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A former EMT/paramedic Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared on All Things Considered, the Washington Post, USA Today, American Health, Baltimore magazine, and many other print and online publications. Goldfarb was executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland from 2012 to 2022. In that role, he was public information officer for the OCME and curator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. His first book, 18 TINY DEATHS, was released in 2020 and outlines the extraordinary story of Frances Glessner Lee, an independently wealthy matriarch who revolutionized the field of forensic death investigation and who is well known for her crime scene dioramas recreated in minute detail. Goldfarb's second book, OCME, Life in America's Top Forensic Medical Center, details the precarious state of forensic death investigation, which in many parts of the country is failing to provide essential public health services to the public. Originally aired on: Nov 16, 2023
A couple episodes ago, I talked to Alisa Hardy and Taylor Dube-Mather about their experiences doing a practicum at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in Alberta. In this episode, I talked to their supervisor at the time of this practicum, Dr. Janne Holmgren. Janne has been a professor at Mount Royal UniversityContinue reading "Scattered Episode 22: Evidence in Canadian Courts & the OCME Practicum – Interview with Dr. Janne Holmgren"
Barbara Butcher, MPH, was Chief of Staff and Director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner. She was responsible for overall agency management, strategy, and inter-agency relations. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.Butcher is regarded as a renowned expert in medicolegal death investigation, having spent 23 years at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), consulted on international mass fatalities, been a featured speaker at numerous national conferences, a published author, and taught at multiple medical institutions.Her prior roles at OCME included Medicolegal Investigator, Deputy Director of Investigations, and Director of Forensic Investigations, where her responsibilities included death investigations, disaster planning, victim identification, evidence, and missing persons. She oversaw the remains recovery effort at the World Trade Center site after 9/11 and helped manage the response to the crash of Flight 587, and investigated the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. As a medicolegal death investigator at OCME, she investigated more than 5500 death scenes and 680 homicides.Butcher also created the federally-funded Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME and served as its Director. It was established as a national center to train practitioners, enforce standards, and promote best practices in the death investigation field.Butcher a has worked internationally, consulting for the World Health Organization and responding to the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand, the London Underground bombing, and assisted in the disaster planning for the Hong Kong and Norwegian governments. She has been a featured guest speaker on Disaster Planning and Mass Fatalities at national conferences throughout the United States.Butcher was also an adjunct assistant professor at NYU School of Medicine and New York Medical College, as well as an instructor at Louisiana State University in the National Center for Biomedical Research.She has held many board and committee positions such as the subcommittee of the White House Commission on Sciences, Forensic Division and is currently a consultant for medico-legal death investigation working with forensic pathologists, educators, television and mystery writers. She is a popular speaker at conferences and lectures as well as less formal groups, including for mystery writers and forensics fans.Website barbarabutcherauthor.comBook What The Dead Know
Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the first to last more than three months), during her 23 years there she investigated more than 5,500 death scenes. She also created and directed the federally funded Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, taught at the New York University School of Medicine and New York Medical College, consulted for governmental agencies around the world, and spoken at disaster planning conferences across the United States. In What the Dead Know, Butcher delves into the journey that led to her unlikely career, revealing some surprisingly useful life lessons and stories about some of New York's most notorious crime scenes. ''Impossible to outwit'' (Entertainment Weekly), Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thrillers The Second Husband, The Fiancée, and The Secrets You Keep. Her other works include the Bailey Weggins mystery series and numerous popular career advice books for women. White formerly served as editor-in-chief of five major magazines, including a 14-year stint at Cosmopolitan. In Between Two Strangers, she tells the twisting tale of a woman who receives a large inheritance from a man she'd only met once before. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/18/2023)
I talked to Alisa Hardy and Taylor Dube-Mather about their experiences doing a practicum at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in Alberta. Alisa is currently doing the practicum and Taylor completed the practicum in 2019. I did a very casual version of a practicum at the OCME in Edmonton during my graduateContinue reading "Scattered Episode 20: Practicum at the Medical Examiner – Interview with Alisa Hardy and Taylor Dube-Mather"
In episode one of our Resilient Leadership mini season, Just Science sat down with Jamilla Dick-Quashie, Director of Health and Safety, and Meredith Rosenberg, the Department of Forensic Biology Deputy Director, with the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) to discuss their most successful strategies for creating a resilient workplace in the field of forensic science. In general, the forensic science workplace can be emotionally and physically taxing, as practitioners are expected to maintain a high quality of work while often being exposed to stressful or sensitive situations. In response to this challenge, many forensic science organizations are implementing mental health and resiliency programs that can help combat burnout and create a more adaptable workplace for their employees. Listen along as Jamilla and Meredith describe what it means to be a resilient workplace, the specific strategies utilized by the OCME, and suggestions for other organizations looking to find resources on workplace mental health. This episode is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (Award No. 15PNIJ-21-GK-02192-MUMU). Some content in this podcast may be considered sensitive and may evoke emotional responses or may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
Virginia Department of Health's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is seeking the public's help identifying eight people whose remains were found in separate locations throughout Central Virginia between 1988 and 2020. The office this week released facial approximations of the eight men, including one whose body was found in Highland Springs in 2014. “Many of these cases have remained unidentified for decades,” said Lara Newell, the long-term unidentified coordinator for OCME. “The goal is to get the information and the likenesses out into the public in the hopes that they will be recognized, and eventually identified.” The facial approximations...Article LinkSupport the show
Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, USA Today, Baltimore magazine, American Archaeology, American Health, and many other publications. For ten years, Bruce has served as executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland and the public information office for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Bruce's newest book, OCME: Life in America's Top Forensic Medical Center published February 2023. Host Mike Sacopulos discusses the new OCME book with Goldfarb, a behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the largest and busiest forensic medical centers in the United States. Once celebrated as the gold standard of death investigation, the OCME of Maryland was hammered between an epidemic of violence and opioid deaths and strangling budgetary restraints imposed by indifferent state officials, ultimately plunging the institution into crisis. The author highlights the dedicated professionals who work against increasingly daunting odds. In the U.S., forensic death investigation is in a precarious state. The shortage of forensic pathologists, shrinking government support, a decade-long opioid epidemic causing a rising tide of drug related deaths, delays in autopsies leading to delayed burial and survivor benefits being paid, delays in criminal investigations and civil litigations, all contribute to a system failing to provide essential public health services in many parts of the country. brucegoldfarb.com/ocme Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org
Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, USA Today, Baltimore magazine, American Archaeology, American Health, and many other publications. For ten years, Bruce has served as executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland and the public information office for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Bruce's newest book, OCME: Life in America's Top Forensic Medical Center published February 2023. Host Mike Sacopulos discusses the new OCME book with Goldfarb, a behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the largest and busiest forensic medical centers in the United States. Once celebrated as the gold standard of death investigation, the OCME of Maryland was hammered between an epidemic of violence and opioid deaths and strangling budgetary restraints imposed by indifferent state officials, ultimately plunging the institution into crisis. The author highlights the dedicated professionals who work against increasingly daunting odds. In the U.S., forensic death investigation is in a precarious state. The shortage of forensic pathologists, shrinking government support, a decade-long opioid epidemic causing a rising tide of drug related deaths, delays in autopsies leading to delayed burial and survivor benefits being paid, delays in criminal investigations and civil litigations, all contribute to a system failing to provide essential public health services in many parts of the country. brucegoldfarb.com/ocme Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org
Today my guest is Bruce Goldfarb, author of OCME: Life in America's Top Forensic Medical Center What we discuss with Bruce: His background as an EMT and a journalist How his skillset led to his position as Executive Assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner at the OCME Some of the history of the OCME in Baltimore How the opioid epidemic created massive burden for the OCME The effect of COVID on forensic investigations How staffing and funding issues can affect medical examiners offices Links for this episode: Health Podcast Network LabVine Learning The ConfLab from LabVine Dress A Med scrubs Bruce Goldfarb on Instagram 18 Tiny Deaths on Amazon OCME: Life in America's Top Forensic Medical Center on Amazon People of Pathology Podcast: Twitter Instagram
Minda & Jenna sit down with the incredible Bruce Goldfarb, author of 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Invented Modern Forensics and the executive assistant to the OCME of Baltimore, MA. Bruce tell us about Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962) who crafted her extraordinary “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death”—exquisitely detailed miniature crime scenes—to train homicide investigators to “convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.” These dollhouse-sized dioramas of true crimes, created in the first half of the 20th century and still used in forensic training today, helped to revolutionize the emerging field of homicide investigation. - via https://americanart.si.edu. Her story is nothing short of incredible, a woman in as man's world, inventing an entire new method to solve crime during a time when women's voices were seldom heard.
#PoliceofftheCuff Real Crime Stories episode # 17/2021 with retired NYPD detective, author, actor, and private investigator Bob Mladanich. The topic of this episode is serial killer Joel Rifkin who murdered 17 women. Mladanich has special insight into this case in that he attended the same high school as Joel Rifkin, and interviewed Rifkin several times in connection with his book, #Fromthe mouthofamonster." In his book Mladanich lists Rifkin as a friend. Listen to the inside information relative to this case, and whether or not Rifkin could be the #GilgoBeachserialkiller. Barbara Butcher is an expert in medicolegal death investigation and mass fatality management and is currently a consultant for medico-legal death investigation, working with forensic pathologists, attorneys, educators, television producers and mystery writers. She is now writing a book about her most interesting cases. Butcher has worked over 650 murder crime scenes, and has attended over 2000 autopsies. Listen to her expertise on serial killers and whether or not Rifkin could be the #GilgoBeachKiller. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1/support
Barbara Butcher is an expert in medicolegal death investigation and mass fatality management and is currently a consultant for medico-legal death investigation, working with forensic pathologists, attorneys, educators, television producers and mystery writers. She is now writing a book about her most interesting cases. She is the former Chief of Staff and Director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner, where she was responsible for Medicolegal Investigations, Disaster Planning, Fatality Management, WTC 9/11 Victim Recovery, Identifications, Evidence, and Missing Persons. As Deputy Director she coordinated the remains recovery effort after WTC 9/11 and helped manage the response to the crash of Flight 587 that resulted in 265 deaths, and investigated the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In 2007 she consulted for the World Health Organization in Geneva, working with an international committee of experts to formulate policy and plans for mass casualty/fatality events. Following the 2004 Tsunami, she went to Thailand on behalf of W.H.O. to assist in Victim Identification strategies, and returned to speak on Fatality Management to an international audience convened by the United Nations and W.H.O. In 2011 the Hong Kong government invited her and OCME colleagues to put on a symposium in disaster management for more than 300 officials. As a medicolegal death investigator at OCME, she investigated more than 5500 death scenes and 680 homicides. She created the Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, a National Institute of Justice-funded academy for national training on best practices in death investigation. In this episode Barbara lends her expertise to the Gilgo Beach serial killings. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1/support
Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, USA Today, Baltimore magazine, American Archaeology, American Health and many other publications. Since 2012 Bruce has served as executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland. He is public information officer for the OCME and curator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. His first book of popular nonfiction, 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics, was released by Sourcebooks in February, 202018 Tiny Deaths is the story of a woman whose ambition and accomplishments far exceeded the expectations of her time, 18 Tiny Deaths follows the transformation of a young, wealthy socialite into the mother of modern forensics...Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes, and made it her life's work. Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of dollhouses that appear charming―until you notice the macabre little details: an overturned chair, or a blood-spattered comforter. And then, of course, there are the bodies―splayed out on the floor, draped over chairs―clothed in garments that Lee lovingly knit with sewing pins.18 Tiny Deaths, by official biographer Bruce Goldfarb, delves into Lee's journey from grandmother without a college degree to leading the scientific investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old techniques and into the light of the modern day.Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.18 Tiny Deaths transports the reader back in time and tells the story of how one woman, who should never have even been allowed into the classrooms she ended up teaching in, changed the face of science forever.
Barbara Butcher is an expert in medicolegal death investigation and mass fatality management and is currently a consultant for medico-legal death investigation, working with forensic pathologists, attorneys, educators, television producers and mystery writers.She is now writing a book about her most interesting cases. She is the former Chief of Staff and Director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner, where she was responsible for Medicolegal Investigations, Disaster Planning, Fatality Management, WTC 9/11 Victim Recovery, Identifications, Evidence, and Missing Persons. As Deputy Director she coordinated the remains recovery effort after WTC 9/11 and helped manage the response to the crash of Flight 587 that resulted in 265 deaths, and investigated the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In 2007 she consulted for the World Health Organization in Geneva, working with an international committee of experts to formulate policy and plans for mass casualty/fatality events. Following the 2004 Tsunami, she went to Thailand on behalf of W.H.O. to assist in Victim Identification strategies, and returned to speak on Fatality Management to an international audience convened by the United Nations and W.H.O. In 2011 the Hong Kong government invited her and OCME colleagues to put on a symposium in disaster management for more than 300 officials. As a medicolegal death investigator at OCME, she investigated more than 5500 death scenes and 680 homicides. She created the Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, a National Institute of Justice-funded academy for national training on best practices in death investigation.
John Paolucci completed a diverse and groundbreaking career in the NYPD, spending his final eight (8) years as a supervisor in the Forensic Investigations Division. Four (4) of those years were spent as a Crime Scene Unit supervisor where he was responsible for responding to crime scenes to coordinate and assist in the identification, collection and documentation of all types of forensic evidence. He worked on many high profile cases and generated written synopses or ‘recaps’ that would be presented to executive level managers and often used to disseminate information to the media. From the Crime Scene Unit, he was selected to be the first ever commanding officer of a new unit called the OCME Liaison Unit. In this position, he would vet all DNA evidence submitted for analysis in the City of New York and was designated as the “One Voice” for the NYPD when outside agencies had any questions about forensic evidence either in the NYPD laboratory or at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) for DNA analysis. His efforts drastically reduced DNA analysis turn-around times in New York City, and as a result he was awarded the Unit Citation by the Mayor and Police Commissioner in 2010. He was also promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2010. John Paolucci reviewed thousands of cases, often examining photos to determine if the forensic evidence that was collected would benefit from analyses other than those requested by the investigators. He worked with OCME to develop new protocols for documenting DNA evidence, and the entire NYPD’s forensic evidence collection practices were totally revamped based largely on laboratory analysis results that were collated and interpreted by Mr. Paolucci. In this capacity he trained thousands of NYPD and other federal and local agencies on the probative value of forensic evidence, documenting forensic evidence, and collecting DNA exemplars from suspects. In retirement, John formed Forensics 4 Real Inc. to impart his knowledge and understanding of forensic evidence and crime scene investigations to students of forensics as well as law enforcement first responders and investigators by providing a true to life perspective on how evidence is identified and handled in the field as well as in the laboratory. He also works as an expert witness and has worked on homicide investigations in the states of Kentucky, Texas, South Carolina as well as his native New York State. John was also hired to travel to Paraguay to exhume a body to collect DNA evidence as part of an international insurance fraud investigation. Despite interference from the government that almost resulted in his arrest, John was able to conclude that the body buried in Paraguay was not the insured, saving the insurance company over $3 million. (From his consulting site, https://www.forensics4real.com/ )
John Paolucci completed a diverse and groundbreaking career in the NYPD, spending his final eight (8) years as a supervisor in the Forensic Investigations Division. Four (4) of those years were spent as a Crime Scene Unit supervisor where he was responsible for responding to crime scenes to coordinate and assist in the identification, collection and documentation of all types of forensic evidence. He worked on many high profile cases and generated written synopses or ‘recaps’ that would be presented to executive level managers and often used to disseminate information to the media. From the Crime Scene Unit, he was selected to be the first ever commanding officer of a new unit called the OCME Liaison Unit. In this position, he would vet all DNA evidence submitted for analysis in the City of New York and was designated as the “One Voice” for the NYPD when outside agencies had any questions about forensic evidence either in the NYPD laboratory or at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) for DNA analysis. His efforts drastically reduced DNA analysis turn-around times in New York City, and as a result he was awarded the Unit Citation by the Mayor and Police Commissioner in 2010. He was also promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2010. John Paolucci reviewed thousands of cases, often examining photos to determine if the forensic evidence that was collected would benefit from analyses other than those requested by the investigators. He worked with OCME to develop new protocols for documenting DNA evidence, and the entire NYPD’s forensic evidence collection practices were totally revamped based largely on laboratory analysis results that were collated and interpreted by Mr. Paolucci. In this capacity he trained thousands of NYPD and other federal and local agencies on the probative value of forensic evidence, documenting forensic evidence, and collecting DNA exemplars from suspects. In retirement, John formed Forensics 4 Real Inc. to impart his knowledge and understanding of forensic evidence and crime scene investigations to students of forensics as well as law enforcement first responders and investigators by providing a true to life perspective on how evidence is identified and handled in the field as well as in the laboratory. He also works as an expert witness and has worked on homicide investigations in the states of Kentucky, Texas, South Carolina as well as his native New York State. John was also hired to travel to Paraguay to exhume a body to collect DNA evidence as part of an international insurance fraud investigation. Despite interference from the government that almost resulted in his arrest, John was able to conclude that the body buried in Paraguay was not the insured, saving the insurance company over $3 million. (From his consulting site, https://www.forensics4real.com/ )
CSI tells us only part of the story. After an unexplained death, what happens back at the morgue? Who is in charge of making sure clues are recorded so crimes can be prosecuted? New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is currently one of the best in the world, but that hasn't always been the case. It was not so long ago that New York City was saddled with a corrupt and ineffective system, with coroners accepting bribes to change death certificates or ignore inconvenient homicides. Listen as Kate and Kathleen tell you all about some truly reprehensible coroners from the past, and the struggle to implement our current medical examiner system.Kate was horrified to discover, in the course of her research, that Murderpedia is a thing.Blood On The Table by Colin Evans is really interesting. It's the whole reason Kathleen made Kate do this topic.A coroner would get paid $27.75 per body in 1868, so they were very motivated to grab all the bodies they could find. That's approximately $477.00 in today's money, according to MeasuringWorth. And that scant $11,000 annual salary? That's $189,000 today. Um, yes, please.OCME had a close relationship with Bellevue Hospital early in its existence. Learn more about this beautiful and storied institution thanks to Untapped Cities!Learn more about the Jake Walk that afflicted drinkers of Jamaican rum extract during Prohibition. Because it was poisoned. On purpose. No joke.PBS American Experience bring you an interactive comic book. Follow forensic chemist Alexander Gettler and chief medical examiner Dr. Charles Norris through 1920s New York City as they help solve crimes with groundbreaking forensic science.Former CME Micheal Baden loves the spotlight. He investigated the deaths of the lost Tsar Nicholas, John Belushi, the president of Poland, Nicole Brown Simpson, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner.A bit more detail about the Murder at The Met.And don't forget to check our Facebook page for lots of great images, including gorgeous photos of Bellevue! (Nothing gory, we promise. Some bones, that's all.)
Fmr NYPD JOhn Paolucci joins us to discuss how NYPD collected and processed DNA for investigations and cold cases.