Name Ralph Erdmann | ||
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Ralph R. Erdmann was a pathologist. He has been convicted on several counts of evidence tampering and perjury.
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Training
Commander 829th Station Hospital. Lubbock, Tx. Commander 829th Station Hospital. Fort Sam Houston. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
Schools attended: George Washington University, University of Texas, University of Michigan, National University of Mexico, Alexander von Humboldt. He received his Doctorate in Medicine, at the National University of Mexico, in Mexico City.
Specializing at the forensic pathology at Johns Hopkins
Texas Autopsy scandal
In 1992, he was convicted of falsifying autopsy reports. The scandal began in 1991 when the family of Robert Craig Newman questioned the findings of an autopsy report. It included information about the weight of the dead man's spleen. The deceased man's son told authorities that his dead father had had his spleen removed years earlier. When the body was exhumed, there was no evidence that an autopsy had even been performed.
Another case that received notability throughout the Texas Panhandle was featured in Texas Monthly in 1992 evolving the death of Terrie Tropsper. As investigators continued their investigation into this case, new evidence resulted in an exhumation of Trosper's body. A new autopsy confirmed that Dr. Erdmann falsified the original report concerning the first autopsy of Trosper. Kevin Overstreet, Chief Deputy of Childress County was the lead investigator in this case. Overstreet testified in other notable murder cases involving Dr. Erdmann in Amarillo Texas.
Convictions
He pleaded no contest to seven felony charges. He was sentenced to 10 years probation, 200 hours of community service and fined $17,000 for botched autopsies and exhumation expenses. He also surrendered his medical license and moved to Washington state.
In 1995, police found his gun collection (he was a Colonel, hunter and lifetime gun collector). They confiscated his arsenal of weapons, some illegal, in his Redmond, Washington home. Two years later he was released.
60 Minutes interview
Erdmann was investigated by Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes in 1992. Among the revelations was the fact that Erdmann kept blood samples in the same refrigerator as his condiments.[1]