An Evening with Barbara Butcher, Author of What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

Join the Hudson Library & Historical Society on Wednesday, September 13 at 7 p.m. for a virtual author event with Barbara Butcher, who will discuss her new book, What the Dead Know. This riveting, deeply personal memoir details more than twenty years of death-scene investigations by the former New York City death investigator.

Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous – she loved it. This is the fascinating and stunning real-life story of a woman who, in dealing with death every day, learned surprising lessons about life—and how some of those lessons saved her from becoming a statistic herself. Fans of Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and true crime won’t be able to put it down.

Barbara Butcher spent 23 years at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner as a death investigator, director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program, and chief of staff. There she investigated more than 5500 deaths, 680 of them homicides. She worked mass disasters including 9/11, the 2004 tsunami, the London Underground bombing, and the crash of Flight 587. She is a frequent podcast guest, speaks at conferences on death investigation and fatality management, and now consults for media producers.

Registration for this program is required and a valid email address is required at the time of registration. Participants will receive an email invitation a day before the program begins.

If you have any questions, please email askus@hudson.lib.oh.us or call (330) 653-6658 x1010.