Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, Readable, Informative
Review: This is an outstanding book -IF- you can stomach reading about things like insect larvae implanted in human decay. Dr. William Maples (1937-97) was a forensic anthropologist who examined bone and tissue samples to determine a person's age, gender, if they'd given birth, cause of death, etc. Imagine testifying at a murder trial while the killer stares at you. Dr. Maples did, knowing that if the jury acquitted the killer might seek revenge. When historians questioned whether angry slaveholders had secretly poisoned President Zachary Taylor in 1850, they called in Dr. Maples for the answer. Maples also investigated the bones of Russia's murdered Czar Nicholas II and family, in part to determine if their Bolshevik executioners might have spared young Anastasia and Alexei. This book has many such authentic tales.Maples and co-author Michael Browning wrote personable, easy prose that never loses the reader in jargon. DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES is an excellent read for the non-squeamish.
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Book
Review: I bought a copy of this book when it first came out and it remains one of my favorites. Dr. Maples presents the story of his life in this book: how he became a forensic anthropologist, clues on how people are identified and his most famous cases. The cases that come to mind are his identification of the Tsar's family, his investigation into the death of President Zachary Taylor and his thoughts on the Elephant Man. His dedication to solving impossible problems makes fascinating reading. Along with the riveting detective story quality of the book, you come to know Dr. Maples, and an interesting man he was. I count my interest in forensic science from the day I read this book; it is the kind of book that you stay up to 3 in the morning to finish.
Rating:
Summary: great info
Review: One of the best books on forensic anthropology yet. Dr. William Maples gave first hand experiences of his "odd" job. He also illustrates what a lab looks like, how to identify a victim, and stories of the original cases that started it all. A fabulous book.
Rating: 
Summary: "Forensicist sheds mixed piquant reflections on his Work"
Review: "Dead Men Do Tell Tales", ISBN 0-385-47968-9 (P/C), Doubleday 1994 is a 280 page narrative by writers William R. Maples, Ph.D. & forceful journalist S.E. Regional correspondent "Miami Herald" Michael Browning who, together, detail the "Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist." We are furnished 16 chapters which cover Maples' upbringing in Dallas, his majoring in English with minor in biology at Univ. of Texas with studies under mentor Tom McKern. In time, Maples became curator-in-charge of the Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History & was a former Pres. of the Amer. Board of Foren. Anthropology and is diplomate - FAAFS. The book is not a teaching text nor is it especially easy to read with that expectation. Maples gives us a background of how and why he got into forensics, a fairly detailed review of his personal involvement with several world-class high-profile cases, and then closes with some not inconsiderable rancor and acridity directed toward law enforcement and medical doctors. I think Maples' credentials and his "time served" qualifies him to provide constructive analysis: - but hostile criticisms do peregrinate throughout the book, admixed with bountiful self-adulations where we are wont to reflecting a bit more on the inner satisfactions of one's life work and less on brackishness, and one's own indispensability. The book has many good features and certainly the author has rubbed shoulders with some of the best (Dr. Michael Baden, Bill Bass, Tom McKern, Ellis Kerley, etc.), and he does have a very commendable command of narrative prose with story-telling skills which makes for eceptionally delightful reading. Unquestionably, his personal involvement with the bones of "Elephant Man", Francisco Pizarro, Pres. Zachary Taylor, Tzar Nicholas II & family, etc., makes exceptionally attractive reading material. I found the table of contents, 9 pages of index and the 61 superb x-ray & photographic illustrations in this medium 6" x 9" format commendable, then wished I had the H/C edition. This book ranks high on my recommended list.
Rating:
Summary: Roll the Bones and Read the Truth They Cast
Review: For nearly a century the science of forensics has grown from a barely understood art to a marvel of modern science. From development of finger printing in the early 1900's, to DNA gene matching of today, forensic pathology and anthropology have blossomed into the law's best weapons against criminals that stalk our world. In 'Dead Men Do Tell Tales' we enter the world of Dr. William Maples, PhD of the C A Pound Human Identification Center in Gainesville, Florida-an often brutal and ghoulish realm of dismembered corpses, hastily torched cremains of hapless victims or those dumped in septic tanks to rot and putrify in the other detritus of man's remains. Dr. Maples' own study is the field of forensic anthropology-the study of the human skeleton, and this man's expertise in that field has cemented my interest in amateur study of forensics. Told in the first person, Maples comes across as brilliant and personable, if a little supremely confident in his own abilities as an investigator. And like Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time', isn't afraid to admit when he has erred. Where the book shines, aside from its plethora of information, is in the presentation of that information-Maples never uses terms that he doesn't explain, knowing full well that the book is going to be read more by laymen like me than a peer within the profession. So do not expect detailed treatises on anatomy, pathology or pages of chemical breakdowns. Instead, Maples presents an easy to understand work that is surprising in its level of detail, and a credit to himself and his co-author, Michael Browning, for making it understandable. Though it is a book on anthropology, one cannot write about one subject without at least touch on the pathology end, since the two are intimately related. After explaining his own origins from his birth in Dallas, Texas, his schooling and odd jobs he held in order to pay for his college-mostly that of riding shot gun in an ambulance while working for a mortuary as they sped from accident to accident, trying to scoop business away from competing funeral homes. He majored in English, but took a course on anthropology on a lark at the suggestion of his university counsellor. In so doing he met Tom McKern, who impressed Maples with his skill as a teacher, mentoring himself to the older professor. Past the first chapter we enter Maples' job, past his trapping baboons in Africa in 1960s to his eventual relocation as Gainesville and the C A Pound offices there. Florida, he describes, is a living organism with highways making up its arterial system, and a place where criminals, like blood cells, pass through, dumping their often mutilated cargo of human debris. In many ways I believe he softened the blow in his descriptions of finding the body of man in a septic tank where it had been for over a decade or that of three murdered drug dealers near a golf course who had been executed by fellow criminals then unceremoniously tossed into a pit to be buried. Mere words cannot describe these gruesome atrocities, but he makes it clear that while it doesn't bother him anymore, it does turn even the hardest cop green with nausea. His affinity with tools, since they are so often used as murder weapons, has led him to collect quite an assortment of hatchets, crow bars, hammers, saws-and could often be found in the hardware department at Sears looking at tools, trying to find the right one that matches the damaged bone. His expertise in this field enabled him to study John Merrick's remains-the Elephant Man of the 19th century, and even to Russia where he examined the skeletonized remains of Tsar Nicholas and his family, almost seventy years after they were murdered by Bolsheviks during the 1917 revolution. All of this experience-almost forty years before his death in 1999, has set Maples in his ways. He possesses a strong, passionate belief that there is true evil in the world, and that somehow the world is better off without certain murderers around. Though this is tempered by his own research into the most humane ways to execute someone. 'Dead Men Do Tell Tales' is a fascinating, enjoyable read-captivating in its insights in forensic pathology and anthropology in a language that everyone can understand. It gives the novice reader in the field a general understanding of the chemical changes our bodies go through as they decompose, the organs and other bodily system are rendered down in the earth-by insects and animals, and how evidence is gleaned off bones-chisel marks, bullet holes, little nicks and scratches that can tell the investigator what tool was used, and a little insight from Maples' point of view of the people who used them. It is a fascinating, engrossing book that anyone with a reasonably strong stomach should be able to enjoy. A fitting testimony to a highly skilled man who is sadly no longer with us. Thank you, Dr. Maples.
Rating:
Summary: great info
Review: One of the best books on forensic anthropology yet. Dr. William Maples gave first hand experiences of his "odd" job. He also illustrates what a lab looks like, how to identify a victim, and stories of the original cases that started it all. A fabulous book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: Being from Florida and actually living near Gainesville, I knew a lot about the things he talked about in this book. I found it very interesting and loved the case studies. I read it almost non-stop and did get a lot of strange looks from people around me.
Rating:
Summary: Readable and Informative
Review: I liked the no-nonesense relationship William Maples had with the dead. Whether he is dispelling myths about worm eaten corpses or explaining the reason for the distinctive smell of death he is both entertaining and informative. I was distressed to hear about his death in 1997 because clearly he is the type of expert that is needed in the field of forensic anthropology, one who knows both the lab work and the courtroom. The best expert in the world is useless in a case if he or she cannot convey their knowledge in a way that a jury will understand. He also showed an admirable (but at times frustating) concern for the privacy of the dead and their survivors.
Rating:
Summary: Tales of the Dead
Review: This was purchases as a gift, though it arrived late, for one of my dearest and oldest childhood friends. She is very interested in forensic science, and gobbles up what she can read on the subject. She told me how much she enjoyed the book, how imformative it was andhow much she learned. That seems redundant. what little I read of this book before wrapping it seems to indicate William Maples as the leading authority in forensic medecine, until his death in 1997. I keep meaning to ask my girlfiend if I can borrow this book.
Rating:
Summary: "Learning experience"
Review: I've always been fascinated, as I am now with "death". Not psycho fascinated. More so as if I just want to find out all I can about the scientific explanation for the "after" so to speak. And this book did it for me. I have in my posession the older version of this book with the cover of Dr. Browning on the cover. It is by far the most interesting educational book I've ever read, and answers all my questions on forensics. It made me decide that it just may be what I want to go into as a career. Thanks!!
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