Beyond the Body Farm.

Forensic anthropologist William M. Bass III has coauthored a new book with Jon Jefferson: Beyond the Body Farm, which tells some tales of Bass's long career in deciphering what dead bodies can reveal in the aid of law enforcement.

Go here to listen to a NPR story about the book, see video about the Tennessee facility the Body Farm that has provided hard data on the decomposition of corpses, and read an excerpt from Beyond the Body Farm.

Many moons ago, Bass was my professor for Introduction to Physical Anthropology. I found that I was more interested in cultures than the cranial capacity of Cro-Magnon man and thus no candidate for crime scene investigation. He often was called away to consult on various cases, including verifying that Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed who was buried in the grave of JFK's assassin.