ABSTRACT
But it was Ronald Kornblum who really blew the lid o§ of the death scene investigation and autopsy analysis of homicidal crimes. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kornblum in 1967 when he was a resident at the Maryland Medical Examiner’s O•ce. Kornblum was an unusual pathologist in that he mastered all of the available pathology disciplines. He had done his anatomical and clinical studies in California and his forensic pathology training in Maryland. He stayed on for his neuropathology boards under the great neuropathologist Richard Lindenberg at the University of Maryland and the medical examiner’s o•ce there. Lindenberg was a neuropathologist for the German air force in WWII and had worked on the Lu¤wa§e crash fatalities. A¤er the war he was smuggled into the United States in an exchange program and immigrated to the United States through Mexico. Dr. Russell Fisher got him to come to Maryland and the neuropathology program of the Maryland o•ce. Lindenberg immediately became the forensic leader in neuropathology. His assistant, Ella Freytag, diligently wrote papers with him. Lindenberg did his large-slice format neuropathology work on a sliding microtome and established an unequalled collection of brain trauma sections. When Fisher went on the road to a forensic meeting to give an a¤ernoon or evening forensic path session he would include in his ten-case presentation at least three cases from Lindenberg (stroke, trauma, and penetrating injuries). Kornblum took this all in and worked intensively with his fellow resident Charles Hirsch, who would go on to lead the New York City Medical Examiner’s O•ce through the turn of the century.
