Book Description

A New York Times–bestselling author and renowned Los Angeles medical examiner challenges the verdicts in America’s most controversial celebrity deaths.

“Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi encountered the best and the worst of Los Angeles—movie stars and gangsters, politicians and millionaires. . . . But by the time ‘the coroner to the stars’ met them, they were on his autopsy table” (Los Angeles Times).

In his New York Times–bestselling autobiography and its fascinating follow-up—now together in a single volume—Dr. Noguchi recounts his stormy career, divulges his innovative techniques, and reveals the full story behind his most intriguing investigations.

Coroner

Dr. Noguchi sheds light on his most controversial cases: the suspicious drowning death of Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the circumstances behind the drug-related deaths of Janis Joplin and John Belushi, the murder of Sharon Tate. and more.

Coroner at Large

Often called the “Detective of Death,” Dr. Noguchi continues to probe the most famous fatalities in recent pop-culture history: the drowning of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, the Hollywood murder of Sal Mineo, the suicide of Freddie Prinze, the slaying of “Playmate of the Year” Dorothy Stratten, Elvis Presley’s final hours, and more. Noguchi’s forensic acumen also provides new clues to the fates of such historical figures as Gen. George Custer, Napoleon, and Adolf Hitler.

In both riveting accounts, Dr. Noguchi documents his own investigations and pioneering work in the field, as the mysteries of death—natural and unnatural—are unraveled by “one of the greats of modern forensic pathology” (Barry A. J. Fisher, director of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s crime lab).