Before Norris and Gettler, New York's coroner system was a corrupt joke

Blum opens by describing just how unreliable death investigation in New York City was before the early twentieth century reforms: coroners were political appointees, often lacking any medical training, chosen for loyalty rather than competence. This meant murders by poison could go completely undetected, ruled natural or accidental deaths by officials with no ability or incentive to investigate properly, while wrongful accusations could equally stick due to sloppy or bribed determinations. Charles Norris's appointment as the city's first trained chief medical examiner marked a deliberate break from this patronage system, backed by a broader progressive push to replace politically appointed offices with credentialed professionals across city government. Blum frames this institutional shift as the necessary precondition for everything that follows in the book, since scientific toxicology testing meant nothing without an office willing to use and defend its findings. Takeaway: forensic science needed political reform before it could become real science.