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From: Jasper
Date: 9/11/03
Time: 2:44:19 PM
Remote Name: 68.73.201.243
Charlie,
I didn’t say that a typo explains the height discrepancy in Ron Goldman’s autopsy report. I think that Dr. Golden got it right with Ron.
Ron’s driver’s license said that he was 6’ tall. However, the people I heard mention his height during the murder trial – media commentators and people who knew him – said that he was about 5’ 10.” Golden has him at 69” – 5’ 9”. That’s average for men. I’m 6’ tall (72”) but I’ve heard men who where my height or shorter say that they were 6’ 1”. I never understood why some men exaggerate their height but I know from first-hand experience that some men do. I guessed that Ron was one of them.
Dr. Golden’s typewritten report was not done exclusively from his audio recording of the procedure (Evidence Dismissed, page 109). He also took contemporaneous notes. When my notes get cold I can’t tell the difference between my fours and my nines. I was once late for a book signing because I mistook one of my nines for a four. Golden might have done something similar with his fives and eights (the typed report on Nicole says 65 inches – 5’ 5”)
In auto design, we used to take 3-D measurements (points) on sections of clay model cars to describe the contour. We sometimes had to take a LOT of points. Errors were common. We could catch a “bad point” when we transferred the information to the other side of the car because it stood out like a bad note played on a musical instrument. 18th century astronomers had the same problem with errors for the same reason.
In Golden’s case, the total number of items he had to cover might have been a problem. His height measurement of Nicole was taken early in the autopsies. He might have rushed this part of the examination because he was looking ahead to things he had to do that he thought, based on his vast experience, were more important. After seeing the pictures in Raging Heart (got it yesterday) of Nicole as a blonde child I have to believe that he was wrong about the color of her scalp hair. He wrote that it was brown. This entry was also made early in the report. Golden examined Nicole’s body first. –Jasper