Autopsy 2: Voices from the Dead (1995) (TV)

Director:

Arthur Ginsberg

Release Date:

1995 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Documentary

Cast

Michael Baden

...

Himself (as Dr. Michael Baden)

Directed by
Arthur Ginsberg

Produced by
Gaby Monet	....	producer
Sheila Nevins	....	executive producer

Film Editing by
Arthur Ginsberg

Production Companies

• Home Box Office (HBO)

Distributors

• Home Box Office (HBO) (1995) (USA) (all media)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Trivia:

The final story in each of the installments of this series is an oddity in forensics history. In this case the story is "The Funhouse Dummy" about how and why a man shot 80 years ago ended up as a wax dummy in a fun-house in California. Also, a reexamination of King Tut.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Autopsy 6: Secrets of the Dead (1999) (TV)

Autopsy 2: Voices from the Dead

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The first Autopsy HBO special was chilling enough, but VOICES FROM THE DEAD is even more creepy as it focuses on stories involving the case of a human torso(measurements and other identifiable traits provided thanks in part to a bone specialist), the serial killer Donald Harvey(the "Angel of Death" who admits to something like 80 victims he murdered in hospitals during his 17 years in and around the medical profession)and how he was finally caught(including a haunting interview where he describes his methods as if instructing someone on how to ride a bike), how a victim was identified through a serial number on a silicone breast implant(!), the murder of a high profile college football star, Ron Settles(whose strangulation was due to a specific chokehold used to subdue unruly prisoners), the discovery of a Wild West outlaw whose preserved corpse was found by accident in a carnival funhouse(!), a country doctor's murder of two of his sons, and the conviction of a 62 year old woman brought to justice for the beating of a child decades earlier to an adopted boy(the woman who crusaded for this was the boy's real mother wanting justice for the kid took away from her because she was a ward to the state). Especially cool is the face applied to King Tut, including how forensic evidence explained his death as a blow to the head. This time, Baden is more of an analyst with many of the cases were autopsied by other forensic pathologists. The maggots case(where a suicide is proved)where a decomposed corpse was found in a bathtub with the creepy crawlies gnawing away at the dead body, is particularly morbidly fascinating.