How the Law Uses Science in its Fight with crime

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 94, 22 April 1933, Page 16

How the Law Uses S cience in its Fight with crime

At tho Royal Military and Naval Institution, the scene of the execution of Charles I, in Whitehall, eighty police officers Of senior rank are undergoing instruction in detection of crime. Tho courso includes demonstrations '.n finger-print work and poison research, visits to the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, exhibitions of the dossiers collected by the special branch of the Criminal Investigation Department, inspections of the Flying Squad and its methods of dealing with motor bandits, and the application of such inventions as wireless to investigation of crime. Scotland Yard is no longer behind American and Continental police services in its use of science. There was a time when the methods of Scotland Yard were crude in comparison with those on tho Continent, particularly in laboratory work. An Austrian expert onco took over a singlo footprint, and examined it with a measuring tape, a magnifying glass, and other implements of investigation. At the end iio wroto the following description, which proved to be precisely accurate:—"Sis feet one inch in height, slender, injured in tho right knee, and a private in the German army. Probably the detective service of tho United States is still ahead of Scotland Yard in tho application of the sciences to crimo detection. Tho United States can claim the amazing research which ended in the arrest of the D'Autrcmont brothers after bombing a mail, train in the Oregon Mountains. The clues were a revolver, a knapsack containing overshoes, a pair of greasy overalls, and tho magneto used for exploding the bomb. From those Professor Oscar Hcinrich, a lecturer..in'chemis{ry at the University of California, deduced that one of the criminals was aged twenty-five years, brown haired, left-handed, five feet eight inches high, and a worker in tho lumber camps of Oregon. Grains of rock salt indicated that the robbers had used a cattleman's cabin ps a meeting place. A search was made, and in tho' cabin was found a towel, upon which were trace* of hair belonging to three, men. Deep in the overall pocket was found a faded scrap of paper. The microscope showed that it had been torn' from a postal receipt, and tho postal authorities were able to associate it with a receipt issued to a man named D 'Autromont, who had two brothers. Two and a half million cir-. culars with photographs of the brothers were sent out all over the United States, and every dentist in the States received a chart of the D'Autremont.brother's teeth. At last Hugh D'Autreniont was arrested in the Philippines, and soon all three brothers were captured. The course at the Royal Institution is strictly.. secret, but tlrore is no doubt

that the British experts have demonstrated high efficiency. Inspector Berrett. of the detective force, must have : described the investigations which resulted in the convictions of-Brow.no and Kennedy in 1928 for the murder of Congtable Gutteridge in a lonely Essex "■ane. The final clue depended upon tho fact that the file-marks made oy a aunsmith on the breech shield of a revolver differ from the file-marks on another revolver as widely as one thumb imi>rint differs *from another. A combination of camera and microscopo work proved that the bullet which killed Gutteridge must have been fired from Browne's revolver and no",othqr. Insnector Berrett was in charge of this uaso. and it ranks high among the recent triumphs of Scotland Yard. There were but "three clues —the stolen and desorted car. tho bullet extracted from Constable Gutteridge's body, and a cartridge-case left in the car—but they sufficed and Browne and Kennedy were hanged. More than 1000 revolvers -were tested before the facts wcro determined. Thousands of men were traced and reauircd to state their movement on the*night of September 26, 1927. By degrees Scotland Yard isolated six possible murderers, of whom Browne was one. When Browne was at last arrested, two revolvers wero found upon him, and one of them was the Webloy, with tho Mark .IV cartridge and the tell-tale marks upon the breech shield. At once tho gunnery expert of Scotland Yard said, "This is the revolver that shot Gutteridge." In police apparatus, the latest development is the pocket wireless set, carried by the constable on duty in his breastpocket, the receiver being in a pocket on the other sido. Such a set has a radius of six to fourteen milos from the local police station. A buzzer sounds when a message is to bo sent out, and the policeman takes up his earpiece. A raid by motor bandits has taken place, and within a few minutes every policeman within a radius of fifteen miles is advised of the fact, and ho can stop any doubtful car. The pocket police wireless sets hare boon tested in Me Brighton area. They aro now being manufactured for general use in all parts of England. The picture telegram service is also being used by' Scotland Yard, particularly for the comparison of photographs and fingerprint records. Within an hour of a crime being, reported, Scotland Yard can telegraph the facsimile of a fingerprint and learn whether a' Continental detective service has any record of the man or woman -in auestion. Photography by ultra-violet rays, and tho chemistry and microscopy of inks, pencil-marks, and carbon typescript, represent other fields in which British criminology is making progress.