Citation

Charlier P, Bourdin V, Huynh-Charlier I. Leg. Med. (Elsevier) 2023; 65: e102300.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.legalmed.2023.102300

PMID

37603983

Abstract

Impalement bone traumas are very rarely described in the medical literature. We here present the first case of such a diagnosis carried out on a skeleton. The patient is Soleyman el-Halaby, executed in June 1800, who was the 24-year-old murderer of the Napoleonic general Kléber. The skeleton is now held in the National Museum of Natural History (Paris). This report describes the traumatic lesions diagnosed after a careful forensic anthropological examination. Such a case is important from a medical point of view, whether the origin of the pelvic or abdominal impalement is accidental or criminal. Forensic examination of skeletons conserved in anthropological collections may help reconstruct the modalities of death, and give data for an eventual repatriation process to the original community.

Language: en

Keywords

Execution; Forensic anthropology; Impalement; Medical ethics; Retrospective diagnosis; Sacrum fracture