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| Damien Hirst, from "Treasures of the Wreck of the Incredible." |
Many visitors to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office are dead. I almost said "most visitors," but honestly, haven't done the math — there could be more forensic technicians, cops doing paperwork, janitors mopping up and medical student observers than there are actual corpses.
But I imagine it's a footrace, metaphorically, between those fortunate enough to walk out at the end of the day and the 2,600 or so a year who can only leave on a gurney.
So as someone who went to the place several times over the years and emerged alive, I should say that while I have no particular affection for the building at 2121 W. Harrison St. — another example of 1970s concrete brutalism that can't be dynamited quickly enough — now that it seems slated to move to the hoppin' Fulton Market district, as reported in the Sun-Times Wednesday, the institution should be given its due.
There's time, yes. But I have an idea for the new facility, and I'd like to toss it out early, while it could do some good.
The idea came from the original Cook County medical examiner, Dr. Robert J. Stein. Prior to Dr. Stein, we had coroners, a political position, and a notorious one.
"Coroners were political wildmen," Mike Royko wrote in 1976 after the office was voted out of existence, noting their devotion to showboating and stripping bodies of valuables. "They loved to get all the publicity they could. So their main job was to rush to the scene of big murders and pose for pictures, pointing a finger or cigar at the body."
That self-promotion rubbed off on Dr. Stein, to be honest. He relished the attention of the press — that's how in 1991 the Sun-Times was invited into his office, with its statue of dancing skeletons and mass murderer John Wayne Gacy's oil paintings of clowns.
I asked him about what struck many as his unseemly enthusiasm for his job.
"I'm a doctor," he replied. "Like all doctors, I'm trying to find out what's wrong with people. They just happen to be dead."
A benefit, he said, because he didn't have to worry about hurting his patients. They weren't going to get deader.
That made sense to me.
Not only was Dr. Stein enthusiastic, but he wanted to share his passion with the public. In January, 1984, in he announced his intention to create a museum in the basement of the medical examiner's office.
The Sun-Times, I'm sorry to say, dubbed it an "insane scheme" and "the most revolting idea by a public official for all of 1984. Maybe 1985 and 1986, too."
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I believe the Los Angeles County coroner's office sells towels with the chalk outline of a body on it. They could do that here.
ReplyDeletePeople have very mixed feelings about chalk outlines. A good friend of ours published a poster in the late 90s, with images of various Detroit landmarks, and near each one was the chalk outline of a body. The poster was called, of course, "Shot in Detroit."
DeleteOur friend received both positive reactions and strongly negative ones. People either loved it or hated it. Just as it was starting to sell well, the always-abrasive Connie Chung shredded our friend on the CBS Morning News, and sales tanked. She still has quite a few of them left. We have one, but my wife won't let me put it up.
The chalk outlines aren't real, right? I mean, nobody actually uses them. That said, when Clark St. mentioned the LA coroner's office towels, my first thought was, "That's kinda cliche. I think they could come up with something better than that."
DeleteThere was a time when that was done, I think, but not anymore.
DeleteI recommend the International Museum of Surgical Science. A true gem located in a beautiful old building at 1524 N. DuSable Drive.
ReplyDeleteHave you been there? I found it musty and out-dated and strange.
DeleteAgree with you Neil, also very boring!
DeleteI went back a half dozen years ago, to contrast it with the Mutter in Philadelphia, and seemed to view it charitably. https://www.everygoddamnday.com/2018/03/good-to-be-alive-medical-museums-in.html
DeleteI visited the morgue in the mid 1970s for a story I wrote for the Reader. It was at the time they were switching over from a coroner to a medical examiner. As a reporter, you got so much more information from a coroner's report. I seem to remember they sometime quoted from police reports. If there was an inquest you could read the transcript. With the medical examiner you get a very bland death certificate. Nelson Algren closed "The Man with the Golden Arm," with the transcript of Frankie Machine's inquest.
ReplyDeleteI think a museum, school tours, and public tours would be a fantastic thing for the CME office and hope there'd be a way to fund it. It's fine to draw folks in with the shocking stuff but they might learn really important things along the way. About the violence that plagues our City, yes, but also the critical public health information acquired there about communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis (still a thing), AIDS, COVID, Measles, etc.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to get a tour/presentation there ~10 years ago with a group of science writers. I remember very well a conversation about their seeing an increase, after what had been a long decline, in SIDS deaths of babies and so they knew a public awareness prevention campaign was needed again, and they could advise on where it should be targeted. It's to our detriment that as a society we continue to dismiss and under-fund pubic health and then only pay attention in times of crisis.
Couldn’t get the Hirst sculpture into the newspaper, huh?
ReplyDeleteJust the opposite. I couldn't download the old photos we used in the paper. I try not to seize the work of photographers, but these were by Bob Davis, who is a pal. But we have this new godawful Brightspot system, where I can barely find old photos, and haven't figured out how to download them, yet.
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