William R. Maples

William Ross Maples, Ph.D. (1937 - 1997) was a noted forensic anthropologist working at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His specialty was the study of bones. He worked on a number of high-profile criminal investigations, some of them concerning historical figures such as Francisco Pizarro, the Romanov family, Joseph Merrick (known as "Elephant Man"), President Zachary Taylor and Medgar Evers. His insights often proved beneficial in closing cases that otherwise may have remained unsolved.

He is the author of Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist (co-authored by Michael Browning). The book chronicles his career from the inception of his fascination with anthropology through to some of his high-profile forensic cases.

Personal life

Maples married Margaret Kelley in 1958. They had two children. Maples completed his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in 1967. On February 27, 1997 he died at his home in Gainesville, Florida from a cancerous brain tumor.^[1]

References

• Goza, W M (1999), "William R. Maples, forensic historian: four men, four centuries, four countries", J. Forensic Sci. (Jul 1999) 44 (4): 692–4, PMID 10432600 
• Falsetti, A B (1999), "A thousand tales of dead men: the forensic anthropology cases of William R. Maples, Ph.D", J. Forensic Sci. (Jul 1999) 44 (4): 682–6, PMID 10432599 

• Maples, William R. and Browning, Michael (1994). Dead Men Do Tell Tales. (ISBN 0-385-47968-9) Existe versión en español "Los muertos también hablan" (2006)

External links

• A biography of William R. Maples
• C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory
• The William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine