r/UtterlyAwfulTrueCrime

Dr. Michael Baden is a forensic pathologist who was involved in all the high profile criminal cases including the case of Marlon Brando's son, Christian, who shot his half-sister's boyfriend. Despite the fact that it appeared that Christian had shot Drollet from above and that the bullet had exited the body, no bullet was recovered from his body or from the couch. Dr. Baden insisted on looking at the scene, and like the officers, failed to find the bullet in the couch or the body.
Baden noticed that the room has a shag rug. He got down on his hands and knees and eventually found the bullet under the rug. That tended to support how Christian had described things.
Dr.Baden wrote: "I'd later testify that the bullet's trajectory through Drollet's neck and into the shag carpet showed that he had been sitting up on the couch. Gunshot residue tests performed by police showed that Drollet's hand was near the muzzle when it discharged-consistent with Christian's statement that the weapon
went off accidentally when Drollet tried to grab it."
"It's very hard to see an entry hole in a shag rug," Baden explains. "But what impressed me most in that case was when we found the bullet and we called the police. A sergeant came and I asked why the officers at the crime scene hadn't done a better job looking for the bullet. I'll never forget what he said. 'Look, doc. If you do a lousy job all the time, just because an important case comes up doesn't mean you can now do a good job. You don't know how to do it any better.' That will live with me forever. Unless you do the best job you can with every crime scene and every autopsy, you won't do it right when more important ones come in. To us, every case is equally important. When it comes to death, we're all equal."

https://www.crimelibrary.org/criminal_mind/forensics/autopsy/5.html

Another Sources:
Book: AMERICAN AUTOPSY.

https://books.google.com.sa/books?id=rHFrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1&dq=american+autopsy+book&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJg7b746qVAxU29bsIHV5OGmkQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q=american%20autopsy%20book&f=false

r/UtterlyAwfulTrueCrime

In 1940, Eleanor Jarman scaled a prison fence in a polka-dot dress and vanished mid-way through a 199-year sentence for robbery and murder. For 85 years, nobody knew where she went until in 2025, when researchers think they found her grave in Denver, the city she'd spent decades serving pancakes in.

In 2009 Dalia Dippolito paid a hitman $7,000 to kill her husband, who turned out to be an undercover cop. Police staged a murder scene, filmed her fake tears with a COPS crew, then walked her husband through the door very much alive. This is a video of her learning about her husband's 'murder'.

Christian Brando during his 1990 trial: Forensic evidence supported his account. Gunshot residue on Dag Drollet's hand and the bullet's trajectory indicated that the shooting was accidental, not intentional.

On this day in 1979 Liberal Party Leader Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted of hiring a hitman to kill his gay ex-lover. The hired hitman was afraid of dogs, a Great Dane was shot, the ex-lover gave evidence and was called a 'Parasite' by the judge. Thorpe's wife stood beside him throughout.

Today in 2001, Andrea Yates waited for her husband to leave for work before drowning her five children in the family bathtub in Clear Lake City. She was convicted, then retried after a key witness lied.

In 1985, Georges Courtois and Abdelkarim Khalki turned their own armed robbery trial into a live televised hostage crisis at the Nantes courthouse, taking 29 people hostage including the judges, and forced the judge to answer on camera for banning him from seeing his wife and kids for 3 years.

On this day in 1982, Roberto Calvi was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge, pockets stuffed with bricks and $13,000 cash. He'd been laundering money for the Vatican, the Mafia, and the CIA. Five suspects stood trial. All were acquitted. Nobody has ever been charged.