L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood

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Friday, May 14, 2027 | 6pm to 7:30pm

25 West 43rd St, 10th Floor, Suite 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan

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L.A. Coroner is the first-ever biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the controversial “Coroner to the Stars” and Chief Medical Examiner of Los Angeles County from 1967 to 1982. Known for performing high-profile autopsies on icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, and Natalie Wood, Noguchi often made headlines through elaborate, contentious press conferences. His colorful life and career even served as the real-world inspiration for the hit television series Quincy, M.E.

Written by historian Anne Soon Choi, this meticulously researched book weaves together Los Angeles history, forensic science, and Asian American history. Set against the backdrop of 1960s and 1970s Hollywood celebrity culture and racial politics, L.A. Coroner delivers a compelling portrait of a complex public figure alongside never-before-published details about his most notorious cases.

Purchase Book: https://thirdstatebooks.com/en-usd/pages/la-coroner

Author Bio

Anne Soon Choi is the author of the true crime biography: L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood (2025) published by Third State Books. She is the Assistant Vice President of Faculty Programs and Initiatives and Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge. She has previously served on the faculty of Swarthmore College, the University of Kansas and California State University, Dominguez Hills. She is also an Andrew Mellon Fellow and an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Ethnic Studies Fellow. She lives and writes in Los Angeles, where she is working on her next true crime book.