by Becky Cooper
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-IK. It is interesting to note that Don Mitchell also told the CPD about a date Jane had with a French archaeologist, arranged through CCLK: “I don’t know his name, but he was an ex-colleague of Lamberg-Karlovsky, who’s––I think he was French. I think he was an archaeologist. And Karlovsky called up one day––actually they called me wondering where Jane was, if I knew. Then they got a hold of her and said well, this friend was in town and they wanted a date, get a date for him just to go out” (CPD-DM, p. 63).
Christine Lesniak
1 Ed Wade…had been fired by Karl: Phone call with CCLK and interview with Garth Bowden in 2020.
2 “a very good professional”: Interview with Garth Bowden in 2020.
3 intense competition between Karl and Assistant Professor Tom Patterson: Multiple, including interview with David Browman in 2017.
4 didn’t remember anything of the sort: Interview with Tom Patterson in 2017.
5 Dan Potts’s dissertation: Daniel Potts, “Tradition and Transformation: Tepe Yahya and the Iranian Plateau During the Third Millennium B.C.,” PhD dissertation, Anthropology Department, Harvard University, 1980. Pages in question are pp. 539–544.
6 Karl’s afterword: Afterword to The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries (Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1981), edited by Philip Kohl, pp. 386–397.
7 included a footnote reference: The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries, edited by Philip Kohl, p. 396 n. 5.
8 both been on the 1971 Tepe Yahya season: Figure F.9, CCLK foreword, p. XXXIV.
9 Someone else from that year: This person asked not to be named.
10 “You wanted to talk to Christine”: Interview with Christine Lesniak’s sister (name left out for privacy) in 2018.
11 a hit man for the Chinese Mafia: I haven’t been able to verify either family legend in newspaper reports.
A Second Cipher
1This chapter is from an interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.
Physical Evidence
1 “Hi, this is Becky Cooper”: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
2 beginning of a two-year public records battle: My initial request to the MDAO dated July 18, 2016.
3 jurisdiction of the district attorney: “State DAs Decide Who Will Investigate Homicides,” The Enterprise, Jan. 7, 2016.
4 When I learned this fact: A very big thank-you to David Grann, who first alerted me to this.
5 though the Cambridge Police no longer had Jane’s records: Email from Maeve Ryan, Records Administrator, CPD, May 19, 2015, 3:34 p.m.
6 “Unfortunately, at this time”: Letter from Kerry Anne Kilcoyne (MDAO Assistant DA), July 28, 2016.
7 exemption (f): William Francis Galvin, “A Guide to Massachusetts Public Records Law,” Division of Public Records, Mar. 2020, p. 21.
8 didn’t start until the late ’80s: Celia Henry Arnaud, “Thirty Years of DNA Forensics: How DNA Has Revolutionized Criminal Investigations,” Chemical & Engineering News 95, no. 37 (Sept. 18, 2017): 16–20.
9 the email came through: Email from Boyd, Aug. 3, 2016, 10:51 a.m.
10 Sergeant Sennott gave me nothing: Phone call with Sergeant Sennott in 2016.
11 I had a bit more luck with Brian Branley: Phone call with Brian Branley in 2016.
12 John Fulkerson called me back: The rest of this chapter is from this 2016 interview with John Fulkerson. Note: Fulkerson did not participate in the checking phase of the book. All material concerning him is accurate to the best of my ability.
13 Frug case: E.g., “Mary Joe Frug’s Brutal Murder Stunned a Contentious Academic Community,” Boston Sunday Globe, Aug. 28, 2016.
Karl at Police Headquarters
1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-CCLK 2.
Paul de Man
1 “What is at stake”: CCLK foreword, p. XIX.
2 Schliemann’s Troy was likely not Troy: Brian Rose interview on This American Life (Episode 689: “Digging Up the Bones”), Dec. 6, 2019.
3 “relentlessly self-promoting amateur archaeologist”: Susan Heuck Allen, Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), publisher’s description.
4 graduate student discovered: “The Case of Paul de Man,” New York Times, Aug. 28, 1988; see also “The de Man Case,” New Yorker, Mar. 24, 2014.
5 “a slippery Mr. Ripley”: Harper’s, Feb. 2014 review of Evelyn Barish, The Double Life of Paul de Man (New York: Liveright, 2014).
Clifford A. Rockefeller
1 fifty-one years: CCLK curriculum vitae.
2 Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky retired: CCLK became a research professor, which is distinct from being emeritus. See “12. Retired Professors. Description: Professors Emeriti, Research Professor,” FAS Appointment and Promotion Handbook, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Office for Faculty Affairs’ website.
3 a sheet that described: Chart of box contents in C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky personal archive, 1957–2014, Harvard University Archives, Accession Number 2016.113.
4 “petulant diatribe”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 1: Letterbox 1996, Folder M, Nov. 28, 1998, Letter Victor Mair to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Victor Mair.
5 “ecstatic appreciation” of two students: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 6: Letterbox, correspondence A-Z 1965–1969, Folder B, Sept. 26, 1967, J. O. Brew to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Alan Brew.
6 draft of the textbook he co-wrote: This draft became C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and Jeremy Sabloff, Ancient Civilizations: The Near East and Mesoamerica, 2nd ed. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1995).
7 “does not indicate a disinterest in history”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 4, Jerry Sabloff, and CCLK, “Chapter 1: Intellectual Background to the Study of Ancient Civilizations Ancient Views of the Past.” Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.
8 “Field notebook: Site E, J.S.B.”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
9 “Tepe Yahya 1969 Site E Field Notebook. By: JSB / []”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 3, Folder 3.7.
10 the 1968 Site E notebook: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8.
11 “30 June 1968: Removed surface”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8, p. 1.
12 “traces of red ochre”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8, p. 10.
13 “First day of digging.”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 2, Folder 2.6.
14 “Red ochre under and around bone”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.5.
15 “there are relics which show”: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
16 In 1970, a body was discovered: Thomas Beale, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran 1967–1975: The Early Periods, American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 38, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (1986), p. 133.
17 the ulna of one of the arms: Beale, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, p. 109.
18 Karl had been quoted as saying: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
19 “In Period VII, Yahya inhabitants”: Beale, Tepe Yahya: The Early Periods, p. 263.
Thresholds of Irritation
1 “Today’s the day Richard”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
2 a single piece of chlorite: Beale, Tepe Yahya: The Early Periods, p. 109.
3 “prize example of primitive sculpture”: “Archaeological Unit from Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 12, 1968.
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4 Martie Lamberg-Karlovsky’s second day: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
5 “food, news, and a new face”: Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky denied bringing food and medicine with her (2020). However, this version of events taken from three contemporaneous sources: Andrea Bankoff’s police statement (“We were all looking forward to Karl’s wife coming and bringing food, news, and a new face,” p. 4), Jane’s journal, and her Aug. 2, 1968, letter home to her parents.
6 Preparation H for Jim’s hemorrhoids: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
7 five-meter wall: Letter from CCLK to Hallam Movius, Sept. 7, 1968.
8 enough for a dissertation topic: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.
9 too exhausted to eke it out: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
10 “Madame L-K, much as I like her”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
11 Martie irritated the crew: In response to this section, CCLK said in 2020, “I’m not going to contest the trivial kind of things that they’re saying about my wife. That she wore clean clothes, that she did this, that she did that. I mean that is the gossip that takes place on an expedition.” In their joint statement, the Bankoffs acknowledged that getting irritated by this behavior was “petty.”
12 dressing to the nines: Arthur Bankoff police statement, p. 10; Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
13 “I like her well enough but”: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
14 pet sparrow had made a giant mess: Anecdote from Andrea Bankoff statement, pp. 7–8.
15 Andrea to correct Martie…recounted the incident to Jane: Anecdote from Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 8.
16 “Everyone in heartily bad mood”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
17 two-Coke ration…archaeology as a cute hobby: Joint statement, p. 8.
18 expected his authority to extend to her as well…One morning Jane woke up: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 8.
18 resupply of peanut butter (“thank Christ”): Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
19 One day, the son of the local khan: There are differing accounts of this story––whether it’s the khan (CCLK foreword) or the khan’s son (Arthur Bankoff statement; phone call with CCLK in 2020); whether it was a tax on the workers (Arthur Bankoff statement) or a land tax (CCLK foreword and call). I have narrated as closely as possible to CCLK’s version. E.g., the detail about the government representative calling in the local gendarmes comes from the CCLK foreword and the phone call. However, CCLK denies the pickax detail, calling it a “fairytale.” I have kept this detail in because both Peter Dane (2014 interview) and Arthur Bankoff’s statement describe it.
20 Phil Kohl and Peter Dane left early: Phil Kohl told me about getting sick in a 2017 interview. He denied it, however, during the checking process, saying he only got sick on the way home. I have kept this detail in because it appears in Jane’s letters home (July 27, 1968, and Aug. 13, 1968), the Andrea Bankoff statement (p. 5), and in the CCLK foreword (“Phil Kohl lost more than thirty pounds in his first field season,” p. XXVII).
21 Phil’s mother didn’t recognize her son: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.
22 thirty pounds that summer: CCLK foreword, p. XXVII.
23 the arrival of the visiting archaeologist Benno Rothenberg: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 11.
24 “we-thought-they-thought mental construction”: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 7.
25 only felt comfortable talking to Jim and Jane: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 5.
26 “Defamation was by innuendo”: Joint statement, p. 10.
27 wouldn’t in fact be invited back: Joint statement, p. 9; CPD-CCLK, p. 14.
28 “It wasn’t a very human thing to do”: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.
29 “stupid, vicious, jealous bitch”: Joint statement, p. 9.
30 “Yes, Boss”-ing him: Interview with CCLK in 2018.
31 Karl found out that Jim had arranged for Arthur: Anecdote from Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 3–4.
32 did not remember this incident: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
33 Karl had bought an entire sheep: This scene is from Andrea Bankoff’s police statement (p. 9) and an interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016. In a 2020 phone call, Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky denied being there for this dinner and CCLK refuted the notion that Jane Britton had anything to do with preparing the meal. Even so, I have used this version of events because the Bankoffs’ accounts independently corroborate each other. (“Independent” given the fact that Andrea’s statement had been prepared without consultation with Arthur, Arthur had not read the statement in almost fifty years, and they have been divorced for some time.)
Karl’s Police Interrogation
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-CCLK 2.
Franklin Ford
2 This scene is from interviews with CCLK in 2017 and 2020.
2 “He didn’t even ask me”: Interview with CCLK in 2017.
2018: Miami
1 Could you sleep last night?: Email to Don Mitchell, July 26, 2018, 12:43 p.m.
2 since April, when he told me: Interview with John Fulkerson in 2018.
Iva Houston
1“I think if you were to have called”: Interview with Iva Houston in 2016.
2 Gender Archaeology: For foundational texts on the subfield, see Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Joan Gero and Margaret Conkey (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1991), and Woman, Culture, and Society, edited by Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974).
3 Probably not according to the latest evidence: “Early Men and Women Were Equal, Say Scientists,” The Guardian, May 14, 2015.
4 I spoke to David Mitten: Interview with David Mitten in 2018.
She’d Have to Not Be a Woman
1 Nancy Hopkins delivered a speech: Nancy Hopkins, “Mirages of Gender Equality,” speech delivered to the fiftieth reunion of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1964.
2 Cora Du Bois arrived: Susan Seymour, Cora Du Bois: Anthropologist, Diplomat, Agent (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), p. 250.
3 only the second woman: “The First Tenured Women Professors at Harvard University,” infographic developed by Harvard University’s Faculty Development & Diversity, Office of the Senior Vice Provost, 2011. Professor Helen Maud Cam was the first.
4 take the side door: Seymour, Cora Du Bois, p. 264.
5 [Photo]: “Preliminary Report on the Status of Women at Harvard,” Women’s Faculty Group, Mar. 9, 1970, p. 2.
6 Jane’s roommate at Les Eyzies: Alison Brooks interview in 2017; Jane’s letters home to her parents in 1966.
7 “For a woman to be good enough for Harvard”: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
8 When Sally Bates: Interview with Sally Shankman in 2017.
9 only two or three of the original women: “Two or three” is based on Sally Shankman (2017) and Arthur Bankoff’s (2016) memories. None—not even Alison Brooks (2020)––could remember who the other one or two women were in the cohort. It is possible, then, that Alison was the only woman in her cohort who managed to stay through the PhD. This was Paul Shankman’s memory (2017). My checker posed this question to Monique Rivera, the Anthropology department’s graduate program administrator, but never received a response.
10 “I’ve never given the PhD to a woman”: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017. Brooks added that Movius eventually did give a PhD to a woman in 1974, but that student was “in a different category because she wasn’t really an American as far as Movius was concerned.”
11 It didn’t take long for Mary Pohl: Paragraphs per interview with Mary Pohl in 2017 and 2019.
12 When Elizabeth Stone: Paragraph per interview with Elizabeth Stone in 2018.
13 When Sally Falk Moore: Paragraphs per interview with Sally Falk Moore (2017) and email from her, Mar. 21, 2020, 6:10 p.m. “Sixteen” is per the 2017 interview, which is consistent with “Anthropology
Moore Is Settling In,” Harvard Crimson, Dec. 9, 1981.
14 When Alison Brooks visited her daughter: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
15 the pattern of gender discrimination in academia: Hopkins also measured lab space and found that female professors at MIT were given less space than their male counterparts. In 1995, Hopkins led a committee to analyze the status of women faculty in MIT’s School of Science, and she also worked on the groundbreaking Report on Women in Science in 1999. See MIT Faculty Newsletter 11, no. 4 (Mar. 1999). MIT’s president Charles Vest endorsed the report, acknowledging the systemic discrimination: “I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception. True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance” (“M.I.T. Admits Discrimination against Female Professors,” New York Times, Mar. 23, 1999). While MIT’s reaction to this report was, in many ways, a model for transformation, the changes were by no means guaranteed to be permanent. In 2019, Hopkins told me that Summers’s statements were so enraging because they threatened to undo the still fragile victories just six years after the report was released.
16 Hopkins walked out of the room: “Summers’ Remarks on Women Draw Fire,” Boston Globe, Jan. 17, 2005.
17 a conference about diversity and the sciences: “Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce: Women, Under-Represented Minorities, and Their S&E Careers,” A Conference of the Science and Engineering Workforce Project (SEWP) at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Jan. 14–15, 2005.
18 According to the Guardian: “Why Women Are Poor at Science, by Harvard President,” The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2005.
Sadie Weber
1 This chapter is from an interview with Sadie Weber in 2017, unless otherwise noted.