FINGER PRINT EVIDENCE

Evening Star, Issue 21631, 29 January 1934, Page 12

FINGER PRINT EVIDENCE

EFFACEMENT BY PLASTIC SURGERY i Criminologists all over the world are beginning to wonder whether . the fingerprint system of identification is as infallible 'as supposed by the police chiefs, says the London * Daily Express.’ These doubts have been raised by the discovery that American gangsters are turning to plastic surgery to have their fingerprints effaced. The police every-l where, however, are still firm in their belief in fingerprints. Jack Klutas, reputed to be I the head of. a Chicago kidnapping gang, is believed to have not only his finger tips changed, but also his face altered by plastic surgery. 1 : When the police took tho fingerprints of; two bank robbers arrested near, Ottawa,; Illinois, only smudges were recorded: New. York surgeons, say that the operation to efface fingerprints is comparatively simple. One noted doctor (cables the ‘ Daily Express ’ New York' 1 correspondent) said that a superficial layer of skin is peeled off under a local anaesthetic and the lines pressed out. . _ I A week or ten days would be required for healing, but, once removed in this way,' the lines would never return. The fingertips would be smooth ever afterwards. Physicians point out that it would also be possible to graft sections of skin from other parts of the body upon the .fingertips. Mr Edward Bolan, the' New York Police Commissioner, refuses to be alarmed by the discovery. “If they remove their fingerprints we will print their toes,” he said. Scotland Yard, which has probably the moat complete fingerprint “ library ’ in the world, remains unshaken in its faith in this method of identification. Nevertheless the infallibility of the system has been questioned in several recent court cases. Interest has been aroused among the police chiefs of ‘Pans and Berlin by the revelations regarding fingerprint faking. Professor Sannie, the surgical expert who has charge of the fingerprint department of the, Paris Prefecture, told the ‘ Daily' Express ’ Paris correspondent that even if the fingerprints could be changed there wore many other points of identification, such as the lobe of the ear, the colour of the eyes, and the length of the middle finger, which could not be changed. M. Guicnard, chief of the French civil criminal investigation department, said that even if these operations could be successfully carried out it would not worry the French authorities to any great extent. “ Fingerprints have never played an important role in crime detection here,” he said. Berlin so far has no experience of the fingerprint faker. “ I consider it impossible to alter the texture of the skin,” said an expert at the Berlin “ Yard.” “It is determined by the undermost layer, and not by the surface layer.”