‘natural causes’, Lacassagne was able to solve a number of murder cases and eventually to enable the conviction of French serial killer Joseph Vacher (1869–98).
Since the 1820s, it had been clear that fingerprints provided a unique reference point of identification. Sir William Herschel (1833–1917), while working as a civil servant in India, started putting fingerprints on contracts in the 1850s to prevent fraud. In the 1870s, while working in a hospital in Japan, Dr Henry Faulds (1843–1930) became convinced that each person’s fingerprints were unique and succeeded in exonerating an assumed criminal on the basis that his fingerprints differed from those discovered at the scene of the crime. He contacted Charles Darwin to ask him to help him work on his ideas but Darwin declined, passing his ideas on to Francis Galton (1822–1911). In 1880, Faulds published a paper on fingerprint identification in the magazine Nature, and in 1886 offered his ideas to the police in London, who promptly dismissed them. The Met were using Bertillon’s system and did not see the need to introduce fingerprinting. In 1888, Galton submitted a Royal Institution paper on fingerprint patterns without crediting Faulds, and in 1892 his book
18951895189518961896189718991901
Eduard Piotrowski publishes an important paper on blood spatter analysis.
Child psychologist Wilhelm Preyer proposes that handwriting is actually ‘brainwriting’.
Wilhelm His Sr produces the first ever facial reconstruction.
Handwriting expert Thomas H. Gurrin testifies at the trial
of Adolf Beck.
Police use microscopic analysis of wrapping paper to locate child murderer Amelia Dyer. A Fingerprint Bureau is
established in Kolkata, India.
The first organized police dog programme is introduced in Ghent, Belgium.
Karl Landsteiner discovers the ABO system of human blood types.
F.
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SENSATIONALIZED MURDER & THE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE.
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‘One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.’ alphonse bertillon.
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Above. crime scene photograph by alphonse bertillon of an unknown
murder victim in paris, france.
INTRODUCTION.
15
‘Justice withers, prison corrupts and society has
the criminals it deserves.’
alexandre lacassagne.
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Above. crime scene photo by alphonse bertillon of elene popescu,
murdered at the hotel regina, paris, in october 1903.
SENSATIONALIZED MURDER & THE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE.
16
Finger Prints was published. In it, he demonstrated that the chance of two sets of prints being identical (a ‘false positive’) was about 1 in 64 billion. In consequence, it was Galton who was given the credit for establishing fingerprinting as a ‘major system of identification in forensic terms’ (Nigel McCrery, 2013).
The first use of fingerprints to solve a murder in Britain took place in March 1905 in Deptford, London. Mr Farrow and his wife had been attacked and left for dead and the weekly takings had been stolen. Chief Investigator Melville Macnaghten (1853–1921) found a fingerprint on an inside tray of the cash box. Detective Inspector Charles Stockley Collins (dates unknown) examined the print, and established that it did not match the Farrows’ prints, nor any of
those on file (c. 80,000–90,000 at the time). Eventually, a vagabond named Alfred Stratton (1882–1905) was identified as a likely suspect along with his brother Albert (1884–1905). The print matched Alfred’s right thumb and he was charged with murder. They were convicted of murder at the Old Bailey and hanged on 23 May 1905.
In the 1800s, it was not scientifically possible to distinguish different blood types, or even whether blood was human or animal.
In London in 1888, throughout the Jack the Ripper murders, the killer could have walked around Whitechapel covered in the blood of his victims, safe in the knowledge that it could not be used to convict him. It was not until 1901 that a German scientist named Paul Theodore Uhlenhuth (1870–1957) developed an efficient test to identify human blood, the basis of which is still in use by police today.
This book begins with one of the most celebrated murders of the pre-Victorian age, the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811. The slaughter of two families within a week of each other within a small area outraged Londoners and led to early calls for police reform. The period covered by this volume ends in 1910 with the arrest of Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862–1910) for the murder of his wife, Cora – the first arrest to be made through the use of the wireless telegraph. •
19011901190219021904190519061907
Edward Henry establishes a fingerprint bureau in London using a system devised by Indian scientists
Azizul Haque and Chandra Bose. Paul Theoa method to distinguish human
dor Uhlenhuth develops blood from animal blood. Burglar Harry Jackson is convicted using fingerprint evidence.
The Uhlenhuth test is used to convict Ludwig Tessnow of murdering four children. Georg Popp becomes the first
person to use soil analysis in crime scene investigation. Fing
erprints are used to convict of Alfred and Albert Stratton of murder. Dr James Mackenzie develops
the first polygraph machine, used as a lie detector.
August Vollmer, Chief of Police, Berkeley, institutes formal scientific procedures for evidence handling.
Right. plan of the house in which marion gilchrist was murdered in glasgow, scotland, december 1908, together with a plan of the area. her body was found in the dining room, with
her skull smashed in.
Opposite. examples of mug shots from alphonse bertillon’s album of paris crime scenes (1901–08). bertillon pioneered the use of photography as a tool for identifying criminals. using a combination of physical measurements and images he created a ‘portrait parlé’ (‘speaking portrait’) of offenders
such as these.
INTRODUCTION.
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