Alumnus Profile: Ted Schlaegel, MD '42 A Bloomington Professor Emeritus, Ophthalmologist And Researcher Turns His Eye To... Murder!

If it is indeed true that sex and murder always sell, then Theodore Schlaegel Jr., MD '42, may have a best seller on his hands. Dr. Schlaegel is the author of The Case of the Malicious Researcher, a murder mystery. The novel, scheduled for publication next year, is Dr. Schlaegel's first success as a published writer since his retirement in 1986 from the Department of Ophthalmology. In the book, the villain uses his position as a medical school researcher to lure young co-eds into the bedroom and, in at least one case, to her death. Dr. Schlaegel has also penned three other mystery novels which are to be published over a three-year period following the release of The Case of the Malicious Researcher. The protagonist in all four novels is Dr. John Thorndike, a renowned forensic pathologist who sleuths in the manner of Sherlock Holmes. Actually, the Thorndike character is loosely based on the detective in mysteries written by R. Austin Freeman, Dr. Schlaegel's favorite mystery writer. The current Dr. Thorndike is the fictional great nephew of FreemanŐs Dr. Thorndike who "retired" in 1945 with the death of his creator.

Budding writers are told to "write about what you know," and Dr. Schlaegel, an Indianapolis native, apparently took that advice to heart. His novels are based in Indianapolis at locales familiar to most residents. For instance, the body of the young co-ed being propositioned by the villain at the beginning of The Case of the Malicious Researcher is later discovered in Garfield Park. Dr. Thorndike lives in Lockerbie Square. Other books are set in Broad Ripple, and one of the future heroines, who just happens to be the wife of the dean of the school of medicine, lives in a high-rise apartment at 38th and Meridian Street.

In the novels, Tardeich Medical School is located near downtown Indianapolis, just west of the zoo. The similarities go on and on and should prove intriguing for Hoosier readers while providing mystery fans who live outside Indiana with a solid setting for the story.

Although little of Dr. Schlaegel's knowledge of ophthalmology is infused into his mysteries, his general knowledge of medicine paved the way for the detail that separates his stories from those of other fledgling mystery writers.

"It was my medical background that was a great help to me," explains Dr. Schlaegel. He also said that a friend and colleague, John Pless, MD, professor of forensic pathology at IUSM, helped provide vivid details and technicalities to add substance and believability to the mysteries.

The trail from ophthalmologist to mystery writer was not an arduous one for Dr. Schlaegel; he has always loved to write. What is interesting is that the "father of uveitis," as one colleague has described Dr. Schlaegel, has such a passion for mysteries that writing them has almost become a second career. His first career, though, was a distinguished one in the field of ocular research.

Dr. Schlaegel served as the director of research for the Department of Ophthalmology from 1954 until 1959. "I was more interested in research than anything else," he says. "I got started as a medical student and that was very rare in those days; medical students just didn't do it." That research was his first look at uveitis, an inflammation of the uvea or second coating on the eyeball. The research, which looked at the effects of horse serum in the rabbit eye, resulted in his first published work in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. It also paved the way for later research after his stint in the Army during World War II.

Uveitis can lead to glaucoma and blindness. Another form of uveitis is ocular histoplasmosis, a subclinical infection. Dr. Schlaegel became a world authority on the condition which, to the untrained eye, can mimic macular degeneration.

Because of his pioneering research, Dr. Schlaegel traveled in the United States and abroad as a guest lecturer on uveitis. But he did not limit his travels to medical meetings. With his passion for travel, Dr. Schlaegel has crossed the globe several times, visiting the familiar and the not-so-familiar locales.

Will exotic travel be part of the backdrop in Dr. Schlaegel's books? That's a mystery left unanswered; only the reader will know for sure.