L.A. Coroner

Name: L.A. Coroner
Price: 64 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9798890130075

Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood

Anne Soon Choi

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Hardback

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English

Third State Books Inc.
30 July 2025

Biography; Biography: arts & entertainment; Biography: science, technology & engineering; True crime; Social & cultural history; Forensic science

""Choi's true-crime biography adds much-needed detail and perspective to Noguchi's unusual and compelling story."" -Booklist

L.A. Coroner is a gripping true crime biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the controversial ""Coroner to the Stars,"" who performed the autopsies of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood, and hundreds of other notable personalities. Choi, an award-winning historian and professor, deftly blends Los Angeles history, death investigation and forensic science, and Asian American history in a feat of exquisite storytelling.

L.A. Coroner is the first-ever biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the Chief Medical ExaminerCoroner of Los Angeles County from 1967 to 1982. Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Noguchi conducted the official autopsies of some of the most high-profile figures of his time. His elaborate press conferences, which often generated more controversy than they did answers, catapulted him into the public eye.

Noguchi was also the inspiration for the popular 1970s80s television drama Quincy, M.E., starring Jack Klugman. Featuring never-before-published details about Noguchi's most controversial cases, L.A. Coroner is a meticulously researched biography of a complex man, set against the backdrop of the social and racial politics of the 1960s and 1970s and Hollywood celebrity culture.

By: Anne Soon Choi
Imprint: Third State Books Inc.
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9798890130075
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 30 July 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Anne Soon Choi, Ph.D., is a historian and professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her essay “The Japanese American Citizens League, Los Angeles Politics, and the Thomas Noguchi Case,” on which this book is based, won the 2021 prize for best essay from the Historical Society of Southern California. Choi has previously served on the faculty of Swarthmore College and the University of Kansas and is an Andrew Mellon Fellow and an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Ethnic Studies Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews for L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood

“There was no one like Thomas Noguchi” —Dr. Cyril Wecht, former president, American Academy of Forensic Sciences “One of the greats of modern forensic pathology.” —Barry A. J. Fisher, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (ret.) “Gruesome Details From RFK Autopsy Finally Revealed His Family Never Wanted You to Read” —Radar Online