Death Scenes: A Homicide Detectives Scrapbook

By Katherine Dunn and Sean Tejaratchi

Book Overview

The infamous LAPD archive of crime-scene photography--Los
Angeles noir in its most unfiltered form.

Death Scenes collects the stark black-and-white crime-scene photographs taken
by LAPD detective Jack Huddleston across Southern California during the
mid-twentieth century. Originally created as investigative reference material by LAPD detective Jack Huddleston,
these images document homicide scenes, interiors, streets, and anonymous lives
at the moment when police first encountered them--capturing a raw visual record
of Los Angeles during its noir era.

Edited by Sean Tejaratchi and the late novelist Katherine
Dunn, this volume presents the photographs within a broader context of police
documentation, forensic culture, and urban history. The images--often stark,
unsettling, and historically revealing--show not only the mechanics of crime
investigation but also the social landscape of postwar Southern California.
Since its publication, Death Scenes has become one of the most widely
recognized books of archival crime photography and a touchstone for later volumes
exploring similar material.

Long out of conventional circulation and frequently
discussed among collectors, photographers, and true-crime readers, the book
stands as both a visual document of police work and a record of Los Angeles's
darker historical reality. It continues to attract readers interested in crime
history, forensic photography, and twentieth-century urban culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0922915296
• ISBN13: 9780922915293
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Feral House
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 10.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

strange, yet oddly compelling

I am not a sicko, and in response to one users review, "prepared to dance with the devil". I study the human mind and bought this book for a paper I wrote. In looking at these pictures, I could feel what it must have been like for the officers to come onto the scene of the crime. I could stomach most of the pictures (but had a hard time with the child photos). I got a small glimpse of how sick the human mind can be. No sane person would commit these acts. Not for the fragile human.

Knocking on death's door

Already an underground favorite, this "monument to death, depravity and human foible" is a stunning book. Jack Huddleston was a Los Angeles police officer between the 1920's and 1950's, and collected these graphic pictures in order to "show the work of the peace officer and his problems." And thanks to wonderful restoration, The Detective's Homicide Scrapbook can now be purchased and placed on your coffee table, hehe....Huddleston accompanies the pics with blunt observations, illustrating the detachment someone has to have when working with slashed, stabbed, crushed and brutalized bodies. While the black & white does take away from the power of these pictures, the manner of death on display still shocks. And the thing is, this lovely little book gets worse with each passing page. Have fun, kids.

Broken bodies, by fermed

I rate this book highly because it is honest. It does not pretend to be anything other than what it is: a scapbook containing dozens of photographs of murdered remains, or bodies after suicide, of decapitations and decompositions, of naked bodies diseased or tattooed; it is a gallery of gruesomely altered human physiques. The pictures and their captions have a direct and stirring effect on the gut of the reader, and only later do they permit the reader's reason to come into play. The book's title is true to its contents; its cover is also honest (a sample of what is inside) and the brief introduction by Katherine Dunn is perceptive and functional. That introduction does what an introduction is supposed to do: prepare the reader for what is ahead while furnishing a sensible commentary on the nature of the work. In all this is a neat book, worth having.I cannot understand the negative comments by some readers concerning "Death Scenes." Surely they were not ambushed into gazing at these (horrible) pictures. They should have known by the title, by the cover, and even by the publisher (Feral House) that this was not a book of, say, children's poems. Much can be learned from "Death Scenes:" it contains great beauty and even some rhapsodic traits which can be perceived once the initial horror has been bypassed. This book should be looked at by those interested in the facts or in the literature of true crime. It is sure to bring pause to those contemplating suicide. "Death Scenes" certainly contains aspects of reality which some will prefer to avoid but which others will incorporate into their view of the world.

Very honest and explicit.

This book is wonderful...but not for the faint of heart. There are explicit crime scene photos...all B & W (which probably helps to lessen the graphicness of the pictures). Many crimes are portrayed: suicide, murder, auto accidents, etc. And there are even pictures and text of things/people that we no longer see as against the law. Such things include lesbians and hermaphrodites. My how times have changed! An interesting note is that one may notice how different the justice system was just 40 to 60 years ago. Within the text written by the detective, he lists some dates for events such as the arrest or execution of certain individuals. I realized that in the execution cases, the criminal was killed within a year or so from being convicted! Today the minimum jail time before execution is 13 years! I also wanted to comment on what another reviewer stated about this book...this being the inclusion of images of dead children (and the fact that she wouldn't buy it due to this). These pictures are included, in my opinion, because that is reality! It is not only adults that are killed, or that have violent crimes commited against them. It is naive to think as such. And it is a fact that we all must face. Yes, it is shocking. But it is necessary. Young people die too. We hear about it every day on the news, so why it still remains so shocking is a mystery to me. All in all, I recommend this book highly to people who are interested in death, crime and related subjects. It's real, straight forward and death IS a part of life.