The Longbow Papers

Frank Ruhli with the Iceman mummy. Credit: Copyright Elsevier
I love a cold-case murder as much as any other true-crime author; but the closing of this one shivers with excitement and high-moon drama unlike any other I have ever known; and that is an understatement of millennial proportion. I have followed the murder case of this particular ancestral countryman of mine for some 15 years. We now know that he bled to death, quickly, from a high-velocity projectile wound.

However, since we still do not know who delivered the killing blow, the case is not truly "closed." To accomplish that feat of crime-scene investigation, it will take a manhunter with heretofore unimagineable skills. Not even Bert Luper or Dr. Henry Lee can pull that off, I venture. What do you think? Give the excerpt and the link a look and a thought:

Cold Case Closed: 'Iceman' Mummy Bled to Death

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer

posted: 06 June 2007 11:41 am ET

Archaeologists have determined the cause of death of the "Iceman" mummy, putting to rest a Neolithic cold case.

More than 5,000 years ago, a man trekked up the Schnalstal glacier in Italy and died. The mummified, frozen body, dubbed Otzi, was discovered in 1991 by accident. Since then, the glacier mummy has undergone a slew of examinations from which scientists have gleaned bits of information about the man's last steps on Earth, ranging from his last meal to his age when he died (45).

The remaining question: What caused the Iceman's sudden death?

Please continue reading at: LiveScience

 

5:58 PM / Editor / permalink    2 comments

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2 Comments:

Hello Joe,

I was referred to you by Richard from the Peking Duck. I read the wiki page about Bill Wasz and have some questions. I was too young to follow the OJ thing, or too uninterested, but the death of Wasz seems odd. How come there was no media report and NO investigation by police? It sounds like a mob hit or something, bc right after Bill writes about being free and how the truth lives with him, and talks about major media interested in what he has to tell, he dies. Peking Man told me to ask you. He said you knew Joe personally. ?

By  Mama, at 1:48 AM  

Dear Mama,

I am sorry to reply so late to your comment, but I've been on the road for a spell, and I no longer have a laptop.

Yes, I knew Bill Wasz quite well; surely better than most folks during his latter adult years. There is no evidence other than circumstantial conjecture to support Bill's untimely death as being anything other than a lethal combination of a lot of alcohol and drugs imbibed over the course of one evening.

Soon, I will have something of great importance concerning Bill and his story that I will announce and somewhat explain in these pages. It is something I have been silently agonizing over for almost six months.

Perhaps when I return from the current movie location in Dalian, next week sometime, I will have the time and emotional courage to finally write it.

Thank you for dropping in. Richard is indeed a dear friend.

Sincerely,

Joseph

By  Editor, at 2:32 PM  

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