The conviction of Dr. Crippen: new forensic findings in a century-old murder.

Dr. Hawley Crippen was accused and convicted of murdering his wife in London in 1910. Key to the conviction was microscopic analysis of remains found in the Crippen's coal cellar, which were identified as Cora Crippen based on a scar she was said to have. Dr. Crippen was hanged, always proclaiming his innocence. In this study, genealogical research was used to locate maternal relatives of Cora Crippen, and their mitochondrial haplotypes were determined. Next, one of the pathology slides of the scar was obtained, DNA was isolated, and the haplotype was determined. That process was then repeated. Finally, both DNA isolates were assayed for repetitive elements on autosomes and repetitive elements specific to the Y chromosome. Based on the genealogical and mitochondrial DNA research, the tissue on the pathology slide used to convict Dr. Crippen was not that of Cora Crippen. Moreover, that tissue was male in origin.

Ingestion of a newly described North American mushroom species from Michigan resulting in chronic renal failure: Cortinarius orellanosus.

BACKGROUND: Some mushrooms in the genus Cortinarius are well known to cause acute and chronic renal failure. Until now, there have been no confirmed cases of renal failure due to the ingestion of a Cortinarius mushroom in North America. We describe a case of a woman who ingested mushrooms found under an oak tree in western Michigan and developed chronic renal failure. METHODS: Phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of nuclear-encoded ribosomal RNA was performed between an unconsumed sample of the Michigan specimens, a control sample of Cortinarius orellanus (JFA9859) from Europe, and other closely related ITS sequences of Cortinarius retrieved from GenBank. An additional gene region, rpb2, was also sequenced for comparison. RESULTS: Phylogenetic analysis revealed the Michigan material to be closely related to, but distinct from, other ITS sequences of the Orellani clade in Cortinarius. Divergence is less at the rpb2 locus. No historical taxa from North America are known to match the identification of the Michigan material. CONCLUSION: The mushrooms ingested by the patient were confirmed to be a new species of Cortinarius closely related to C. orellanus. We introduce a newly described North American species, Cortinarius orellanosus, capable of causing renal failure after ingestion.