Dr. Marcella Fierro (Photo by Jay Paul)
Fans of Patricia Cornwell’s crime novels can soon watch their favorite forensic pathologist on television. This month, Amazon Prime Video will wrap up production of “Scarpetta,” starring Nicole Kidman as the brilliant and compassionate Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
Scarpetta’s character was inspired by a local legend: Virginia’s first woman chief medical examiner, Dr. Marcella F. Fierro. “Without a doubt, I would not have created a female medical examiner if not for Marcella,” Cornwell says.
The two met in 1984 when the young author, who lived in Richmond at the time, showed up at the state morgue on 14th Street to research her first novel. “Marcella told me, ‘This is not a spectator sport; I don’t just let people watch autopsies,’” Cornwell recalls. “She told me I had to make myself legitimate and suggested I become a volunteer police officer — so I did.”
In her newly issued uniform, Cornwell observed Fierro in the morgue and accompanied detectives to crime scenes. Despite the real-world experiences informing her writing, her first three novels were rejected.
“She would often run things by me to make sure they were plausible,” Fierro says. “I was convinced from the get-go her drive, her determination and her commitment to the accuracy of the work would triumph.”
With Fierro’s support and encouragement, Cornwell got her big break in 1990. Her debut novel, “Postmortem,” was inspired by the real-life story of Timothy Wilson Spencer, the so-called Southside Strangler, who murdered four women in Richmond and Arlington. The case was the first time DNA was used to convict a serial killer in the United States, with Virginia becoming the first state to create a crime lab.
Author Patricia Cornwell (at right, with actor and executive producer Jamie Lee Curtis at left) on the set of “Scarpetta” (Photo courtesy Patricia Cornwell)
The first season of “Scarpetta” on Prime Video will interweave the plots and timelines of “Postmortem” and one of Cornwell’s later books, “Autopsy.” Prime Video has not yet announced a release date but has already approved a second season.
Although the show was filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, the story remains set in Richmond. Cornwell says the series, as well as her latest book, “Identity Unknown,” features constant references to her former home base. “Richmond means the world to me,” she says. “Richmond’s where it all began.”
Two decades before she was approached by Cornwell, Fierro was one of five women out of 109 students in her 1966 medical school graduating class. She moved to Richmond in 1974 for her residency and started a fellowship program in the medical examiner’s office the following year.
Fierro was only the ninth woman in U.S. history to become board certified in forensic pathology. In 1994, she became Virginia’s first woman chief medical examiner, retiring in 2008. Over the years, she has served on various medical panels, shared expert opinions with the FBI and received multiple lifetime achievement awards.
“I had the amazing good fortune of working with one of the most talented medical examiners in the country, who happened to be a woman, back in a day where there weren’t many,” Cornwell says.
But the author says not everyone liked the idea of a woman as a medical examiner. A bookstore owner once told her he had to pretend Scarpetta was a man to get through the novel, adding that the morgue was no place for a woman.
“Most of [the] victims [Fierro autopsied], with horrible things that happened to them, were women and children,” Cornwell says. “So, it really made sense to have a woman taking care of them.”
Cornwell is a trailblazer in her own right. She has written 28 Scarpetta books and a dozen other titles, selling more than 120 million copies in 36 languages and in over 120 countries. Her novels launched the genre of forensic crime fiction, which remains popular today.
“Absolutely her books have drawn attention to the field of forensic pathology,” Fierro says. “Nobody in forensic science was writing books — she was the first. I’m glad I was around to see a lot more women enter the subspecialty.”
When “Postmortem” came out, there were 11 board-certified women forensic pathologists out of 114 in the U.S., according to the National Association of Medical Examiners. Today, there are 350 women out of 772.
Cornwell has dreamed of bringing her books to the screen since the beginning. Over the years, she’s talked with actors Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon, Helen Mirren and Demi Moore; the latter flew to Richmond in the 1990s for a lunch meeting at The Tobacco Company.
“‘Scarpetta’ continued going through what I call the ‘runaway bride syndrome,’ where I’d have the latest option. But at the end of the day, it would always fall through,” Cornwell says. “Nobody at the helm really understood the material.”
When Jamie Lee Curtis approached her, Cornwell knew Scarpetta would be in the right hands. Along with Kidman, Curtis is a member of the cast and an executive producer on the series. “Because of her gravitas, [Curtis] was able to attract big talent. We have three Oscar winners in this lineup, including Jamie Lee Curtis as [Scarpetta’s sister] Dorothy and Ariana DeBose as [Scarpetta’s niece] Lucy,” Cornwell says. “Nicole is thoughtful and kind and completely unassuming. When I looked into her eyes, I felt like Scarpetta was looking back.”
Most people would be boastful if Nicole Kidman were playing a leading role they had inspired, but Fierro shrugs it off, focusing the attention on her friend Cornwell. “I’m very excited for Patricia,” she says, “but maybe I’ll brag about it to my kids.”
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