The Heiress at Harvard Who Helped Revolutionize Murder Investigations—and the Case She Couldn’t Forget

Called the “mother of forensic science,” Frances Glessner Lee dedicated her life and used her wealth to reforming murder investigations; she became a “driving force” in the male-dominated field of police and detective work, particularly in the 1930s and ’40s. For Globe Magazine, Patricia Wen weaves a profile of this curious, fearless, and pioneering woman with history and true crime—specifically the 1940 murder case of a young woman named Irene Perry. Lee is also known for her “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death”: 18 meticulously detailed miniature dioramas, used to train detectives to analyze evidence at crime scenes.