Leslie Lukash, 86; medical examiner helped identify remains of Mengele
Dr. Leslie Lukash, 86, a medical examiner who helped identify the remains of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele and studied the deaths of people who disappeared during Argentina’s Dirty War, died of lymphoma Aug. 16 at a hospital on Long Island, N.Y.
Chief medical examiner for New York’s Nassau County for more than 40 years, Lukash was also a founder and former president of the National Assn. of Medical Examiners.
He was part of a team of forensic scientists sent to Argentina in 1984 to examine the bodies of thousands of people, known as “the disappeared,” who had been considered missing during that country’s reign of terror until they were exhumed from mass graves.
The next year, he was contacted by Simon Wiesenthal, who asked him to travel to Brazil and help identify the remains of Mengele, dubbed the Angel of Death for his gruesome medical experiments on Auschwitz prisoners.
A native of the Bronx, Lukash received his medical degree from Tulane University and served in the U.S. Army.
He joined the Nassau County medical examiner’s office in 1952 and became its chief a few years later. He retired in 2000.
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