Butler's book contains many humorous anecdotes but also frightening stories. He cites missing persons who turn up alive after having been declared dead and racial tensions in the [[Segregation|segregated]] society in which he lived prior to 1964. In his early years, Butler went to work in a horse-and-buggy, made arrests for murders that he investigated, fought lynch mobs at the parish courthouse, and came close to being killed himself on several occasions. Upon his death in Hermitage, Tennessee, at the age of 103, he was the oldest former medical examiner in the world. He was the Caddo Parish coroner for a total of fifty-six nonconsecutive years.<ref name=ebrock/> | Butler's book contains many humorous anecdotes but also frightening stories. He cites missing persons who turn up alive after having been declared dead and racial tensions in the [[Segregation|segregated]] society in which he lived prior to 1964. In his early years, Butler went to work in a horse-and-buggy, made arrests for murders that he investigated, fought lynch mobs at the parish courthouse, and came close to being killed himself on several occasions. Upon his death in Hermitage, Tennessee, at the age of 103, he was the oldest former medical examiner in the world. He was the Caddo Parish coroner for a total of fifty-six nonconsecutive years.<ref name=ebrock/> |