’s death scene. Most saw his deceased form, and some admitted to help dispose of Hitler’s earthly evidence. Despite sworn statements and hard medical facts, few details were released to the Allies and the western world. That was because Russians did the investigation. Red Army Intelligence officers processed forensics that included autopsying and conclusively identifying Hitler’s cadaver.

Because of a lack of released information, speculation of Hitler’s survival soon started. Concocted conspiracy theories began, and there were sightings of the Fuhrer reported on every continent including a secret submarine base near Antarctica. Nazi hunters followed clues across Europe, in Asia, Africa, America and deep into Argentina. None paid off because the truth was the Russians had Hitler all along.

The truth is also that Hitler’s corpse made a remarkable journey from one hiding spot to another. He was buried and dug-up at least five times over a twenty-five year period. Today, tangible parts of Adolf Hitler still exist, and that leads to a modern biological possibility the Fuhrer could live again. Here’s the terrible truth about Adolf Hitler’s remains.

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Adolf Hitler entered the world in 1889. His birthplace was near Linz which was then part of the Austrian-Hungarian alliance. Hitler moved to Germany in 1913 and worked as an aspiring architect but amounted to no more than a starving artist.

He served in the German Army during World War 1 and rose to a corporal rank. He was injured while running messages and spent most of the First World War on the sidelines. Following Germany’s surrender, Hitler immersed in trade union politics with the German Workers Party and soon got himself in trouble.

Hitler was jailed as a political prisoner after he led a failed coup. His lock-up during 1923 and 1924 gave him time to write Mein Kampf (My Struggle) which was his manifesto outlining his plan to gain dictatorial power in Germany and expand Aryan racial interests. Hitler also met Rudolf Hess who had significant influence in solidifying anti-Jewish hatred in Hitler’s psyche.

By the early 1930s, Adolf Hitler attained sufficient control through the National Socialist Party which were the Nazis. Hitler surrounded himself with particularly nasty men and used brute force to gain and maintain authority. Some were ideological psychopaths such as Heinrich Himmler. Others, like Herman Goering, were crass opportunists.

Hitler managed to establish massive support from the German population which included the Caucasians and excluded other races and cultures, especially the Jews. He formed plans to expand Germany’s empire and gain space for the blond-haired, blue-eyed pure Aryans. But, his 1939 action of annexing Poland started the Second World War and began his undoing.

One of Hitler’s massive mistakes was declaring war on Russia. From a historical point, there was no need to do this for Hitler to execute his manifesto. It seems Hitler went slowly mad and his delusions caused him to fatally overextend his armed forces’ capacity and the world turned on him through an unlikely Russian and western alliance.

By April of 1945, the war was nearly over and Hitler denied it. He was probably insane by this time which is backed-up by accounts of his inner circle who stayed with Hitler in his Berlin bunker until the Russians arrived. There were reports of Hitler collapsing in tearful rages and hysterically ordering non-existent army units into combat action.

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun, in the Fuhrer bunker. After a minor champagne celebration and dictating his last will and testament, Hitler and Braun retired to their chambers and committed joint suicide. Exactly how they did it and what became of their bodies turned into a world-class mystery. Some describe it as a parlor game full of crazy conspiracies.

The best evidence of what really happened to Hitler and Braun comes from two sources. One is eyewitnesses who were in the bunker at the time. The other is scientific material carefully collected by the Russian government. The first information pool has the usual witness fallibilities. The second source has credibility issues due to Russian misinformation, concealment, and cover-ups.

There is absolutely no doubt Adolf Hitler died on April 30, 1945. That is uncontested by any credible opinion. Most accounts have Hitler using the “pistol and poison” method where he ingested prussic acid, or hydrogen cyanide, while putting a handgun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. All accounts indicate Evan Braun was not shot. Rather, she also took a cyanide dose.

Hitler clearly expressed his wish to have their bodies cremated. He’d learned of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s public execution where Mussolini’s body was hung by the feet and mutilated by the crowd. Adolf Hitler did not want that happening to him. He specifically instructed his staff to take his body out of the bunker and set in on fire in the garden.

This act is well recorded and supported by now-released evidence. Hitler’s aides poured some sort of petroleum fuel over the Fuhrer and Eva Braun. However, they were unable to create sufficient heat to consume the corpses and the cadavers were only charred.

There were several attempts to increase the inferno, but time ran out. The Russians were on their doorstep and lobbing artillery rounds into the garden and at the bunker. Aides hastily dug a shell crater into a shallow grave and covered up Hitler and Braun’s burnt bodies.

The bunker occupants surrendered and quickly disclosed where Hitler and Braun lay buried. Russian medical experts arrived on May 4, 1945, and exhumed the grave. They took both bodies to a facility at Buch in Berlin and stored them above ground. Two Russian pathologists performed autopsies on May 10, and their report was publicly released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act in 2000.

Hitler and Braun were superficially scorched to the point of visual non-recognition. However, they were skeletally intact which included their organs being suitable for dissection. Braun showed no bullet wound but did exhibit post-mortem shrapnel damage. One pathologist noted this probably happened as an artillery round exploded while she was on fire. Glass shards and cyanide traces were in her mouth, and they listed Eva Braun’s cause of death as suicide by poison.

Adolf Hitler showed no conclusive sign of disease or any sudden medical event. As rumors always said, Hitler only had one testicle. His brain was biologically unremarkable, but it was traversed by a bullet passage. The pathologists could not identify an entrance wound and theorized it was probably through the mouth. There was also no notable exit wound or bullet slug itself. The report says Hitler’s upper cranial bone was missing, and they assumed it was blown off by the gunshot force.

The pathologists conclusively found glass shards and cyanide traces in the Fuhrer’s mouth. They listed his cause of death as a combination of cyanide poisoning and a gunshot wound to the head. Something else they discovered in Hitler’s mouth was crucial to identifying his body. That was Adolf Hitler’s unmistakable dentition.

Hitler’s teeth were in terrible condition. His upper and lower mandibles were a mess of bridges and crowns with a sprinkling of natural enamel that enclosed tooth pulp. His gums were inflamed, and he had several extraction gaps that weren’t replaced. It was an odontologist’s dream when it came to making a postmortem identification.

The Russian pathology team located Hitler’s dentist and assistant who were thoroughly familiar with every part of the Fuhrer’s mouth. They viewed the dental work from the cadaver and produced Hitler’s complete records. They established there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever these dental works belong to the now-deceased Adolf Hitler.

Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator, wasn’t so sure. Stalin was paranoid that his nemesis Hitler would come to haunt him by people believing Hitler was alive and hidden or having his body become a future Nazi shrine. Stalin stalled and ordered Hitler’s body temporarily buried with the dental work brought to Moscow for his inspection.

It’s not clear from historical records where Hitler’s body was temporarily interred. It seems he was stored in the Russian-occupied sector of Berlin. Once Stalin was satisfied Hitler was dead, and the dental work was conclusive identification, he began a misinformation campaign to deny this. Stalin’s motives for fooling the west have gone to the grave with him, but Stalin wasn’t finished with Hitler’s body.

On June 3, 1945, Stalin ordered Hitler’s remains exhumed from temporary storage and moved to a highly-secret and secluded spot. This was in the Brandenburg forest area southwest of Berlin. Hitler, and presumably Braun as well, were buried in wooden caskets which were more like shipping crates. They lay undisturbed for several months until Stalin had a change of plans.

For whatever reason, Stalin ordered Hitler dug-up again. On February 21, 1946, Stalin directed that Hitler be put under the ground at a parade square inside a Russian-held military base at Magdeburg, Germany. This spot was southwest of Brandenburg, but in a high-traffic area instead of a remote forest.

Joseph Stalin died in 1953. Russia carried on as the Soviet Union and entered the cold war. By 1970, Russia began turning occupied territory over to the East German government which was communist friendly. That included the Magdeburg base going back into German hands.

Yuri Andropov, who went on to be the Soviet Union leader, was the KGB head in the early 70s. Andropov knew Hitler’s body was under the Magdeburg parade square, and the last thing he wanted was a future German regime breathing life into Hitler’s memory by turning that site into a Neo-Nazi Mecca. Andropov had Hitler exhumed again and finally dealt with.

In the middle of the night on April 3-4, 1970, a secret shovel squad extracted what was left of Adolf Hitler’s bones and burned them. There are conflicting stories about what happened. Andropov is on public record stating the ashes were scattered in the nearby Elbe River. Work-party members state the bones were so dry that they vanished in smoke. And a few reports hint that Adolf Hitler was dumped into the city sewer system.

What finally took place with Hitler’s cadaver may never be known. However, there’s one thing for certain. Adolf Hitler’s teeth remain locked in a Kremlin vault. They’re resting there today.

What’s also certain is Hitler’s natural teeth contain his DNA. Those molecules stay preserved in the pulp. Hitler’s biological profile is encased within the enamel practically forever, and DNA can be cloned. Cloning Adolf Hitler was the plot in the 1978 blockbuster The Boys From Brazil. Back then, it was science fiction. Today, technology of DNA extraction and cloning zygote embryos into a surrogate mother is not sci-fi. It’s very, very, very real.

All it would take is some evil crackpot doctor like Joseph Mengele to steal Hitler’s tooth, saw it open, and start cloning away. That’s the terrible truth about Adolf Hitler’s remains.

BRINGING LIFE TO THE DEAD WITH CGI TECHNOLOGY

Once upon a time, when a person died… they stayed dead. Sure, they were remembered through paintings, etchings, busts and even death masks, but their long-gone images remained distorted likenesses of how they truly appeared in life. That’s no longer the case, as modern Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has the uncanny ability to eerily bring the dead back to life.

Images created with CGI technology are so good that it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s real and what’s invented inside a computer. Today, computer generated images are commonplace. You see them everywhere around you. From blockbuster movies like Toy Story and Iron Man to still-framed Amazon ads that capture your buying attention, you’re constantly bombarded with CGI impressions.

But, all CGI technological projects aren’t aimed at entertaining you or exploiting your bank account. The forensic world slowly endorsed computer generated imagery since its inception. CGI technology was a perfect fit for reconstructing faces on skulls found with decomposed human remains.

Once forensic anthropologists teamed with computer scientists specializing in CGI technology, the field expanded. It wasn’t long before specialized companies like Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University developed cutting-edge techniques to move beyond realistically recreating facial recognition from bare bones to analyzing historical works depicting famous people.

Recently, the team at Face Lab released stunningly-real images of Cleopatra, King Tut, Nefertiti, Shakespeare, Bach, George Washington, Mary Queen of Scots, Saint Nicholas and many other high-profile historical people. Yes, even the real Santa Claus has been brought back to life with CGI technology. Here’s a look at how Face Lab does it and some samples of their deadly depictions.

Technology Behind Computer Generated Imagery

You’d think computer generated imaging is a recent forensic and technological breakthrough. Not so. CGI first hit the public domain via the movie business with Westworld in 1973, Star Wars in 1977, Jurassic Park in 1993 and then in 1995 when Toy Story made Woody and Buzz come alive. Now, two decades into the 21st century, it’s fair to say that virtually every TV and big screen production uses CGI for special effects. Forensic science took awhile to adopt the digital techniques.

Albrecht Durer

Would it surprise you to know the basic principle behind computer generated imagery showed up in the 16th century? It’s called ray tracing. A brilliant German painter/printer by the name of Albrecht Durer discovered an artistic technique of following light rays from the human eye back to the object rather than the normal method of human perception where the eye captures a light ray blast. Durer didn’t have a computer, but his revolutionary technique was so successful that it influenced Renaissance Masters like da Vinci and Raphael.

In computer graphic terms, ray tracing is a rendering technique for generating images by tracking a light ray’s path from the viewer’s vantage point back through a pixel and onto a virtual object. The CGI designer works with shape, color, texture and light levels on the object to give it life-like realism once the image is transferred back to the eye. In a sense, it’s fooling the brain to see non-real objects as real.

This sounds simple, but it’s incredibly complicated. Ray tracing to build computer generated images is also exhaustively time-consuming. Images built through ray tracing also require mathematical expertise in using trigonometry to build algorithms that account for light ray effects. Computers are the key to managing huge information packages and pull the entire CGI process together.

Ray tracing produces believably-good images, but it comes with a cost. A skilled CGI technologist can spend a full day developing one frame of a movie. That transpires to thousands of person-hours building one movie scene which has to pay back through box-office sales.

Gamers can’t afford the time and money spent on developing picture-perfect imagery that movie-goers demand. Because video games are more real-time experiences, the gamer technologists use a CGI technique called rasterization. It works on manipulating light through tiny polygons rather than pixels and produces “raster” images. The results aren’t as real, but it’s hundreds of times faster and far cheaper than ray tracing.

Face Lab and Their Fantastic Faces of Forgotten Folk

Face Lab is an interdisciplinary research group attached to the Institute of Art and Technology at Liverpool John Moores University. It’s headed by Professor Caroline Wilkinson who is a world-renown leader in craniofacial analysis, facial depiction and forensic art. With her group at Face Lab, Prof. Wilkinson specializes in facial reconstruction through computer generated imagery as well as building portraitures of population demographics.

Besides contributing to forensic facial identification cases with law enforcement agencies like Scotland Yard, Interpol, the FBI and the RCMP, Face Lab finds time to have a little fun. They work with world-class museums to reconstruct realistic portraits from exhibit material. Using actual skulls of historical figures as well as authentic images, the Face Lab team applies highly-technical processes like 3D scanning, modeling and animating to known likenesses.

Recently, Face Lab took on a side project where they brought long-dead celebrities back to life with CGI technology. Their convincing result lets you look guys like Julius Caesar and Nero in the face. Here’s a peek at some fantastic faces of forgotten folk.

King Tutankhamun is the world’s most famous mummy. When his Egyptian tomb was opened in 1922, King Tut had been sealed away for over 3,200 years and the vault contained 5,000 dazzling artifacts. Some, like Tut’s gold funeral mask, are considered among the world’s most valuable antiquities.

King Tut was an unusual Pharaoh. He ascended the throne in 1342 BC as an 11-year-old boy. Tut died in 1324 BC from suspicious circumstances which some scholars believe involved foul play. Whatever the death mechanism was, Tut was never well. All depictions of him show Tut seated including his hunting and archery activities.

Recreating Tutankhamun was a classic case for Face Lab. They had his intact skull with preserved flesh to work with. The CGI technologists used 3D scans to build a life-like image and they used historical data from tomb paintings to get details like his skin and eye color bang-on.

Nefertiti was Tutankhamun’s stepmother. She was Queen to Pharaoh Akhenaten and lived between 1370 and 1330 BC. This royal pair was ahead of their time in religious views where they recognized monotheism or worshiping only one god.

Historians differ their view on whether Nefertiti carried on in power after Akhenaten’s death and before Tutankhamun took over. They also debate whether Nefertiti’s remains have been conclusively found. Some feel she’s still out there, and others attribute a mummy called “The Younger Lady” as being the long-dead queen.

What all agree on is that a bust of Nefertiti is authentic. It’s a limestone/stucco artwork found in 1912 and depicts a beautiful woman that matches other known images of her. From the bust and related works, a marvelous CGI portrait of a life-like Nefertiti emerged.

Cleopatra is perhaps the most famous woman in ancient history. That’s because of the mystique of her sexual power and masterful manipulation of men. It’s also because Cleopatra VII Philopator of the Ptolemy dynasty was beautifully portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her acting career.

Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom. She lived between 69 and 30 BC and took the royal throne at the age of 18. Cleopatra was love-linked to Mark Antony and Julius Caesar although her relationships may have been more political than romantic.

There’s no doubt Cleopatra was a bright and shrewd lady. She spoke numerous languages and her survival strategy was one of keeping friends close with enemies even closer. Forces caught up with Cleopatra, and she was rumored to have committed suicide by taking poison. It’s popularly believed she was intentionally bitten by an asp.

Julius Caesar, by anyone’s standards, was a powerhouse in the old world. He was a Roman general/dictator responsible for the empire’s expansion ranging from England to Egypt. Julius Caesar lived from 100 to 44 BC and made major changes to Roman societal structure which didn’t sit well with some senior senators.

Many military historians consider Julius Caesar to be one of the world’s great strategists and tacticians. His military and political philosophy is entrenched as “Caesarism” and still used as a study model on how to, and how not to, over-extend. One of Caesar’s conquests was Cleopatra and their union produced a son.

Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s relationship ended when he brought another woman to their Egyptian party. Caesar returned to Rome where he was assassinated by a conspiracy between rivals, one of which was Brutus (“et tu, Brute”). Today’s CGI techs were fortunate to have a host of Julius Caesar likenesses to work from.

Saint Anthony of Padua might not be a household name to some. To others, he’s known as the patron saint of lost things. Anthony was a Portuguese Catholic priest famous for wise preaching and teaching during his short lifespan that spanned 1195 to 1231 AD.

Saint Anthony was a masterful orator with an uncanny ability to heal the sick. He was intricately familiar with scriptures and explained bible quotations so the commoner could understand. Anthony’s frugal living and simplistic style related to people from peasants to the Pope.

Some strange things happened when Saint Anthony died. Legend has it that all the children cried as all the bells suddenly rang. The mystery goes deeper when his remains were exhumed 30 years after death. He’d turned into dust except for his tongue. Today, Saint Anthony’s preserved tongue is on public display in a Padua basilica.

Maximilien Robespierre was a prominent force in the French Revolution of 1789. He was a lawyer and political activist with an outspoken voice for commoners. His criticism of church and state led to profound violence and the French monarchy overthrow.

Although Robespierre was effective, he wasn’t a nice guy. His taste for power went beyond the public good, and he turned into a typical tyrant. Robespierre is now best known for his role in the “Reign of Terror” that took place between 1790 and 1794.

Maximilien Robespierre sent thousands of people to the guillotine. His turn came on July 28, 1794, when the tide turned and resistance fighters seized Robespierre, tortured him and cut off his head with the same system he used on so many. Today, Robespierre’s head is digitally reproduced through CGI technology.

Mary, Queen of Scots, was the ruling monarch of Scotland from 1542 to 1567. She was six days old when her father, King James V, suddenly died and she acceded to the throne. Mary ruled by title rather than in person for her formative years and grew up in France where she married Francis, the Dauphin of France.

Mary returned to Scotland in 1561after her husband’s death and married her half-cousin to which they had a son. Mary was never accepted by Scotland’s real rulers, the regents, and she was imprisoned in 1567. She was forced to abdicate and her son, James VI took over the title as King.

History generally views Mary, Queen of Scots as a decent woman who didn’t stand a chance of exercising power. In 1587, she was convicted of a trumped-up plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England. Mary was beheaded for the “crime” and now is convincingly recreated in a 21st-Century image.

William Shakespeare may be the greatest writer the English language has ever known. The “Bard” invented or contrived over 1,700 unique words, phrases, cliques and sayings. Some are simple and familiar nouns like critic, bandit and lonely. Some are creative verbs like elbow, dwindle and swagger.

From Shakespeare’s birth in 1564 to his death in 1616, he produced 39 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and uncountable verses. He’s the mind behind Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet. And Shakespeare wrote Othello, King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Truly, William Shakespeare was a timeless talent.

However, some scholars doubt that Shakespeare produced all his attributed material. They also question what he really looked like as few Bard images exist. An engraving by Martin Droeshout is considered the most accurate Shakespeare portrait and it’s this piece that supports Face Lab’s CGI rendition.

Nero was the last Roman Emperor of the Judio-Claudian dynasty. He lived from 37 to 68 AD and died by suicide at the age of 31. Nero was a “Momma’s Boy” for his early years of rein, but turn-coated and had her murdered.

Tales of Emperor Nero’s instability abound. He seized Christians as slaves and had them burned more for cruel personal pleasure than serving public justice. Stories of Nero’s extravagance and tyranny finally caught up with the disturbed leader. The Romans revolted and rallied for Nero’s death.

During the Great Fire of Rome, Nero went to a rooftop and sang rather than pitching in with putting it out. Probably no one was more despised by nobles and commoners than Nero who took his own life. He left behind excellent sculptures and engravings that preserved his unquestionable likeness for eternity.

Meritamen means “beloved of the god Amun” in ancient Egyptian. She was the biological daughter and then wife of Ramesses the Great who ruled as Pharaoh from 1277 to 1213 BC. Meritamen was highly-influential in Ramesses II’s court, and many different depictions describe her appearance.

Egyptologists have identified Meritamen’s tomb and sarcophagus with inscriptions worshiping her. She’s also portrayed on numerous statues and drawn in detail on papyrus tributes. However, the only physical evidence of Meritamen is her skull and the remainder of her mummy is missing.

There is enough of Meritamen’s cranium and mandible to tell she had a sweet tooth. Her teeth showed advanced decay for her age. There was also enough information on  Meritamen from her skull, statues and drawings to generate a computer image of what was once apparently-attractive woman with exotically-braided hair.

King Henry IV was a nice guy as far as medieval kings go. Known as “Good King Henry” and “Henry the Great”, he reined England from 1399 to 1413 AD. Henry was 19 when he took over from his grandfather, King Edward III, after having his cousin King Richard II deposed.

Not everyone liked Henry, though. Cousin Richard came back to bite him through successive assassination attempts. History records 12 attempts to dethrone King Henry IV. After Richard died of starvation in jail, rebellions against Henry increased to the point where he fled to France.

Henry IV died under somewhat suspicious circumstances after clandestinely returning to England in 1413. He was well embalmed and was in good shape when exhumed in 1832 to verify his identity. Today, King Henry IV’s image is brought to life through computer generation.

Nicholas Copernicus was way ahead of his time in scientific disciplines. He lived from 1473 until 1543 during a time when most scholars thought the world was flat. Copernicus proved them wrong, but he didn’t have an easy go of it.

Nicholas Copernicus was a true Renaissance man who thought outside the box. In fact, Copernicus thought out the universe and first described the true nature of our sun-centered solar system. Today, we know Copernican Heliocentricism as a universal model from which our current understanding of the cosmos rests on.

Sadly, Copernicus and the Catholic Church didn’t see eye-to-eye. The papal institute made him renounce his blasphemous betrayal, and he publicly went along with it to save his skin. Nicholas Copernicus is now a role model of brilliance, but no one ever complimented his looks.

Johan Sebastian Bach was a German musical composer living between 1685 and 1750 AD. He’s best known for instrumental masterpieces like the Art of Fugue and vocal perfections such as the St. Matthew Passion. The 19th-century Bach Revival period recognizes the greatest western musical canon ever to live.

Bach was a child prodigy. He was born into a musical family and, by 11-years-old, Bach arranged Latin organ compositions for the church that set musical standards of today. He’s considered the epitome of mastering counterpoint and harmonic organization as well as larger vocal works like four-part chorales.

Johan Sebastian Bach died from eye surgery complications when he was 65. He was buried into obscurity but accidentally rediscovered during a church renovation. Bach’s skull, along with an authentic bust, gave the Face Lab crew strong support for generating his image in their computer.

George Washington was the first American president and a founding father of the United States. Washington lived between 1732 and 1799 during the time of colonial revolt and the Revolutionary War. He served as a general of the continental army and a patriot leader.

Following U.S. independence from the British crown, George Washington turned from military life and took up politics. He helped in drafting the constitution and implementing a strong government with fiscal responsibility set as a high priority. Legislators today could take lessons from George Washington.

George Washington is one of America’s most recognized faces. He’s on money, hung up in schools and used as a marketing symbol for integrity and independence. Here, Washington is recreated through computer generated imagery with details so clear that you can see the whites of his eyes and his five o’clock shadow.

The Lady of Cao might not be as famous as George Washington, but she’s definitely fascinating. This lady was once a Peruvian aristocrat. Now, she’s a perfectly preserved mummy with a brilliant new image thanks to computer generation.

Archaeologists unearthed the Lady of Cao in 2005 when they excavated ruins in Peru’s El Brujo region. She’s estimated to have died around 400 to 450 AD and was buried with artifacts suggesting she came from the upper class. She was also interred with a lower-class woman who researchers suggest may be a human slave sacrifice to help her in the afterlife.

The Lady of Cao was so well-intact that there’s little left for guesswork. Her physical appearance was recreated by the Face Lab team with help from computerized tomography (CT) scans. The Lady’s image is that of a remarkable woman adorned in a regal headdress who was probably in her twenties when she passed.

Saint Nicholas of Myra was a Christian bishop from the Greek maritime city in Asia Minor. His lifespan stretched from 270 to 342 AD during which time he was known for generousness, especially towards children. He’s also renowned for miracles which explains his other title as “Nicholas the Wonderworker”.

Besides being the patron saint for sailors and merchants, Saint Nicholas is also the prime patron of children. Nicholas is attributed to his legendary habit of leaving secret gifts for kids which led to the modern-day “Sinterklass” practice.

Saint Nicholas has been called by different names at different times. He evolved into Saint Nick and then Santa Claus. We best know the jolly old elf’s description from the western world’s Coca Cola commercial. Professor Wilkinson and her Face Lab people took a different view of the fat old man in the red suit, and they brought life to the dead by computer generating this image from an ancient fresco of the child-loving man called Saint Nicholas.

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UNCONVENTIONAL CRIME WRITING WITH L.A. SCREENWRITER & NOVELIST JENNIFER GRAESER DORNBUSH

…Or How to Capitalize On An Unconventional (aka Crazy) Childhood & Other Personal Adventures  Los Angeles based screenwriter, author and speaker, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush chats about her life as a coroner’s daughter, her new mystery novel The Coroner, her love of forensics, the realities of working in Hollywood and what common crime writers can do to capitalize on their own personal stories.

Hi Jen! Welcome to DyingWords! We’ve kicked around crime writing & screenplay ideas for a while now, but have something in common besides forensic and scribing stuff. You grew up in northern Michigan, close to me in southern Manitoba, Canadaboth of us under very unusual circumstances. I won’t shudder you with mine, but tell us about yours.

Long before American television was saturated with CSI and Forensic Files, I was living my own weekly CSI adventure with my family in northern Michigan. My father was a medical examiner for three counties and my mother assisted as his office manager. They ran the office out of our home because the county was underfunded.

Dad performed autopsies at the small county hospital morgue, but all the records, paperwork, and photographs were kept in our family office. Samples of blood and body tissue were stored in a basement freezer, right under the pork chops and frozen beans like some B-rated horror flick. Dinnertime conversations often revolved around the case of the week. “Let me tell you about an interesting suicide I saw today,” my dad would say. “Oh, and pass the corn, please.”

When I started writing I began to tap into my past and the treasure trove of knowledge from those decades of death investigation with my family. My new novel, The Coroner is one result of that.

The title “Coroner” is sorta familiar to me… like deja vu all over again. What’s your new novel The Coroner about?

Recently engaged and deeply ensconced in her third year of surgical residency in Chicago, Emily Hartford gets a shock when she’s called home to Freeport, MI, the small town she fled a decade ago after the death of her mother. Her estranged father, the local medical examiner, has had a massive heart attack and Emily is needed urgently to help with his recovery.

Not sure what to expect, Emily races home, blowing the only stoplight at the center of town and getting pulled over by her former high school love, now Sheriff, Nick Larson. At the hospital, she finds her father in near total denial of the seriousness of his condition. He insists that the best thing Emily can do to help him is to take on the autopsy of a Senator’s teen daughter whose sudden, unexplained death has just rocked the sleepy town.

Reluctantly agreeing to help her father and Nick, Emily gets down to work, only to discover that the girl was murdered. The autopsy reminds her of her many hours in the morgue with her father when she was a young teen―a time which inspired her love of medicine. Before she knows it, she’s pulled deeper into the case and closer to her father and to Nick―much to the dismay of her big city fiance. When a threat is made to Emily herself, she must race to catch the killer before he strikes again in The Coroner, expertly written and sharply plotted, perfect for fans of Patricia Cornwell and Julia Spencer Fleming.

You have a set of guidelines you use when drafting stories about real people or events. What does that look like?

There are many more from the hundreds of stories in my memory bank. But when writing about the past, I try to keep the following things in mind:

* Base characters off of real people but give them different names, personality traits, and visual description.

In The Coroner, Dr. Emily Hartford was based off of conglomeration of myself, and my two younger sisters. Emily is little bits of all of us. My middle sister is more blood and guts oriented like Emily. My younger sister has the tenacity, style, and individuality of Emily. And I have lived in major cities, including Chicago, for most of my life, but always find myself returning home to my rural roots.

* Use real places to help with world building.

For instance, the town of Freeport is based on my hometown of Fremont. I know, not a far cry from its original name. But that actually helped me picture the real place when I wrote. Of course, I kept the place of Chicago and I think that helps ground the story some and gives it an element of reality. When I write I picture different places around “Freeport.” The library, the downtown, the lakes, countryside, hospital. This helps me create authentic descriptions. I also have a deep, deep love for the place where I grew up. I think that love shows through in the tone and in how Emily, Nick, and her father view Freeport. I really want Freeport to be a character unto its own.

* Tap into the unpleasant memories.

Some of the memories I have of being a coroner’s daughter are neutral, some comedic, some embarrassing, and some downright unpleasant or scary. For instance, we had a human leg in our barn for years and I was scared to into the barn alone with that leg. This was really bummer (not to mention a bit smelly) because our childhood fort was situated right above it in the barn loft. I would fling the barn door open, flip on the light, and then run past the leg and scramble up the ladder to get to my loft fort where I could spend hours reading and holding tea parties. 

So rewrite your scary childhood memories in a way that takes power away from the scary and unsavory. Keep the emotion and be true to the experience. Writing it removes the negative power it holds in your memory. Sharing makes it seem less scary.

* Feel the fear and use it!

We all have those tangible fears like fear of heights, snakes, or tornados. But what are your biggest psychological fears? Figure it out and tap it that for your characters. One of mine is fear of missing out. I think Emily carries that same fear because of the trauma she experienced when she was left out of her mother’s death investigation. This drives everything she’s done in her life since. She’s gone full out to experience life at its fullest. Even in her romantic relationship with Brandon. He leads her into a world she would have never experienced back in Michigan.

* Embrace the crazy.

Everyone’s childhood is unique and special. Once you can frame it this way in your mind, it becomes less embarrassing. Try to see your experiences as a view into a world that no one has ever experienced before and is dying (no pun intended) to know about. I spent many years been deeply embarrassed and disgusted by what my father did for a living. I thought it was weird and gross. This was pre-Forensic Files era when no one knew anything about forensic science and Abby Scuito wasn’t making it cool on NCIS. Where was Abby when I was a teen!? We woulda been Insta-besties. I know it. After all, dead bodies sometimes slept in my garage.

* Leave the family skeletons in the closet.

We literally had a family skeleton. His name was Sam and he was a made of real human bones. He spent a good deal of time in my father’s medical practice, but in his later years ended up living in a box in our barn. Sam died of lung cancer. Or so we surmised by evidence of a cigarette dangling from his yellowed teeth bones. Sam has since gone on to enjoy the rest of his boney life in a high school biology lab.I suspect I’ll get disagreement here, but I’m not a big fan of using fiction to launch a passive aggressive attack on family, air dirty laundry, or take revenge on a family member by making them an unsavory antagonist.

Show some human decency and respect the privacy of yourself and your real life family. There’s enough other drama and dysfunction out there to go around.  So, just to be clear, none of the things that happened to the Hartford family ever happened to my own mom and dad. Their circumstances, backstories, and demises are purely, 100 percent fictional!

* If it made you cringe, use it!

Those embarrassing moments and experiences of our childhood are universal. Draw from these because they will help your audience become endeared to your characters.I’ve had my share of embarrassing moments as a coroner’s daughter. I’ll never forget the time I was dating my now husband and his friends came over. They were in the basement hanging out when they decided to look in the fridge for some soda. Instead, they found blood vials labeled with the names and DODs of the deceased. This was simply the property of the medical examiner’s office, nothing sinister.

This particular incident didn’t make it into the current novel, but one can imagine how awkward or odd it might have been for Emily, as a young teen, to have a dating life. It didn’t scare Nick away. And thankfully, not my husband either. Honor the real victims. In The Coroner, Julie Dobson’s murder is based off a girl in my hometown who was thrown from her horse, hit her head, and as a result, died. She and I were both in junior high school when this happened.

There was nothing sinister about girl’s death. It was purely accidental, but the tragedy of this young girl’s early demise deeply affected my community. I wanted to memorialize this young victim. She may have died long ago, but she’s not forgotten. When I was trying to come up with a case for Emily to investigate, I started playing the “what if” game. What if a teen equestrian were suddenly found dead? What if it were a murder? Who would want her dead and why? And the rest is between the jacket cover.

What inspired you to first start writing?

I’ve been writing since before I could actually write, so I guess you could say it was a gift that was given to me rather than something that inspired me. I’m grateful every day for this gift and my prayer is that I will continue to be a good steward of it.

What piece of advice do you have for authors or screenwriters starting out?

Have patience. Have perseverance. Have a real life.

Well put. Now, what was your favorite book when you were a kid? Do you have a favorite book now?

I have so many… I can’t choose just one. My tastes vary a lot. As a kid, my parents led me to the shore of story sea. I waded in and never got out.

Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, what do you do to get back on track?

I guess that depends on what is the definition of Writer’s Block? Do I have those days when I feel stuck and muddy and don’t get much done? Of course. That’s part of the job. Do I even not know what to write about? Never. I think the best tool for a writer is to cultivate the skills of listening and looking around. If you do, you’ll find there’s always fodder for story.

You’ve consulted with writers on various TV series like… Suits, Prison Break, Rectify, White Collar and Bull. Can you tell us about those experiences?

It probably sounds more exciting than it really is. Often times writers on shows will contact me for forensic advice. Some of the writers I know personally. Others, I do not. Mostly I serve them via email correspondence so I’m not on set or in the writers’ room, per se. But they do send me really interesting questions like…

If a body was burned to ash, how much tissue/bone/teeth/other substance do we need to DNA match the remains?

Or this one… a man who already takes smart drugs (like Adderall or Ritalin) is poisoned by someone who secretly put heavy doses of his smart drug in his hand sanitizer. When the man uses the hand sanitizer he absorbs the smart drug through his skin and it’s enough (in addition to the smart drug he already took orally) to cause a heart attack. Would this work?

You started writing in Hollywood before you delved into novels. Or, I think you once corrected that “Hollywood” is actually called the Los Angles film industry business. What’s that like, being around “Hollywood” and all?

That’s right… after several other careers in journalism and teaching, I trained to be a screenwriter and moved to “Hollywood” 12 years ago. I write film and TV. I had a film release in September (God Bless the Broken Road). But my love is TV. I’m hoping to get staffed or sell my own show. My goal for 2019 is to be a working TV writer and use my forensic background on crime dramas.

You also wrote the non-fiction book Forensic Speak? How did that come about?

FS started out as a project for an independent study course I designed in order to earn my certificate at the Forensic Science Academy. To pass the academy, I needed a prerequisite course and when that course was canceled after the first week of class, I convinced the director of the program to allow me to write a handbook for crime writers instead. I was the only writer in the class and I wanted to tailor something specific to my educational goals. The director loved the idea, so off I went. Later, my writing group encouraged me to publish it. But I was so busy at the time that I dismissed it.

What was your process for writing Forensic Speak and getting it published?

After I finished the academy a writer friend sent me a YouTube video to Michael Wiese Publishing. In the video, Ken Lee announced that MWP was seeking material. My friend encouraged me to send in a query. The book was far from ready, but I thought, why not? On a lunch break one day, I wrote a query and sent it off. In less than an hour later, Ken contacted me to say MWP was interested. However… it took us a year from to get the pitch right and figure out what the book would be. So I didn’t actually sign the book contract until a year after I sent the query. From there it took me another year to write the book. This month will mark exactly three years since I entered the Forensic Science Academy and had the idea to write the book.

Having such an intense upbringing around forensic science, how did you decide what to include and what to discard?

My upbringing dealt primarily with death investigation, not so much criminology, DNA, ballistics, and fingerprinting. I wanted to round out my knowledge of crime investigation so I attended the Forensic Science Academy here in Los Angeles. When I was telling my writer friends about my experiences in the academy, they said that they wished they could go through it. I thought, well, why not put the academy in book form for those who aren’t able to take the academy?  That inspired me to create a book built on the forensic foundation we were taught in the academy. Forensic science is vast and growing! My book is a smorgasbord. You get a sample of everything. You can pick and choose what you need. And if you want more of one thing, I’ve provided resources that will bring you to a larger meal.

What are the three biggest mistakes new writers make when writing in the crime genre?

1. Not spending the time, energy, or research to get the forensic facts right.

2. Thinking that what they see on TV or in movies is correct procedure.

3. Writing crime scenes that come off at cliche, plastic, or static (in action and dialogue!).  Learn how to speak forensics! Read Forensic Speak!

Additional advice for crime writers?

  • Read and watch crime fiction.
  • Figure out what brand of crime fiction best suits you.
  • Keep a journal or file of interesting cases you want to explore in your writing.
  • Create interesting, dynamic antagonists. Give them a story, a life, an emotional motivation.

Advice for non-fiction writers?

Write about your hobbies and interests to benefits others. Find your niche and explore 10 ways you can share what you know with others.

For example… I took the concept behind Forensic Speak and created a monthly newsletter that features a forensic fun fact, a forensic link of the month, a forensic term of the month and a crime writer’s Q&A of the month. Then, I created a series of seminars… Writing the Killer Procedural, 10 Essential Steps in Death Investigation, How to Choose a Crime Show That’s Write For You…  You get the picture… be creative and do what inspires you.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started writing?

How long things take!!! I wish I had started out with more patience. I still get impatient and anxious at times. I want things to happen sooner, faster, better!

Not to be so hard on myself, but I guess that’s human nature and my stubborn work ethic. It’s okay to push. But you also have to play. Trust in the process and the journey.

Focus on Being Thankful! Have daily gratefulness and keep a gratitude journal. Keeps you sane. You can see how much you really have. Reminds you how far you’ve been. Thank goodness for coffee, yoga, and my wiener dogs.

Could you give a sneak peek into your next projects?

I’m always spinning many plates… here are a few of the dishes I’m working on…

A mystery/thriller novel called Hole in the Woods based on true crime story that I’ve followed for 25 years. We have several publishers waiting to see it. Fingers crossed!

I’ve just finished a crime drama TV pilot called Prey based on the real-life experiences of a group of nuns who pose as prostitutes to save sex trafficked victims. Now we have to go pitch it and try to sell it!

This fall, I’ve been pitching my novel, The Coroner, as a TV series. We have some solid interest so it will be interesting to see what unfolds in 2019 with that project. The second Coroner novel is also completed and releases in fall, 2019.

Which novel/novella/short story have you read that you would like to see made into a movie? 

The short story, Before Gwen by Dennis Lehane. A very good friend of mine who is a female director introduced this story to me. She wants us to partner on it. It’s stunning and haunting. I’m all in.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience, expertise and encouragement to crime novelists and screenwriters, Jen. Leaving off, where can DyingWords readers find you and your work?

Go directly to my website. You can sign up for my newsletter here and it’s a great place to find my books, more forensic resources, other free crime stuff and connect on social media!

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The television or movie screen is the closest most people will ever come to witnessing the forensic world. But Jennifer Dornbush actually lived it. As a daughter of a medical examiner, whose office was in her home, she investigated her first fatality, an airplane crash, when she was 8 years old. Since that first case she has had decades of on-sight experience in death investigation and 360 hours of forensic training through the Forensic Science Academy.

Jennifer now uses these experiences to pen crime fiction for film, TV, and novel. Currently, Jennifer has several crime drama series being developed for television; her mystery novel series, The Coroner, releases in 2018.

Wanting to share her love of forensics with other storytellers, she scribed non-fiction work, Forensic Speak: How To Write Realistic Crime Dramas, published by Michael Wiese Productions, hailed as a north star to creating authentic crime dramas.

 She teaches seminars and speaks on writing crime fiction for screen and novel, surviving and thriving the artist’s life, the novelization process of scripts, crime scene science, forensic fundamentals, and death investigation. A more complete list of seminars is found on www.jenniferdornbush.com.

She is frequently asked to consult with writers and has consulted on shows such as *Beauty & The Beast   *Deception   *Hawaii Five-O   *Leverage   *Prison Break   *Rectify  *Revolution   *Suits   *White Collar   *Conviction

Jennifer hosts a YouTube channel on forensics and crime writing. She has also taught webinars on crime writing through Writer’s Digest; and collaborated with The Writers Store and Script Magazine to produce a video on crime writing for writers. She has taught screenwriting on the high school and university level and mentored writers through the Act One Program, Regent University, and Universita Catholica Milano.

Some of her past speaking clients include The Writers Store, Great American Pitchfest, Crime Writers Weekend, Sisters in Crime, Greenhouse, Act One, Scriptwriters Network, Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Story Expo, American Christian Fiction Writers, Highbridge Film Festival, and Universita Cattolica Milano, Italy; Write Canada, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Group.

Additionally. Jennifer’s scripts have placed her on the shortlists of the Fox/Blacklist TV Program, Final Draft Big Break, Nichols, Austin, American Zoetrope, and NBC’s Writers on the Verge. Her half-hour forensic comedy, Home Bodies, received a Humanitas’ New Voices Award. Her feature film, God Bless the Broken Road, with God’s Not Dead director, Harold Cronk released in 2018. She also penned the novel adaptation for Howard Books/Simon & Schuster.

As an award-winning film scribe, TV writer, and novelist, Jennifer delivers story tools that will help you create high stakes, entertaining crime dramas while incorporating current and authentic forensic methods. She has a distinct knowledge of 14 different forensic disciplines and has served as a forensic consultant for TV and film.  She regularly leads seminars on crime writing and forensics for writers in the U.S. and abroad. For more information or to book a speaking engagement, with Jennifer please visit www.jenniferdornbush.com.

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