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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is rigor mortis?

2. What do some list as a reason to believe Marilyn Monroe was murdered?

3. What causes the skin and blood of a victim to turn cherry-pink?

4. Why did Baden fail to change the cause of death on the Soman case?

5. What disease does Humes purposefully leave out of the notes of the autopsy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Baden note in Chapter One is the price of fame when a celebrity dies, and why?

2. In the end of Chapter One, the report given to the FBI suggests two shooters. Explain the event that prompted the committee to suggest this.

3. Explain how Baden discovered the age, time of death, and identity of Katherine Howard.

4. Explain how the body of Theresa Ferrara was identified and why there were different strands of hair on her torso.

5. Discuss the symptoms of strychnine.

6. Describe why Baden believes the dead woman at the fund raiser and the dead baby in the impoverished apartment represent the inequalities of life.

7. Describe why there was controversy surrounding the death of Elvis.

8. Describe briefly the position of coroner during the reign of King Richard I.

9. Explain how the body of the mafioso was identified.

10. Explain Baden's experience of the convergence of hospital medicine and the morgue, and why the event had an impact on him.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel discusses additional methods to deteremine time of death, those of the potassium eye test and the use of the digestive system.

Part 1) List each method, and discuss, in detail, how that method helps determine the time of death.

Part 2) Compare and contrast the methods. How are they the same? How are they different?

Part 3) Compare these methods with rigor mortis, livor mortis, and algor mortis. Why are these methods sometimes needed? What benefit do these methods have that the others do not? Be sure to explain your answer using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Explain the forensics used in the case of the prison riot at Attica to prove the guards accidentally shot the hostages. What techniques did Baden use to look at the bodies? What did he find? Why did people dislike his findings? How could he prove the findings? What mistakes did others, such as the funeral director, make that hindered the investigation? Did this serve to increase the tension? Why? Do you think the end result at Attica was beneficial? Why? What group did the riots help create? What does that group do? How did that help the prisoners in the long run?

Essay Topic 3

The case of Carl Cappolono is listed as being an almost perfect crime. However, this case had several holes in it that eventually led to Carl's demise. Based on the book, what kinds of mistakes do killers make that eventually come back to haunt them? What do killers assume about poison, and why is this assumption incorrect? How can an ME detect poisons long after they have been administered, according to the tests done in the book? What does this say about the idea that poison killings are killings without a trace?

(see the answer keys)

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