Of Dolls and Murder

Last updated
Of Dolls and Murder
Directed bySusan Marks
Produced by John Dehn
Narrated by John Waters
Cinematography Matt Ehling
Edited byJohn Dehn
Music byJohn Dehn
Release date
  • April 14, 2012 (2012-04-14)(Titanic International Filmpresence Festival)
LanguageEnglish

Of Dolls and Murder is a documentary film about a collection of dollhouse crime scenes and society's collective fascination with death. It was released in April 2012. [1]

Subject matter

In the 1930s and 1940s, heiress Frances Glessner Lee created dollhouse crime scenes to help train detectives in the art of reading crime scenes.

The dollhouses, known as The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, are on permanent loan to the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office in Baltimore, and are not open to the public. [2]

The film follows how these intricate dioramas are still used to train homicide detectives, despite all the technological advances in death investigation. The dioramas also provided inspiration for The Miniature Killer, a recurring villain in season seven of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation . The villain's modus operandi is to leave behind accurate dioramas of her crime scenes. [3]

In a further exploration of morbid curiosity, the filmmakers also shadow a Baltimore homicide detective, and visit The Body Farm, a famous forensic anthropology site in Tennessee where researchers study the decay of bodies. [4]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Glessner Lee</span> "mother of forensic science"

Frances Glessner Lee was an American forensic scientist. She was influential in developing the science of forensics in the United States. To this end, she created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 20 true crime scene dioramas recreated in minute detail at dollhouse scale, used for training homicide investigators. Eighteen of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are still in use for teaching purposes by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and the dioramas are also now considered works of art. Glessner Lee also helped to establish the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University, and endowed the Magrath Library of Legal Medicine there. She became the first female police captain in the United States, and is known as the "mother of forensic science".

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References

  1. "Of Dolls and Murder (2012)".
  2. Monroe, Rachel (May 5, 2010). "The Art of Murder". Baltimore City Paper. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  3. Kerr, Euan (May 18, 2009). "New name for "Our Wildest Dreams" (and Movie Natters helped.)". MPRNews. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  4. Kerr, Euan (January 12, 2009). "Of Dolls and Murder: local film examines the grisly details". Minnesota Public Radio. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2017.