DEATH IN PARADISE An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner

Hardback. Foreword by Anthony T. Hernandez. With its singular concentration of the rich, famous, and infamous, Los Angeles is a remarkable place to live - and die. And its Department of Coroner unquestionably handles more high-profile cases than any other in the country - or the world. The authors take the reader inside the files of the Coroner's Office, and present complex, real-life mysteries: a funhouse dummy that was discovered to be an embalmed man. The legendary, unsolved murder of silent-film director William Desmond Taylor. The carbon monoxide poisoning of 1930s film comedienne Thelma Todd. And there are surprising revelations regarding modern, high-profile investigations. Why did singer Karen Carpenter die if she had already conquered anorexia nervosa? Did Symbionese Liberation Army founder Donald Defreeze kill himself or perish by flames or police gunfire? And what of screen goddess Marilyn Monroe's questionable drug overdose? Also includes Black Dahlia, Bugsy Siegel, Robert Kennedy, Niocole Brown Simpson plus a section on famed "Coroner to the Stars" Dr. Thomas Noguchi. Illus. with crime scene photos and never-before-published confessions, suicide notes, and laboratory reports from the Coroner's Office archives. A book which delivers a profile of the deadly side of that glamorous, modern-day oddity that is Hollywood. Illus., Epilogue and Index. 192pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in F. dw.