The Bookworm Sez

By Terri Schlichenemeyer

“What the Dead Know: Learning about Life as a New York City Death Investigator” by Barbara Butcher c.2023, Simon & Schuster

$28.99

288 pages

Dead men don’t tell tales. Their voices are forever silenced, their fingers will never point to what happened to them or why. Their eyes will never widen in fear or anticipation, or glance in the direction of the guilty. Dead men don’t tell tales but, as in the new book “What the Dead Know” by Barbara Butcher, they leave clues that can speak volumes.

Throughout most of her teen years, Barbara Butcher says she was miserable.

She suffered from depression and anxiety, the fact that she was a lesbian was dawning, and she felt awkward. When a high school friend introduced her to the “fun” of drugs, sex, and alcohol, though, everything changed. Butcher’s life was suddenly all about getting high.

After a work supervisor saw potential and urged her to attend college, Butcher landed a great job as a hospital administrator. Still, love eluded her, addictions nagged at her, depression hit, she thought about suicide, and everything fell apart. Once she hit bottom, she started attending AA, which led to a vocational and rehab course and an aptitude test that gave her two options: veterinarian or coroner. She chose the latter. Working as an MLI (medicolegal investigator) at New York City’s OCME (Office of the Chief Medical Examiner) was an exciting and interesting job. Butcher was, at first, the OCME’s only female MLI in a pool of several male MLIs who immediately tried to test her by showing her detailed, gruesome photographs of real accidents and murders. Scaring her off didn’t happen and soon, she was working with people she admired, running her

Spotts Real Estate, PP & Gun Auction, Saturday, August 12, 9am & 2 Day Tag/Moving Sale, Thurs & Friday, August 10 & 11, 9-4 daily 464 Jolly’s Grove Lane, Weikert, PA 17885

(located next to the Penns Creek “the cabin/house on-the-creek”, just past the Union County Sportsmen Club) Real Estate Open House Showings--Sunday, July 30th & August 6th, 2 to 4 pm (or by private showing with auctioneer)

Deed #1--Well-constructed, almost maintenance free, modern, two-story home/vacation cabin on the creek, built 1966, with approx. 1,200 sq. ft. on 1.25-acre parcel w/152’ road frontage along Penns Creek. Home has a stone driveway, metal roof w/rear gutter heat tape, vinyl siding, 3 BR’s, laundry room, 1.75 baths, eat-in kitchen, spacious family/living room with knotty pine walls, laundry room, rear porch deck off the Master BR. Home has a 13’x24 ½’ heated workshop with a 13’x24 ½’ carport front and a 8’x24 ½’ rear overhang with a coalbin and additional storage space. 12’x30’, 9’x15’ sheds, 9’x12’ playhouse & a 20’x20’ open machinery shed also grace the property. Property also has an attached 23’x 24’ 2 car garage with upstairs storage, in addition to having a fabulous yard overlooking Penns Creek with a firepit, patio & electric lights. A small stream flows at the rear of the property. Mifflinburg school district! Home was totally remodeled in 1993! Utilities—Heat pump with central air, 4 camera security system, electric hot water heater (replaced 2/8/17), an Alaskan coal stove, good well water (water softener & iron filter on the system), on-site sewer and 200-amp electric service. Deed #2—Adjacent 1.1-acre former railroad bed property to be auctioned also. Deeds #1 & #2 to be auctioned off separately and then together to determine how they will be sold. Terms: Deed #1-$20,000 & Deed #2-$1,000 real estate property deposit required day of auction, with good PA check or certified funds payable to Marquette’s Auction Marketing, balance at closing within 60 days of sale date. 3% buyer’s premium to be added to the purchase price of both real estates. Real estates are sold “as-is” & are subject to owner confirmation. Statements made day of auction take precedence over previously printed material. Inspections may be done prior to auction at potential buyer’s expense. 1 1/2% realtors’ participation invited…auctioneer’s guidelines must be followed in order to be eligible…pre-registration required. Real estate will be auctioned off @ 11am.

Tag Sale Items--Antiques-Woodworking Equipment-Tools-Furniture Appliances-Treestands-Rough Cut Poplar-Scrap Metal

Auction Items--Kioti Tractor & Attachments-Sure Trac Dump Trailer Log Splitter-Generator- Gun Safe, Guns & Bows, Etc.

Special Note: These items will be auctioned off on Saturday just prior to the real estate auction…the 2014 Kioti tractor and attachments, the Sure-Trac dump trailer, generator & the log splitter, the guns & gun safe and any remaining Tag Sale items leftover. Hours 9-4 daily or by appointment only! All items priced & sold as-is with no warranties applied. Terms—Cash or good PA check only, ID required. Updated info & pics @ marquetteauctions.com, auctionzip.com ID1907 or GoToAuction.com ID6181. All applicable gun laws will be adhered to. Owners not responsible for accidents. Selling the real estate & contents for Jeff & Deb Spotts.

Tom Marquette, AU-002855L, 570/916-6903 own shifts, going out to investigate the worst that New Yorkers did to one another.

There were bodies in picnic coolers. There was a suicide that wanted to take someone with him in death. There were car accidents, shootings, people dead on sidewalks and abandoned hovels, and jumpers. Every one of them taught Butcher one thing.

“Dead men do tell tales. You just have to listen.”

Weak-stomached readers, you can stop right here. You’re going to want to steer clear of this book because it’s not for you. True crime fans, though — look, why are you waiting?

“What the Dead Know” starts out with an edge-of-your-seat investigation that ends in up-the-spine chills. Even the setting is uber-creepy, de- scribed in minute, water-dripping, rats-on-the-floor detail. The opening pages give you a glimpse of what you’re in for.

And yet, author Barbara Butcher knows when to let her readers take a gasping breath, and her story quickly and immediately flips after the opening to become a biography with its own dark feel. Don’t get too comfortable, though: you’ll have a chance to relax your shoulders but the elevator with your adrenaline inside will continue to glide to the top floor before dropping back down again and again. This book can be somewhat grisly in places, but certainly nothing worse than any other true-crime story or Hollywood movie. If you love that genre, then you’ll want this. “What the Dead Know” is a very good tale.