Ay
Egyptologist Bob Brier suggested that Ay murdered Tutankhamun in order to usurp the throne, a claim which was based on X-ray examinations of the body done in 1968. He also alleged that Ankhesenamun and the Hittite prince she was about to marry were also murdered at his orders. This murder theory was not accepted by all scholars, and more detailed CT scans of the mummy undertaken by National Geographic (published in late 2005) suggested that Tutankhamun did not die from a blow to his head as Brier had theorized. The "National Geographic" forensic researchers instead presented a new theory that Tutankhamun died from an infection caused by a badly broken leg since he is often portrayed as walking with a cane due to spina bifida, a hereditary trait in his family on his father's side. The bone fragments found in Tutankhamun's skull were most likely the result of post-mortem damage caused by Howard Carter's initial examination of the boy king "because they show no evidence of being inundated with the embalming fluid used to preserve the pharaoh for the afterlife". However, Brier has stated that the bone fragment in the skull is not relevant to the issue of whether Tutankhamun was murdered, acknowledging that it was likely caused by the embalmers. The evidence Brier presents for the murder is a dark spot on the base of the skull, indicating a blow to the head. Dr. Gerald Irwin agrees with Brier on this point.
Herbert Eustis Winlock
In the wake of the Depression, funds for excavating in Egypt began to dry up, and the annual digs at Thebes ceased. Winlock returned to New York and to the Metropolitan. He served as director of the Met from 1932 until his retirement in 1939 and remained director emeritus until his death. During that period, his interest in Tutankhamun and the burgeoning myths that had attached themselves to it, remained strong. He consistently discredited the claims that a 'curse' attached itself to all those who visited the tomb or who were involved in the work on it—and continued to do so even when tragedy was visited upon his own family. His book "Tutankhamun's Funeral", published in 1941 after his retirement, looks back at the extraordinary events in the Valley of the Kings in 1908 which he witnessed; events which—in due course—provided Howard Carter with key clues in his search for that pharaoh's tomb. An extraordinary work—Winlock was as brilliant a writer as he was an archaeologist -- "Tutankhamun's Funeral" evokes the era of great discoveries in Egypt, and is infused with a haunting melancholy.