Welcome

Dear Friends of Lewis and Clark,
I am going to suspend my normal Lewis and Clark activities over the next couple of months in order to concentrate on publishing and writing my newest book, The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation. So there will be no monthly newsletter, and I won't be attending the weekly study group and monthly dinner programs  of the Mouth of the Platte Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in Omaha-Council Bluffs. I will be hard at work meeting some publishing deadlines.


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. Over 200 members of the Lewis family have signed a petition calling for the exhumation.

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

Due to the research of study group member Ev Orr, I learned of the existence of  a transcript of the coroner's inquest hearings, and after reading it, decided it was a great read, and deserved to be published. My own contribution will be to discuss Lewis's last three years of life, from the return of the expedition in 1806 until his untimely and mysterious death at age 35. He met his death on the Natchez Trace on October 11, 1809, just 199 years ago today as I write this. I will also be including documents relating to his last days, and revealing a very surprising and important development in this 200 year old cold case! Much of the material I will be including in the book is contained among the various blogs on this website, so take a look.

Next year the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation will be meeting in Memphis, Tennessee and Tupelo, Mississippi in a unique traveling meeting format. The annual meeting date will be shifted from its customary August date to October 3-7, 2009. To learn more see the annual meeting announcement on the  foundation website.  The emphasis at the meeting will be on honoring the memory of Meriwether Lewis, regardless of how we individually view the circumstances of his death.

The book will be published In April, 2009 and distributed by IPG.

Sincerely,
Kira Gale
kira@lewisandclarktravel.com