<span style=”font-size:14px;font-weight:bold; class=” briefshedodd”=””>Heiress who transformed forensics is born
On this day, March 25, in 1878, Frances Glessner Lee, a millionaire heiress who revolutionized the study of crime scene investigation, was born.
Lee, raised on Sherlock Holmes tales, founded Harvard’s department of legal medicine, the first program in the nation for forensic pathology. She was said to be an inspiration for the Jessica Fletcher character in “Murder, She Wrote.”
In the 1940s and ’50s, she hosted the “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” for about 50 of the nation’s leading crime scene investigators, presenting them with intricate doll-house dioramas of real crime scenes, complete with working doors, windows and lights.
She rolled tiny cigarettes, whittled clothespins, and created books, newspapers and prescription bottle labels printed by hand.
The dioramas are now displayed at Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore. – Scott McCabe
— Scott McCabe
