"A Firefly book"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword -- Preface -- Trail of the Ripper -- Section 1: Introduction -- 1: In the beginning -- 2: On the scene -- 3: Question of identity -- Section 2: Weapons Of The Criminal -- 4: Pure poison -- 5: Knives and blunt instruments -- 6: Strangulation and suffocation -- 7: Drowning and burning -- 8: Smoking gun -- 9: Fire and explosives -- Section 3: Unmasking The Criminal -- 10: Frauds and forgeries -- 11: Fingerprints and footprints -- 12: Trace elements -- 13: Blood -- 14: DNA: the ultimate identifier? -- 15: Future for forensic science -- Glossary -- Index -- Bibliography and acknowledgments.

From the Publisher: Hidden Evidence takes you to the scenes of 40 infamous crimes and into the heart of the forensic investigations. These are the true crime shockers that have grabbed headlines and aroused public passions. David Owen explains the scientific procedures that helped crack every one of these cases- from the gathering of elusive physical clues to the examination of weapons and bodies, to the use of sophisticated scientific analysis. Threaded throughout the book is the history of forensic science and the technologies that support it, including: fingerprinting, autopsies, handwriting analysis, ballistics, hair sampling, blood typing, DNA testing, dental records, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, compound and electron microscopes, and toxicology. The high-profile cases David Owen used to illustrate forensic developments are from as early as 1775, when Paul Revere used dentures to identify a slain soldier, to the latest developments in the Oklahoma bombing. Most will be familiar to readers, such as: The Lindbergh Kidnapping, Pan Am Flight 103, The Kennedy Investigation, The Hitler Diaries, Wayne Williams, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey MacDonald, Dr. Josef Mengele, Robert Maxwell's suicide, Tsar Nicholas II, and The World Trade Center bombing.