A Sharp Eye in the Autopsy: Profile of Keith Simpson (Biography‪)‬

When British Pathologist Dr. Cedric Keith Simpson went to the scene of a burned house in Bedford one Saturday night to help search for a body, he came across the charred remains of what he thought might be a forearm. With great care, he laid it into a cardboard box, and at the end of the night he took it to his laboratory for analysis. Investigators from Scotland Yard, along with the local fire chief, gathered around as he prepared to cut through the charred crust to get to the tissue and bone. As everyone watched, he shoved in the scalpel. They all leaned closer. The crust cracked open and gave way. But something was wrong. Everyone laughed as Simpson found himself cutting open an overbaked loaf of French bread. "The laugh was certainly on me," he mused in his most famous book, 40 Fears of Murder, "and to this day, when I visit Bedford on a crime, I am likely to be asked if I would care for a slice of French bread with my tea!" (Simpson, 13).