Fascinating story of how modern forensic science origininated in the 1940s from one woman's dollhouse recreations of crime scenes. I was especially amazed by the sheer level of detail Francis Glesser Lee, the creator of the diaoramas, put into her work.
Lee spent $3,000 to $4,500 creating each model, and her obsessive attention to detail shows. Grime from countless unseen hands coats light switches and door handles in cheap motel rooms while contemporary 1940s and ’50s food products line kitchen shelves in more affluent homes. Calendars are turned to the correct month and year that victims died; tiny keys fit into doors that can actually be locked and unlocked; and even a fingernail-sized mousetrap works. A miniature rocking chair rocks exactly three times when it was pulled back to a 45-degree angle, to meet with specifications from the real-life crime scene.