ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HOHENWALD, TENN.
SOURCE: Associated Press
An undertaker has picked seven volunteers to hear evidence to decide whether explorer Meriwether Lewis committed suicide or was shot to death nearly 187 years ago along the Natchez Trace.
Lewis County coroner Richard Tate, also a local mortician, heads the investigation into the mystery over the celebrated Virginian's death about 80 miles southwest of Nashville.
Tate's witnesses include George Washington University Professor James E. Starrs, a forensic scientist, who believes Lewis was murdered. He wants to exhume the remains to unearth the answer. He lobbied for the inquest and plans to testify.
``My understanding of the whole situation is in 1809, when this whole thing happened, there wasn't much investigation done to find out the cause of death,'' Tate said. ``It's our opinion that history ought to be factual. Also, this happened in Indian territory. So there was no law enforcement at the time.''
Lewis, born in 1774 in a two-story log cabin outside Charlottesville, died of gunshot wounds Oct. 11, 1809, along the Natchez Trace.
Historians have long debated whether he was murdered, committed suicide or was shot accidentally. Traditional historical accounts contend that Lewis - sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the rugged Western frontier in the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06 - killed himself with his black-powder pistol.
The coroner's inquest, a fact-finding session similar to a grand jury, is set for today and Tuesday at a National Guard armory about 10 miles from where Lewis was buried.
Jurors will hear evidence from historians, pathologists, psychiatrists, firearm experts and forensic scientists.
Jurors also may witness the firing of a reproduction of the .69-caliber muzzleloading pistol claimed to have inflicted Lewis' fatal wounds and attempt to analyze Lewis' mental condition as reflected in handwriting samples.
A coroner's jury has never before been convened in Lewis County, Tate said.
The panel will not have authority to exhume the Lewis remains, he said.
``Mr. Lewis is buried in a federal park, so we don't have authority to do that,'' Tate said.
The National Park Service is responsible for Lewis' grave and a 50-ton limestone and sandstone monument covering it.
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