Andreas G Nerlich, Stephanie Panzer, Christine Lehn, Jan Friederichs, Oliver K Peschel
The well preserved skeleton of Joseph Huber, a very well-known historical character of the 19th century Munich, also nicknamed "Finessen-Sepperl", is the starting point of the reconstruction of life and death of this historical individual. He was known as a postilion d´amour (love's messenger) of the Royal Bavarian capital with numerous comments and anecdotes and a few biographical sketches that indicate he remained well until the last few years of his life where requests for his duties lessened. The skeleton shows a small-sized male individual with almost complete loss of teeth, but otherwise very well-mineralized bone, having suffered from three episodes of trauma - an old-healed incomplete femoral neck fracture leading to severe osteoarthrosis, a clavicle fracture of the medial third with a few weeks old callus formation, and fresh serial rib fractures along with severe skull trauma with fractures of the os temporale and petrosum, presumably leading to intracranial bleeding and finally death...
April 12, 2024: Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology