IDENTIFICATION OF CRIMINALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 78

IDENTIFICATION OF CRIMINALS.

FINGER PRINTS. Bt Mrs E. W. Cvxxingtojt. Before leaving London to spend tliel winter on the euuny shores of the Italian Riviera I went to Scotland Yard by the kind invitation of one of the superintendents to go over the finger print department and to have a talk with the inspectors of that section of criminal investigation. My interest in the subject had been aroused by reading in the daily papers reports of the usefulness for identification purposes of this comparatively yew method for crime detection. I give here several remarkable instances that oourred recently in the Police Courts where the magistrate-, explaining the method to the jury, expressed admiration for the accurate results obtained by this system. A burglar in a. moment of thirsty weakness had fingered a tumbler, and then left it unwashed upon the kitchen table. That tumbles: betrayed him ! " Within half an hour," says the newspaper report, "of being given the burglar's name and the drinking 1 glass Inspector Collins found in the records of his department the finger prints of the prisoner, aa ex-convict, and identified them absolutely as being .the same as those found on tho ■ glass. " When the prisoner was arrested ho asked the officer how it was he knew him to ba the man. * You left something bey hind you.' Prisoner said: 'What do you mean— finger prints?' 'Yes,' replied the offioer." Again, a man, burglarious entering a house, broke a window. "On examining^ the pieces of glass remaining- on the window frame some finger marks were discovered. Detective Inspector of the Fingea- Print Department in Scotland Yord eaid, on. comparing the prints on the glass with those of the prisoner's right forefinger, he found 17 points of identity, and could have found 30. Witness was prepared to stake his life ■that the finger prints on the glass were that of the foiefinger of Iho right hand of the prisoner. There were 70,000 finger prints in his department in Scotland Yard, and not two of them were alike." Thus in many cases cf disputed identity Inspector Collins hao been able to produco in court photographs of finger prints absolutely identical in every line and curve, ridgei, and crease with those on the finger of the prisoner on trial. The Recorder of London, while referringto this subject, said to the jury at a certain trial : "It is very well worth your consideration, gentlemen. Of recent years a method of identification, said to be infallible, has been in operation under tho police authorities. It consists in taking the impressions of finger prints, which are never on two people alike, which never, vary, and* which - remain ' the same from birth till death." "Please tell me everything about those tell-tale fingers," said I, in a large expansive manner, to the inspector when I arrived at Scotland Yard. The inspector gazed down upon me with the patient look of a well-bred official, then he sighed, as mudh as to say. " She is an' impudent colonial and she wants her own way." He took me out of Superintendent Hare's office, led me up a flight of stairs, across a broad corridor into a, large room filled, as it seemed to me, from ceiling to floor with documents. "We are in a bit of a muddle," he explained in cheerful tones; "we are rearranging our papers." " Well, it was more than a bit of a muddle." Policemen were busy piling up sheets and sheets of paper, arranging' package*, grouping and classifying bundles and bundles of records. Records of what? Of printed finger marks. Thousands and thousands of them. Every habitual criminal or person accused of any grave crime now places, nolens volens, his finger upon «, little metal slab smeared with printer's ink and John Smith, his mark, thus registers a place on the documents pigeon-holed in Scotland Yard ! — a finger mark which on crease and ridge and whorl will testify against him tifi death and decomposition shall break up his material form. I really felt quite oppressed as I examined the finger prints of those notorious habitual criminals; there seemed to be such crowds and crowds of them, and one could .not help feeling sorry that" they had to be recorded, registered, doeketted. One wanted to burn .the whole office down, with all those black smudses, and forgive and forget. I am afraid Inspectors Collins and-Stedman would have been very angry if I had given way tox sentiment and flung a match among the papers. Meanwhile the inspector was busily engaged smearing printer's ink on a little metal slab and the policemen were peeping over their documents to watch the proceedings. " Will you r-ave your fingers taken?" asked tke inspector presently. Of courso I was enchanted at the idea, and. much to the delight of the men I entrusted my hand to the officer's care. He took my right hand and holding my thumb firmly rolled it from right to left at right angles to the plane of the slab. By this means the lined surfacp of the thumb between the nail boundaries is inked, and then by pressing the thumb Ughtly on clean, white paper in the same way as it had b^en pressed upon the ink slab a clear, rolled impression was made. Now, if the slab is at all dusty, or the ink laid on too thickly, or if tbe white paper is not sufficiently porous, then the print will not be satisfaotroy. Precautions in these little matters are all that is required in order to secure good results, and thereby to obtain infallible records for identification purposes. In this respect the finger print system scores above the anthropometrical system, devised by Bertillon, where complicated instruments are used and skilled operation is imperative for tbe correct measurements of various parts of the human frame. The inspector, having " taken " my fingers and pointed out to me through a, magnifying glas3 little ridges and curves that were unlike anyone of the other thousands of prints, stamped the paper with tTie Scotland Yard stamp, " Habitual Criminal Register," and handed it to me. I am quite foolishly proud of this document, and intend to leave it to my family as an interesting heirloom ; only I am afraid my great-great-grandchildren will 1 whisper among themselves, " She was aa

habitual criminal 1" But the paper is con- 1 aoling*: it shows one has some marks of distinction, even though discoverable only through a microscope ! After a very lucid •nd interesting discourse on the system and its manifold advantages over the Bertillon method, the inspector, now warmed to enthusiasm, took me up another flight of stairs into a room still more iintidy than the last. Here the good man fairly beamed with professional joy; he opened box after 'box', containing _ what looked to my housewifely eyes like rubbish, and very dirty rubbish, loo ! Bits of sooty candle ends, broken glass, soiled rags, etc. " Here," said the officer, with a ohuckl© ef pride, "look at this. See what a lovely finger mark I" The cause of this burst of enthusiasm was at scrubby little bit of candle end upon which I could discern the marks of a grimy thumb — smudgy, but distinct. I should have thrown the thing into the fire, but to fee trained eyes of the inspector it constituted an invaluable piece of incriminating evidence. An innocent, vulgar-looking tumbler was then held up for me to look at. "It is quite clean? Isn't it," said he. "^Weiy 1 I replied, doubtfully, "it -de- " pends on what" one calls ol«an; I think it is rather dim, but not exactly dirty. The kindly- man smiled in a superior sort of way, and after dusting some pink powder 4}n it, and then, blowing' it off. he held the glass close to my face. I beheld, slowly and faintljr, ' appear ont tne surface the lines and' markings of " a human finger. I said severely: '-I feel quit©- sorry for the habitual 'criminals ; they will have to wear lad gloves, and that will make their profession so expensive, and then we shall have to .pay higher taxes, I expect !"- Presently I said, very humbly : " May I write about all these things in a newspaper. Won't it be putting- criminals up to ' rinkles?' " „ Ah! -the smile that broadened over that london .inspector's face : " They know mere than you do, madama,"' he said, and again lie chuckled. With this crushing remark our interview taded. _ It is clear that the power to differentiate Irithout a shadow of doubt one man's personality from that of another, to command "fits machinery for obtaining the absolute proof of a man's identity, must be of immeasurable importance in the transaction of human affairs. - We all know that handwriting is subject to fraudulent imitation, baffling often the shrewdest experts ; that the simiiariiy on feature and form of two , peisons has caused our Law Courts endless worry an<3 trouble, leading- to th© grossest ! miscarriage of justice; but here, on the apparently insignificant surface of a finger, are infallible writings that no man can. forge; here are portrayed features- and forms that belongs to one individual alone «Bo.ong' all the thousands of bis kind. Therefore the finger has- risen to the dignity of a.; legal document; the two facts that the lines upon it -are inimitable and persistent. have made it the most powerful engine possible" in the hands of the police for detective . and identification ' purposes. Now isunplieity of operation and accuracy of result «ro the- two necessary conditions required By -the metropolitan,. police in- the. enormous work of its criminal" investigation department, and it has been proved, after' years of careful observation, that these two factors of success -are partially wanting in the celebrated system-of anthropometry invented Jby* Bertillon. - For 'the sake of brevity and clearness. I Will place the comparative positions of the rival systems thus: — AKTUROFO3IETE'? (Bertillon). Finger Prints. 1_ Icsfruineßta for 1. Material wanted: measuring axe. costly A. piece of tin and and liable to get out of printer's ink — cheap order- and durable. 2. The man -who Any person, edutteasnres must be edfo- cat©3 or not, after half cated- and understand an hour's practice can decimal scale. take finger impressions. 3. A .margin nrasi 3. Finger prints are he. allowed for errors absolute impressions «m lib© park of the taken by the body epoiator: termed itself — no written or *." personal, equation " ; rewritten, measures. he may aJfp or add millimetres,, thus serious variations have oceiirrecL 4. The num&er of 4. The fingers are measurements is_great : rolled carefully on the Siirefc- ior Teaigth and inked slab, ana then width n£ hsw&r three pressed o.a white for forearm, -for lengtk paper. Ten - minutes ef foot, for length of td take -10 digits. little finger, making 18 in all. Time to take then cone hour. 5 Tho dimemsiana of 5. Professor Galton liHman lambs - are has . proved immutaEable to considerable bflity -and persistence modifieatioii in course in finger Knes-through of time. " the whole life of man. ; those found on the new-born infamt are traceable oa. the fingers of the same person in old ags. The finger print system owes its elaboration mainly to the efforts of Sir W. Herscltell during^ his ministrations in India, and to Professor Galton. Herschell found false Impersonations exceedingly prevalent- in the district of Hoogly T in Bengal, and,, indeed, more or less -all over British India. In oases of transfers of proprietary or other jr£g4its 7 a^pd in the opium trade, where large wicnftT- advances are made, frequent repudiations* of signed contracts occurred so that Hersehell introduced the finger prints on documents with the most excellent results. ' However, at Sir William Herschell's death the method fell into disuse, and was only re■sived by the influence of Galton. Galton collected material for his work from the facts and data gathered up by Herschetl, «nd arranged them into a complete and scientific system. In his paper, "Finger Prints and the Detection, of Crime in India,' lead before the British Association Professor Galton brought the subject clearly and forcibly before the notice of the public. - Hi fbe year 1897 General Straohan, R.E., Surveyor-general of India, and Mr Pedlar. i*JR.S.» for some years head of the Bengal Meteorological Department and afterwards j IHrector " of Public Instruction, formed a committee to examine the two systems for identification. Upon receipt of the report ©£ this- committee the Governor-general in council directed the adoption of the finger print method to be carried out in British ] India in all Government and legal opera*lons - In Bengal, in 1899, the criminal record had already registered 40,000 finger prints. Tho classification of finger impressions is oivided into four primary typeSj with minor '

■ subdivisions grouped under them : Arches, loops, whorls, composites. In the arch type the lines, or ridges as they are called because of their slignt elevation run from one side to the other, making no backward turns. In loops some of the ridges make a backward turn, but without twist; there is one delta [a delta is the technical term for tho outer ridges bifurcating or div«rging from the centre like a river]. In whorls some of the ridges make a turn through at least one complete circuit, and have two deltas. In composites the ridges make patterns combining characteristics of the three previously-described types. Now for on© short story illustrating the efficacy of this system in the cause of crime i detection. Th© manager of a tea garden in India was found lying on his bed with his throat crt and his despatch box rifled. Though no on© had swen the murder committed, suspicion fell on several persons, btit they were all proved to be innocent. The police discovered, however, that the deceased had . *n enemy in an tx-servant whom he had caused to be imprisoned for theft. Among Ihe papers in the despafcoh box was found a calendar in book form printed in the Bengali -characters, with an outside cover of light-blu© paper, on which were noticed" two faint brown smudges. Under a magnifying glass on© smudge was distinguishable as a human finger print. As the impressions of th© finger belonging to the ex-servant had been registered by the Bengal police at the time of his previous conviction, th© two prints were now compared -and found to be identical — the one impressed in. ink, the other in human blood ! It was sufficient ! The ridges and curves and whorls of the human finger may serve a less gruesome purpose than that of crime detection. In themselves they form lines of great beauty and infinite variety of design. This, indeed, was recognised by Bewick, th© reviver of wood printing in England: he was so much struck with the elegance tnd beauty of finger lineations that he made engravings on wood of his own finger marks, using them as designs lor his art productions. Thus the mystic clasp of Nature's hand . leaves marks of becuty on the forgers!