[Evaluation of fatal gunshot injuries (the weapon in the hand)].

The evidential value of the finding "gun in the hand" has been rated differently in the course of time. While Casper (1857) considered it to be infallible proof of suicide, investigators in later years tended to see it more as a manipulation for the purpose of faking a suicide. In 71 cases of proven suicide by a shot in the head on which autopsies were performed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine (1956-1983), 20 (= 28%) were found with the gun in their hands according to police reports. No case was reported in which the gun was placed in the hand after the fact. The problem is discussed from various points of view (decerebrate rigidity, cataleptic rigidity, multiple shots, capacity to act). In the literature, on the other hand, there were 3 cases in which a gun was placed in the hand of a dead person to provide substantiation of a suicide; three more cases were found in a poll.