Illustrated lecture and book party with MIT’s Deborah Halber and retired NYPD detective sergeant John Paolucci
Date: Tuesday, July 8
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Buy tickets here
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Copies of Skeleton Crew will be available for sale and signing
Please join author Deborah Halber and retired NYPD detective sergeant John Paolucci for an evening exploring what happens when human remains—victims of homicides, suicides and accidents-cannot be identified. The talk, book signing and wine-and-cheese reception mark the release of Deborah Halber’s narrative nonfiction book, The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases.
Deborah will provide an overview of the shocking numbers of unidentified human remains stowed in potters fields and morgues across the US, and a behind-the-scenes look at the Internet subculture working to match missing people with nameless forgotten victims. John will describe the unique challenges of unidentified bodies; how real-life crime scenes differ from those on television; and how he solved a mystery involving insurance fraud and a Paraguayan corpse.
Deborah Halber started out as a daily newspaper reporter, then became a writer and editor for Tufts University and as a science writer for MIT, where she chronicled everything from quantum weirdness (that’s the technical term) to snail slime. A freelance journalist since 2004, her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, MIT Technology Review, the graphic news magazine Symbolia, and many university publications. A member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the National Association of Science Writers, she lives near Boston in a house with a lot of former pets buried out back.