William Maples-Forensic Anthropologist

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William Maples was a brilliant Forensic Anthropologist who was able to work on a wide variety of cases in order to uncover the true stories of remains. Sometimes he was hired by either side of a court case, and sometimes by police investigating what could become a murder case. At times he was the only hope of uncovering what injustices took place. Maples was able to take these experiences and relay them in his book Dead Men Do Tell Tales. One such investigation was the Meek-Jennings case. Maples stated that out of all the cases and remains he has ever examined from all over the world, “I had only to travel twenty miles from my front doorstep to encounter the most baffling and complex problem in forensic anthropology that has ever occupied my mind” (Maples 1995:p150) Glyde Earl Meek was a forty nine year old white male who resorted to crime in his twenties. He was intelligent, charismatic and very athletic but was unable to “live by society’s rules” and “couldn’t keep it within the system.” (Maples 1995:p161) Maples describes Page Jennings as a beautiful, quick minded young lady from a well off family. Only nineteen months after meeting and falling in love with Meek, at the age of twenty one, Jennings met her death. Their bodies were found in an abandoned isolated house off a high way in Florida that had been set on fire. They were burned beyond all recognition and left with nothing but ashes and fragments of bones. Meek had left a very long suicide note that explained why, in his words, their bodies had been found in this house. Meek explained that it was because of Page Jennings’ families’ disapproval of their love and the fact that Jennings’ family practically abandoned her because of their relationship that their lives had ended. He traveled to New Hampshire and killed Jennings’ parents and then traveled back to Florida. Meek strangled Page

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