Microscopic Clues Proved Guilt

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 147, 22 June 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Microscopic Clues Proved Guilt

ByF. Reeder

NO weapon has proved more valuable to the criminologist than the microscope, though centuries passed after its invention before courts of law would admit the validity of an expert's, evidence as to what he had seen through the lens. To-day, however, the expert can produce a micro-photograph, to let judge and jury see for themselves, and clues invisible to the naked eye can be described with confidence. This obviously puts the criminal at a grave disadvantage; he cannot find and destroy or remove from the scene of the crime traces of his presence that are quite invisible to him. The identification of materials untler the microscope. is now commonplace, but up to comparatively recent years, individual judges have differed as to the amount of reliance to be placed on such evidence. As early as ISlS,'however, during the trial at Warwick of a woman named Hodges, for setting fire to some haystacks, a microscopist gave evidence that some pieces of cotton rag left on the scene of the crime were identical with a piece of rag in- the possession of the accused, and that a piece of neckerchief also found tlierq was of the same material as one found in her lodgings, while the silk with which it was hemmed was also indentified. The woman was convicted. Many later judges would have thrown doubts on such evidence, and, indeed, it was not until the scientist could produce micro-photographs that some judges would believe him. Constable's Death It was the lens, however, that told the police who murdered Constable Cole, on December Ist, ISS2, in Aslnvin Street, Dalston. There was €i thick fog at the time. Grappling with a man who climbed over the wall in front of a Baptist chapel. Cole was shot through the brain by the murderer's fourth bullet, the first two having missed and the third having lodged in the constable's truncheon case. The murderer escaped in the fog. leaving behind a black felt hat, a wedge and two chisels. On one of - the latter,

near the handle, were some small faint scratches, which, under magnification, appeared to spell the word "Rock." . Inspector Glasse, in charge of the case, organised an intensive inquiry amongst tool-makers, carpenters, cabinet-makers, and the like, seeking identification of the chisel, but it was nearly twelve months before Mrs. Preston, carrying on her late husband's business as a tool-sharpener, was found. She identified the chisel, having herself scratched the name of the owner, Or rock, on it when he brought it to be sharpened. What had been read as "R" was actually "0" with a small "R" against it. Orrock was serving a term for burg- ; lary in Coldbatlis Fields prison. His , associates were questioned, and the police traced to him the purchase of a '■> revolver with which his associates «aid lie practised, with a tree as a target, in Tottenham marshes. The tree was. found, and bullets similar to that extracted from Constable Cole's brain were recovered. Orrock was hanged. Evidence in Dust Under the microscope dust can tell the trained investigator many important facts. Continental criminologists were the first to realise its importance. For the examination of clothes they originally put these in a strong paper bag, which was vigorously beaten, and the dust then removed from the bag. Nowadays, a specially-designed vacuum cleaner is used. The deposit under the nails may, on examination, supply vital clues. Fragments of skin have been found under the nails of suspects in criminal assault cases, but more often the evidence is less direct, as in the Wild thai ijiurder of 1904, when a woman was wounded in the neck and strangled by a red and blue silk cord. The dust in the woman's clothing included snuff, coal, coke and fine grains of sand. When a suspect was arrested the same evening his clothing and the deposit under his fingernails were examined."The

suspect admitted tliat, as was deduced by the expert?, lie had been employed in a~ gasworks, but at the time of the murder, he claimed, lie was working in a sand pit. This alibi, which might othjrwise have been difficult to disprove, broke down when the investigators showed that the deposit from under his nails contained grains of sand similar to ' those found at the scene of the crime, but quite different in composition from the sand in the-pit where he said he had been working. ;;* ; : ' /■;. ■■■*" \\V-'■.* . Furthermore, . clinging, to two .of the suspect's fingernails were''minute/strands of material, shown 'under,the microscope to be blue ancl. red silk i(lcii>ical with thematerial : or/the cord used by tho murderer. Faced "with .tliis {evidence, .the suspect confessed.. v A- .-' 1 In Their Pockets . , One of; the best-known British cascs in which the .testimony of dust- has"been quoted is.in the trial ofvMrs; Mavbriek, when it 'was revealed that appreciable traces of arsenic had been. found amongst the dust in the pocket of her dressing gown. . Similar//evidence lias been given , hi cases hcard' on the Continent, where a'microscopic and chemical examination of the dust from the pockets of a suspected poisoner is part of the routine of criminology. < In criminal cases other than murder, the evidence of dust has been decisive, ; as when" a gang of suspected coiners 'were arrested a few years ago, charged, at lirst, only' with attempting to pass false money; which was found on them. Since they refused to reveal where their mint was, and the police could not trace it, they could not be charged with the more serious crime of .coining. The laboratory, however, clinched the case . by examining the dust from the men's clothes and finding in it antimony, tin and lead in practically the same propor- , tions as these metals were present in,the false coins. This proved conclusively that they had been engaged in making as well as passing the.money. . For not cleaning his fingernails, an expert French cracksman went to gaol J for a long "stretch." He into a. jeweller's, shop through a skylight in j ' the roof, slid down a rope, and climb?d i L out again the same way. , The mixture 5 of grease and dust in minute quantities > found by the laboratory investigators on the rope was identical with what they 5 scraped out from under the suspect's -nails', and confirmed the other evidence i that pointed to him as the culprit.