HISTORY   
      
The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office (BCMEO) was the first Medical Examiner's Office in the State of Texas.  On May 6, 1955, the Texas Medical Examiner Act went into effect. Under the law, any Texas County with a population of more than 250,000 could change from a Justice of the Peace System for handling violent and unexpected deaths to a Medical Examiner System. Four counties fell under the provisions of this law: Bexar, Harris, Dallas and Tarrant.  Passage was met by total indifference.  None of the Counties adopted the Medical Examiner System.

Then, on December 5, 1955, an automobile accident occurred four blocks from the residence of one of the Bexar County Justices of the Peace.  The police, thinking the victim might still be alive, rushed him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.  They then called the Justice of the Peace in the precinct where the accident occurred.  He refused to hold an inquest because he felt the police should not have removed the body.  The police then called the Justice of the Peace for the precinct in which the hospital was located.  They asked him to hold an inquest.  He refused because he was not called first.  The body then remained in the hospital from the evening of the day of the accident until noon the next day when a Justice of the Peace was located who agreed to hold an inquest.
      
This incident was well-publicized by the media with charges of "Prima Donna" actions by the Justices of the Peace.  At the next meeting of the Bexar County Commissioners' Court, a majority of the Justices of the Peace, the Police Chief, and other City and County officials, recommended that a Medical Examiner System be established.  Most of these individuals had made a similar recommendation in the past.  It was the strong public opinion in regard to the incident that won approval for the establishment of the Medical Examiner System.
      
The Commissioners' Court then went on to adopt the concept of a Medical Examiner's Office.  On December 28, 1955, The Bexar County Commissioners' Court authorized the County Auditor to include in the 1956 Budget the sum of $25,000 to create the position of Medical Examiner with the money used to defray the salary and office expenses of the Medical Examiner.   On April 2, 1956, the Commissioners' Court appointed Dr. Robert Hausman as the first Medical Examiner effective July 1, 1956.  He was given a salary of $14,000 per year with an expense allowance of $1,200.  He was also allowed an assistant at $3,600 per year with $600 per year expense allowance, and a secretary at $3,000 per year.
      
The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office became operative July 1, 1956.  Dr. Hausman, took the oath of Office on July 2, 1956, and received his first case, a suicide, two hours after the ceremony.  Dr. Ruben Santos was appointed Assistant Medical Examiner in the summer of 1962.  After Dr. Santos had been Assistant Medical Examiner for one year, Dr. Hausman took a 2 year leave of absence and Dr. Santos became acting Chief.  Dr. Hausman resigned in 1968 and was replaced by Dr. Santos who was the Chief Medical Examiner until December 4, 1980.   Dr. Vincent J.M. Di Maio was appointed Chief Medical Examiner, effective March 1, 1981, on a vote of the County Commissioners' Court of December 18, 1980.   Members of the Court were County Judge Albert Bustamante and Commissioners Leo Mendoza, Jr., Tom Stolhandske, Jeff Wentworth and Tom Vickers.  Dr. Di Maio remained Chief Medical Examiner until December 31, 2006 at which time he retired.  He was succeeded by Dr. Randall Frost, Dr. Di Maio's Deputy Chief Medical Examiner.  Dr. Frost became Chief Medical Examiner January 1, 2007.
      
The second Medical Examiner's Office to come into existence in Texas was in Harris County (Houston) on January 1, 1957.  The legal and medical communities in Harris County had been dissatisfied with the Justices of the Peace.  There had been two serious miscarriages of justice due to lack of qualified investigations.  Dr. Allen R. Moritz, formerly of the legal medicine department at Harvard University, was invited to survey the situation and make recommendations.  His report was submitted in January of 1956.  Based on the report, the Commissioners' Court established the Harris County Medical Examiner's System the following year.  Medical Examiners Offices were subsequently established in Tarrant County in 1965, with the first Medical Examiner Dr. Truman Terrell, and in Dallas County in 1969 under Dr. Charles Petty.
     
In 1956, Bexar County had an estimated population of 710,451.  The Medical Examiner's Office consisted of 3 full time and 6 part time employees.  The Medical Examiner, Dr. Robert Hausman, was a qualified Forensic Pathologist who performed both the administrative duties of the office and nearly all the medical-legal autopsies.   In 1957, the cost to operate the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office was 4.2 cents annually per capita.  In the first 4 months of the Office, 249 deaths (16.5% of all deaths in Bexar County) were investigated:  95 violent deaths; 154 natural.  131 autopsies were performed.  Blood alcohol samples were initially sent to Austin to the State crime lab. Medical Investigators employed by the Medical Examiner's Office did not begin to go to death scenes until January of 1982.
      
On May 15, 1958, the first Toxicologist was hired, with the first toxicology test performed on July 31, 1958 for arsenic.  The first Toxicology Laboratory was set up in a 7 x 8 ft. room next to the morgue in the Robert B. Green Hospital.    After several months, the lab moved to a larger room in the County Courthouse where the Administrative Office was located.  In 1961, the lab and administrative department moved to the Courthouse Annex at 203 W. Nueva.
        
In 1969, the Administrative Office and Laboratory moved to the Robert B. Green Hospital.  It remained there until October 1978 when the BCMEO moved to a new 16,000 sq. ft. building at 600 North Leona.   In June 1993, the BCMEO moved to a new 52,000 sq. ft facility on the campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio which it shared with the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory.
          
The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office is one of approximately 40 offices in the United States that is authorized to train physicians in Forensic Pathology.  It is one of approximately 40-45 Offices accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners. The Toxicology Section of the BCMEO is one of only 22 institutions in the United States and Canada accredited by the American Board of Forensic Toxicology.