Bill Bass and the Body Farm

Bill Bass, retired - but still active - forensic anthropologist, is now legendary for establishing the Body Farm at the University of Tennesee to study rates of decay of the human body. In an article from last December, Dr. Bass notes that he is leading a team exhuming and examining the remains of Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Having secured the permission of Houdini's family, Bass will make the positive identification of the body - based in part on a fracture of the ankle, and a committee of toxicologists, dentists and anthropologists will either lay to rest or confirm rumors that the magician was poisoned rather than dying of a ruptured appendix.