Book Review - Body 115: The mystery of the last victim of the King's Cross Fire by Paul Chambers
Category Book Reviews
Body 115: The mystery of the last victim of the King's Cross Fire by Paul Chambers is a fascinating story of London's 1987 King's Cross Underground station fire. 31 people died in the horrible blaze, but one individual remained unidentified for over 15 years. Chambers looks at the fire and the endless efforts of England's authorities to give a name to the final victim.
Contents: Flashover; Rescue and Recovery; Identifying Characteristics; Dr. West's Examinations; The Search for Names; Inquest; The Unidentified Body; Sugita No. 5; A Lone Fingerprint; Do You Know This Man?; The Public Hearing; Vagrancy; Dentures; Accusations and Recriminations; Missing Persons; The Itinerant Seaman; The Mystery of Mr Brown; The Perfect Candidate?; Unconvential Detectives; New Leads; "Some Sort of Closure"; Epilogue; Notes and Sources; Biblography; Index
The story begins with a random (though stupid) act that occurred numerous times each day... Someone lit up their cigarette on the wooden escalators and dropped the match off to the side. Normally the match would go out, but this time it slipped through a crack, landed in a grease/fluff trough, and started to burn. 20 minutes later, the fire had reached the flashover point and anyone left in the area was doomed to die. Once the fire was extinquished, the search for bodies began. 31 victims were found, and the gruesome task of identification started. Due to the intense heat of the fire, many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, and personal items were nothing but ashes. Incredibly, officials were able to put names to all but one body in relatively short order. But it was that one body, referred to as "body 115", that led to a 15 year mystery.
Rather than just a narrative about body 115, Chambers takes the reader through the different forensic techniques and their history. Rather than just talk about matching fingerprints, you learn how fingerprinting was born and developed as a crime investigation technique. You learn about how DNA profiling evolved and figured into this case. There was also an attempt to recreate facial construction using individuals who broke ground in that area. Again, you'll learn about how that all came to be.
Body 115 is not overly dramatic, nor does it seem to suffer from 20-20 hindsight. It's a well-written story of a horrible event in London's history, and I really couldn't put it down.
Body 115: The mystery of the last victim of the King's Cross Fire by Paul Chambers is a fascinating story of London's 1987 King's Cross Underground station fire. 31 people died in the horrible blaze, but one individual remained unidentified for over 15 years. Chambers looks at the fire and the endless efforts of England's authorities to give a name to the final victim.
Contents: Flashover; Rescue and Recovery; Identifying Characteristics; Dr. West's Examinations; The Search for Names; Inquest; The Unidentified Body; Sugita No. 5; A Lone Fingerprint; Do You Know This Man?; The Public Hearing; Vagrancy; Dentures; Accusations and Recriminations; Missing Persons; The Itinerant Seaman; The Mystery of Mr Brown; The Perfect Candidate?; Unconvential Detectives; New Leads; "Some Sort of Closure"; Epilogue; Notes and Sources; Biblography; Index
The story begins with a random (though stupid) act that occurred numerous times each day... Someone lit up their cigarette on the wooden escalators and dropped the match off to the side. Normally the match would go out, but this time it slipped through a crack, landed in a grease/fluff trough, and started to burn. 20 minutes later, the fire had reached the flashover point and anyone left in the area was doomed to die. Once the fire was extinquished, the search for bodies began. 31 victims were found, and the gruesome task of identification started. Due to the intense heat of the fire, many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, and personal items were nothing but ashes. Incredibly, officials were able to put names to all but one body in relatively short order. But it was that one body, referred to as "body 115", that led to a 15 year mystery.
Rather than just a narrative about body 115, Chambers takes the reader through the different forensic techniques and their history. Rather than just talk about matching fingerprints, you learn how fingerprinting was born and developed as a crime investigation technique. You learn about how DNA profiling evolved and figured into this case. There was also an attempt to recreate facial construction using individuals who broke ground in that area. Again, you'll learn about how that all came to be.
Body 115 is not overly dramatic, nor does it seem to suffer from 20-20 hindsight. It's a well-written story of a horrible event in London's history, and I really couldn't put it down.
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