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Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation by James E. Starrs and Kira Gale published in April

Check out our new sister website www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com

The book has three parts: the Coroner's Inquest expert testimony as to what exhuming the remains of Meriwether Lewis could reveal regarding the cause of his death; the twenty documents that make up almost the entire historic record concerning reports of his death, together with my commentary; and my 85 page narrative, "The Case for Murder." In the narrative I name suspects and motives and develop my theories fully. In the months to come, I will be blogging about this extensively.
The book features the testimony of 13 expert witnesses who testified at a Coroner's Inquest into the death of Meriwether Lewis, held in 1996 in Hohenwald, Lewis County, Tennessee. James E. Starrs, professor of forensic science at George Washington University, is my co-author. Jim organized the inquest, which was an official inquest held in the county where the Meriwether Lewis National Monument gravesite is located. The coroner's jury called for an exhumation of Lewis's remains, to see if a cause of death could be determined. 170 members of the Lewis family have signed a petition calling for the exhumation. The family submitted an application for exhumation to the National Park Service in January, 2009 which is currently undergoing a review.

The thirteen witnesses included some of the top crime scene investigators in the nation, and leading historians. The witnesses were:
James E. Starrs: Exhumation of the gravesite
Arlen Large: Suicide theory
John Guice: Murder theory
Ruth Frick: Lewis's finances
George Stephens: Geology of the gravesite
Thomas Streed: Suicide psychology
Jerry Francisco: Gunshot wound analysis
Lucien Haag: Firearm demonstration
Gerald Richards: Document examination
Martin Fackler: Wound ballistics analysis
Duayne Dillon: Handwriting analysis
Reimert Ravenholt: Syphilis theory
William Bass: Forensic anthropology

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kira@lewisandclarktravel.com

From Kira's Blog on Lewis and Clark Travel

Stephen Ambrose’s loss of credibility and the death of Meriwether Lewis

Stephen Ambrose’s loss of credibility and the death of Meriwether Lewis by Kira Gale, April 28, 2010 http://www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com (1)

The revelation that Stephen Ambrose fabricated interviews with President Dwight D. Eisenhower (“Channeling Ike” by Richard Rayner, The New Yorker, April 26, 2010) raises new concerns regarding the credibility of America’s leading popular historian. Ambrose claimed to have spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours” interviewing Eisenhower, while instead, presidential records show that he met with the former president for a total of less than five hours. Ambrose, whose first book on Eisenhower was published in 1970, a year after the president’s death, cited numerous dates for fictitious interviews, and claimed to have spent two days a week interviewing him.

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Meriwether Lewis betrayed by Cahokia postmaster John Hay

Cahokia Courthouse, built c. 1740, Cahokia, Illinois.

Meriwether Lewis's letters from St. Louis took two to three times longer to reach Washington than letters written by other government and military officials in St. Louis! Thomas Danisi announced this startling fact at the annual meeting of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation held in Olive Branch, Mississippi on October 3-7, 2009. The meeting commemorated the death of Meriwether Lewis 200 years ago on October 11, 1809 on the Natchez Trace.

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Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks Exhibit at Jefferson Library

I visited Charlottesville in late May, 2009 to give a book talk on our new book, The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation, which I co-authored with James E. Starrs. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting Lewis family members, Howell Lewis Bowen and his wife Janice. They took me to visit the Jefferson Library near Monticello to see an exhibit on the life of Meriwether Lewis’s mother, Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks, Virginia Planter and Doctoress (1752-1837). Howell is a five times great grandson of Lucy Marks. Lewis family members have launched a website, www.solvethemystery.org asking for an exhumation of Lewis’s remains to determine the cause of death and provide for a Christian reburial. Our book also has a website, www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com In this book I discuss “The Case for Murder” and present my theories as to who did it and why. But this blog is about Lucy Marks, who had another theory.

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