"Confessions of a Crime Scene Investigator" chronicles the career of New York State Police Crime Scene Unit Investigator Bill Moloney. 26 of Moloney's 30 years were spent responding to and investigating the scenes of every imaginable way a life can be taken. It is a gritty, dirty, and sobering profession that reflects none of the glamour so often highlighted on television. Story after story paints the picture of a satisfying, yet unpleasant and frequently stomach-turning job that will make you laugh, cry and cheer.But "Confessions" goes beyond the telling of funny, sad and heroic anecdotes. Its graphic depictions of daily life in the crime scene world uncover profound revelations on how we should live life. Yes, being around so much death can teach us so very much about life and how to live it!Bill Moloney has been a member of the state's busiest crime scene unit since 1989. As a forensic investigator, he has responded to thousands of crime scenes, testified as an expert in high profile cases, taught crime scene investigation to fellow law enforcement officials, been recognized for outstanding crime scene service, and worked with world renowned professionals like Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee. The New York StatePolice promoted him to the rank of Senior Investigator and supervisor of this decorated crime scene unit. Recent retirement from the State Police has afforded him the opportunity to tell his remarkable story.

Crime Scene This heavily illustrated but simplistic book takes readers step by step through the stages of criminal investigation, focusing on the ever-developing field of forensic science. In many investigations, Platt writes, forensic science can offer proof with a level of objectivity and plausibility often lacking in other forms of evidence. Platt (Secret Worlds: Villains) begins by noting that everyone is a suspect, and that investigators need to keep a healthy skepticism: even confessions don't always mean guilt. Photos show crime scenes (cops making arrests, taking statements, photographing evidence left behind), crime labs (serologists analyzing bodily fluids, forensic anthropologists reconstructing skeletons) and tools of the trade (a crime officer's kit for the good guys, poisoner's favorites, like arsenic and deadly nightshade, for the bad guys). Platt also includes photos of disasters caused by explosives (in Oklahoma City) and plane bombings (Flight 103 over Lockerbie) as well as car wrecks and arson. Economical, even cursory, prose and the blocky layout of the pages give the volume a certain high-school-textbook feel, despite the occasional gory bits.Aimed at the neophyte, this volume offers a good overview of the world of forensics. Color photographs throughout. Using case studies and amazing digital imagery to show how science helps uncover the truth about how crimes were committed and who carried them out, this fact-filled guide explains the investigative powers of forensic science.

Crime Scene Investigation and Reconstruction: An Illustrated Manual and Field Guide provides methodologies to help investigators to think broadly when seeking out evidence at a scene and, likewise, utilize all the information from a case—especially the observable physical evidence, besides what are collectable, in reconstructing events. In the introductory chapters the author highlights the importance of crime scene reconstruction when answering the question “How something could have happened?” From there, he goes on to explain the principles of exchange, identification, individualization and reconstruction. Here, the “observe-hypothesize” model, proposed in this field-guide, is presented: outlining how every source of information ranging from laboratory reports, opinions from medical doctors, statements of witnesses, and confessions of suspects should be reconcilable with the evidence-based reconstruction made in the crime scene. In this, the author contends that qualified crime scene generalists are the ideal professionals to frame scientific hypothesis and to make reconstructions. Practical recommendations, based on best-practice general crime scene procedures are provided while the second half of the book illustrate and outline how to deal with various types of major crime scenes, including fire deaths, exhuming buried human remains, sexual assaults, death by electrocution, explosion, drowning, poisoning, hanging, and more. Since a picture is a worth thousand words, over 400 collective photographs and sketches are included throughout the book to illustrate the observational methods that are described. In addition, the field-guide provides several easy-to-follow flow-charts to serve as checklists to aid scene investigation in major types of crime scene. In this, Crime Scene Investigation and Reconstruction: An Illustrated Manual and Field Guide will help investigators readily recognize similar manifestations in crime scenes and to apply and use such techniques appropriately in their own work.

Shows how the latest methods of scientific detection are used to uncover the truth about a crime scene, and to reveal how crimes were committed, explaining the techniques and equipment used by forensic investigators.

Despite the rising number of confirmed false confession cases, most people have a hard time grasping why someone would confess to a crime they did not commit, or even why a guilty person would admit to something that could put them in jail for life. How the Police Generate False Confessions takes you inside the interrogation room, exposing the tactics that law enforcement uses to make confessions happen. James L. Trainum reveals how innocent people can become suspects and then confessed criminals even when they have not committed a crime. Using real stories, he looks at the inherent coerciveness of the interrogation process and why so many false confessions contain so many of the details that only the true perpetrator would know. More disturbingly, the book examines how these same processes corrupt witness and victim statements, create lying informants and cooperators, and induce innocent people to plead guilty. Trainum also offers recommendations for change in the U.S. by looking at how other countries are changing the process to prevent such miscarriages of justice. The reasons that people falsely confess can be complex and varied; throughout How the Police Generate False Confessions Trainum encourages readers to critically evaluate confessions on their own by gaining a better understanding of the interrogation process.

Intended for the beginning student of criminal investigation, this textbook introduces in detail both the philosophy of investigation and the mechanics of crime detection. The introductory section outlines the theory of investigation and defines the investigator's three 'tools'--information, interrogation, and instrumentation. The role of the investigator's notebook and the importance of report writing are also described. The second section presents in detail an investigation's initial steps, including crime scene search, sketches and photography, and the collection and handling of evidence. Sources of information and methods for obtaining it are described in chapters on interviews, interrogations, admissions and confessions, informants, missing persons, surveillance, undercover assignment, and related topics. Successive chapters apply these search and evidence collection procedures to investigations of specific offenses: arson, narcotics violations, sex offenses, theft offenses, forgery, homicide, and criminal explosions. Two chapters on courtroom procedures discuss the rules of evidence, the principles of proof, and the presentation of findings. Chapters on methods of identification explain observation and description, identification by witnesses, fingerprints, fingerprint classification, laundry and drycleaning marks, casting and molding, and various impressions. A final section discusses the state of the art of specialized scientific methods. Information is provided on stains, traces, and chemical analysis; firearms; tests for intoxication; tracing materials and detective dyes; hairs and fibers; invisible radiation; and documentary evidence. Photographs, illustrations, reading lists for each chapter, an index, and appendixes discussing white-collar crime, arrest procedures, search and seizure procedures, and suggestions for law enforcement agencies sending evidence to the FBI laboratory are included.

Recounts the events surrounding the murders of nine Buddhist temple members near Phoenix, Arizona, and the arrest of four men known as "The Tucson Four" who were coerced into confessing and held despite there being no physical evidence to connect them tothe crime, and discusses how the suspects were treated by the media, even after the real killers were discovered.