Where G-Men Go To School

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Where G-Men Go To School

By--Rex Collier

'—Copyright

AN extortionist writes a letter threatening death to a banker unless 50,000 dollars is tossed in a roadside ditch at midnight. A burglar pries the knob from the dial of a safe. . . A murderer cleans dirt from his shoes, washes blood from his clothes, seeks to destroy other evidences of his crime. . In far-flung plaee9 other offences are committed—"perfect crimes," all of them, in the estimation of cunning perpetrators. But in an intriguing laboratory on the seventh floor of the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., a group of white-coated G-men scientists is busy with microscopes, testtubes, prisms, ray devices and other technical paraphernalia. Scratches from a Burglar's Tools A micrnsc'ipist examines almost Invisible scratches on the dial of the burbled safe, then studies minute irregularities on n pair of pincers found on a supect with an airtight alibi. The safe-cracker is convicted. A laboratory technician places a blank sheet of tablet paper in a powerful light beam—and the "innocent" owner of the paper is dismayed to And ho is trapped with a "ghost" copy of an extortion letter in his possession. A methodical young man removes tiny particles of dust from the cuff of a pair of trousers and places the residue in the electrode of a high-voltage arc on an intricate apparatus, while a fellow scientist drops small quantities of a chemical solution on a laundered shirt. Result: A killer confesses his "clueless" crime.

Perfect crime**? These studious "lal»" experts r.f the Federal Bureau of Investigation thrive on so-called perfect crimes. I (travelling carefully-contrived plots of underworld fmnprs and cruelly ingenious crimes of lone-wolf operators is their daily l>read and butter.

The F. 8.1, laboratory, acknowledged to be tlit- most complete scientific crimedetection laboratory in the world, has become a novel clearing-house for clues of every description—clues not only to federal crimes within the immediate jurisdiction of J. Edgar Hoover's G-men. but to countless crimes beyond their investigative purview. This" is in line with Mr. Hoover's policy of co-operating

This is one of a series of articles showing how the Federal Bureau of Investigation has developed highly scientific methods in its rvar on crime, and here reveals for the first time just horv these Government experts are Wording to protect life and property. These are authentic articles based on actual F. 8.1, cases and have been read and approved by J. Edgar Hoover.

to the fullest extent with local authorities in suppressing lawlessness in the United States. To tliis laboratory come grim. misslia|ien bullets from hundreds of autopsy rooms, to he cheeked against guns -seized from known gangsters or from casual suspects; wisps of hair or tiny pieces of fibre found at the scene of a crime or oil a tool or weapon; articles of clothing for analysis of dust, fabric or stains; cryptic messages in code or secret ink —in short, evidence of any kind whatsoever that might aid in solving a real-life detective mystery.

Scarcely a day passes that does not see a self-styled master criminal sent

to prison or the gallows by the terse, defence-shattering testimony of a "surprise witness" —the F. 8.1, laboratory expert. More often than not he is a ballisticinn. who. bulwarked by huge photographic enlargements* of "test" and "evidence" bullets or shells, is called to the stand to prove to a jury of lay men and women that the defendant's pistol or shotgun left tell-tale "fingerprints" on a slug or shell.

Frequently he is a microscopist, prepared to show that fa nit striations on a lock or door or other object were made by the pliers or jemmy or chisel found on the prisoner at the bar; or that hairs found on a death instrument or beneath the fingernails of a suspected person came from the head of the victim.

Occasionally he is a chemist, summoned to testify that a suspect's thoroughly-laundered handkerchief or blouse was once stained with human blood —the type of blood in the veins of a particular victim; or, by processes of qualitative and quantitative analysis, to identify certain minerals or poisons or other substances essential to proof or guilt.

Sometimes he is an expert in handwriting or typewriting identification, accustomed to appearing in kidnapping and extortion cases, of which the Lindbergh case was typical. Truly, the dotting of an "i" or the crossing of a "t" or the failure to do so—may be the single clue that "breaks" a case in this era of scientific clue-hunting. Not always, however, does the F. 8.1, expert's evidence reach Court. The (J-inen arc just as interested in clearing the innocent as in convicting the guiltjT. Quite often the evidence sent to the laboratory for study fails to result in an idcnt, as the G-men call a positive finding. A "nonident" in a ballistics case, for example, usually means release of a prisoner suspected of firinir the fatal shot. Story of a Bank Robbery It was a case of this kind, Incidentally —a case in which scientific method's of detection saved four innocent men from the gallows and meted out justice to the real culprits that played an important part in the establishment by Mr. Hoover of his laboratory. I- p t us recall the notorious Laniar, Colorado, bank robbery and quadruple murder case of a few years ago, when a daring gam: held up the First National Hank, killed three employees, fled with more than 200.000 dollars and then murdered a physician after forcing him to treat one of the wounded bandits. A faint fingerprint smudge was found oil a window of a car used bv the desperadoes. A photograph of "the print was sent to the F.H.T., but because a complete set of 10 prints was necessary in those days to alTect a search of the bureau's extensive files, Mr. Hoover instructed his fingerprint examiners to

A Tribute. •Dear Mr. Collier: •I want to express my approelation for the splendid manner in which you have handled this most important phase of our work.. "The many years which you have spent in studying law enforcement problems, arrd in particular the far-flung activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, qualify you particularly to write upon the scientific phases of our work in an authoritative manner. •I am confident the articles will prove moot interesting to readers, as well as be of marked assistance to law enforcement gonerally, by pointing out the rapid advances that ha/e been made «nd the fact that criminals no longer can escape detection and apprehension as easily as they could in the past.* (Signed) J. EDGAR HOOVEK.

study the design of the single print and attempt to keep its peculiar pattern in mind during their routine searching. Months later a searcher with a "photographic memory" espied the same design in a set of fingerprints received from California. The prints were those of Jake Fleagle, who had lived near Lamar, Colorado. Identification of the Fleagle gang brought quick exoneration of four men being held' for the crime on faulty eye witness testimony, and led to conviction of the actual killers.

This case convinced Mr. Hoover, first, that scientific evidence is to lie preferred to eye witness testimony; second, that no clue is too small to be important; third, that there was need for a new file of single fingerprints, classified individually, so that a solitary print found at the scene of a crimc could be checked against the bureau's records, without recourse to memory's experiments. Mr. Hoover's dream of a comprehensive laboratory for the study, practice and development of science in crime

detection began to take sliape in 1932, when a small room wae equipped with a microscope and a few other instruments in charge of one e.\[>ert. The head G-man did not realise hi? vision of a single-fingerprint file until some years later, due to tremendous difficulties in setting up such a classification. Now the single-print file contains prints of approximately 15,000 of the more dangerous criminals. To-day the laboratory occupies spacious quarters on the top floor of the air-conditioned Department of Jus-

tice Building. Behind its doorm a large staff of specialists is at work day and night examining documents, firearms, bombs, fibres, dirt, stains and other objects in which crime clues may be hidden. They make use of the spectrograph, the synchrisiscope, the helixometer, the ultra-violet and infra-red lamps, the fluoroscope and scores of other devices and reagents. They employ motilage technique to preserve tool marks, impressions in mnd, dents in wood, tyre tracks. Through the study of glass fractures they are able to tell which side of a window a bullet entered—an important item in many murder cases. The F. 8.1, scientists study and develop new methods of outwitting the criminal. They not only experiment with new instruments and processes, but seek new application for old ones. That Mr. Hoover's brand of crime detection pays is evidenced by the fact that his men obtain convictions in approximately 95 per cent of all cases they send to court. Even more significant ig the fact that 85 per cent of criminals arr. inst whom they produce their scientifically prepared evidence ]>lo;>ri guilty. Many of the perpetrators of "perfect crimes" are thinking things over in Alcatraz or other penitentiaries—or are beyond thinking, thanks to the G-men. The prospect is anything but encouraging to the would-be master minds of crime. ♦+' ♦ +