Ronald N. Kornblum was an American coroner who served as

Los Angeles County Coroner The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner (formerly the Department of Coroner) was created in its present form in Boyle Heights on December 17, 1920 by an ordinance approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, ...

from 1982 to 1990.

Early life

Kornblum was born December 5, 1933 in Chicago. He completed his undergraduate studies at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and earned his medical degree at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

. From 1960 to 1961, Kornblum was a Navy medical officer in

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

Early career

After Kornblum's naval service, he pursued his medical residency at Santa Clara County Hospital. Kornblum discovered that he enjoyed diagnosing illnesses more than treating them and decided to specialize in pathology. In 1966 he took a job with the Maryland Medical Examiner's office, where he rose to the position of chief deputy. There he presided over the autopsy of

Yosef Alon Yosef (Joe) Alon (Hebrew: יוסף (ג'ו) אלון), born Josef Plaček, also known as Joe Alon (July 25, 1929July 1, 1973), was an Israeli Air Force officer and military attache to the U.S. who was mysteriously shot and killed in the driveway o ...

Ventura County

In November 1973, Kornblum was named

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnar ...

's first full-time Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner after the county adopted a new system. He took office on January 1, 1974.

Los Angeles County

In 1980, Kornblum left Ventura County to become the top assistant to

Thomas Noguchi. In 1982 Noguchi was demoted to physician specialist for speaking too freely to the media, moonlighting, and alleged mismanagement. Kornblum was appointed acting coroner. In 1987 he was appointed to the job outright after the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

declined to hear Noguchi's legal challenge of his demotion. Kornblum was praised for improving the office's efficiency and professionalism. He was also recognized for his knowledge of

Sudden infant death syndrome Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usuall ...

chokehold A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza ( ja, 絞技, translation=constriction technique) is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking)''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' ( ...

deaths, and fatalities involving

Taser A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...

s. However Kornblum's office was also criticized for moving too slow on autopsies, leaving bodies at crime scenes for hours, and for bouncing corpses on freeways due to bad door locks on old coroner vehicles. Notable autopsies Kornblum performed include

John Belushi John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his ca ...

Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

William Holden William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...

Karen Carpenter Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer, who formed half of the sibling duo the Carpenters alongside her older brother Richard. With a distinctive three-octave contralto range, she was praise ...

, Ron Settles, and

Warren Oates Warren Mercer Oates (July 5, 1928 – April 3, 1982) was an American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah, including ''The Wild Bunch'' (1969) and ''Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia'' (1974). A ...

. Outside of his capacity as coroner he testified in the Preppie Murder trial as an expert on chokehold deaths. In 1990, Kornblum resigned as Los Angeles County Coroner after an independent audit found that staff shortages and a high homicide rate were leading to unsanitary conditions, including dead insect larvae in the morgue and a body that had decomposed because it had been misplaced, and poor oversight of employees that had allowed for a double-billing scam to take place. Kornblum stated that he agreed with most of the 154 changes called for in the audit and had begun to implement some, but certain changes were impossible due to the "limited size of the department's budget and the overwhelming workload".

Death

Kornblum died on September 23, 2008 at his home in

La Cañada Flintridge, California La Cañada Flintridge, commonly known as "La Cañada" (Spanish for "The Canyon"), is a city in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains in Los Angeles County, California. Located in the Crescenta Valley, in the western edge of Southern Califor ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kornblum, Ronald 1933 births 2008 deaths American coroners People from Chicago People from La Cañada Flintridge, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni People from Ventura County, California