Norris, Charles (1869-1935), was an American pioneer in forensic science (legal medicine). He was the first scientifically trained chief medical examiner of New York City. Norris’s death investigations helped modernize forensic medicine in the United States and make scientific evidence an essential part of criminal investigations.
Charles Norris was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Dec. 4, 1867, into an upper-class family of bankers and scholars. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Yale University and a doctorate in medicine from Columbia University. Norris then studied forensic science in Europe, as no such training was available in the United States at that time.
In 1918, Norris was appointed as the chief medical examiner for New York City. Before Norris, the city’s mayors appointed coroners who had no expertise in death investigations. Norris hired other experts, who studied everything from blood types to bullet patterns. His best-known hire was that of a talented young chemist named Alexander Gettler, to serve as chief toxicologist. A toxicologist is an expert who deals with poisons or toxic materials and their effects on the body.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Norris and Gettler performed chemical analyses that laid the foundation for our current understanding of poisons, including arsenic, cyanide, chloroform, carbon monoxide gas, and the radioactive element radium. Their work changed the way criminal investigations are handled, by integrating scientific findings with detective work.
In December 1926, Norris publicly denounced the U.S. government following an incident in which dozens of holiday revelers were sickened or died from drinking alcohol. He helped expose the fact that the government was requiring the addition of poisons to industrial alcohol to discourage people from drinking during Prohibition in the early 1900’s. This was one of many public campaigns by Norris. He also investigated the risks of fumigation chemicals, radioactive materials, and leaded gasoline. Norris’s work helped bring about a new era of regulations designed to protect consumers.
Norris was a tireless crusader, and many of his friends believed that he wore himself out fighting for change. He still held the position of chief medical examiner when he died of heart failure in his New York City home on Sept. 11, 1935.
