history of Forensic dentistry 13
2.5 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
After inheriting additional lands, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,
decided to create an independent state between France and Germany. He
was killed in the battle of Nancy in 1477 while trying to accomplish the task.
The duke’s page was able to identify him according to his dentition, as he had
lost some teeth in a fall years previously.^5
2.6 Peter Halket
During the French and Indian Wars Peter Halket was killed in a battle near
Fort Duquesne in 1758. The fort was later captured by British General Forbes,
who arranged to have the dead buried prior to leaving for Philadelphia. Three
years later, a Native American who had fought in the battle remembered
Officer Halket and was able to lead Halket’s son to the area where he was
killed during the battle. The son was able to recognize his father’s skeleton by
an artificial tooth.^6
2.7 Dr. Joseph Warren—Paul Revere
In Boston in 1776, at the battle for Breed’s Hill (often misidentified as
Bunker Hill), Dr. Joseph Warren was killed. His face was unrecogniz-
able as he suffered a fatal head wound, a rif le ball to the left side of his
face. Paul Revere, silversmith and dentist, identified the decaying body
of Dr. Warren by the small denture that he had fabricated for him. The
denture was carved in ivory and was held in place by silver wires. The
identification made it possible to bury Dr. Warren with full military
honors on April 8, 1776.7, 8
2.8 Janet McAlister—Dr. Pattison
The earliest known use of a dentist as an expert witness in court occurred in
1814 in the case of a Janet McAlister in Scotland. In His Majesty’s Advocate
vs. Pattison et al., the High Court in Edinburgh charged a lecturer of
anatomy and two of his students for the violation of Mrs. McAlister’s grave.
Mrs. McAlister had died at the age of forty years. The night after her burial,
the trio was alleged to have moved her body to the nearby College Street
Medical School. Mrs. McAlister’s husband gave artificial teeth worn by his
wife to a dentist, Dr. James Alexander, who was able to fit the dentures into