What the Dead Know

What the Dead Know: learning about life as a New York City Death investigator
By Barbara Butcher
Simon & Schuster, 2023. 270 pages. Nonfiction

Barbara Butcher knew what dark places were like -- at her lowest point, alcohol addiction cost her nearly everything, including her life. Fighting back from her losses and self-destructive path, she got sober and landed a job at the Medical Examiner's Office in New York City. She was the second woman ever hired for the role of death investigator in Manhattan, and the first to last more than three months. In her new role, she would ultimately investigate more than 5,500 death scenes and 680 homicides, as well as the nation's largest mass murder: the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The work was gritty, demanding, and sometimes dangerous, and being a gay woman in a male-dominated environment was a constant challenge. But she loved it. "In the land of the dead," she writes, "I felt alive."

Butcher shows us what she saw: tragic double homicides, grisly suicides, and strange accidents. This book is not for the faint of heart. From downtown flophouses to Fifth Avenue palaces, she looked unflinchingly at the dead, but with both curiosity and compassion -- always wondering not only how, but why. This book is darkly funny and Butcher has a no-BS New York attitude that comes through. It's an inspiring memoir that's part true crime and part forensic investigation, the story of a woman who overcame adversity to create a life of acceptance, grace, and joy. Her compassion for the victims and their loved ones shines throughout this fascinating account of what the dead can teach us about living.

If you like What the Dead Know, you might also like:

The Angel Makers: arsenic, a midwife, and modern history's most astonishing murder ring
By Patricia Nell McCracken
William Morrow, 2023. 316 pages. Nonfiction 

This is the story of one of the most sensational and astonishing murder rings of the century. A 1920s midwife may have been the century's most prolific killer, leading a ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men. The horror occurred in a rustic farming enclave and to look at the unlikely lineup of murderesses - village wives, mothers, and daughters - was to come to the shocking realization that this could have happened anywhere, to anyone. At the center of it all was "Auntie Suzy," who distilled arsenic from flypaper and distributed it to the women of Nagyrèv, Hungary. For more than fifteen years, the unlikely murderers aided death unfettered and tended to it as if it were simply another chore - spooning doses of arsenic into soup and wine, stirring it into coffee and brandy. By the time their crimes were discovered, more than one hundred men were dead. 

18 Tiny Deaths: the untold story of Frances Glessner Lee and the invention of modern forensics
By Bruce Goldfarb
Sourcebooks, 2020. 351 pages. Nonfiction

This is a captivating blend of history, women in science, and true crime. Frances Glessner Lee was a wealthy and influential socialite, born in Chicago in the 1870s. She was never meant to have a career, but she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes and made it her life's work. She created Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, which is a series of dollhouses that appear charming, but have macabre little details. You can view these in virtual reality using your cell phone at the Smithsonian's website, linked here! The nutshell dioramas were used to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.

LKA