"Could they have ignored the odor of decomposition, still unmistakable in 1980, leaking from the attic?"
-"A Comfortable Evil," Melinda Page Wilkins, PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 2004, pp 131-132.
Very surprised about that. That there would still be an odor of decomposition after 50-60 years. Wilkins is right that it is "unmistakable." Human decomposition also smells differently than other animal decomp. It is a distinctive smell that you are not going to confuse with squirrel or dog or cat. Medical Examiners refer to decomps they have to autopsy as "sweeties." There is a sickly sweet smell to human decomp that is distinctive.
"They" refers to other Williamson household residents. The smell absolutely would have been present in the 1920's, '30's, probably into the '40's to anyone, anywhere in the house. No doubt about that. In 1980? Wilkins obviously got that information from the Coroner or the cops, people in a better position than I to know, to have smelled it themselves. Oh well. I'm the one writing this. No. I don't believe that. Under the circumstances of this case as I understand them, I do not believe the odor of decomposition would be present in the house after half a century. No.
Did the cops ask the people who would have been in the house in the '20's, '30's and '40's--up to 1980--if they noticed that "unmistakable" odor? I don't know.
-"A Comfortable Evil," Melinda Page Wilkins, PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 2004, pp 131-132.
Very surprised about that. That there would still be an odor of decomposition after 50-60 years. Wilkins is right that it is "unmistakable." Human decomposition also smells differently than other animal decomp. It is a distinctive smell that you are not going to confuse with squirrel or dog or cat. Medical Examiners refer to decomps they have to autopsy as "sweeties." There is a sickly sweet smell to human decomp that is distinctive.
"They" refers to other Williamson household residents. The smell absolutely would have been present in the 1920's, '30's, probably into the '40's to anyone, anywhere in the house. No doubt about that. In 1980? Wilkins obviously got that information from the Coroner or the cops, people in a better position than I to know, to have smelled it themselves. Oh well. I'm the one writing this. No. I don't believe that. Under the circumstances of this case as I understand them, I do not believe the odor of decomposition would be present in the house after half a century. No.
Did the cops ask the people who would have been in the house in the '20's, '30's and '40's--up to 1980--if they noticed that "unmistakable" odor? I don't know.
