SIR BERNARD SPILLSBURY: The Father Of Forensics
By Colin Evans
Berkley (NYP)

For the first half of the 20th century, British pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury was the most powerful forensics expert in the world. His influence extended into every judicial corner. In the words of one contemporary: "He could achieve single-handed all the legal consequences of homicide – arrest, prosecution, conviction and final post-mortem – requiring only the brief assistance of the hangman." SIR BERNARD SPILLSBURY: The Father Of Forensics by Colin Evans -- a veteran writer specializing in forensics -- is a mesmerizing story that explains how a young doctor rose from obscurity to become history's greatest medical detective told through his most fascinating cases. Spilsbury was far more than just a brilliant diagnostician; he invented the role of the "expert witness." Indeed, all the modern forensic luminaries – such as Michael Baden, Herbert MacDonell, Henry Lee and Cyril Wecht –trace their lineage back to this remarkable man.

Spilsbury was an invincible crime-fighting machine with an unbreachable air of certitude and matinee-idol handsomeness. As a charismatic young physician, he hit the English courts – and the front-pages – like a forensic cannonball, a real-life Sherlock Holmes. At times his gifts seemed almost supernatural. He uncovered evidence others had missed, was peerless when it came to crime reconstruction, merciless at exposing discrepancies between facts and testimony, tore into anyone with a whiff of chicanery about them, and – above all – convicted bad guys. Dozens of killers went to the gallows on his say-so. Hardnosed Fleet Street editors, aware that "Horrible Murder – Spilsbury called in" was a headline guaranteed to put thousands on the circulation, hyped him to the skies. As a result, Spilsbury became the first forensic superstar, by 1920 one of the most famous men in Britain. As he aged, however, his personal life was marred by tragedies: a broken marriage, two sons killed in WW II, a series of strokes, all within a few years. In 1947 at age 70, burnt out and painfully aware of his declining powers, he locked himself in his laboratory and turned on the gas. The book will examine ten of his cases in-depth, at a length of around 8,000 words each, with particular emphasis being given to way that Spilsbury used contemporary cutting edge forensic science to uncover the truth. Besides charting his life and other cases, the narrative will also throw a spotlight on Spilsbury's little known darker side, highlighting his sulfurous feuds with other forensic rivals that previous biographers airbrushed out of existence. There have been three books devoted to the life and times of Spilsbury, the last published in 1976.

Fueled in part by the CSI phenomenon, the market for books on forensics is particularly strong these days. Colin’s Casebook of Forensic Detection (1996) still racks up healthy annual sales with cumulative U.S. sales topping 65,000 copies. Sales figures for biographies of such celebrated medical examiners as Michael Baden, Milton Helpern, Thomas Noguchi, and Keith Simpson are further evidence that forensics is "hot." Colin is the author of five books: Murder Two: The Second Casebook of Forensic Detection (Wiley, July 2004); A Question of Evidence (Wiley, 2002); Great Feuds in History (Wiley, 2000); Superlawyers (visible ink, 1998); The Casebook of Forensic Detection (Wiley, 1996); and Killer Doctors (Michael O'Mara, 1993). In total, these books have generated more than 20 translations.

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