Snow, Clyde (1928-2014), was an American physical anthropologist known for his work analyzing human bones to establish their identity and determine the cause of death. Snow helped develop the science of forensic anthropology. Forensic anthropologists apply scientific methods to identify human skeletal remains and to assist in the detection of crime. Snow has helped identify hundreds of victims of accidents and crime.
The police or other authorities call upon forensic anthropologists when they cannot identify the victim of an accident or crime by other means. Often, only the bones or bone fragments of the victim remain. To help establish identity, forensic anthropologists perform detailed examinations and measurements of bones to determine the age, height, sex, and race. Healed fractures or other marks on bones can also provide clues about the cause of death or assist in identification of the individual.
In the 1980’s, Snow worked in Argentina, where he helped identify people who were killed following a military coup in 1976. After the coup, thousands were imprisoned without a trial, tortured, and killed. The bones of some victims were discovered in mass graves, but many have never been found. Several former military officers in Argentina were sentenced to prison as a result of Snow’s identifications and testimony at trial. He has also helped investigate human rights violations and massacres in Bosnia, Croatia, Ethiopia, and Guatemala.
In 1985, Snow joined Brazilian scientists who were asked to examine the bones of an individual who had died in Brazil in 1979. Using a technique in which images of the skull are superimposed on photographs, they proved that the bones were those of Josef Mengele, a Nazi war criminal known as the “Angel of Death.” Mengele had been wanted by police for crimes he committed during World War II (1939-1945). He disappeared after the war and went into hiding in South America, living under an assumed name.
Snow was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on Jan. 7, 1928. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1950. He earned a master’s degree in zoology at Texas Tech University in 1955 and a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Arizona in 1967. From 1961 to 1979, he worked for the Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City, helping identify victims of airplane crashes. Since 1979, Snow had worked as an independent forensic consultant to government and law enforcement agencies throughout the world. He died on May 16, 2014.
