There is a wide variety of rich terms used with murder, many of them a small entertainment in and of themselves. Following is a roundup of the more common ones.

Abrasion collar—The hole made by a bullet where the edge of the hole is blackened.

Adipocere—This is a wax-like substance formed while a body decomposes. It is also known as grave wax.

Antemortem—Before death.

Arsenic—Used for medicine and as a poison, it is a brittle, lustrous, graying solid that has a garlicky odor.

Asphyxia—The end stage of significant interference with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as in suffocation.

Autopsy—An autopsy is required in all accidental and suspicious and homicidal deaths to determine the cause of death. An autopsy is totally invasive, surgically speaking. After the body is cleaned, a Y-shaped incision is made in the chest, the breast plate is removed, and the heart and lungs are examined and weighed; the abdomen is opened up, and the organs are removed for examination; and the skull is also sawed open and the brain is removed. Sections of the organs are taken for toxicological examination, and complete bloodwork is done, including screening for poisons. Following examination, the organs are returned to the body.

It is important—and often required—that the main investigating detective (or “primary”) be present at the autopsy, available to answer any questions the medical examiner (ME or coroner) may have. The investigator’s answers may be helpful in determining a definitive cause of death. When the examination is complete, the ME issues a written report of the findings.

“Bag the hands”—Encase the hands of a homicide victim in bags. Bagging the hands of a homicide victim is standard procedure. This helps preserve any trace material, such as skin or hair, that might be on the hands or under the fingernails of the victim. When a victim is fighting for his or her life, a natural reaction is to defend with the hands, scratching or grabbing the perpetrator. Minute quantities of the material that may be found on the victim’s hands can be crucial in identifying the guilty person through DNA tests.

Movies or television often shows the victim’s hands bagged in some sort of plastic wrap or plastic baggie, but real-life investigators prefer paper bags, because plastic tends to speed up putrefaction, thus cutting into time for analysis. In addition, plastic does not allow the hands to “breathe,” and the lack of air may alter the trace evidence significantly.

Blowback—As Vernon Geberth says in Practical Homicide Investigation, these are minute particles of blood and tissue found in and/or on the barrel, the cylinder, or trigger guard of a weapon when the weapon has been in contact with the victim’s skin. Blowback is generally associated with gunshot wounds when the weapon is placed tightly to the head or other portion of the body, especially in “contact” types of wounds.

Blunt-force injuries—Injuries usually characterized by outward signs of lacerations and bruising and caused by a blunt instrument.

Blunt-force injuries are normally delivered to the head and produce external signs of attack, but this is not an absolute. A person may receive a severe head injury and appear to be fine but may die later of internal bleeding. Sidney Weinberg, medical examiner for Suffolk County, New York, once examined a deceased man who had been hit in the head but seemed totally intact; autopsy revealed that the blow had turned the brain to virtual jelly.

Blunt-force injuries on the side of the head are usually more likely to be lethal than those on the front. Injuries to areas other than the head can also be fatal. Injuries to the abdomen and pelvic area can cause internal bleeding. Bones may be cracked and pierce organs; such injuries may also be useful in determining which direction the force came from.

Blunt instrument—A weapon that has no sharp edges and produces blunt-force injuries. This term is an excellent example of police terminology at its euphemistic best. If someone were hit on the head with a ball-peen hammer, police would characterize the attack as being made with a blunt instrument. A wide variety of items, from frying pans to candelabras, have been used in blunt-instrument attacks. By far the most inventive blunt instrument was created by writer Roald Dahl in a short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” in which a woman beat her husband to death with a frozen leg of lamb. When the detectives came to investigate, she convinced them to stay and have dinner, and of course she served them the blunt instrument. They ate the murder weapon.

Body bag—The bag used to transport the deceased from the scene of death, including murder, to the morgue; also called a disaster bag.

Years ago bodies were transported in wagon baskets, but today the procedure is normally to wrap a corpse in a sheet so it can be lifted and then placed in the leakproof bag, which is then zipped closed.

Bomb dog—A type of sniffer dog used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) and other law enforcement agencies to sniff out explosive devices. The BATF characterizes such an animal, in typical governmentese, as an “explosives detection canine.”

Bomb squad—A police unit trained and equipped to deal with explosive devices.

Bomber—Someone who constructs and plants bombs in violation of criminal law. Members of bomb squads say that people who make bombs usually make simple ones and that the simple technology and materials needed to make a bomb are easily available. For example, fertilizer was used as the core of the bomb that destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Bombs can also be complicated and may well be the handiwork of a bomber determined to outwit any bomb squad that seeks to defuse the device.

Bombers send bombs for many reasons. Sometimes it’s a warning message—the bomb is placed where it is not likely to kill anyone when it goes off. Some are sent for simple revenge. The most horrendous kind, those placed where many people are going to be gathered (such as an airplane or building), are usually the work of terrorist groups. Undoubtedly, the worst example of an airplane bombing was that of the PanAm flight that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Hundreds of people were killed, all innocent civilians. That bomb was very sophisticated, having been on the plane some eight hours before it was detonated. The bomber, released from prison because he was dying of cancer, recently found shelter in Lebanon, much to the chagrin of people who lost relatives on the flight.

Sometimes the bomber’s motive is greed, killing someone for insurance or inheritance. Probably the most infamous example of this occurred on November 1, 1955, when Jack Gilbert Graham placed twenty-five sticks of dynamite on a plane leaving Denver and carrying his mother. The aircraft exploded in mid-flight, killing all forty-four people aboard. Graham was ultimately captured and executed.

As it happened, my (Tom) two daughters had been on this very plane about six months earlier, which they were taking to visit a friend in England. And in another coincidence, my wife worked at a photo shop and knew a family who took photos of themselves on the plane in their seats, and a friend brought the film to the shop to be developed. My wife had the sad task to give the last pictures of their deceased relatives to the wife and mother who came into the store to get them.

Bone orchard—Cop slang for a cemetery.

Boneyard—Police slang for a cemetery. Technically, a boneyard is a place where the bones of slaughtered animals are stored for later use, such as for making soap, or where animals go to die. In 1902 W. J. Long said in Beasts of the Field, “I have met men…who speak of boneyards which they have discovered…They say the caribou go there to die.” The term eventually came to refer to a human cemetery.

Bruise—Swelling of the skin; it has a bluish cast.

Bullet track—The path of the bullet or projectile as it passes through the body.

Burking—Homicidal suffocation. Back when cadavers were casually bought for medical experimentation, they brought a good price, and in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1829 a man named William Burke was quite good at supplying them. The only problem was that he murdered people to create his supply. He and a confederate would get the victim drunk, then Burke would sit on the victim’s chest while his partner held the person’s nose and mouth closed. Result: a cadaver with no marks of foul play and ready for sale. The method is still used today by crafty murderers who want to make a death appear natural.

Busywork—Routine repetitive work in a criminal investigation. In many criminal investigations, much checking of records, such as merchandise receipts, and other repetitive work is required; it keeps police very busy but usually fails to reap concrete dividends. Sometimes, however, busywork pays big. For example, in the 1950s when the “Mad Bomber” terrorized New York City, checking of utility records turned up handwriting of an ex-employee that matched that on notes the bomber sent. It resulted in the apprehension, arrest, and conviction of George Metesky and ended the terror that had swept the city.

Cadaveric spasm—Stiffening and rigidity of a single group of muscles occurring immediately after death.

Casting—Making mold impressions of tire tracks, footwear, etc.

Cast-off stains—Stains created when blood is flung or projected from an object in motion or one that suddenly stops some motion.

Chain of evidence—Evidence collected and catalogued in a homicide; also called chain of custody. It is important for investigators of homicides to keep everything in logical, consistent order when establishing their cases. “The chain of evidence,” wrote Carsten Stroud in Close Pursuit, “started from the moment the First Officer arrived at the killing, and Kennedy had lost cases because the sequence of events or the evidential chain had been broken by inconsistent or careless entries.” Ideally, a written record must be kept of everyone who handles evidence, and when.

Chalk the site—To outline a corpse on the ground with chalk. This is a standard procedure in a homicide investigation. Chalk outlines show not only where a body was located but also serve as markers that indicate where small bits of evidence, such as bullet casings and blood, were located. But chalking must only be done after the crime scene photographs are taken; otherwise, says Vernon Geberth in Practical Homicide Investigation, the defense attorneys can maintain that the crime scene has been contaminated. Geberth uses another term that is not yet used universally but may well find its way into police lingo: “chalk fairy.” One photo in his book is captioned: “Here you see the deceased lying in the position in which he was found. The crime scene photo may possibly be ‘inadmissible.’ While the first officers were securing the scene, a ‘chalk fairy’ suddenly had the irresistible impulse to draw chalk lines around the body.”

Chopping wounds—A wound produced by a heavy cutter like an ax, machete, or cleaver, which results in not only a deep gaping wound but also structural damage to body parts in the path of the weapon.

Colombian necktie—A murder in which the victim’s throat is cut and the tongue is pulled down through the opening to resemble a tie. This gruesome practice is done by Colombian drug dealers, who normally reserve it for an informer. Though everything is relative, the Colombians, along with Jamaican posses, are generally regarded as the most brutal of all drug-dealing gangs. Perhaps their reputation is most fearsome because it is well known that they will kill not only someone who has crossed them, but that person’s family as well. In fact, that is an implicit threat when dealing with Colombians.

Contact wound—A wound that results when a gun is placed against a body and fired. When a gun is fired at such close range, gases from the explosion burst between the skin and bone and make a ragged, dirty entrance wound. This wound is usually star-shaped or cross-shaped and is sometimes referred to as stellate. Some contact wounds are atypical in that the underlying organs allow gases to expand so there is no ragged entry wound. Instead, the entry is clean with a characteristic “muzzle stamp” or “brand”—the outline of the barrel hole and front site.

Contract murder—This is the most common name used for a mob murder; it is also used frequently by law-enforcement personnel. The threat of death is the ultimate weapon used by organized crime to control people. The rule is simple: Do it my way or be killed.

For years, if you were going to be hit by the Mafia, you could expect that a certain decorum would be observed: They wouldn’t “do” you in front of your family. That has changed. The most dramatic example was the killing of Joey “Crazy Joe” Gallo, a renegade Mafioso who was shot by two gunmen while dining with his wife in Umberto’s Clam House in New York City.

The time to worry about being hit is when you are aware of having committed a fatal offense (such as stealing drugs) and are subsequently invited somewhere by a close friend. This is frequently the way a hit is achieved: The friend has been forced to set you up.

Today the various gangs are much more violent than in the past. Indeed, the level of violence is mind-boggling, and perhaps most shocking are the Colombians. They not only don’t care about your family observing you being killed, but will hit the entire family because of your transgressions.

Contrecoup contusions—Bruising of the brain from a fatal fall. Without an autopsy, it may be difficult to tell if a deceased is the victim of a homicidal assault with a blunt instrument that produces blunt-force injuries or a fall. The autopsy will clarify this. If the person has been murdered, the skull and brain will be contused on the side of the head that was struck. If a person dies from a fall, the contusions—which usually occur in the frontal and temporal lobes—occur in the brain directly opposite the point of impact. Reason: as the head strikes the surface, the brain is jarred loose and impacts against the skull on the opposite side. This medical insight has resulted in the conviction of many murderers who assume that there’s no way anyone can tell if someone is hit with a hammer or jumps head first out of a window. Contrecoup is a French term meaning “against the flow.”

Coroner—The official in charge of determining the cause of suspicious deaths. In some locales the coroner is the same as the ME, or medical examiner, and actually determines the cause of death. In other locales coroners are strictly political appointees who simply move the body to a funeral home. In those cases the coroner is not personally qualified to determine the cause of death, but hires a qualified pathologist to do so.

Corpus delecti—The body of a murder victim. Like a number of other law-enforcement terms, this one is Latin and derives from Roman law. It originally meant the sum of the physical evidence that shows that a crime has been committed, but over time it came to refer to the body.

Crime-scene unit—Most big-city PDs have crime-scene units whose job is to descend on a crime scene and collect and protect the evidence. Such units comprise a variety of specialists, some who collect fingerprints, others who take photographs, others who search for physical evidence.

To the ordinary person, a crime scene may not look like it could give up much usable evidence. Many people—including police officers—are blasé about such things. Perhaps the worst example of this occurred at the Sharon Tate murder scene in Los Angeles. Investigators were excited when they discovered a bloody fingerprint on the front doorbell of the house. It turned out to be the fingerprint of a uniformed officer at the scene: He had touched a victim lying outside the house, gotten some blood on his fingers, and then blithely pressed the doorbell. But crime scenes, given the tremendous number of sophisticated machines and chemical tests—including DNA—available, are usually loaded. A crime scene is not ordinary at all.

Criminalistics—The use of the physical sciences in the detection of crime. The term first emerged in America in 1949, coined by Messrs. O’Hara and Osterburg who wrote in Criminalistics: The Application of the Physical Sciences to the Detection of Crime, “The authors have decided, for the purposes of the present text, to use the term criminalistics in referring to the work of the police laboratory. This is not entirely a neologism. The words krimionalistic, criminalistique, and criminalistica are in common use in continental Europe.”

Death fart—Gas expelled by a dead person. When a person dies, gases accumulate and these gases are sometimes released. Police say the smell is much worse than normal flatulence. It is these gases, incidentally, that give a body buoyancy (see Floater) and enable it to rise to the surface of a body of water despite having great weight secured to it. Many criminals have underestimated what such gases can do: A criminal chains a car transmission around a victim and dumps it in a lake; a week later the body—with the transmission still secured—bobs to the surface.

Death notification—The act of notifying the next of kin of the death of a loved one. This is a very difficult job, and police are trained in how to do it. One cop who did it a lot explained that when he showed up at someone’s door he always had his hat off. “They got the message right away, subliminally, that something was really wrong.”

Deceased—This is one standard term cops use to describe someone who is dead, whether the death is natural, suicide, or murder. Like many other police terms, it is also euphemistic, much less jarring than saying “dead person.” The Oxford English Dictionary speaks of its euphemistic quality: “In its origin a euphemism (L. decessus for mors) and still slightly euphemistic or at least less harsh and realistic than death; it is the common term in legal and technical language where the legal or civil incidence of death is in question, without reference to the act of dying.” Deceased arose for the Latin term “to depart,” itself a euphemism. Decedent is also used by many departments.

Decomposition—Physical degeneration of a body after death.

Defense wounds—The cuts, contusions, and abrasions found on the hands, wrists, and arms of homicide victims that were inflicted during the struggle with the murderer. When someone is attacked, the normal reaction is to use one’s hands to defend against the assault; predictable wounds result. Defense wounds are important clues for homicide investigators who want to reconstruct how a person was murdered.

To throw the police off, a murderer who is knowledgeable about homicide investigation may try to make it appear as if a struggle took place. Homicide detectives are always alert to this tactic. “I’m not so sure these are legit defense cuts,” one cop said to another in Carsten Stroud’s Close Pursuit. “They look a little stagy. Too regular, y’know what I mean? Like they been arranged in neat little rows. Most of your defense cuts, they’re all over the wrists and hands, every which way, this ’n that, y’know?”

Disorganized and Organized Lust Murderer—To each was attributed certain characteristics that would be helpful in profiling (drawing a psychological portrait) of the killer and therefore possibly be helpful in tracking him or her down.

Ex-FBI Agents Robert R. Hazelwood and John Douglas wrote in the April 1980 issue of the Federal Law Enforcement Bulletin, “The disorganized (asocial) lust murderer exhibits primary characteristics of societal aversion. This individual prefers his own company to that of others and would be typified as a loner. He experiences difficulty in negotiating interpersonal relationships and consequently feels rejected and lonely. He lacks the cunning of the social type (organized lust murder) and commits the crime in a frenzied…manner. The crime is likely to be committed in close proximity to his residence or place of employment, where he feels secure and more at ease.”

If the crime scene and victim show the MO of a lust murderer—the victim was killed in a frenzied fashion (e.g., stabbed repeatedly and at random)—investigators might suspect a disorganized type and would start to focus their search locally, looking for his or her home or place of business. Such killers are usually young, so that would narrow the search even more.

DNA—Short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid found in every cell in the body that carries the genetic codes that control the function and structure of every component of the body.

DNA technology is to crime investigation what the airplane was to travel: It has revolutionized it. When analyzed, DNA varies absolutely from one individual to the next. In a sense, it’s like a genetic fingerprint. These genetic fingerprints are in every cell of the body and are therefore contained in blood, semen, and other material found at crime scenes. All that the “genetic engineer” needs to do is compare the DNA of the substance found with that of a suspect.

The accuracy of DNA is mind-boggling—almost 100 percent. It is widely accepted by law-enforcement agencies.

DNA has figured in innumerable sensational convictions and acquittals. Even if a DNA sample such as blood or semen is old, its genetic makeup can be discovered. Many convictions have been overturned because of DNA analysis: Prison gates have opened for people who had been in prison for more than ten years when DNA analysis of old evidence buried in a property room somewhere proved them innocent.

It should be noted that although the science is unimpeachable, attacks are often made on the expert who interprets the DNA analysis.

Do—To murder someone. Among law-enforcement personnel this is probably the single most common term for murder. At homicide crime scenes one will frequently hear police say, almost exclusively, that the deceased was “done.” And the killer is the “doer.”

It is also a term used by the Mafia, but they like to say “do a piece of work.” Like a number of other terms used to describe murder, it is euphemistic.

“Do” is probably a shortened version of “do away with” or “do in.”

Doin’ the Houdini—Cutting up a body and discarding the pieces so the body can’t be identified.

This term was popularized in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan (West Forties) and possibly coined by the Westies, a notorious gang that was in flower in the 1970s and 1980s. The method actually came from Eddie Cummiskey, an excon, now deceased, who had spent his time in prison learning to be a butcher. When he got out, he brought his skills and ideas to the Westies. After killing someone, Cummiskey would butcher the person, pack the pieces in individual pieces of plastic (maybe), and dump the pieces in the river.

The most notorious example of doin’ the Houdini occurred when Jimmy Coonan, the gang’s leader, and others decided it was time for Ruby Stein, a big-time loan shark who was the bank for other loan sharks, to stop living. Coonan and others lured him into an empty West Side bar one morning, shot him to death, cut him up in a sink in the back of the bar, and threw the body parts in the river. But one section of Stein’s body, his torso, did not get swept out to sea as Coonan had planned. The ME discovered a scar on the heart from a heart attack and was able to match this with an X-ray of Stein’s heart.

This caused a furor among Stein’s fellow Mafiosi, and suspicion fell on Coonan, who was able to convince Paul Castellano, the capo di tutti capi of the New York mob at the time, that he wasn’t involved. For his part, Coonan was enraged—and he vowed that next time he did the Houdini with someone, he would use a blender.

The Houdini of the phrase refers, of course, to the great Harry Houdini (stage name for Erik Weisz, 1874–1926), premier escape artist. The Westies used the term to mean “disappear.” In 1926, for example, J. Fait in The Big House says, “Don’t do no Houdini, or we’ll lay you out.”

Domestic—Short for domestic disturbance, an altercation among family members to which police are called. Cops regard this as one of the most dangerous situations they can encounter because of the high intensity of emotion that domestic disturbances generate. In a matter of seconds, for example, a woman who has called police in response to an assault on her by her husband can turn on the police officers. Police also know that repeated calls to handle a specific domestic may well be a precursor to a homicide. “There is always a history of abuse,” says one investigator, “and then the final abuse—murder.”

Domestic disturbances were dramatically highlighted in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson. Police had been called to his home eight times by his wife (and then ex-wife) Nicole Brown Simpson. Insiders viewed those calls as a significant history of spousal abuse.

Drive-by—The act of shooting at someone from a moving vehicle. The drive-by is the main method gang members employ to kill each other. It is simple and relatively safe for the shooters. They just drive by—usually in a stolen vehicle—and the victim, who is on the sidewalk or in a yard, is a sitting duck.

Drive-by shootings got their start in the East Los Angeles area, which is infested with gangs. The local joke goes that the abiding gang philosophy is “First we shoot, then we talk.” Gang members occasionally call a drive-by a “ride,” to further disguise their intentions to uninformed listeners.

Dump job—Murder victim dumped or placed at a place other than where the murder occurred.

Dusted—The term probably comes from the biblical “ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” But for years it has been a standard way to say that someone has been murdered. “He has been dusted off by Vanderbilt” (H. Asbury, Sucker’s Paradise, 1938).

Dying declaration—A dying declaration is always something that homicide detectives are alert to, but for it to be admissible in court it must satisfy certain criteria: The person making the declaration must be rational and must believe that he or she is dying; there must be no hope of recovery; the guilty party must be named; details of how and why the victim is wounded must be provided; and the victim must, of course, die. If the victim lives, the statement is invalid.

Obtaining a dying declaration can be done by experienced officers, and once they have it they are instructed to write it down, if possible. A witness is also helpful, but not essential: If the dying declaration is given according to the guidelines above, it will be an extremely powerful weapon in court, as many killers have discovered.

Entomology—The study of insects. The life cycle of maggots is particularly helpful in establishing time of death.

Entrance wound—The hole made by a bullet as it enters the body. The entrance wound made by a normal bullet (as opposed to a hollow-point) is a small round hole with little bleeding and an abrasion collar, which is a circular perforation and blackening of the skin around the hole. It is usually smaller than an exit would, where the bullet comes out of the body.

Father Mulcahy Syndrome—Police response to an emergency situation that is based more on the movies than on proper training. The term is primarily used in Chicago. Lieutenant John Kennedy, who headed the Chicago Hostage/Barricade Terrorist Unit, explained it in Pure Cop by Connie Fletcher:

“A lot of what people used to do is based on old Jimmy Cagney/Barry Fitzgerald movies. Before there was HBT training (the police) did what Hollywood told them to do. Police would think (in a hostage situation) ‘What do I do?’ And what the police officer had seen in the movies would click in. ‘Oh yeah, I remember—get a priest. Get the mother. Get the father. Put them all on the phone. Leave my gun outside. Go in. Exchange myself for the kid.’ All these things, which are the worst things in the world to do in a hostage situation, the things that got people killed, are what, traditionally, police would do.”

Filicide—The murder of one’s child.

Floater—A body that has been floating in water. A floater found in water is called a wet floater; one found out of water but exhibiting the same physical characteristics of one who has been in the water is a dry floater. Police say that floaters are among the most noisome-looking corpses. A floater will be bloated, have “washer woman” (wrinkled) skin, be filled with gas, and have some skin missing or ready to come off. Wet floaters often have been nibbled on by marine life, and marine life is often found inside the body. Putrefaction generates gas, causing the body to bloat.

The term floater has been around since the turn of the century. In How the Other Half Lives (1891), author Jacob Riis said, “Floaters come ashore every now and then with pockets picked inside out, not always evidence of a post-mortem inspection by dock-rats.”

Fratricide—The act of killing one’s brother or sister.

Hemorrhage—Heavy bleeding. A loss of a large amount of blood in a short period of time, externally or internally. May be arterial, venous, or capillary.

Henry Lee Lucas Memorial Highway—The stretch of I-75 that runs from I-10 south to Gainesville, FL. In the 1970s Henry Lee Lucas, one of the most infamous murderers of the century—a man who may have killed more than 350 people—traveled the stretch of I-10 that began near Laredo, TX, and ended at the I-75 exit to Gainesville, apparently picking up hitchhikers, murdering them, and then dumping the bodies along that short stretch of I-75.

Hesitation marks—Cuts on the wrists or neck of a suicide victim that indicate that the person hesitated before making the fatal cut(s). Such marks do not always reflect suicide. As Vernon Geberth points out in Practical Homicide Investigation, “an assailant who is knowledgeable about these (marks) might leave similar markings to cover up a homicide.”

Homicide—Murder.

Homicidomania—Impulsive desire to commit murder.

Hyoid bone—The small U-shaped bone at the base of the tongue.

Incised wound—A wound caused by a sharp instrument or weapon. A wound that is longer than deep, with minimum bruising, no bridging of skin, and bleeding freely.

Infanticide—The act of killing an infant soon after birth.

Laceration—A split or tear of the skin, usually produced by blunt force (shearing or crushing type of injury from blunt objects, falls, or impact from vehicles). These injuries tend to be irregular with abraded contused margins. Internal organs can also have lacerations.

Linkage blindness—Failure to link one crime to another during an investigation.

Lividity—Lividity is an asset to investigators because it can tell them the approximate time of death and whether or not the body was moved. Lividity occurs because the heart has stopped pumping blood to the various parts of the body. Since the blood is not moving, gravity causes it to settle. This usually starts within thirty minutes of death, and the process is complete within eight to ten hours of death. Lividity can help investigators determine the approximate time of death and whether a body has been moved, because after the blood has settled it stays put—it does not “resettle” when the body is moved. If the body has been moved, then the blood will not be in a logical position.

Make a canoe—To do an autopsy. In the simplest terms, during an autopsy a body is laid on a stainless steel table, cut open, and the organs are removed, leaving a hollowed-out shell, just as one might make a canoe using the ancient technique of scooping out the interior matter of a log with an adze and leaving a floatable shell. Like so many terms in law enforcement, it is grisly but humorous.

Mass murder—Many people confuse serial and mass murder. Essentially, the difference is that serial murderers kill people one by one at different times and places, whereas mass murderers kill a number of people in one place at one time.

Modern mass murder in twentieth century America seems to have started on September 6, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey. On that day a World War II vet named Howard Unruh, dressed in a snappy suit and bow tie and carrying a Luger pistol, a gun he had gotten while in the Army, calmly walked up and down Riverside Road shooting people at point-blank range. He killed thirteen people and wounded many more. Almost miraculously, Unruh was captured alive; he was ensconced in Trenton State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and died in 2009.

One especially scary aspect of mass murders is that they seem to occur in clusters, as if the actions of one person give ideas to someone else. Some psychiatrists believe this actually happens.

ME—Common abbreviation for medical examiner, a physician who determines the cause of death. The ME must by law be in attendance at the crime scene of deaths due to suicide, accident, or homicide; any death under suspicious circumstances; sudden death when health was good; and convict deaths.

The ME takes charge of any crime scene he or she is called to, and the body may not be removed without the ME’s permission. The body is then taken to the morgue, where an autopsy is performed.

Mirandize—To warn a suspect before questioning that he or she has the right to speak with a lawyer and has protections against self-incrimination. The term was named for Ernesto A. Miranda, a man who was arrested without his rights being read to him. He filed suit against the state of Arizona, and he was ultimately victorious in the U.S. Supreme Court, where his case was linked with four others. The decision has had a profound effect on law-enforcement procedures. Before making an arrest, every officer is now required to read the suspect his or her rights under the Miranda ruling, and if the suspect is not properly Mirandized by the officer—which sometimes happens—the suspect is sure to be set free by the courts.

Modus operandi—The way a particular criminal operates.

Murder book—In Los Angeles, a record of all data and photographs compiled by the district attorney’s office as it investigates a homicide. This term came into the public consciousness during the trial of O. J. Simpson. Simpson’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, at one point asked that the district attorney furnish him with the murder book.

NCAVC (National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime)—A subdivision of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit located in Quantico, Virginia. Composed of four sections: Research and Development, VICAP, Criminal Personality Profiling Program, and Consultation Program. The idea was conceived of by a Los Angeles detective named Pierce Brooks and has been very helpful in linking murders among different jurisdictions.

Neonaticide—The killing of a child within twenty-four hours of its birth.

Parenticide—Killing one’s parents. Also called parricide.

Post—Short for postmortem examination, or autopsy. Report is called a protocol.

Postmortem—After death.

Probable cause—Reasonable assumption that someone committed a crime.

Psychopathic personality—Vernon Geberth defines this type of person this way: “A person whose behavior is largely amoral and asocial and who is characterized by irresponsibility, lack of remorse or shame, perverse or impulsive (often criminal) behavior, and other serious personality defects, generally without psychotic attacks or symptoms.”

Psychotic killer—A person who is driven to kill.

Rigor mortis—The body goes rigid after death. This is one way that investigators use to identify time of death because the body goes stiff at a certain rate.

Serial murder—The FBI defines serial murder as three or more killings with an emotional cooling-off period between the deaths. In the authors’ opinion, some killers can be classified as serial killers even with just one or two murders behind them. Reason: they have the potential for killing many more.

Shooter—The person who fires the gun during the commission of a crime. Since around the thirteenth century the term has had a sporting definition, but in recent years it has had a criminal meaning. Today it is in quite common usage.

Signature—In murder, the particular aspects of a crime that identify the perpetrator. For example, part of the signature of Ted Bundy was that he would always kill women with long dark hair parted in the middle.

Stinker—A body in an advanced state of decomposition that smells terrible. The process of decomposition begins at death. This consists of degeneration of the body and putrefaction, the breakdown of soft tissues by bacteria, fermentation, and the action of enzymes. Bacteria form first in the gastrointestinal system, spread to the vascular system, and soon engulf the body. Bacterial flora flourish in warm weather. Decomposition takes much longer in cold weather than in hot—people who had died of lead poisoning were found well preserved after being buried for one hundred years in ice.

The smell of a stinker is one that police have difficulty describing, but one cop compares it to limburger cheese that has been left to rot. One way police endure the odor is to puff on cigars; another is to douse cotton with perfume and pack the cotton in one’s nostrils; another is to place cigarette filters in the nostrils. Another, as seen on the TV show NYPD Blue, is to use baked coffee grounds.

Stippling—Marks caused when gunpowder burns the skin.

Trace material—The physical minutiae that are exchanged or deposited when two objects impact. The word derives from the sense that there are traces of material deposited when objects meet with some force. Typically, for example, when a car hits someone, there is physical evidence from the victim on the car, such as fibers and hair, and physical evidence from the car on the victim, such as paint and lens material. Such evidence can be very important because of its nature: It is physical; missing sections fit into gaps. Many state and local departments do not have forensic labs large enough or sophisticated enough to analyze trace material, so they call on the FBI, which has state-of-the-art equipment and extremely well-trained technicians.

Though valuable, trace material is not infallible. Matching hair and paint samples and fibers are not as conclusive as fingerprints, and there is always the possibility that the technician can make a mistake. Indeed, labs in Fresno, California, once sent back reports that said dog saliva was human semen.

Twenty-two—A small-caliber handgun commonly used in organized-crime murders. Though small in caliber, the gun is regarded by professional hit men to be particularly effective. While its bullet will not drive through flesh like some others, its lack of power makes it particularly effective. Typically, the killer will fire into the victim’s head. The bullet has enough force to penetrate the skull but not enough to drive through to the other side. It contacts and bounces off the inside of the skull, then bounces around, as it were, burrowing through brain tissue (which has the consistency of Velveeta cheese) and doing massive damage. More than this, the gun is relatively quiet, and it is cheap and easy to obtain.

Whodunit—Any murder that has gone unsolved for at least forty-eight hours. Most homicides are solved within the first forty-eight hours, usually because there is a well-known connection. This may be someone close to the victim, possibly a member of the Mafia. The murder might have also had many witnesses in a bar fight. Interviewing the witnesses quickly turns up suspects, or, in a drug-related killing, where the perp is known. If a homicide goes beyond the forty-eight hours, however, it is also characterized as a mystery.