Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1914 — Why Have Coroners? [ARTICLE]

Why Have Coroners?

What good is a coroner? This frequently recurring question Is again ? justified by the news that a wound has been found In the skull of Ella Winter, the Baltimore girl whose body was found in Curtis bay a week ago last Thursday. The coroners inquest had dismissed the case with a verdict of death by drowning. Whether the girl was murdered or not the circumstances of her death were snch as to call for careful investigation. The coroner's notion of such an investigation seems to have been characteristic of his tribe. Was she found in the water? Yes. Very well, then she was drowned. At some time, perhaps, we shall become sensible enough to abolish an office which once served a useful purpose, but has become an anachronism.—New York Times.