American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI

Kate Winkler Dawson is a journalist and documentary producer. In her fascinating "Acknowledgments" section following the text, she says that, when she came across the name Edward Oscar Heinrich, who was referred to as "America's Sherlock Holmes" in an encyclopedia on crime, she couldn't resist. She tracked down his collection of documents and memorability at UC Berkeley, but was told that the collection was so large that they simply didn't have the staff to catalog it. She appealed the decision, noting that Heinrich was one of the most prolific and trend setting forensic scientists in American history. Head of the library's (Bancroft) archival processing, Lara Michaels, reviewed the collection again and agreed. She sought out numerous additional sources of information including two other collections at Berkeley, those of John Boynton Kaiser, close friend to Heinrich who supplied a continuous stream on the newest writings about anything forensic; and August Vollmer, who was key to establishing the earliest training programs in criminology. Following the acknowledgements are over 30 pages of "Notes" and a detailed index.
The story is told by means of examining several of the highest profile and sometimes most controversial cases in which Heinrich was involved. Dawson gives enough of Heinrich's youthful background to help the reader understand the driving forces in his adult life: his dedication to both his family and to his science. He was a remarkable polymath, making himself knowledgeable in blood spatter, fingerprints, handwriting analysis, geology, chemistry, pharmacy, and psychology. As she relates his detailed--in fact obsessive--process for approaching each case, it becomes clear how he brought all these perspectives to bear on understanding the victim, the perpetrator, the motive, and the method. He was truly a trail blazer--for better or worse--in legitimizing the use of many new techniques in attempting to solve and prosecute crimes.
Dawson concludes with a summary report from the National Academy of Sciences identifying the deficits in our current system of forensic labs across the United States.
Reviews from Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, and an NPR interview with author Kate Dawson.