1915

NYC commissioner of accounts published investigation of coroner’s office, a sinkhole of “favoritism, extortion, and malfeasance,”  appointment of Dr. Charles Norris (whose family founded Norristown, PA) as Chief Medical Examiner in 1918, headquartered at Bellevue. Norris appointed NYC chemist Alexander O. Gettler, a Jewish Austrian émigré, and they established the new field of forensic science. Gettler’s experiments relied on dogs and involved many investigations of alcohol poisoning during prohibition. Norris Report of 1927showed that bootleg whiskeys all contaminated with deadly substances, e.g., shellac, antifreeze; all contained denatured alcohol (Oshinsky, 202-213).