In 1918 Charles Norris set up the first organised medical examiner system in the world when he became New York City’s first Chief Medical Examiner, responsible for investigating the bodies of people who had died unnaturally or suspiciously. Previously, forensic pathology had been the preserve of ‘elected coroners’, who were generally barbers or undertakers or worse. Forensic historian Jurgen Thornwald counted ‘eight undertakers, seven professional politicians, six real-estate agents, two barbers, one butcher, one milkman [and] two saloon proprietors’ serving as elected coroners in New York
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