Commercial Autopsy Service Booms

After the Los Angeles County coroner’s office raised its prices for private autopsies last year, business has been booming for Vidal Herrera’s Autopsy/Post Services, the area’s only commercial autopsy service. Autopsies conducted at the discretion of the county coroner are free-but the coroner’s rate for a private autopsy is $2,541, up from $1,320 in 1992. Herrera undercuts the county by charging between $1,800 and $2,200. Most of his customers are attorneys seeking evidence for medical malpractice actions or criminal defense cases. Perhaps his most high-profile client is Johnnie Cochran, a prominent attorney in Los Angeles famed for representing Rodney King, Michael Jackson, and other celebrities. Herrera spent more than 20 years as a death care worker for Los Angeles County, where he assisted with the autopsies on the Hillside Strangler and Skid Row Slasher cases, and found a fingerprint on a window that helped nab Richard Ramirez, L.A.’s "nightstalker" serial killer, In L.A.’s Latino community, where he often performs autopsies for free, he is called "El Muerto" of "Man of Death."

In 1984, Herrera suffered a back injury and was considered unemployable. In 1988, Autopsy/Post Services was launched. He has purchased his own 800-AUTOPSY telephone number and intends to franchise the business soon, proclaiming "this is nearly the 21st century and this is a recession-proof business." After McDonalds, is America ready for yet another franchise idea born in Southern California?