Joseph Scott Morgan

2013 GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR..... JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN was the Senior Investigator for the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office in Atlanta, Georgia for fourteen years, managing a staff of 11 medicolegal death investigators while maintaining a personal caseload of 200-300 deaths per year. Prior to his tenure at FCMEO, Joseph was a Forensic Investigator with the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office in New Orleans, LA for six years. In addition to his death investigative duties, Morgan served as an autopsy assistant, conducting more than 7000 autopsies over his two decades in two of the south's most beautiful and violent cities. Morgan has recently completed research involving the largest national study of U.S. coroners ever conducted--the initial findings of which he was invited to present at the 2011 meeting of the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences. In 1999 Joseph earned the status of Board Registered Diplomate of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators--one of the first nationally to be awarded that honor. Along with this professional achievement, Joseph holds a Master of Forensic Sciences degree from National University in LaJolla, CA. Since beginning his current tenure as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Forensics at North Georgia College and State University, Morgan has been instrumental in establishing the first concentration in Investigative Forensics for the University System of Georgia. Morgan has focused heavily on ongoing research pertaining to the American Coroner System, and is today regarded as one of the leading experts on Coroner training in America. WHAT OTHER'S ARE SAYING ABOUT BLOOD BENEATH MY FEET "Endlessly fascinating, jaded, sardonic, and as dark as a funeral director's eyes, Blood Beneath My Feet will change you. This book will shake your foundations, and leave you wondering how any man could witness this much human devastation and emerge with his soul intact. With this transgressive memoir, Joseph Scott Morgan has created a new genre--nonfiction noir. Let's call it a memnoir." Grant Jerkins author of "A Very Simple Crime" "A new story teller rises in the southern gothic style. At times harsh and abrasive, at others poignant and moving, Morgan has the capacity to aggravate and humble you within the same account.In chapter after chapter, he details the impact of death on the loved ones left behind and on those who must investigate the tragedies. His powerful memoir attests to the deep, dark waters through which death investigators often navigate." --Mary H. Manhein ‑ Forensic Anthropologist and Director, LSU FACES Laboratory, Author of The Bone Lady and Trail of Bones "The terse, earthy tone and black humor read like hard-boiled fiction. And there's a Southern man sensibility, as Morgan explains his life in reference to evangelical religion, Jerry Lee Lewis and LSU football. Agonizing memories of growing up in Griffin with an abusive stepfather recall the Tobias Wolff memoir, "This Boy's Life." Atlanta-Journal Constitution "Between the covers of this fascinating look into life with the Grim Reaper, readers will be reminded why our war veterans aren't the only ones with psychological scars with tainted memories even Hollywood can't fully recreate. Yet Morgan takes it all in stride as he pulls forth the memories of a Louisianan upbringing with a beautiful Mama (no - not Mother, Mom, or Momma but Mama), a God-fearing grandmother whom he calls Pearl, and a brutal stepfather who, in the name of Jesus, made him tougher than Tarzan's feet and prepared him for a two-decade career at which most people wouldn't last more than a year." True Crime Zine