What the Dead Know

Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

Barbara Butcher

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781982179403
• Print ISBN:
  9781982179397
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

A “remarkably candid and sensitive” (The Wall Street Journal) true crime memoir from Barbara Butcher, a trailblazing New York City death investigator, who reveals the untold stories behind more than 5,500 death scenes, including the nation’s most horrific tragedy: the 9/11 attacks.

When Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism, she found an unexpected lifeline in a job at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in NYC. As only the second woman ever hired for the role—and the first to last more than three months—she became a vital force in the world of forensic science and criminal investigations.

Over the next two decades, Butcher worked thousands of cases: gruesome homicides, suspicious suicides, heartbreaking scenes involving underage victims, and complex mass casualty investigations. In her unforgettable account, she invites readers into the gritty, high-stakes world of crime-scene investigation, from the autopsy room and morgue to tense moments at active crime scenes. Along the way, she uncovered how confronting death every day gave her a new perspective on life—and ultimately saved her from becoming a statistic herself.

In vivid, darkly humorous prose, Butcher recounts how she narrowly avoided a boobytrapped suicide scene, and how, during 9/11, she and her colleagues worked tirelessly to identify victims using scraps of clothing, DNA, and the memories of grieving loved ones. Her honesty, resilience, and sharp wit make this a standout in the genre of first responder memoirs and women in law enforcement.

“Breathtakingly honest, compassionate, and raw” (Patricia Cornwell) and “completely unputdownable” (Adriana Trigiani), What the Dead Know is a powerful, insider’s look at the world of death and the lessons it teaches us about how to live. Fans of forensic memoirs, cold case investigations, true crime, Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and TV series like CSI or Mindhunter won’t be able to put this down.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• Epigraph
• Chapter One: The Angry Hanging Man
• Chapter Two: Luck Joy
• Chapter Three: How to Roll a Body
• Chapter Four: Partners in Crime
• Chapter Five: The Whitehouse Hotel
• Chapter Six: Don’t Try This at Home
• Chapter Seven: Timing Is Everything
• Chapter Eight: Baby-Faced Butchers
• Chapter Nine: The Other City
• Chapter Ten: In Case of Emergency
• Chapter Eleven: The Slain and the Slayers
• Chapter Twelve: Fuck Entenmann’s
• Chapter Thirteen: Homicide: Death at the Hands of Another
• Chapter Fourteen: Suicide: Murder of the Self
• Chapter Fifteen: The Radios Are Down
• Chapter Sixteen: Whatever It Takes
• Chapter Seventeen: That’s Politics
• Chapter Eighteen: They Locked My Ass Up
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright