Mothermelters: The inside story of Cryonics and the Dora Kent Homicide [Paperback]

Alan Kunzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

"Mother Melters" is former Riverside County Coroner Investigator Alan Kunzman's inside story of the investigation into cryonics, and Alcor Life Extension Foundations incriminating involvement in the decapitation and subsequent homicide of Dora Kent. Finally after 15 years he tells his lurid story of the Dora Kent homicide and the incomprehensible manner in which Riverside County Coroner Raymond Carrillo was administering his office. "Mother Melters'' has provided Investigator Alan Kunzman with the path to finally disclose what took place behind the ivy covered walls of the Riverside County Coroners office during the Dora Kent homicide investigation, the most media drenched case of his law enforcement career. From the investigators perspective you will discover the seedy world of Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the manner in which they represented cryonics during his investigation. He exposes the unqualified people that played the parts of scientists, doctors, surgeons and legitimate medically trained professionals, yet most of the participants held no license or degree with the exception of one, Dr. Harris. "Mother Melters" brings to light Alcor Life Extensions affiliation with the church of Venturism, which was located in Arizona and used to recruit new members into Alcor. Once signed, the new member was directed to purchase life insurance through other Alcor members insurance agencies. They were told they had to list Alcor as the beneficiary in order to cover the costs of decapitation and preservation until the end of time. "Mother Melters" exposes the side of cryonics that is never disclosed in the documentaries that continue to be broadcast on national television. The hosts of these programs have never asked the right questions, they simply continue to play into their unscrupulous hands and unwittingly help legitimize cryonics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Kunzman has over 20 years of experience in law enforcement and corporate investigations. He first entered law enforcement in 1980 as a patrol man and ended his career in municipal law enforcement having been Chief of Police of three departments. Throughout his career he moved through the ranks quickly, from patrol man to detective to Lieutenant and Chief of Police. He worked undercover narcotics, was Commander of the Guthrie Oklahoma Emergency Services team (SWAT),and served as Watch Commander and Operations Lieutenant. In the mid to late 80's he was a Senior Deputy Coroner Investigator with the Riverside County Coroners office in Riverside California. It was during his tenure as a Senior Deputy Coroner Investigator he became involved in the Dora Kent investigation. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1973 as a Hospital Corpsman, serving two tours of duty in Viet Nam. After his military service he was a member of the first class of Paramedics to train in the city of Riverside California in 1974. He now resides in the mid-west with his wife Sarah of 24 years and his two sons Jeremy and Derek. His twin sons Jason and Chad reside on the west coast with their families.

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410791998
• ISBN-13: 978-1410791993
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,866,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time and money., April 5, 2004

By 

Brent Fox (GA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mothermelters: The inside story of Cryonics and the Dora Kent Homicide (Paperback)

This book is written in a lowbrow amateur manner that had me nearly giving up reading it by the second chapter. However, I did find some laughs in it, although I doubt the author had intended them. For example:

"I leaned back and let go with a heavy sigh, which hung in the air like a choking fog." - Mothermelters. pg 9

One would gather that the author was stating that he had bad breath.

It seemed as though Kunzman, the author, had a grudge against a few former co-workers and spent an inordinate amount of time in character assassination of them. The writer tries to paint himself as a gallant knight on a white steed, but only comes across as a Don Quixote chasing windmills. There is very little substance, and no entertaining value in the pages of this book. Save your money and do not buy it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MotherMelters is deeply flawed but worthwhile reading, May 30, 2006

By 

dan shays "dan" (az) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mothermelters: The inside story of Cryonics and the Dora Kent Homicide (Paperback)

MotherMelters, a review

Wow, some book. Mothermelters by Alan Kunzman (hereinafter referred to as "AK".)

First off, I must say that I think this book may be libellous. Some parts of it may certainly be untrue. And certainly exaggerated. But I suspect much of what is in this book has a strong kernel of truth, with the exception of some very intangible rumors/allegations made by anonymous sources.

It could have been a very good book the self-promoting, aggrandizing point of view and obvious AK's obvious agenda ruin it to some degree.

However, every cryonicist should read this book, not only for the tidbits of info that are quite likely true, but also because it provides a detailed perspective on cryonics that comes from what is a normal person in many ways. AK's take on cryonics probably represents that of many people in some ways. But his singleminded hatred of cryonics and cryonicists represents an extreme.

But if you can look beyond the hatred and hyperbole and gossip and unfounded wild accusations and innuendos in this book, there is a mythic, epic tale hidden inside this book. I can see the heroes that cryonicists really are, even from this book. Cryonicists are in my opinion heroes without peer in this world.

First, addressing some of the miscellaneous nasty accusations that AK directs at Alcor:

There are references to drug smuggling by Alcor and various principals. There are hints of evil-doing and even murder by Alcorians at an "arizona redoubt". All very much unproven and unsubstantiated. Nonsense, really.

What provides a lot of information in this book is AK's relation of Mike Perry personal journal up to the time of Dora Kent's death while he was living with other cryos in Riverside CA at the Doherty St Alcor location. AK and the county govt seized all the ALcor records there after Saul Kent and Mike Darwin walked into the Riverside county coroner office hand carrying Dora Kent's death certificate.

For example, AK relates his reading of Perry's journal entry where Perry was allegedly listening to mike darwin having sex with another man in the next room, and Perry was writing comments about it in his journal. Umm...yikes!

Various well known members of the cryonics community are discussed to some degree of depth in this book, e.g., Mike Darwin, Saul Kent, Mike Perry, Carlos Mondragon, etc.

AK does not bother to hide his prejudices--he claimed that all the 6 Alcor members who were arrested were "fags" (except Hixon).

One more nasty little tidbit: AK claims one of the arrested Alcor members castrated himself (in college) because his sex drive distracted him in his search for knowledge. AK called him a "nutless nut." Or maybe it was not one of the arrested ones, but one of the other volunteers.

AK claimed that he found evidence that Alcor was paying dividends to alcor management. But the IRS looked at it, and nothing ever came of it.

THere was a chemist who had worked with Alcor or saul kent (something to do with developing vitamins). THe biochemist played stoolie and talked to AK about a number of matters regarding the supposed nefarious dealings of the Alcor management.

AK claimed that Jerry Leaf and Alcor rented out UCLA medical equipment to use for movies and tv and Alcor got the money from the rentals. He also claimed that Alcor stole a lot of medical eqpt from UCLA. But the UCLA police never did anything about it.

However, Alcor claims on their website they have proof they bought the equipment from UCLA. Why didn't AK address that rebuttal? Just another example of many where AK did shoddy research in some ways.

One of the most revealing statements, and one that is perhaps at the heart of this book is this description of Alcor members by AK: BRIMMING OVER WITH SMUG SELF IMPORTANCE, ARROGANCE, SELF CONGRATULATIONS.

In particular, AK exhibited a deep seated animus for Mike Darwin. Hatred, really. THe above description by AK was perhaps more directed at Darwin that anyone else. But he did apply it to all Alcor members.

In some ways, AK may have somewhat of a good point with respect to how cryonicists are perceived as smug and arrogant by some people. Maybe there is something we cryonicists need to learn-- sometimes a humble, down home, self-deprecating, "aw shucks" manner is the smartest demeanor.

After reading this book, I played a video tape I have of a cryonics science conference from a few years ago. The conference includes a presentation Mike Darwin made about his work with perfusing dogs. I have never met Darwin, and I wanted to see if AK's description of his manner was true.

Eh, maybe a little.

BTW, AK claimed that the dogs that were used to guard the ALcor building (which had been deanimated and revived by Darwin) were basically zombies.

But the dogs I saw on the videotape with Darwin clearly were not zombies.

Turning to the central point of AK's case against Alcor, the idea that Dora was killed by barbituates, and did not die a natural death:

From Mike Perry's journal, there is a relationof a WI case where a Alcor member had died, and while the Alcor team was carrying her away from the hospital, she revived, and in perry's words, they were "forced to put her down."

So AK is claiming this happened before. It has the ring of truth to it, in all fairness. But so what? I have no moral compunctions about it.

There is an inherent contradiction: AK claims Dora was put on barbituate cocktail as soon as she was brought in, and that was why she took a "turn for the worse." But then he writes that Perry's notes say that she was later put on oxygen. If she was put on a barbituate cocktail to kill her, as AK claims, then why put her on oxygen to prolong her life?

Then Mike Perry's journal says Mike applied "heroic measures" when she stopped breathing. AK notices the contradiction but cannot answer it.

AK still does not understand the critical point--that the barbituate cocktail was not given to kill, but to prevent revival. Two different things.

Luckily, none of AK's colleagues seemed to care about Alcor.

AK was basically alone in his longstanding vendetta. In fact, it is clear from the book that he was seen as obsessing about Alcor.

Miceli, the judge that ended the entire episode with rulings that favored Alcor, apparently never understood the gist of the county's case, which was that the barbituates killed DK. THe judge ruled as he did on the basis that there was no evidence that DK was decapitated while she was alive, which was not was the county was asserting at all. So, Alcor may have dodged a bullet.

AK never even mentioned the fact that Alcor used CPR to circulate the barbituates. His argument was that bccause they were found in excretory organs (bladder, kidneys), they must have been ingested/injected while she was alive. He never addresses this argument of Alcor's in the least bit.

All in all, a deeply flawed book, but an essential one for those interested in cryonics.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The blind leading the blind -- look elsewhere to learn about cryonics, August 12, 2005

By 

A Knowledgeable Cryonicist (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mothermelters: The inside story of Cryonics and the Dora Kent Homicide (Paperback)

Someone wanting to learn about cryonics would do much better

by going to Wikipedia or doing a Google search on "cryonics"

than to read this book. If Kunzman was not so ignorant of

cryonics protocol he would have realized that postmortem

circulation is standard procedure in cryonics, not a "smoking

gun". He uses the word "profusion" in referring to "perfusion".

His sloppiness as an investigator is clinched by the fact that

the autopsy memo he reproduces on page 79 refutes the essential

thesis of his book. The best use of this book is to instruct

cryonicists about the psychology of those who are ignorant

and hostile concerning our goals and procedures. THE FIRST

IMMORTAL by James Halprin, although nominally fiction, is a

far better book to learn about the goals of cryonicists -- and

there is much accurate technical information as well. But

an Amazon search on "cryonics" does not yield Halprin's book

as one of the top search results. THE SCIENTIFIC CONQUEST OF

DEATH is a nonfictional collection of essays that has much

background material relevant to cryonics -- the chapter on

"Medical Time Travel" is written by a cryobiologist who has

extensive knowledge of the technology and potential benefit

of cryonics.