SCIENCE AND CRIME

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3270, 9 November 1928, Page 5

SCIENCE AND CRIME

ART OF DETECTION.

HOW SCOTLAND YARD WORKS.

Circumstantial evidence is playing an ever-increasing part in Britain in trials for the more serious offences, especially murder. This means that science and the Home Office experts are constantly being called to the aid of the detective, for without" the scientist and his methods, circumstantial . evidence would not be acceptable either to judges or juries. Science has brought many poisoners to justice. Arsenic is the usual choice of these murderers, but strychnine has been used, notably by Dr. Palmer; tartar emetic and tincture of aconite were used by Dr. Pritchard in 1865; aconite was used ,by Dr. Lamson; hyoscine by Dr. Crippen. All these murderers were doctors, and probably used a poison other than arsenie because of their medical knowledge. The first noted instance -in which Scotland Yard proved its case with the assistance of science was when the late Professor Pepper and Dr. Bernard Spilsbury were retained* by the Home Office in the notorious Borough poisoning case, when the alien Chapman poisoned his three "wives." Post-mor-tem examinations—one three years after interment—showed the presence of arsenic in large quantities. And Chapman paid the penalty. Professor Pepper was the first Home Office expert. With Sir William Wilcox he traced the poison in the Crippen case six months after burial in quicklime to bring about rapid decomposition. An interesting feature of this ease is that the quicklime aided the scientists —in destroying the tissue it preserved the poison. USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Expert use of photography is made by the Yard daily. Photographs of individuals are not of special interest, but the camera has been and is being put to peculiar use. In the Cornwallis case, when a woman claimed £2,000 on the strength of a letter acknowledging that sum, the camera proved that an additional "0" had been added to the original figure of £200. The case came on first in 1914, and was dropped until 1921, when it was again brought. A new photograph enlarged then proved that the figures had been gone over again with ink since 1914.. The plaintiff lost, and was afterwards indicted. The tintometer is another instrument used. It matches and records colours. It was first used in the Brinkley poisoning case. With it the experts were able to show that the will had been written and signed in one ink, witnessed by Hird in another, and by Parkfr in a third, which corresponded to that used in the publie house where Parker said he had signed a petition for an outing. BLOOD AND HAIR TESTS. Human blood is now divided into four groups, following a vast accumulation of data, and each group has its^ peculiar properties. The. expert can analyse blood and put it into its group at once, and.it is interesting to note that parents transmit definite blood groupings to their children. Experts can give vital information on the subject of hair. In a Scottish murder trial in 1924 the defence of insanity was raised, and it was shown that the .man had an insane impulse to kill cats. . When his clothes were examined this evidence was^ corroborated, for hundreds pf hairs, of cats were found on them. LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER. On the Continent such examinations have been a feature for many years, and some very wonderful cases are on record. A murderer was recently identified by means of a hair found under the nail of the victim. In all inquiries on hair experts make the most minute ipvestigations. The expert can take a handful of dust and can separate from it the dust caused by the crushing of a butterfly's wing. This gives some idea of the fineness of modern method and the possibilities of dust analysis. Scotland Yard can now tell what part of London provided the mud on a man's shoes. Some time ago a man was arrested for safe-breaking in the Midlands. The dust in the turned-up portion of his trousers was examined. Although .he was a steel worker, the experts were able to show that certain steel filings iwere the filings he had made in breaking open the safe. Nowadays, the murderer at large must go in constant fear of his life, for "every detail seems as an open book to such men as Sir Bernard Spils bury, Dr. Bronte and Sir William Wil cox. THE SKILL OF THE SCIENTIST. Whatever defence is put up, it i dealt with, and in such cases as thi

J~iB«~B~M~~W~M«~«M~~i~MW~~i~ii~i~*M*~~"~* Malum case, scientific answers to a.defence are shown in their most brilliant form. Who does not recall the defence put up by Mabon—that Miss Kaye attacked him, and that in the struggle she fell and killed herself and that in panic he cut up the body? And who does not reeall the cold, exaet manner in which Sir Bernard Spilsbury showed that bruises were due to bludgeoning, and that the girl had been killed deliberately? Similarly in the defence in the Charing Cross trunk ease. The victiin, ?it was suggested, had suffocated herself — an unfortunate accident. But Sir Bernard was ready with the answer his science had given him, and the theory was nullified. Criminals, especially murderers, have most ingenious stories to-put forward at times, but nothing whatever gets past these men of science on whom the Yard depend, and who form the Yard "Laboratory." Slowly and surely they bring the guilty to justice. When one temenibers that a positive reaction in a blood test has been obtained from, a stain on mummy material 4000 years old, one sees what science can do to aid crime detection.