Thomas Noguchi
| Thomas Noguchi 野口恒富 |
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|---|---|
| Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles | |
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In office 1967–1982 |
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| Preceded by | Theodore Curphey |
| Succeeded by | Ronald Kornblum |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Thomas Tsunetomi Noguchi January 4, 1927 Japan |
| Nationality | American |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California |
| Alma mater | Nippon Medical School |
| Occupation | Coroner, Medical Examiner |
Thomas Tsunetomi Noguchi (野口 恒富 Noguchi Tsunetomi, born January 4, 1927) is a former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who served in that position from 1967 to 1982. Known as the "coroner to the stars", he determined the cause of death in many high-profile cases of the 1960s and the 1970s. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, Gia Scala, William Holden, Natalie Wood, and John Belushi.
Noguchi was born in Japan and graduated from Tokyo's Nippon Medical School in 1951 before interning at The University of Tokyo School of Medicine Hospital. Shortly thereafter he immigrated to the United States. He then served a second internship at Orange County General Hospital and a series of residencies at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and Barlow Sanatorium in Los Angeles. He was appointed a deputy coroner for Los Angeles County in 1961.
In 1967, he became Chief Medical Examiner (CME) for the county, replacing his mentor Theodore Curphey. As CME Noguchi came to public attention for a series of autopsies; he performed or supervised on a range of celebrities and public figures that included Robert F. Kennedy, Janis Joplin, Inger Stevens, Albert Dekker, David Janssen, William Holden, John Belushi, Natalie Wood, Sharon Tate, and Gia Scala. His autopsy of Kennedy is significant for its conclusion that the fatal shot was fired into the back of Kennedy's head, behind the right ear, from an upward angle, and from a distance of no more than one-and-a-half to three inches away. Such a finding has given rise to conspiracy theories regarding the assassination, as no witnesses reported seeing the convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, in a position to fire such a shot. Noguchi himself points out in his memoir Coroner that he has never officially ruled that Sirhan fired the fatal shot.
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