Francis Augustus Bender (June 16, 1941 – July 28, 2011) was an autodidact forensic artist and

fine artist In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork. ...

. He made facial reconstructions of the dead based on their skeletons, and of

fugitives A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

based on outdated photographs, with his reconstructions showing how they might look in the present day. He primarily worked in clay and then cast his pieces into plaster and painted them, but he also created age-progression drawings of fugitives using

pastels A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

. His most famous facial reconstruction case was that of murderer John Emil List, who, after decades as a fugitive under a false identity, was captured a few days after Bender's bust of him was featured on '' America's Most Wanted''.

Career

Bender originally began his forensic work when, impoverished, he worked out a deal with the Philadelphia coroner to be allowed to study some of their unknown dead bodies in an effort to improve his sculpting skills. He also created life-sized monuments in bronze for the

African Burial Ground National Monument African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway ...

in New York (using three of the actual skulls found on the site to give faces to the unknown slaves who had been buried there), a monument for slain police officers in New Jersey, and a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

. Bender was one of the founding members of the Vidocq Society, along with William Fleisher and Richard Walter. The Vidocq Society, named after

Eugène François Vidocq Eugène-François Vidocq (; 24 July 1775 – 11 May 1857) was a French criminal turned criminalist, whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe and Honoré de Balzac. The former criminal became the founder a ...

, meets in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and focuses on solving cold cases.

In popular culture

On May 13, 2008,

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

published ''The Girl With the Crooked Nose'' by

Ted Botha TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depart ...

, a book on Bender's life story intertwined with his most challenging case: the

female homicides in Ciudad Juárez Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

. In August 2010,

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Michael Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo (born May 1, 1957) is an American journalist and author best known for his ''New York Times''-bestselling nonfiction books ''The Murder Room'' and '' Close to Shore'' He was formerly a reporter with the '' Miami Herald'' and the ...

in which Frank Bender is a central figure—the book includes a biography of Bender and focuses on the work of the Vidocq Society. In 2009, Bender was diagnosed with

pleural The pleural cavity, pleural space, or interpleural space is the potential space between the pleurae of the pleural sac that surrounds each lung. A small amount of serous pleural fluid is maintained in the pleural cavity to enable lubrication bet ...

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

, a rare cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs and is caused by prolonged exposure to

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

. Bender believed he was exposed to it during his time in the Navy working in the engine room. Bender died on July 28, 2011, at his home in Philadelphia.

References

External links

Frank Bender website via Archive.org (original site unavailable)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Frank 1941 births 2011 deaths Artists from Philadelphia Forensic artists Deaths from mesothelioma Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania