Half-Life Histories

Radioactive Autopsy - The Cecil Kelley Criticality Accident

At 6 AM on New Year’s Day, 1959, Dr. Clarence Lushbaugh began an autopsy. He was about to open up one Cecil Kelley, and remove eight pounds of his organs, muscles, tissues, and bone. He put these tissues, including Kelley’s brain, in a few hastily gathered mayonnaise jars, and took them back to his lab for analysis. This is the true story…