FORGING FINGER-PRINTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18174, 21 August 1922, Page 5

FORGING FINGER-PRINTS.

NEW CRIMINAL. SCIENGE. OUTWITTING THE POLIOB. Tho skilful modern criminal has a new resource against what has been thought tho only and almost infallible method of! identification, finger-prints are being forged, with the help of rubber stamps, wax, and even bread. Photography plays a great part also, and Dactylography, a '*■ finger-print" quarterly magazine, says the forgeries are likely soon to present a new problem for Sco Eland Yard to tackle. The criminal musl first obtain specimens of the prints of the "dupe" on whom he intend# suspicion shall, fall, the paper explains. This ho does, by arranging that the" dupe " leaves his prints on a glass, on the polished surface of a piece of furniture, or in some other way, after which tho prints are photographed. One method of forging involves tho use , of a rubber stamp, where a fac-simUe Of the original is reproduced on tho rubber by means of transfer paper, and the ferny 1 rounding rubber is deftly pared away with a sharp knife. A second means is that of , taking a negative cast of the finger to t>® forged bv pressing it into a'Kbme-made '! mould of soft wax, plaster of Paris, clay, lor bread. Whan thejnould has hardened, some molten, resilient substance, ' j such as rubber, candle grease, or oven , commorf gelatine, is heated, poured into i the mould, and allowed to "freez*," when ' the resulting cost will reproduce the , ridges and furrows of the original finger , i pattern. This method can only he emI ployed when the subject of the venture is either unconscious or*dead. A third process involved photographing 1 a photograph of the prints to be forged on a reversed plate. Another method which, t so far as is known, has only been cmployed once, was that of Anthony Trent, . the American "Ilafßeii." Ho was in the • bedroom Of a wealthy German baroness, , bent on stealing Iher jewels. These were in i a plain gold casket; which offered a good i surface for the recording of finger-prints, i As ho was without gloves, collodion, spirits, or any other precaution against , their discovery, he was baffled. Then he i noticed her husband—the baron—eprawl- ' ing over the bed, babbling non- ' sense and incapable, on alcoholic grounds, i of resisting tho will of a second party. With ready opportunism, Trent sot the , baron's hands over the jewel case, super- ■ imposed his own, and made the .baron open, his wife's jewel case and record his i own finger-prints On its surface!