"Fire is so efficient at erasing things, it is very popular as a means of hiding the evidence of murder . . ."

--Douglas Ubelaker, Curator of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute, top consultant to the FBI in Waco, quoted in Bones, A Forensic Detective's Casebook,pgs.  140-141.

September 5, 1999--A magician focuses the attention of the audience by twirling the hat in his right hand.  His audience is so distracted by the hat, they do not notice his left hand, in plain sight, performing the magic trick.

That is what is happening now in the "new revelations" about the inferno that engulfed the Mt. Camel Center in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993.  "Whatever you do, don't look at the fire!" says the magician.  "Look here instead, at the debate over pyrotechnic tear gas canisters!"

We look.  "Outrageous," we say.  "Look, the FBI was only trying to get the Davidians to come out, but they used the wrong canisters and caused this huge house fire . . . "  And the magician gets away  with the trick, yet again.

Ever since April 19, 1993, the US has presented the fire at the Mt. Carmel Center as one BIG house fire.  Various explanations for the fire were given.  Cover story Number One: The Davidians set their own house on fire.  Not everybody believed it.

Then we heard cover stories 2.0 and 2.5, the Mrs. Murphy and cow explanations:  Tanks knocked over kerosene lamps inside Mt. Carmel, the kerosene spilled onto the hay, the hay caught fire and set the house on fire.

That story did not sell too well, either.  There never was a satisfactory explanation of why the Davidians -- Bible students -- kept hay in their house.  Many members of the public smelled bull.

All of these explanations, and now the current ones, are designed to deflect the public's attention from the obvious truth.  The Mt.  Carmel inferno was not a house fire.  It was started deliberately by the US military, the Special Operations Command, to cover its murders of the Branch Davidians.  The fire at the Mt.  Carmel Center was a Special Operations demolition fire, and it was fueled by petroleum.

Let's have a look at the evidence

US News and World Report, May 3, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins 
Chicago Tribune, April 21, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins 
Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins

Notice that we can not see even the skeleton of the house.  The fire lasted 40-45 minutes.  It burned with extraordinary intensity.  No beams.  No rafters.  Nada.  Nothing.

This was no ordinary house fire.

Now let's have a closer look at the Mt.  Carmel Center before the fire, and note its architectural features.  Take a viewpoint facing the front of the building.  Notice that the three story residential tower in the center of the structure; notice that immediately behind that tower and to the left there is empty space and a swimming pool.  To the right there is a gymnasium.

US News/World Report, May 3, 1993: Model of Mt. Carmel on final day 
Chicago Tribune, April 21: Diagram of Mt. Carmel site before the fire 
Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Diagram of Mt. Carmel Center 
Treasury Report: Mt. Carmel before raid

Now look at this picture of the Mt.  Carmel Center during the inferno, and notice that this empty space and swimming pool area immediately behind and to the left of the three story tower is aflame.

Newsweek, May 17, 1993: Aerial view of the fire 
Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire 
Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire (later photo) 
Soldier of Fortune, July, 1993: Ground level view of the fire 
Time, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire 
Time, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire (reduced image of above)

Notice the height of those flames!  Such magic!  Surely only the most gifted magician could get empty space to burn like that!

But, no, Josephine.  Swimming pools and bare ground don't burn unless someone applies a flammable agent.

Now go through those photos again and look at the color of the smoke.  Yes, the smoke--all of it -is pitch black.  Even the smoke coming from the burning, empty ground immediately behind and to the left of the three story tower .  . .

Black smoke is characteristic of a petroleum fire.  For example, consider this from oil-well fire fighter Red Adiar's web page.

"Kuwait was stripped and set on fire by the retreating Iraqi troops during the final days of the Gulf War. Black smoke filled the sky .  .  .  "   Read that? B-L-A-C-K smoke . . .

Now here is another dead giveaway on the cause of the fire.  Look at this fireball: Time, May 3, 1993.

Military experts say that this explosive phenomena is characteristic of Special Operations demolitions, effected by detonating 55-gallon drums of jet fuel.  When the Justice Department issued its report on Waco some years ago, the text on the fire did not even mention this fireball.  (see section "The Fire," pgs.. 295 304).   Such an oversight. Isn't that curious?

Special Operations Sets The Stage

With this in mind, we discover that Francis X.  Leahy, described as an "independent religious researcher"  submitted a 40-page analysis on the Waco siege to the FBI on April 8, 1993, just eleven days before the inferno.  On page 39 of the report, Leahy's predicts:

"The standoff, as it now exists, will end after Sunday, April 18th, which will complete the seven week cycle for tribulations.  At the completion of that cycle an angel of the Lord is to give an analysis of the situation, and tell David what to do.  It must be a fiery ending, and David and a number of his followers must die.

"Whether it be on the Sunday marking the beginning of the eighth week, or a day or two later, there will be some aggressive action by the Federal law enforcement officials.  Suicide is not written in the book.  David and his followers must be slain.  That means something must be set up, even if the final conflagration is caused internally, it must be because of some act of the law enforcement officials .  . . "

News of Leahy's remarkable prediction was published in the Dallas Morning News, April 22, 1993

Boy, talk about clairvoyant!  Leahy predicted a fire on April 18, 19, or 20, and he was right on the money.  He predicted a fire after some "aggressive action" by the US, and he was right about that, too.

Leahy is an "independent religious researcher"?  Why?  Not too many of us need an "independent religious researcher." Making a living at that must be tough.  But many of us need a competent fortune teller.  Leahy could make a fortune in the business.

Coincidentally, Francis X.  Leahy was married to Joyce Sparks, the Child Protective Services social worker who investigated the child abuse charges against the Davidians .  .  .

So here, in Leahy's "prediction," we see Special Operations public relations at work, preparing "thorough and accurate" public affairs program (prediction of fire) in advance of the operation (fire) to "integrate accurate representation [a-hem] of the mission to domestic audiences .  . . ".  But why did they have Leahy deny the Davidians would commit suicide when the FBI went on record saying that they did commit suicide?

It is a dictum of public relations that the public relations practitioner must design messages to address diverse audiences and their mind sets.  Not all members of the public are stupid enough to believe cover story Number One, "the Davidians set themselves on fire." Therefore other cover stories had to be developed.  And because many Americans believe government workers are incompetent and negligent, it was/is easy to construct a whole range of very believable alternate cover stories.

The Washington Post, September 2, 1999 front page story, Marshals Seize FBI Waco Tape, gives us the latest variant of the "Golly gee, we are so  incompetence and negligent" cover story.  Initially, on the morning of April 19, non-incendiary CS cartridges were fired, "But those cartridges had no effect .  . . " and a Hostage Rescue Team member asked "for permission to use military tear gas cartridges that are incendiary."

Of course, the FBI just happened to have incendiary *military* tear gas cartridges on hand.  And of course permission to use them was granted.  The only question that remains unanswered is this: Why was "tear gas" that was flammable packed in cartridges that were incendiary?

Are we believing this?

The magician is getting us to focus on his right hand by waving his hat, while his left hand is doing the trick.  Chapter II of the Special Operations manual puts it in military terms:  the duty of Special Operations is to "divert the hostile power's attention and resources from the main battle area."

In this case, discerning Americans are the hostile power.  Our attention is being diverted to yet another cover story.  The battle area that our attention is being diverted from is the nature of the April 19 inferno that destroyed much of the evidence of a ghastly mass murder.

What's Behind the Wizardry?

The fire and CS attack were a cover to provide a (semi-) plausible explanation for the Davidian deaths.  Those Davidians who allegedly survived the fire did NOT of course survive the fire: They had been extracted before the event.  That is why we get the wacky, contradictory,  and discrediting stories about Davidian behavior that morning--stories about the menfolk abandoning the mothers and children and running out the back of the complex to save their own skins.  The stories are not true.

The Davidians who were injured "during the fire" received their injuries earlier.   That is why there were no smoke inhalation cases (or CS inhalation cases) among the "survivors."

The injured Davidian "fire survivors" were treated at Parkland Hospital during March and April.  Those treatment records  are sealed, as are the records of the payments the feds made to Parkland for the care of those Davidians.

Allow me to wrap up with a recent e-mail from a member of the US military.  To protect my source, I have removed the e-mail address and omitted specific references to military units and locations:

=== Beginning of message ===

"To whom it may concern,

"I am very concerned by the evidence your museum puts forward.  Frankly, it scares the bejeezus out of me.  I am a member of the U.S. Army, and I am familiar with many of the terms in your discussions.  I am in the [delete unit] at [delete location].

". . . the tactics used in Waco are textbook military.  To begin, your assumption that the initial assault was designed to fail is absolutely certain.  An objective is NEVER breached during the daytime.  The advent of night-vision technology has rendered unnecessary, as the risk is greatly reduced when your opponents are blind and you are not.  Also, any planned attack is not conducted without COVER or CONCEALMENT.  Also, surprise is key, and security of that element NEVER breached.  To understand this, one would have to have an understanding of the overall Military mentality, especially in the combat arms.  Loose lips could get you or your buddies killed, so you never mention an upcoming operation.

"Next, the siege.  The light and noise were most certainly more than just psychological operations on the Davidians (though that must have been a good testing ground for new equipment).  The noise and light probably hid the activities of the actual killings, days before the fire.  How could anyone make out the sound of gunshots and explosions amidst all of that chaotic din?  Then the clean-up would have to be enacted, and though the Armed Forces are organized, they are anything but quick.  It probably took several nights of hard work to cover up the evidence of any wrong doing.

"There were probably more dead in the initial assault . . . The plan is never to just assault from one side.  No doubt there was a rear assault . . .  [text deleted]

"Thank you for the museum,"

=== End of message === 
 

By the way, please feel free to do your own fire research at your local level.   Next time you pass your firehouse, stop in.   Ask the firemen how many fireballs like this they have seen in a house fire: Time, May 3, 1993

;-)

For additional information concerning the reliability of Branch Davidian accounts of  April 19, 1993, please see Veracity of American Justice Federation Videos, and Veracity of Branch Davidian Statements in Sources of Information. 

This video footage, originally shot through a telephoto lens from the three-mile perimeter, showed one of the tanks rolling out of the Mt. Carmel Center building before the fire erupted. The video was distributed widely and provided a focus for public outrage over the Waco Holocaust.  The Museum displayed this video sequence on the free-of-charge NBC website, but the page has been removed from public view by NBC webpage operators.  Linda Thompson's footage sparked a major contraversy (details).

The tank with the fire coming from its muzzle exited the building through the area of the front doors.  It is possible that the tank driver had used the  flame thrower to give the apparancy of a fire in the concrete room, and to destroy the forensic evidence contained therein.  See:  The Collapsed Bunker that Wasn't a Bunker Didn't Collapse, NOT Crime Scene Photos, and Incineration. 
  
 

Fire: Catalogue of Evidence

Next Gallery: Now visit the Death Gallery 
Search: Museum Text

• Documents
  • Doc 1 The Washington Post, September 2, 1999: Marshals Seize Waco Evidence From FBI

• Figures and Photographs
  • US News and World Report, May 3, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins
  • Chicago Tribune, April 21, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins
  • Chicago Tribune, April 21, 1993: Diagram of Mt. Carmel site before the fire
  • Time, May 3, 1993: Fireball over Mt. Carmel
  • Newsweek, May 17, 1993: Aerial view of the fire
  • Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire
  • Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire (later photo)
  • Newsweek, May 3, 1993: Aerial view of the Mt. Carmel ruins
  • US News and World Report, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire
  • Soldier of Fortune, July, 1993: Ground level view of the fire
  • Time, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire
  • Time, May 3, 1993: Ground level view of the fire (reduced image of above)

"Of all the forms of murder, none is more monstrous than that committed by a state against its own citizens . . .

"The homicidal state shares one trait with the solitary killer--like all murderers, it trips on its own egoism and drops a trail of clues which, when properly collected, preserved, and analyzed are as damning as a signed confession left in the grave."

--Forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow, speaking before the May, 1984 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He used his skills to expose the atrocities committed by governments. (Quoted by Christopher Joyce and Eric Stover in Witnesses from the Grave, Pg. 217).

From the evidence we have examined so far, we hypothesize that the story of the Waco Holocaust is a story of at least three crimes:

1. Mass murder
2. Destruction of evidence
3. Fabrication of evidence and perjury

1. Mass Murder:  The nation's top military and paramilitary agencies are involved in one of the most horrendous mass murders in the nation's history. These are: the Pentagon's Special Operations Command and the select forces that serve under its auspices; the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF); and the Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Among their victims are many mothers and children.

 

 

This is the stuff that could topple a government . . . How to hide Crime Number One?

2. Destruction of Evidence:  The times, causes, and circumstances of death must be disguised. The mothers and children's bodies are burned, mutilated, and dismembered. Almost every technique in the book is used to "launder" these bodies, applied as if by the hands of experts. How to hide Crime Number Two?
3. Fabrication of Evidence and PerjuryA cover story is invented. It runs, in part, as follows: The mothers and children sought shelter from the C/S gas in the concrete room, and the structure collapsed on them and killed them. The bodies are "laundered" to disguise the real causes, times, and circumstances of death, and the concrete room is slated for demolition.

 

 

Control of the crime scene and the bodies is given to incompetent and compliant local yokels. The locals can provide a plausible cover for the destruction of evidence already effected, and, through incompetence, effect even more destruction of evidence through their independent actions. FBI agents and other "helpers" are salted among the local yokels to ensure the results.

First, the demolition job fails: The concrete room does not collapse. Instead, only a two-foot hole is punched in the roof.

Second, the FBI panders to the news services, permitting photography from the air and the ground. The widely publicized pictures contradict the cover story. The photos show the concrete room in pretty good shape, thank you, except for the two-foot hole.

But it's too late to change the cover story.

Third, FBI personnel forget the old adage, "Loose lips sink ships." They talk too much, and reporters dutifully print their ramblings. Is it news when leading FBI agent Jeff Jamar speculates on the location of the bodies before they are found? Only when he is right. And he is.

The damaged roof is permitted to contaminate the remains. False information is placed in the Autopsy Reports, along with observations about the remains which provide evidence of crimes One and Two.

Some of the locals testify at the Davidians' trial. They variously tell the truth, or hedge, or commit perjury, but they do give away the show.

• Summary of Preliminary Findings
• Death: Directory of Exhibits
• Death: Catalogue of Evidence

At the center of the public opinion storm around Waco is the fate of the mothers and children whose remains were found in the pantry/concrete room that formed the foundation of the four-story residential tower (see US News & World Report, May 3, 1993, where it is erroneously labeled "Cinder-block room", Treasury Report, pg. 39, Linda Thompson photo, and US News & World Report, May 3, 1993). Before the fire of April 19, this room received no attention. After the fire, it was invariably called the "bunker," the term that had hitherto been reserved for the tornado shelters.

It is said that the mothers and children, equipped with gas masks, wet blankets and sleeping bags, sought shelter there from the CS tear gas; instead of being sheltered, they died when the structure collapsed on them.

But the evidence shows that this story was invented. Photographs show the concrete room did not collapse. The evidence suggests that the mothers and children died elsewhere under different conditions, and the bodies were brought into the concrete room after death.

The bodies in this room were variously charred beyond recognition or slightly charred; some were severely decomposed, some only moderately; some dismembered and badly mutilated, others were whole. The people are said to have died variously of smoke inhalation, suffocation, blunt force trauma, gun shot wounds, or burns.

Joseph Martinez (Mt. Carmel Doe 52) and Crystal Martinez (Mt. Carmel Doe 57) are recognizable as human forms. Their Autopsy Reports indicate that the remains were only moderately decomposed, and suffered little charring.

But the remains of Katherine Andrade (Mt. Carmel Doe 30) and John McBean (Mt. Carmel Doe 32) were virtually incinerated. This is an unexpected effect, given that there is little to burn in a concrete room, and given that the fire lasted only 40 minutes. Some people explain the charring of the bodies by suggesting that the room was a storehouse for ammunition, and the ammunition caught fire. The plausibility of this explanation will be examined in due course.

The dead can speak. Much can be learned from examination of the corpse. For this purpose the Museum has obtained a set of the autopsy reports and photographs. They bear remarkable evidence, much of it yet to be analyzed.

At the center of the public opinion storm around Waco is the fate of the mothers and children whose remains were found in the pantry/concrete room that formed the foundation of the four-story residential tower (see US News & World Report, May 3, 1993, where it is erroneously labeled "Cinder-block room", Treasury Report, pg. 39, Linda Thompson photo, and US News & World Report, May 3, 1993). Before the fire of April 19, this room received no attention. After the fire, it was invariably called the "bunker," the term that had hitherto been reserved for the tornado shelters.

It is said that the mothers and children, equipped with gas masks, wet blankets and sleeping bags, sought shelter there from the CS tear gas; instead of being sheltered, they died when the structure collapsed on them.

But the evidence shows that this story was invented. Photographs show the concrete room did not collapse. The evidence suggests that the mothers and children died elsewhere under different conditions, and the bodies were brought into the concrete room after death.

The bodies in this room were variously charred beyond recognition or slightly charred; some were severely decomposed, some only moderately; some dismembered and badly mutilated, others were whole. The people are said to have died variously of smoke inhalation, suffocation, blunt force trauma, gun shot wounds, or burns.

Joseph Martinez (Mt. Carmel Doe 52) and Crystal Martinez (Mt. Carmel Doe 57) are recognizable as human forms. Their Autopsy Reports indicate that the remains were only moderately decomposed, and suffered little charring.

But the remains of Katherine Andrade (Mt. Carmel Doe 30) and John McBean (Mt. Carmel Doe 32) were virtually incinerated. This is an unexpected effect, given that there is little to burn in a concrete room, and given that the fire lasted only 40 minutes. Some people explain the charring of the bodies by suggesting that the room was a storehouse for ammunition, and the ammunition caught fire. The plausibility of this explanation will be examined in due course.

The Death Gallery in a nutshell

• Summary of Preliminary Findings

Background: What you need to know to understand what they did

• Forensic Experts and the Law
• How Pros Manage Mass Disaster Scenes
• How Pros Recover Bodies and Solve Murder Mysteries
• How Pros Identify Corpses
• Cover-ups, Politics, and Forensics

Plausible Denial: What it is, and how the Two Stooges accomplished it

• Plausible Denial: Enter Dr. Nizam Peerwani
• Plausible Denial: The Texas Rangers

What should a reasonable person conclude when evidence that could topple a government is destroyed under the noses of world-class evidence handlers?

• Smithsonian Comes to Waco

Now down to brass tacks: What we are supposed to believe

• The Composite Story: "They Died When the Bunker Collapsed . . ."
• Branch Davidian David Thibodeau's Account
• Branch Davidian Clive Doyle's Account
• The Locals Speak

The evidence speaks

• Beware of the Causes of Death

A picture counters the testimony of a thousand words

• The Collapsed Bunker that Wasn't a Bunker Didn't Collapse

Oops! Texas Ranger spills the beans

• Inside the Concrete Room
• Tainting the Evidence
• What About the Explosion?

How the Stooges collected the bodies

• Eeny Meeny Miney--DOE!
• NOT Crime Scene Photos

How the bodies of the Branch Davidians were laundered

• Incineration
• When Did They Die?
• Maggots Ring the Alarm Bells
• Dismemberment and Agglutination

The ID puzzle

• The Death Toll
• Identification of the Remains
• Who Were Those People, Anyhow?

The shape of things to come?

• Argentina Moves to North America

Back: Death Gallery Entrance 
Home: Museum Entrance 
Search: Museum Text

Black's Law Dictionary defines a coroner as follows:

"Public official, of English origin, charged with duty to make inquiry into the causes and circumstances of any death which occurs through violence or suddenly and with marks of suspicion; i.e., unnatural death. The functions and duties of coroners have been diminished having being replaced by medical examiners."

Black's Law Dictionary defines a medical examiner as follows:

"Public officer charged with responsibility of investigating all sudden, unexplained, unnatural or suspicious deaths reported to him, including the performance of autopsies and assisting the state in criminal homicide cases."

Determination of Cause and Manner of Death

Thus, medical examiners and forensic experts have a two-fold task: to investigate the cause of death and to investigate the manner of death.

Coroners and Medical Examiners May Not Withhold Evidence

"The offense of concealing a felony committed by another, but without such previous concert with or subsequent assistance to the felon as would make the party concealing an accessory before or after the fact."

and

"Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, is guilty of the federal crime of misprision of felony. 18 U.S.C.A. Section 4."

Thus, for a medical examiner or coroner, the requirement for impartial, scientific evaluation of the evidence is not only a professional responsibility, it is a matter of law, enforceable with criminal penalties.

Next: How the Pros Manage Disaster Scenes

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There are standard procedures for handling of mass disaster and multiple deaths, and these procedures have been in place for decades. They were developed with the knowledge accumulated by rescuing people and recovering remains in mine cave-ins, airplane crashes, structural collapses, fires, earthquakes, and hurricanes. These procedures were developed by forensic anthropologists, police agencies, firemen and rescue workers, and public health officials in the US and overseas. These well developed procedures do not have to be reinvented each time a disaster occurs.

The example of an airplane crash will suffice. Living people are rescued first, if there are any. If not, the rescue workers' first concern is the recovery of human remains, and then with the wreckage. This was underscored recently during the recovery of bodies from TWA flight 800, which exploded off the coast of Long Island, New York in July, 1996. James Kallstrom of the FBI said, " We want the fuselage, we want the rest of the airplane. And a higher priority than that, we want the bodies." (Washington Post, July 21, 1996.)

Airplane crash sites are handled much like crime scenes, because some airplane crashes are crime scenes. Some are the result of sabotage, carried out by persons who are heavily insured. The policy holders make reservations on a flight, plant a bomb on it, and then do not board. When the airplane crashes, a co-consiprator claims the insurance money.

Both crash sites and crime scene contain clues which will lead the investigators to understand the nature of the event. The bodies of the dead and the objects around them contain those clues, and these clues will be used to convict or exonerate persons who may be accused of murder.

Understandably the top mission of law enforcement professionals is preservation of the physical integrity of crime scene. Forensic anthropologists, forensic dentists, pathologists, and medical examiners are brought in to help identify the victims and establish the cause of death. The work of the renowned forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow in one such crash is outlined in Joyce & Stover, pg. 94.

On May 25, 1979 American Airlines Flight 191 crashed after taking off from O'Hare Airport in Chicago and exploded in a mushroom of flame onto an open field and a trailer park. Two hundred and fifty eight passengers, thirteen crew members, and two people on the ground were killed instantly.

Within hours the Cook County medical examiner's office set up a forensics lab at the crash site in an American Airlines hangar. Refrigerated vans were right there on the scene to keep the bodies from decomposing. National Transportation Safety Board flew in a "go team," a group of crash experts from around the country who keep their suitcases packed in case they get a call, day or night, to fly to a crash scene.

Many of the bodies of the passengers were dismembered due to impact injuries received when the plane dove into the ground. One fireman who was part of the recovery operation said "We didn't see one body intact. Just bits and pieces. We haven't been able to see a face or anything, just trunks, hands, arms, heads, and parts of legs . . . they were all charred." When bodies or body parts were removed, a stick with a number was placed in that spot.

One hundred investigators were assigned to identify the dead. Teams consisting of a pathologist, dentist, lab technician, medical investigator, and recorder concentrated on one set of remains at a time, laying them out on the dozen tables set up in corner of the hangar. {Joyce & Stover, pg. 96). Pathologists were to determine the cause of death of each person--trauma, fire, or smoke inhalation.

Sometimes passengers on airplanes are not the same people listed on flight manifests. In order to write death certificates and settle estates and insurance claims, all efforts are made to establish certain identification of the victims.

Suites of bones were identified on the basis of relative bone sizes, according to known physical anthropology tables which have been used for generations. Some of the bone suites were almost whole, others consisted of only a few fragments. Families of persons thought to have been on the plane sent in dental charts. Many bodies were identified quickly.

When several dozen bone suites had not been identified as belonging to known identities, forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow was called in to help.

Clyde Snow asked families for x-rays and medical histories. He set up a computer program which listed all known physical information on persons thought to be on the flight--sex, age, race, stature, dental characteristics such as fillings, left-handedness, injuries, appendectomies--factors that could distinguish one body from the next.

Snow had the computer programmed to bring up the description of one set of remains. Then the program scanned all the information on the unidentified passengers and printed out the names of ten passengers whose descriptions most closely resembled the one set of remains. One by one, attempts were made to match the remains and characteristics of the unidentified passengers. In this fashion a dozen identifications were made in a few days.

It should be remembered that the FBI, arguably the world's most renowned police agency after Scotland Yard, often works to investigate mass disasters and must be intimately familiar with the handling of such scenes. It should also be remembered that the above described air crash recovery effort took place in 1979. Efforts made in the 1993 Waco recovery should have at least equaled the efforts made with technology in use some twenty years earlier.

Next: How Pros Recover Bodies and Solve Murder Mysteries

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Physical anthropologists are experts in human skeletal variation. Forensic anthropologists are physical anthropologists who apply their knowledge of human skeletal variations to civil and criminal investigations. Forensic anthropologists solve murders. Like archaeologists, forensic anthropologists recreate the past from rubble, according to Joyce and Stover, pgs. 3, 26.

Douglas H. Ubelaker is curator of anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He is a nationally known expert in forensic anthropology and co-author of "Bones--A Forensic Detective's Casebook." According to the dust jacket on his book, Dr. Ubelaker is a "top consultant" to the FBI.

Best selling novelist Patricia D. Cornwell, author of All That Remains, says of Dr. Ubelaker, "When the terrible truth about a death lies mingled in the soil, or identity is reduced to a singe bone, investigators call Douglas Ubelaker. Dr. Ubelaker is truly one of the finest forensic sleuths of our time."

As Dr. Ubelaker points out, forensic anthropologists place utmost emphasis on examination of human remains at the site or situation of discovery, or in situ, and recovering the remains themselves. Once the relationship between the remains and the environment has been disturbed, it cannot be created again with accuracy, writes Dr. Ubelaker in Bones, pg. 107.

Several other noted forensic anthropologists echo Dr. Ubelaker's sentiments. They are Dr. William Maples, co-author of Dead Men Do Tell Tales, and Clyde Snow, whose work was memorialized by authors Joyce and Stover.

Let's take an example from Dr. Maples's book. He writes of a murder case in Florida. The sheriff's department had found remains at a burned out shack in rural High Springs. The sheriff mistakenly thought Dr. Maples was out of the country, and sent a technician to pick up the remains. Dr. Maples laments:

"If only I had been called in just two days sooner! The Alachua County Sheriff's Department thought I was out of the country, in Peru, and unreachable; in fact I had just returned to the United States the morning before the remains were discovered. I could easily have gone out to the burned shack and seen the remains in situ. Instead, an investigator from the medical examiner's office carefully gathered up every single bone fragment she could find . . .

"When I finally opened the vinyl bag I was overwhelmed. Inside, totally commingled and crushed, were approximately ten thousand bone fragments . . . as matters stood, the remains had been jumbled twice, once by the fire and again by the evidence technician." (Maples, pgs. 151-152)

Dr. Maples tells of his involvement in a Fort Myers, Florida case where three corpses had been found buried in the same grave.

"The corpses would have to be disinterred very carefully if a case were to be made against their murderers. The details of the crime would have to be reconstructed from the stratigraphic evidence of the scene." Dr. Maples took great care to make sure that happened. ". . . In those days I was having some back trouble. I found it excruciating to stoop over these corpses for hours on end. I compromised by crawling down into the hole and lying alongside the bodies, digging them out while lying next to them, face to face . . ." The care with which the murder victims were excavated demonstrated that the victim buried deepest had been shot last (Maples, pgs. 57-58 and photo caption).

Speaking of Clyde Snow's work in recovering the remains of the victims of the junta in Argentina, authors Joyce and Stover tell us: "By six o'clock, Snow and his assistants had uncovered the entire skeleton. They photographed the remains in situ and carefully placed the bones in small plastic bags" (Joyce & Stover, pg. 247).

So important is examining the remains in situ that if the forensic anthropologist can't get to the scene of the crime, the scene of the crime goes to the forensic anthropologist. Dr. Ubelaker describes such a case.

In 1985 a Massachusetts state policeman found some skeletal remains in the grass beside an interstate highway. "The skeleton was in wet ground and had become intricately embraced by a wild net work of shrubs, weeds, and vines, and "police investigator" Martin realized that to extricate it for examination would risk the destruction of potentially valuable evidence. A metal detector was brought in: careful probing within the frame of bones produced four bullets. After the scene was photographed in detail, he divided the body in two at the top of the legs, then lifted each half--bones, shreds of clothes, soil, plant life, root systems and all--in two huge blocks, which were packaged in heavy shipping crates and sent to Washington," writes Ubelaker (Ubelaker, pg. 105).

The crates were delivered to the FBI, which is situated close to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. A short time later Dr. Ubelaker says his phone rang. It was the FBI inviting him to come over. "Along with the bones, they've sent us a couple of acres of Massachusetts real estate," his contact told him. Dr. Ubelaker writes that he rushed right over.

"When the sides of the crate were removed, we all saw the body almost exactly has it had first been found." Dr. Ubelaker goes on to describe two huge cubes of earth, "like great chunks of chocolate cake" along with grass, twigs, roadside debris, and human bones.

Dr. Ubelaker comments that by addressing the problem of the anonymous roadside corpse in that manner, "we had a unique opportunity to see the remains in the laboratory in exactly the same relationship they had to each other in the field--and once that relation was disturbed, it could never be re-created with complete accuracy . . . Another great advantage in seeing the body in that context was that it allowed me to distinguish between trauma at the time of death (perimortem) and the effects of postmortem vegetable growth." Dr. Ubelaker calls the solution of the Massachusetts state police investigator "inspired" (Ubelaker, pg. 107).

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