CHANGE OF FACES

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2298, 17 November 1925, Page 11

CHANGE OF FACES

CKIMNAI4’ EXPEDIENTS. NEW SURGERY FOR COHERING TRACKS, Through the recent capture in Vermont, United States, of a burglar who bad had his faeiai appearance altered by surgery, attention was called to the increasing USe made of plastic surgery by criminals seeking to escape identification., On this prisoner was found a receipt for 450 dollars, paid to a New York surgeon for operations changing the contour of Wa ears;, chin and nose. He had also dyed his hairj in his automobile was found a bottle of colouring fluid, with directions fOr using it.

Reconstructive surgery was quickened by the world war, says an American paper. Men were coming into the base hospitals with chins blown away, with cheek bones splintered or noses shattered. The men were utterly disheartened at the prospects of future uselessness. Pity energised the surgeons to attempt restorations by means - of plastic surgery. In place of the missing chinbone a shinbone was grafted. Where a cheek-bone had been shattered a plate was inserted. The obliterating of noSes and the grooving of foreheads Wore overcome by rebuilding the bony structures and grafting skin Over them Men who had been placed in the class of hopeless dependents were restored to lives of normal usefulness. Artificial Countenances.

Almost immediately criminals began to observe that the expression and aspect of the soldiers whose faces had been rebuilt had been altered with the features, The cheekbone might, be a little higher Or lower, the contour of the hose might’ shot? ti variation and a slight difference between the original and the reconstructed forehead might completely alter the person’s appearance. Some soldiers who. had undergone facial transformation were so changed as to he unrecognisable by their friends. Criminals saw a means of disconnecting themselves from their records. Their pictures had been published on police files throughout the world; here was a chance to sink their identity and evade recognition. The raors desperate ones flocked to the plastic surgeons and laid at the doors of the police authorities a new difficulty. Through the art of the reconstructive sui’geon almost any kind of face desired may be produced. If a criminal has a conspicuous saddle or depression in his nose, wax can be moulded about It and its outline straigthened. If he has a bulging or hawkish nose he can have it made like Apollo’s by having the septum cut down. Other changes can be made in shape or effect by grafting pieces of shinbone on the nose. A Few Cuts with a Knife.

As to the lips, a few cuts with the surgeon’s knife and their curve or thickness is changed. The mouth can be made smaller or larger. Eyelids can take on the Oriental slant by having the muscles shortened, pulled up and stitched. If the patient dislikes the Oriental slant he may take the levator palebri cut, and then his eyelids will droop. If he has sagging cheeks he may have part of the tissues removed and the ends joined in normal features. Each operation gives him a new profile’ and removes his semblance to his former self. Then, too, the criminal may have his finger-tips altered- by surgery so that the prints will not' agree with those taken previously, and it will be difficult to prove him a man with a gaol record. This alteration is performed by cutting away part of the flesh of the finger-tips and then uniting the edges of the skin in such a way that the concentric lines will record differently in the station house Impressions Bcrtlllon System Unbeaten.

The features upon which the Bertillon system of identification is based, however, cannot be changed by reconstructive surgery. In this system five measurements are used as a basis. They are the length of the head, the length of the middle finger, of the left foot, and. of the forearm from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger.

It is possible for a criminal to have his middle finger shortened or his left foot altered, but the very alteration would leave its mark arid attract the attention of police examiners. The bony structures which the Bertillon system uses as a basis of identification are mostly unalterable.