Did They Rest in Peace?

About the Book

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. By what miracle can an assortment of seemingly unrelated particles come together and correctly assemble to form a human being? Amazingly, once aggregated, these atoms, molecules, and compounds manage to interact reasonably coherently during our lives but seek to return to their dusty state when death occurs. Of the billions of our species who have existed on earth over the millennia, most have quietly and inexorably returned to ashes and dust when their term of life expired. This book tracks some of the misadventures of selected corpses, including burials that went awry to body snatching, exhumations, human-relic collection, and assorted desecrations. Over the years, it seems that a remarkable number of bodies have failed to enjoy the admonition to “Rest in Peace.” Whether these aberrations in the burial process have disturbed the afterlife of the departed, everyone is dying to discover the answer.

About the Author

Dr. Lewis practiced cardiothoracic surgery in Detroit, Michigan, for twenty-five years. An amateur musician, he performed with and conducted a suburban Detroit community orchestra for many years. His two previously published books with AuthorHouse What Killed the Great and Not So Great Composers? and Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between led him to explore the surprising postmortem misadventures of selected decedents’ remains. The precipitating circumstances of these mishaps are referenced and discussed in detail.