THE SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 10

THE SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE

■' CHEIHSTItY OF CMME How the forces of science are /being summoned to.aid in the detection or crime is explained in this' account, of the first police laboratory to be established in London, written by the London correspondent of the ‘ Melbourne Argus.’. London’s first police laboratory was opened at Hendon on April 10. 1 ranee and other Continental countries have long : expected their police systems tp hate active association with scientific experts, but,-hitherto, Scotland Yard has preferred to call in an expert when ordinary methods ■of detection 'failed. A ‘brilliant series of Home; Office analysts has assisted the police irom time 1 to time,- not -the' least successful being Sir Bernard • Spilsbury. The laboratory at Hendon will be confined to criminology; and will - be in. charge of Dr James Davidson, of the pathological department; of Edinburgh University,' who has also been assistant to Professor Sidney Smith, in the department of forensic medicine at Edinburgh; * The laboratory will include departments of toxicology for the deletion of poisons, of photography tor use ■in identification and forgery, as welt as the more specialised forms of crime detection, , which, are continually being elaborated in American and Continental laboratories of crime. J VNd. crime investigator has a higher reputation, than/. Dr Edmond Locard, chief, of the Lyons police laboratory, whose triumphs include a “ letter frequency code;’’ whereby any given cipher can , be . decoded by . rule of thumb. Dr Locard also invented poroscopy, and thereby demonstrated that the .pore, markings on a human hand were fully ,as distinctive ,of an individual as the whorls on fingertips. Dr Locard was once' investigating a jewel robbery, and his assistants produced prints ; showing that .a thief named Bondet had , left'. the impressions cf 901 pores from , his .finger tips upon a rosewood cabinet. Later an associate of, Boudet was traced, andtheprinf of his finger .tips , revealed 2,000 pores, which coincided exactly _with other marks lon the rosewood, cabinet/ Both men received five years’ imprisonment. Poroscopy is typical of the new’ methods of scientific crime detection which will be developed under Dr Davidson at Hendon. ; The United. States has a famous Bureau of Investigation at Washington under Mr Edgar Hoover, where every “ agent ” is trained for a' time, and to which he returns annually , for “ brushing 'up.” The Hendon laboratory ’wilt serve a similar purpose, giving, opportunities not only of criminal research, but also of training detectives in the full use of scientific methods. In America detectives also attend . courses -at the. Marine Base, Quantico, and there learn to use all eorts of lethal weapons,, including hand grenades, tear-gas bombs, and machine guns. . THE TELL-TALE REVOLVER. This department of scientific criminology, which is known as forensic ballistics, is ’ ah . important branch of criine detection to-day. Experts can' now- tell whether any ; given bullet was fired from any given weapon. Just su’ch evidence was all-importattt in bringing Browne and Kennedy to justice after the brutal murder of Police -Constable Gutteridge in 1928. A high-powered _ microscope shows that every bullet bears scratchings due. to the grooves left by the rifling cutter and-the boring bit, and that no-two barrels- can’ leave identical bhllefc markings. The edge of a razor blade changes after each shave and the microphotograph can provide evidence of the changes. In similar fashion; an expert in forensic ballistics can assure not only himself, but also the jury, that a given revolver speeded a given bullet. - Assume that, a man 'is killed V-.a ; Colt .45; ; A round of visits to gunsmiths will show who purchased such a revolver in recent years, and, by a process of elimination, alist, of; 200 or . 300 names may. bo reduced to a couple of possibilitiee, _ These two may have criminal records. If the bullet fired can be traced'- to a revolver belonging to one of these men there is at; least a strong pfesumption of. guilt. '.lndeed, It is not always necessary to find a bullet in order to be sure that a certain type 'of revolver -was used. Spectral analysis / Inay be used with effect, and a certain judgment reached whether the bullet was of lead, and therefore, fired. from an bid-fashioned Revolver, a nickel-coated projectile, •uch as a modern automatic fires, or a copper-sheathbd bullet, discharged by a modern pistol. In tracking the murderers of , Gutteridge 1,300 revolvers were examined. In the. end six “posibles ” were sorted. from the rest, and one of the weapons belonged to Browne. At the time There; was no, idea that Kennedy, was associated with- the murder. His arres.t followed from, suspicions aroused after ’ scientific crime had fastened guilt upon Browne. ' When-'Browne was arrested, the detectives knew precisely the revolver they wanted, and they found two of the type in Browne’s garage. One was not the weapon. The other proved to be a Webley with Mark IV. cartridges in the chamber, and the breech shield revealed the peculiarity reproduced in the case in Dr Lovells car, which had been stolen’ and figured in The -murder." “ This,” said the detective/ “ is the revolver which'shot Gutteridge.” OUTWITTING THE FORGER; 1 The Hendon laboratory will deal not only with crime detection, but with the production of evidence which will carry weight in a court of law, which may ho a/very different thing. Often the circumstances of a crime require demonstrating though -the., detectives in charge of the case are convinced that a certain man or woman is guilty. Tho Hendon laboratory will Revise apparatus calculated ,to display evidence to • judge, and jury. For example,. in forgery cases /a micro-photograph is frequently all important, not only for detecting the crime, but also for showing to the 12 jurymen precisely what happened. The writer of a signature may easily fail to recognise a forged example of his own handwriting, but the enlarged photograph will reveal minute falterings or slight differences of ink. Indeed; the very similarity of two signatures may, in itself, be proof of forgery, as .no , two . sigtfatures, are exactly alike. Micro-photographs, which have been enlarged by experts, disclose the' falsifications, whereas the human eye could not possibly give a decisive judgement. Forgers generally raise the sums on cheques in preference,to writing the cheques de novo, hut in all cases.of altering the amounts payable, a forger is up against the problem of space. The new amount, whether ,in figures or letters, seldom fits into the space occupied by the earlier writing.; An enlarged photograph will reveal which lines were made first, and thus disclose definite evidence of‘forgery. The wireless telegraphing of .finger prints and bacteriological and chemical tests in obscure murder cases

are other matters with which Dr Davidson’s department will deal, aided by the analysts and pathologists of the Government Laboratory, who already have a high reputation in crime detection.