This is a wonderful book detailing the story behind an unauthorized heart transplant in 1960s Virginia. Jones does a wonderful job detailing the society at the time highlighting all of the racial tension which segregated medicine. When the heart of a black man is taken out and placed into the body of a dying white businessman and nobody has given permission for them to do so, litigation will usually follow. This book chronicles the trial surrounding the case and is explained in great detail. It is quite obvious that Jones has done his research here.

Personally I loved this book. I was hanging on every word waiting for some type of resolution. My only complaint is the part in the beginning about the history of Richmond was a bit long and unnecessary. Everything else played a pivotal role in the accurate and complete telling of this story.

I am going to be in the minority on this book. I was expecting it to be an in depth look at the first heart transplant and that's not what it was. It's more a history of Medical Schools using cadavers from the poor community. They would go into the graveyards and dig them up, then perform experiments on them.

Starting with the beginning of America, the Medical Schools would use slaves, poor, and indigenous people. Often they would rob the graves of the poorer areas, bc these cemeteries had no guards.

I asked to read this book through Netgalley because it had stated it was the first organ transplant. Imagine that it is 1968, at the height of the Civil Rights area, and your 54 year old brother is taken to the hospital for a head injury. Now imagine your brother spells of alcohol and is unconscious. You would expect him to be taken care of, except, I forgot to mention, he is black. When you finally find out he is at the hospital, you call and get the run around. When you finally make it, you find out he has died. Then you get a call from the funeral home the next day saying his heart and kidney is gone. How would you feel.

This is the true story of Bruce Tucker. In 1968, he was taken to the Medical College of Virginia because of a head injury. That same afternoon, his heart and kidney are giving to two different people. His heart goes to a white guy.

As I said before, I thought this book would go in depth with the case. The family sued. But, it didn't go that much into depth. Could have been because all court transcripts were lost and the author had to rely on the judges handwritten notes. I don't know, but to me it's more of a history of how medical schools have always used cadavers and where those bodies come from.

Thanks to Netgalley for the Kindle version of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This work of history examines a largely unknown dirty secret of one of the first heart transplants in the Eastern United States: in 1968, a black man was admitted to a research hospital with a head injury, and, within a matter of hours, his heart was removed from his chest and transplanted into the body of a white man.

This occurred as a result of many different historical factors. Among them was the heart transplant race that took over the medical community in the mid- to late 60s. The first transplant to be completed successfully happened outside of the United States (largely due to a lack of regulation in said country), but the clock was ticking for top hospitals to perform their first transplants and get themselves on the scoreboard.

For Bruce Tucker, a hardworking man in the segregated South, this was bad news. He had taken a tumble after having a few drinks with friends, was declared brain dead not long after he was admitted to one of Virginia’s top hospitals, and was treated like a harvestable specimen without the consent of his family.

This book introduces the case, but then goes into a rather lengthy background information section in which we learn about the history of grave robbers and night doctors - or, how cadavers were obtained in the early days of the medical profession.

This information is good to get a lay of the land when it comes to the lack of boundaries that had formed the bedrock of the medical profession, and to understand the lowly treatment of African Americans in the South during this period, but ultimately this section is long enough to become distracting.

When we finally return to Tucker’s story, we learn more details about the case: who Bruce Tucker was, who the surgeons and other medical professionals involved with the case were, and ultimately, personal information about the lawyers on both sides as this issue rightfully went to court almost two years after the theft of Tucker’s heart.

This book was absolutely devastating at points and lacking in others. Parts of this were not the fault of the author - the conclusion of the book makes clear that the author was not able to contact surviving members of the Tucker family including Bruce’s son who actually took the stand in his trial. The author tried to contact him, that’s for sure. But the man - completely within his rights - didn’t want to talk.

Also, a lot about the case has been “lost” or blatantly covered up. It’s not a proud piece of the state’s history and they seem very happy to keep it under wraps. Sure, they’ll tell you that the first heart transplant happened at this hospital in ‘68 and that they were at the cutting edge of the science of the day, but they certainly won’t mention the name of the donor or that his heart was taken without his consent, something that absolutely would shift public opinion about that boast.

As much as you can enjoy a book like this, I did. It’s as well-researched as possible and the author is completely aware of all of the ethical issues with the choices made while he attempts to articulate what each side was thinking at the time - even if what they were thinking is highly problematic by today’s standards.

However, the side information - mainly the early sections dealing with the acquisition of cadavers - didn’t touch back on the main case frequently enough for the length of the section to feel warranted. An occasional side note about how the information related back to the central case would have worked wonders in making readers feel they weren’t reading a different book than the title promised.

Overall, this is a well-researched and well-written account that only begins the process of seeking justice for Bruce Tucker and his family. More focus within the text could have made it much stronger.

The Organ Thieves was a book that kept my interest the entire time. Thoroughly researched, Mr. Jones is able to weave a story of one man’s unapproved donation to medical science, and ramifications that became of this in both law and medicine. In the course of one book, the reader is able to learn a brief 100-year history of how bodies were located and brought to schools for research, study, and medical experimentation. The backstory of history comes to a head when an incident happens to a Mr. Tucker in the 1960’s, and his body is used in an experimental treatment and his kin was not notified or sought out for approval of his body being donated in hopes it would save another’s life. We then are able to follow the story to the courtrooms of Virginia, where the case was tried.

This is a very poignant time for the book to be released, I feel, as the Black Lives Matter Movement is one of the nation’s major headlines this year. This book gripped me as I learned of yet another way Africans or African Americans had been treated in the past, and how their rights - even about their own bodies - were denied. I want to thank Mr. Chip Jones for telling such an important story, and writing it in such a way that will help people of today’s society reflect on history and treatments towards those of color even in the fairly recent past.

The truth behind history is usually less family-friendly than one sees in public formatting, like history textbooks and PBS specials. This is, yet again, another aspect of African American history that remains hidden behind the great progresses of medical science. Advances in medical procedures and knowledge always come at a price. The author provides excellent background research and clearly illustrates how far the medical science behind transplants have come during the fights for rights in the United States and around the world.

The Organ Thieves
Fascinating, yet sometimes hard to read, account of organ transplants. Filled with perhaps little-known facts of the time.

In recent years, successful heart transplants have become common news. The recipients are living longer, healthier lives, thanks to the kindness of families who want a lost life to help another life continue.
That hasn’t always been the situation as we learn from “The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South” by journalist and Pulitzer Prize-nominee Chip Jones. It’s a thoroughly researched, well-written account of a Virginia case that helped define “brain death” and set standards for organ donation as we know it today.
The book centers around the 1968 death of Bruce Tucker, a middle-aged African-American man who was admitted to a Virginia medical center. He had suffered a head injury after falling from a wall. Without his family’s knowledge, and especially their permission, Tucker’s heart was removed and put into the chest of a terminally ill white businessman.
Was there such an immediate need that there wasn’t time to reach out to Tucker’s family? Was it ethical to remove part of someone’s body without input from the family? Or was this a convenient step in the ongoing race to perfect heart transplantation?
There was a lot at stake in the race and research for organ transplants. Fame, funding, and scientific advancement were prizes sought by surgeons, researchers, and their academic medical centers and schools. It was a race that included Dr. James Hardy, a famed surgeon at the University of Mississippi Medical Center who transplanted a chimpanzee’s heart into a human. The patient died an hour after receiving the heart.
Jones lets the facts speak for themselves as he traces the long and horrifying history of cadaver harvesting, a time when bodies where stolen from cemeteries and used in covert medical research. The practice hit the African-American communities particularly hard since there was little that mourning families could do to fight against the mostly all-white medical field.
When Tucker didn’t come after work, his brother began calling area police and hospitals only to learn that Tucker had died. His family didn’t know his heart and kidneys had been taken until a caring undertaker reached out to them. They couldn’t understand how a head injury could lead to the removal of important organs without permission.
You can only imagine their grief and frustration when news broke that Tucker was the anonymous donor who saved a wealthy white man’s life. They wanted answers. Why hadn’t more been done to contact the family? Had Tucker been “allowed’ to die so a surgeon could say he’d performed a successful heart transplant? Where was the proof that Tucker had no brain activity, that he was technically dead since his body was still functioning, his heart was still beating?
The lawsuit that followed gave the family no peace, but it did help establish the definition of “brain death” and the permissions and ethical standards for future organ donations. In the background, never far from mind, is the history of racial inequality in the South. From stolen bodies to segregated hospitals, African-American patients historically were undertreated and underserved.
The disregard for Tucker’s family was wrong. It can’t be condoned or excused. However, the transplant procedure was successful, and it helped lead to improvements and advancements in transplantation. Without trial and error, there would be no current-day successes.
There’s always a “but” in most controversies, and this account is no different. But, would you agree that African-Americans have been treated unfairly in the past and in the present? But, would you want your family member to be overlooked as a derelict smelling of alcohol and his value quickly dismissed? But, would you agree that experimentation – and failure – is needed to advance medical care? But, would you agree today to give your organs so another person could live?
The history is tedious, but necessary to put the Tucker case in perspective. Keep in mind that “The Organ Thieves” is about one incident, where facts fall short, but it delves deep into the past. Tucker’s family members were hard to trace due to death and reluctance to talk, so Jones had to rely on facts. The surgeons involved in the controversial case stood by their actions, and little evidence survived before, during, and after the court case.
With facts and figures on his side, Jones let the readers connect the dots and make their own conclusions.

Bruce Tucker has a drink, falls and hits his head. unfortunately, the fall was bad enough that Bruce Tucker went to the hospital. The rest of the story is appalling, horrific, and I don’t know of a word that is strong enough to describe how inhumane, racist, unethical, and just flat out shocking the content of this book is. The worst part is the story is true and there is no way to make amends to Bruce, his family, and the many other humans who were undeniably mistreated and taken advantage of for medical science. Everyone should read this story and understand how he unknowingly and without consent was sacrificed in greed, in competition, and there is a debt that cannot be paid to this family.

Major topics touched upon in the non fictional story: family injustice, pain & suffering, racism, medical and courtroom ethics, and the continuing pull of good versus evil.

Additional reading with the very similar topics: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by: Rebbeca Skloot.

Special thanks to Simon & Schuster Egalley for the ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review. Published 2020

With a macabre beginning, this book starts out strong. The writing is engaging, the content is fascinating. Grave robbing has always been an interesting topic for me, the added racial factors make this text even more relevant. However, the farther along you read, the more tedious and dry this text becomes. It goes from an enlightening historical text to a dusty legal tome.

While the author has a captiviting voice, this book suffers more from a lack of sound editing.

Before becoming a forensic scientist, I worked in transplant, doing all of the HLA testing needed to match a donor with a recipient. I loved it, and it was the job I never knew I needed to do. I often tell people that if I could live two lives, I would still be a transplant biologist. I encourage everyone to register to be an organ donor. Please save a life.

That being said, I found this book to be extremely interesting and well researched. So much so, that I think I would be more entertained if it were a podcast or documentary. Hear me out. SO much detail was included in this book. While not a fault, I’ll admit that I’m able to follow a book a little bit easier if a topic is brought up that I know nothing about, and can then research on my own. For instance, a law about body snatching is very important to the legal case presented in this book, and the author gives us a very detailed history of body snatching not only in the south, but across America, and how socioeconomic status determined how closely you were buried to the church, so poor and black people were more easily snatched...etc. For me, this form lends itself better to an auditory format. I’d binge the whole thing in two days.

As well researched as it was, a lot was mentioned about rejection and how doctors of the time did not have the science to prevent it. I wish that a small chapter would have been dedicated to transplant as it occurs today. We’ve come a long way from a hope and a prayer to prevent rejection, and while a small bit was mentioned about anti-rejection drugs, I wish he had gone into how we select specific organs for specific patients to minimize rejection before the new organ is introduced to the body.

The story itself, about how the first heart transplant in the south came from a black man whom the hospital expended minimal effort to contact the family of, is tragic and reminiscent of the Henrietta Lacks story. The portion of the book about the court case was enthralling.

I would recommend this book to any of my medical history fan friends, as I hold out hope that a podcast will be forthcoming!

This book is infuriating. The author writes the account of the first heart transplant performed in the segregated Southern United States. He starts the book with historical context of grave robbing of Black Americans for medical research. Then the book transitions to the backgrounds of the surgeons who are involved in the transplant and their successes and failures as the move toward the goal of human heart transplantation.

By the time the book arrives at the point of the transplant, the reader has seen the inequalities and mistreatment of Blacks in the South in relation to medical care and society. Even though the heart transplant is medical feat, the way in which the heart was obtained is infuriating but not surprising based on the historical framework the author builds.

This is a great resource book for those who are interested in medical inequalities and how current medical practices are based upon racial practices of the past.

I was given the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

I picked this one up expecting a story somewhat like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or The Radium Girls but it was so much more than that. It doesn't read as a story throughout but it gives quite the comprehensive history of the study of anatomy and progress towards organ transplantation in the US. The dark undercurrent is that much of the progress was made by taking advantage of minorities and the poor. The book details serious offenses against humanity including grave robbing and organ stealing, that was mostly overlooked... or even pardoned because the victims were deemed less than. It's very heavy on the science and history, so be prepared for that going in.

This book goes into all of the aspects that made Richmond what it was at the time of the accident that leads to Bruce Tucker's stolen organs. From the first settling through the tobacco trade which lead to the uptick in slavery, through the Civil War and on through the continued marginalization of African Americans. The perfect storm of crimes against the black community is described with hit upon painful hit of human rights violations leading right up to the day Bruce falls off a fence, hits his head and is handed back to his family sans his heart and kidneys.

This book will shock and horrify you but it is so important that we acknowledge the truths of history and do what we can to right the wrongs. We owe a great debt to these unspoken heroes who unwittingly and unwillingly donated their bodies for experimentation with no compensation to them or their families, like Henrietta Lacks and Bruce Tucker, without these nameless people we wouldn't have half the medical advances we have today.

An important, disturbing and well written novel. A fascinating look at the history of medical schools, anatomy lessons, and grave robbers! This is also the story of one man, his family, and the treatment of blacks in the United States and the segregated south.

** I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

An absolutely haunting true story of the early days of medicine, organ transplants, race, and how all three combine in Richmond, Virginia.

Let me start off this largely negative review by saying that I had absolutely no problem with Jones' writing style. The Organ Thieves was very well written. In fact, the way he wrote it really allowed you insight to the emotions that were being felt by those involved with the case. The writing was very immersive and emotional. The book was also very well researched. It was clear that Jones spent a very long time researching the premise and making sure that he had accurate background information. If the book had been more focused, I see no reason why this could not have been a 8-9/10 for me. It was the excess of information that really threw me off and caused the book to really drag.

While I understand that Jones was going for a well-rounded work of nonfiction that was meant to provide background to the Bruce Tucker case, that isn't what happened. The additions of so many different historical events that didn't directly affect the case of the stolen heart and kidneys, made the book way too long and it ultimately confused the point. The book is meant to be about the case of Bruce Tucker, whose organs were taken without his family's permission back in 1968. The first chapter is about Bruce Tucker, the first chapter really brings you into the book. The next chapter is just about the history of the Medical College of Virginia and then the next portion is about grave robbing. I read this as an e-book, so my perception of chapter breakdowns is kind of off. But, I can break it down by percentages. The first 2% are about Bruce Tucker (The man whose organs were thieved); the next 33% is about grave robbing, the creation of the MCV, and the heart transplant race; the next 45% is the court case and the events surrounding Bruce Tucker's death; the final 5% is a mixed bag, half Bruce Tucker and half archaeological survey of the MCV grounds. The final 15% is an appendix/glossary/acknowledgements/citations (which is fine, that 15% is necessary to any work of nonfiction). This means that about ~35% (give or take) is not related directly to Bruce Tucker. That would be fine if this book weren't slated to be a story about the events that occurred when the man's organs were taken unlawfully. If it had just been reformatted and retitled, this would be a good study of medical malpractice, particularly racially biased medical malpractice. As it is, it feels unfocused; my professors would rip into me for including so much unnecessary information if I turned this in as a paper. There was a ton of information that felt like it was included to A. bulk up the book and B. to make the author sound even more intelligent (which didn't feel necessary, he seems smart without the random facts sprinkled in).

My final thoughts as that if you want to read about the institution of the MCV and the long history of medical malpractice in the United States that relates particularly to the unlawful procurement of cadavers, as well as the case where a black man's organs were taken unlawfully, then you might want to look into this one. If you just want to read about what happened to Bruce Tucker and the court case that followed, well it's in here, but you'll have to do a lot of digging to read it. It is well written, but the book is incredibly unfocused and annoying to follow.

The Organ Thieves is a wild and disturbing story of hazy medical ethics and an attempt at restitution. In a well-researched account, author Chip Jones covers the history of organ transplantation research, Richmond’s particular reputation around medical advancements, and the lawsuit that followed the area’s first heart transplant. ⁣
The story is at once alarming and fascinating. The heart transplant race paralleled the space race and spoke to the obsession with scientific advancements that outpaced the rest of the country. Adding to the complexity, Richmond, as the former Confederate capital, had to contend with racial overtones that echoed within the community, particularly in relation to the medical college’s use of body parts and cadavers. The donor of the titular heart transplant was a local Black man whose next of kin was not notified until after his heart had been harvested, ultimately leading to a lawsuit that redefines what constitutes death and life. ⁣
⁣
Jones takes a complex story and makes it compulsively readable, contextualizes it well, and explains tricky parts without too much editorializing. This book felt to me like somewhere between an Ava documentary and a true crime special.⁣

Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia's top research hospital with a head injury, but ended up donating his heart to a white businessman without his family's permission or even their knowledge. Unfortunately, this happened a lot in the segregated South. It is a shameful part of our Country's history and one that many of us don't know about. I found this book to be extremely interesting.

At times I felt like I was reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. This is much more than just the story of Bruce Tucker’s ultimate gift to medical science. Author Chip Jones takes many side journeys before settling on the duplicity and scandal that rocked The Medical College of Virginia Teaching Hospital in the late 1960’s. The first third of this book involves back history on Virginia and the segregated south, the evolution of organ donation/transplants, graverobbing, heart disease, animal testing, the Space Program, and even a mention about the Feminist Movement. While all of this was fascinating & easy to follow and comprehend , it wasn’t what I was expecting to read about.
Once the action of Bruce Tucker’s fatal fall occurs, I recognized there wasn’t enough of a story to fill a book, hence the inclusion of page filler.
As Chip Jones gets into the case of Tucker vs. MCV Hospital there is plenty to mull over and think about. The medical ethics discussion is really intriguing and the case itself leads to interesting debate about what constitutes death and time of death. The idea that a white recipient was given a black man’s heart without any family consent is outrageous.
I found this book informative but not really enjoyable. I think I was overwhelmed with all the additional information and I found the title misleading.

Thank you to NetGalley And Gallery Publishing for providing me with an ARC .

Great. Googly. Moogly.
Well, if you are looking for a book that will both teach you AND piss you off, look no further. This book will do both. I have serious anger, brain fog and book hangover. If that isn't enough of a book recommendation, I don't know what would be.

This is the story of Bruce Tucker. A hard working, self-effacing, black man who, after falling off a wall and suffering brain damage, has his heart harvested [without any consent] to be put in the chest of a prominent white man who was close to death. This is also the story of Bruce Tucker's family [and more specifically, his brother William, who, as it turns out, was just down the street from the hospital his brother was taken to] and the fall-out from him going into the hospital with a head injury and coming out dead, heart and kidney-less, caused.

This is also the story of racism and slavery and grave-robbers and other horrific things that happened in Richmond Virginia [at the medical school and hospital] and are still, to some degree, being kept in the shadows.

I am not going to lie, there is a LOT to process in this book. Mr. Jones starts the book with Bruce Tucker's brother finding out his brother is dead and missing a few organs and then segues into the history of Richmond and the medical school and college there. And folks, it is not a pretty history. In fact, it is downright horrific in spots. Some of the facts about the Negro hospital made me physically ill [rats and mold and so many other unsanitary things were allowed], and I am sure the author just touched on what it was really like. And it just goes on and on and on until we read 1969, when Bruce has his accident and the wheels are set in motion. We also learn the history of transplants and the race to be the first to transplant a human heart. We learn about the two doctors who were at the forefront of that race and the role they played the day that Bruce Tucker was admitted to the hospital and what happened afterwards. Again, there is a lot of information here and it is best to read it a slowly as you need to so you can look things up and so you can absorb all that you are reading. Because there are moments where it will seem like the craziest story of fiction that you have ever laid eyes on. And I am sad to say, there is no happy ending with this book. The people involved [those who are still alive], still have a lot of answer for, in my opinion. And you just do not get those answers at this time.

This book is a must read in my opinion, especially at this time of racial equality and race relations. It is important to know your history and the past so you can learn from it and grow and move forward. And this book has a lot of history that has been buried for years and needs to be out in the public so we can all learn and and grow. We will never move forward without those two things. And I think this book will be helpful in doing those things; I know that it has helped me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books/Gallery/Jeter Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Organ Thieves by Chip Jones is a timely book during these difficult times. The author conducted his research and presented the facts surrounding the first heart transplant in the early 1960’s in a well written narrative. It is both riveting and disturbing to read about the racial inequality practiced by doctors with the knowledge of medical institutions and society in general. Many parts were difficult to read because of the content. But unfortunately, these events took place. Chip Jones leads us through the debates surrounding the definition of death as strides were made in medical knowledge and in technology. . But the advances in medical technology did not include advancements in racial equality. I highly recommend this book to learn about the race to conduct the first heart transplant amid the racism in this country.