Intestines

In the first book I am reading on my new Kindle - Beyond the Body Farm - Bill Bass recounts the case of an explosion at an illicit fireworks factory. When one of the victims was blown through the air, a loop of intestine snagged on a tree and unfurled for many feet before stopping his trajectory. The story reminded me of the martyrdom of St. Erasmus (also called St. Elmo) c. 303 A.D. Persecuted under Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian, Erasmus continued to preach Christian gospel. Suffering numerous tortures involving snakes, boiling oil, spikes, and pincers, among other horrors, his stomach was slit open and his intestines were wound around a windlass, which finally resulted in his death.

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.