Category Archives: Historical Forensics
History of Forensics: Murder & the Metal Detector
Searching a stream with a modern metal detector
Necessity is the mother of invention. In 1881 assassin Charles Guiteau fired two shots at the 20th President of the United States James A., Garfield. One of the bullets lodged in his body and did not exit. President Garfield was rushed to the hospital where he lived for 80 days before his death. Doctors were hesitant to do surgery because they couldn’t determine where the bullet was lodged. Famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell learned of the President’s injury and the inability to locate the bullet. He set about to develop a device to “see” the bullet through the skin. Bell developed a coiled detector and performed several successful experiments on finding bullets in animals (sheep) before rushing to the hospital. His first attempts to use the detector were unsuccessful so Bell went back to his laboratory and made several adjustments. Returning to the hospital he tried again without success.
Following the President’s death from his condition Bell went to the autopsy with his metal detector and it worked very well. Some historians believe that a new invention owned by President Garfield interfered with the operation of the new metal detector. What was the new invention you ask…the coil spring mattress. The metal coils essentially “overloaded” or “masked” the signature of the bullet making it invisible. Modern investigators often run into the same problem when searching ground littered with metal trash. The difference is that modern CSIs are very aware of this cancellation. Modern metal detectors can actually be “tuned” to ignore certain signatures and limit their sensitivity to that of the evidence being searched for. I’ll need to do a future posting on modern metal detectors and their capabilities. Being a new invention however, Bell was totally unaware of the coil springs in the mattress and apparently didn’t account for them. Think of it. Two brand new inventions cancelling each other out. It was an unfortunate incident but both inventions continue to enrich our lives.
Historical Crime: Chicken Thieves Dodging Bullets!
Chicken thieves getaway car with bullet holes
The photograph to the right shows several bullet holes in the back of a vehicle. You will notice that the bullet holes are pretty circular indicating that the car was traveling away from the shooter, in this case a Sheriff’s deputy. I ran across this photo several years ago while given the privilege of reviewing materials associated with an amazing criminalist in Boulder, Colorado during the 1920′s -1940′s. The caption associated with the picture indicated that the car was used by chicken thieves fleeing from the deputy. In this day and age it seems incomprehensible that the police would shoot at someone simply for stealing chickens. After all…they’re chickens. You can pick up a carton of eggs for under $1.00 and a rotisserie chicken (yummy) costs about $6.00. But if you look at the date of the photograph you’ll see that it was taken during the time of America’s Great Depression (1932). Unemployment in the United States rose to 25% and millions of Americans lived hand to mouth.
They were tough times indeed. I recently talked with an older gentleman who used to trap skunks to provide for his family. Skunks. He would run a length of barbed wire into their dens like a plumber’s snake and then drag them out to get their pelts. Naturally, he’d be sprayed and was not too much fun to be around. But, as he said, you did what you had to do to live. Every year he buys a new set of hand towels. Back then they could never afford them and used all sorts of rags to wash up. It left a very bad impression with him and now he can’t stand the sight of a dirty towel. The point is that the things we value change over time. Chickens had immense value. During the depression, chickens provided eggs (an important source of protein for your family) and eventually other chickens. Stealing someone’s chickens might literally put their lives in jeopardy.
Hence, stealing chickens = getting shot at. If you are writing historical crime fiction you should recognize what things of value thieves sought out. In very hard economic times thieves don’t always go after the things we might think of, like gold or jewelry. You can’t eat an ounce of gold and your potential customer base is very small. A chicken on the other hand may be worth more to you than gold. The point I’m making is that when writing historical fiction you need to research the things that people held in value at that time and in that place. That information will give you some insight on what criminals will target and how the police might respond.
Microdots Used in Theft Detection
Microdot Camera Used by the CIA
Microdots are extremely small (usually round 1mm or less) “films” containing information. They were first designed and employed for espionage during World War II as a means to pass sensitive information in an inconspicuous form. These small dots could be placed in a typewritten letter and appear as a period (.) or dot in various letters or punctuation. It was a marvelous technology. The photograph at right shows an actual CIA camera used to create microdots. The recipient of the secret information would use a microscope to retrieve the information. Like many great developments in the military it wasn’t long before the technology was adapted to civilian law enforcement.
“Tagging” evidence is not a novel idea in crime detection. Beginning in at least the late 1960′s microdots began to see use as a means of tagging personal property. The theory was quite simple. If you owned something of value like a television, stereo, jewelry, even a vehicle, you could send away for a set of microdots to affix to your property. These microdots were serialized and associated with your personal information (much like your vehicle identification number (VIN) or warranty information card with a product serial number) and placed in an inconspicuous location on your property. Then, if the police recovered your property, even if the thief had damaged the serial number, you had proof that the item belonged to you. Some modern microdots are even reflective to ultra-violet light making them very easy for CSIs to find.
Pen-sized Microscope Used To Read Microdots
You might consider using microdot technology in your novel to help identify certain objects, even when criminals have taken steps to destroy traditional means of identification like serial numbers. It adds a cool technology that harkens back to the early espionage days of WWII when the goal was the preservation and passing of evidence in plain sight, right under the bad guy’s nose.
Cool Antique Fingerprint Kit
I just thought I would share some images of a cool antique fingerprint kit that belonged to a criminalist named Ed Tangen in Boulder, Colorado during the 1930′s and 40′s.
Leather case holding fingerprint powder vials circa 1930
Vials included theft detection powder and colored powders with camel hair brushes
Antique folding fingerprint loup about the size of a matchbook when folded
Edward Piotrowski: Bunnies and Bloodspatter in the 19th Century
Color Plate from Piotrowski Study
There are some “experts” out there that believe forensic science is a modern creation. The truth of the matter is that aspects of forensics have been around since the at least the 17th Century. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if you think about it. Murder is older than Cain and Abel. Mankind has always had an interest in understanding crime to identify the guilty and administer justice.
In 1895 Dr. Eduard Piotrowski published a scientific paper entitled Concerning origin, shape, direction, and distribution of the bloodstains following head wounds caused by blows. Dr. Piotrowski wanted to understand how bloodstains were formed, their appearance from various attacks, and bloodstains found on an offender among other questions. To test his theories Dr. Piotrowski constructed large paper walls to capture the bloodstains created by killing live rabbits. His study is filled with numerous color plates showing the results of his experiments. He had an artist friend draw the aftermath of each attack. This wasn’t a random or disorganized effort. Dr. Piotrowski varied the weapons (he used rocks, hammers, hatchets), position of the attacker, and direction of the blows.
Undoubtedly, local law enforcement (and most people) would not approve of these experiments today but back then it was not uncommon. Dr. Piotrowski noted a number of findings that we commonly discuss today in criminal trials. He noted the lack, or apparent lack, of bloodstains on the offender in some attacks, observations on cast-off stains and blood drop directionality, to name a few. From a purely scientific perspective (setting aside the animal cruelty issues) it is a very interesting study and I’m sure was very valuable to detectives and medical experts of the day.
If you are writing a historical crime novel remember that forensic science is not a modern form of science. True, our technology and understanding of certain events have certainly improved but it is all time relative. There is nothing wrong with having characters perform certain forensic exams even if they are irrelevant by today’s standards. In fact, you might even want to have your characters “invent” a new test based loosely on modern exams (making your character appear to be ahead of the times).
What Are Altered Fingerprints?
Skin grafted onto a finger to alter the print
Fingerprints have always been the most reliable form of identification. Fingerprints are both unique and permanent. They are formed during fetal growth and, aside from getting bigger as the person grows, the fingerprint patterns remained unchanged (barring injury) until death. For over a century law enforcement have been using fingerprints to identify criminals from the latent impressions they have left behind at crime scenes. Of course, the simplest way for criminals to avoid leaving identifiable fingerprints is by wearing gloves. But some criminals have taken an extreme measure by physically deforming their prints.
Some criminals have actually deformed their fingerprints by surgery, burning, or the application of acid in an attempt to destroy the papillary ridges so law enforcement can not identify the criminal by their fingerprints. Some criminals have even attempted to chew off their patterns while in custody. One of the most notable criminals to attempt this is the infamous American bank robber John Dillinger who used acid in 1934. Since that time other criminals have gone to great lengths to alter their fingerprints. Some have even used plastic surgeons.
In the end, these efforts are usually insufficient. Obviously this damage is, in and of itself, unique. How the burns or cuttings transect the friction ridge skin is as unique as the natural ending ridges and bifurcations examiners typically rely on to make identifications. As you might imagine, this behavior is rare so finding a suspect with altered fingerprints is highly suggestive that they are involved in criminal activity.
Surgically altered fingerprints by skin grafting
In your novel you might consider having a character engage in such behavior in an effort to avoid detection. If nothing else it may provide extra hurdles for your protagonist to overcome. In fact, finding such fingerprints at a crime scene might lead your protagonist to search out local plastic surgeons or chemical supply houses for your suspect.
Crime Scene Photography Circa 1920′s: The Magnesium Powder Flash
Crime scene photography has seen enormous advances in the past century. Heck, even in the past ten years the advent of high quality digital cameras is a quantum leap in technology. When I started out in the field we used 35mm film and developed it ourselves in a real darkroom (not a digital darkroom). I’m pretty clumsy in daylight so putting me in a darkroom with moving parts and chemistry is not such a hot idea. We would shoot hundreds, sometimes thousands of photos just to ensure that we got the scene documented well. We didn’t have a little LCD screen or metadata to review before moving on. I thought I had it rough.
Then I began researching how crime scene investigators of generations past had to do the same tasks. I read about criminalists having to transport their camera equipment by mule and setting up a makeshift darkroom in a tent! Unlike today, they took only a few pictures of a crime scene as it was labor intensive and expensive. A few years back I read a funny account of a criminalist named Ed Tangen who experienced a major problem with a magnesium flash powder tray while photographing a dead body. In order to produce enough light for an indoor photograph photographers of the day used a tray filled with an explosive powder (such as magnesium or lycopodium) which created a flash of light. This method is sometimes referred to as open flash photography (see video below). You will probably recognize the technique from old western movies.
Ed Tangen was trying to photograph the body of a woman found dead in her bathtub in Boulder, Colorado (USA). His equipment was large and bulky and took some time to set up. He ordered all the police out of the room while he readied the exposure. The officers on scene remembered hearing a “pop” followed by a long string of swear words by Tangen. Rushing into the room they found Tangen and the dead woman covered in unburned flash powder that had improperly ignited. The place was a mess to say the least! So today when I hear young criminalists complain about how long they have to wait for a digital image to come up on the scree I think about Ed.
If you are writing a historical murder mystery keep in mind that many of the things CSIs take for granted today were monumental tasks back then. The equipment was difficult to use and stories like the one above are not uncommon. The “malfunctions” and the general challenges associated with old equipment really limited what investigators could accomplish at historical crime scenes. They did a great job with what they had available to them but its hard for modern photographers to comprehend these challenges, especially crime scene photographers.
Author Arthur B. Reeve Part 1: Pushing Back the History of Forensic Ballistics
Guy Garrick Examines Evidence
When Americans think about the origins of forensic ballistics one name comes to mind: Col. Calvin Goddard. Col. Goddard was an amazing scientist who contributed greatly to the advancement of forensic analyses. His name will forever be linked with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929 where Al Capone’s gang murdered seven rival gang members. Col. Goddard performed the forensic analysis of the expended bullets to link them to the murder weapons. But, did forensic ballistics begin with Col. Goddard as many believe? The answer is an emphatic no.
Enter the novel Guy Garrick: An Adventure with a Scientific Gunman (1914) written by Arthur B. Reeve. Mr. Reeve was probably best known for his “Professor Craig Kennedy” series but this book is remarkable for the inclusion of forensic ballistic and impression evidence. Fiction authors presenting forensic themes to their stories is hardly anything new. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one prime example. Without taking anything away from the genius of these authors it is obvious that they drew their information from the science and scientists of their time. In fact, the fictional detective Guy Garrick references the work of Dr. Victor Balthazard and Alphonse Bertillione on several occasions.
This posting is not intended to take away from the contributions of Col. Goddard but to expand the origins of the science to others who richly deserve part of the credit. We may never know the exact source(s) Arthur Reeve relied upon for his research but we do know that the knowledge preceded the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre by more than 15 years. In fact, a number of experts were examining forensic ballistics at the end of the 19th Century. Consider these fascinating Garrick excerpts from the novel.
“Well, Dr. Balthazard, the French criminologist, has made experiments on the identification of revolver bullets and has a system that might be compared to that of Bertillion for identifying human beings. He has showed by greatly enlarged photographs that every gun barrel leaves marks on a bullet and that the marks are always the same for the same barrel but never identical for two different barrels. He has shown that the hammer of the revolver, say a center fire, strikes the cartridge at a point which is never the exact center of the cartridge, but is always the same for the same weapon. He has made negatives of bullets nearly a foot wide. Every detail appears very distinctly and it can be decided with absolute certainty whether a bullet or cartridge was fired by a certain revolver.”
“In short..the ends of the firing pins are turned and finished by lathe by the use of tools designed for that purpose. The metal tears and works unevenly so that microscopical examination shows many pits, lines, circles, and irregularities. The laws of chance are as much against two of these firing pins or hammers having the same appearance under the microscope as they are against the thumb prints of two human subjects being identical.”
Fascinating stuff…more to follow.
The Bath School Massacre
Demolished North wing of the school
There is a tendency among many to believe that horrific crimes result from influences of modern culture. Be it violent video games, movies, over-medicated children, secularism, religious zealotry, etc, etc. some people look for anything that may dissuade the reality that man is brutal. In fact, acts of extreme brutality in war, culture, and family are much older than the modern Judeo-Christian values many of us subscribe to. In the United States, school shootings have garnered headlines over the past few decades. Places like Columbine, Virginia-Tech, University of Texas tower, and Kent State all conjure up horrific images. Internationally, children have been targeted in places like Israel, Russia, Scotland, Australia, and others. But in the United States the mass murder of school children is not a modern phenomenon. On May 18, 1927 38 elementary school children, two teachers, and four adults were killed (58 others injured) by Andrew Kehoe in the Bath Township of Michigan, USA.
The 55-year-old disgruntled former school board member hatched a plan of revenge for what he thought were unfair increases in property taxes to pay for an extension wing of the school building. Kehoe’s childhood and adult life were filled with suspicious events. He is thought to have had a hand in the burning death of his stepmother. He was especially cruel to farm animals and reportedly beat a horse to death. Investigators believed he had been planning the school bombing for over a year. During that time he purchased over a ton of Pyrotol, an explosive similar to dynamite used for removing tree stumps from farmland. Neighbors heard several explosions on his property in the months prior to the massacre.
Un-exploded explosives recovered from the basement of the South wing
In the months preceding the massacre Kehoe surreptitiously positioned the Pyrotol into various hidden locations throughout both wings of the school. The two stockpiles corresponded with the North and South wings of the school and were designed to explode simultaneously at 9:45am via an alarm clock wired to the triggering switch. On the morning of the crime Kehoe murdered his wife and set fire to his home before driving to the school to see the explosion. A malfunction of the timer limited the destruction to just the North wing of the school. As crowds descended on the school to aid the victims Kehoe drove up in his explosive laden car. Seeing the school superintendent he called him over to talk and then detonated the secondary device. The explosion killed the superintendent and several bystanders. Today, these types of weapons are known as secondary devices.
The remnants of Kehoe's vehicle after detonating the secondary device
It was an evil crime committed by a wicked man. Investigators found a simple wooden sign affixed to Kehoe’s fence reading “criminals are made, not born”. I bring up this case as a reminder that evil people are often motivated by petty issues. There are often under-lying personal issues laying the foundation for their resentment and, in their eyes, justify their actions.
Observations on Bloodstains in the mid-19th Century
As promised, this is the first in what will hopefully be a long series of articles describing aspects of the forensic sciences from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The forensic sciences have a very rich history that many people (even many criminalists) are unaware of. I have had the good fortune to acquire an impressive library of forensic texts from this period and have studied them with a passion. I have concluded what many of you already suspect. We build upon our knowledge from our predecessors and those who ignore history do so at their own peril.
Modern forensic science is a wonderful thing but it was not created in a vacuum. Throughout this series of articles I hope that you will recognize that the forensic practitioners of centuries past accomplished amazing things with the tools available to them. Murder is an old business and mankind has had to make sense of it since the time of Cain and Abel.
Depiction of Murders in Denver 1875
In this article I want to introduce you to some quotes from the book Medical Jurisprudence by Dr. Alfred S. Taylor. My 4th edition copy is dated 1856. Due to the nature of the BLOG and the need to keep them condensed this information will be spread throughout several articles. This is a good thing because it will allow you, as a writer, time to digest the implication of these observations for your story development. Here are a few quotes pertaining to bloodstain pattern analysis.
“When spots of blood are found upon articles of dress or furniture, their form and direction [emphasis mine] may sometimes serve to give us an indication of the position of the wounded person with respect to them”
This is an amazing statement that, to the trained bloodstain pattern examiner reveals a lot. First of all it is true, but how would the author know it was true unless they tested and observed it through experimentation? The use of the words form and direction indicate that they certainly understood directionality and that the shape or form of the bloodstain changes as the angle of impact changes.
“Acts of locomotion on the part of the wounded person who has died from haemorrage, are generally indicated by tracks of blood”
“At the top of the stair, and at the height of four to five feet above the level, several spots of blood were observed upon the brick wall. These were rendered very evident by the wall having been white-washed. The spots took an oblique direction from above downwards…Their form and regularity proved that they had proceeded from a small artery…It was therefore evidence that a murderous assault had been made upon her at the top of the stair…The height of which the spots existed, and their appearance, proved that the jet of blood had been from above downwards; thereby rendering it probable that the deceased was standing up, or that her head was raised at the time the wound was afflicted.”
One amazing thing to consider about this time is that experts got to the scene by carriage, horseback, or walking and worked the scenes by candle light. There was no photography, no lasers, and computers were more than a century away from being invented.
