"Forensic Laboratory" is an exciting book. Its subject is the methods used by forensic authorities to solve crimes. It clarifies every forensic issue and presents examples from well-known and unknown cases. With excellent organization and structure, it guides us into the world of criminology and forensic science, starting from the first attempts made in this field. From the very first case, that of Jack the Ripper, it highlights how useful the study of each case's details, microbiological and ballistic investigations were in bringing us closer to the respective criminal, whether they used poison, a weapon, a knife, or their bare hands to commit the crime.
Ted Bundy committed forty-five murders of women from 1969 until his execution in 1989. He was identified by the dental impression found on one of his victims.
Carol Grills used a powerful poison, thallium, to slowly kill her victims. In prison, she acquired the nickname "Aunt Thalia."
In 1954, in New Zealand, two girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, killed the mother of the former, and only after a forensic investigation was the horrific crime discovered.
The notorious "body snatchers" Burke and Hare murdered people and sold the bodies to hospital anatomy departments for the training of young doctors. The tactic they used became famous as "doing a Burke."
From the assassination of Kennedy to the case of the Aiova armored car, from the "ground zero" at the World Trade Center to the Ramirez case, forensic and police investigation has evolved, mutated, and become a whole science.
The book "Forensic Laboratory" records the most important details that constituted the evidence against each murderer, as well as the developments in modern forensic research. A gloomy but highly interesting world opens up and shocks us with the information it provides, but even more so with the human nature that invents a thousand ways to commit and conceal a crime.