posted 11-17-2009 05:32 PM ET (US)        

I'm re-reading Vincent Bugliosi's fascinating real life sea story/murder mystery, "And the Sea Will Tell." It's the tale of two couples who travel to Palmyra Island, about a thousand miles south of Hawaii, in two very different cruising sailboats, interact there for a couple of months, and only one couple returns, in the other's boat. That couple is eventually charged with theft and murder, and Bugliosi (who earlier as a deputy prosecutor successfully conducted the Charles Manson trial for the People), takes the defense this time of one of the accused. An absolutely great read, BTW, both for lawyers and for those who love boats and the sea.

Anyway, I've come upon the following footnote in that book, and it makes no sense to me whatsoever; thus I seek clarity from the scientists at this website:

"Mobster Johnny Roselli, involved in the CIA-Mafia plot to assassinate Cuban premier Fidel Castro, was murdered in 1976, stuffed into a fifty-five-gallon oil drum weighted down with heavy chains, and dumped into Miami's Biscayne Bay. Fishermen discovered the drum when decomposition gases produced enough buoyancy to float it to the surface just ten days later." [My emphasis]

My question: How on earth could change in the physical properties of a human body--or any other object for that matter--in a closed, air-tight environment such as a 55-gallon drum have changed the drum's buoyancy? (I guess I could see how this might happen in an expandable drum made of rubber or some other such substance, where the volume of water displaced in relationship to the weight became larger as the gases expanded, but how could this be possible in an oil drum?)

Thanks, and please respond on level that a not-exceptionally-bright sixth-grader might understand.

Tony

posted 11-17-2009 07:24 PM ET (US)            

Your response to the science question is what I expected, and with my tiny bit of knowledge of physics and chemistry is what I imagined to be true, which is why I asked. Unless whatever gases were produced caused that oil drum to bulge considerably, somehow stretching the metal, it wouldn't make any difference at all what the composition of the elements inside the drum, right? If it sank initially and stayed the same size, its weight wouldn't change at all even if the body produced hydrogen or helium.

I wonder how the author, editor and publisher got it so wrong.

posted 11-17-2009 07:36 PM ET (US)            

A cubic foot of water weighs a little over 64 pounds. A 55 gallon drum would displace about 7.3 cubic feet. 7.3 times 64 = 470. This implies that a sealed 55 gallon drum and it's contents would need to weigh more than 470 pounds to sink. So if you take the weight of the drum (say, 50 pounds), add the weight of the deceased (200 pounds?), add some chain (another 200 pounds?) and you have 450 pounds, not enough to sink but if you add some water you could have enough to sink it. Now if some of that water is displaced by the gases produced by decomposition the drum will no longer sit on the bottom.

posted 11-17-2009 07:37 PM ET (US)            

Tony

posted 11-17-2009 10:21 PM ET (US)            

Assuming the decomp scenario, you'd also have to have someway to displace liquid for the gas to expand. And as explained in previous posts, it's not going to happen (beyond a slight amount of oxygen in the container to begin with).

Gas would raise pressureinside the barrel and force liquids (or solids) out. But any slight change in attitude, you could easily have the gas escaping instead of liquid. And since the solid (body, no matter what state of decomp) would weigh more, the heavy end of the barrel would go down.

About 20 years ago, we had a homicide up here where a diver was drift diving about 40' off shore in 30' of water in the St. Clair River, just south of the Blue Water Bridge. Struck something, turned around and came pretty much face to face with a guy who'd been tied to a couple of cement blocks and tossed in the river. Some sort of gypsy organized crime boss and I think the case is still unsolved. Called him "Bob" for a while...

posted 11-18-2009 11:54 AM ET (US)            

You're forgetting the confined space that the body is in.

True that bodies and dead fish don't always bloat too much, but if there is any wound (as Binkie mentions) that allows gas to vent, that explains a lot of it - and even then, it is venting into open "atmosphere" (or ocean) - not a confined space such as a 55 gallon barrel in the above example.

posted 11-26-2009 07:47 AM ET (US)            

As an aside saltwater present in the left side of the heart will indicate whether the deceased drowned in fresh or saltwater no matter where you find the body.