DEAD MEN’S “DOUBLES.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16049, 6 February 1918, Page 5

DEAD MEN’S “DOUBLES.”

CASES OF 'MISTAKEN IDENTITY. STRANGE HAPPENINGS IN SYDNEY. About a dozen persons are hurled I as “unknowns” in New South Wales every year. , As many more aro identified by their finger-prints after every other t moans of identification have faded. And on the top of that there are dozens of cases every year in which a , person has claimed a. body as that of .! a relative to discover immediately afj forwards that, despite an extraordin- ! ary likeness, it was that of a stranger. Officials at the City Coroner’s Court • recall many instances wherein two, even more, women have almost come I to blows as a result of each insisting that a body was that of her husband. All these cases, of course, have been , duo to striking similarity of features. , But although there have been many . unusual cases of bodies being incorreetI ly identified in Sydney, it is not often that the authorities have an experience similar to that .which was report- . ed from A dr-1 aide-tv I eiv-davs- a go, eays i the Sydney Sun. A body which was found in Torrens

Lake was positively identified by a man and his wife as a Dane they knew. ''Arrangements were made for the burial, but before the body was interred the Dane turned up and denied the report of his death. Further inquiries led to the identification of the body as that of a missing man, who bore a remarkable resemblance to the Dane.

MOURNED LOSS OF •‘FATHER.

One of the most extraordinary cases on record here occurred about five years ago over the body of a man which was found in the city. The police could not find any person who knew him, and they had descriptions published in the newspapers. The following day two girls visited the City Morgue, where the body was lying, and both made declarations that it was that of their father, whom they had not seen for some months.

The girls duly went into monming. and authority for the burial having been given by the City Coroner, the funeral was held a conpfo of days later, the remains being interred in the family vault at the Waver ley Cemetery. A few months later the girls’ father visited them, and explained his absence in another country.

The interred body, of course, had to bo exhumed, but that could not be done for 12 months. It was then reburied as that of an unknown pauper. IN GAJ&L, BUT NOT DEAD.

.That is one of the very few instances in which' the mistake was not discovered until, after burial. .

An extraordinary inixup occurred at the City Morgue about seven years ago, however, over the identification of a drowned man.

Two days after tho finding of tho body a number of tho members of the orow of a ship 'in Sydney Harbour unanimously identified it as that of one of their mates who had been missing. A .burial 'order was issued in laccordance with'their identification, but the same day a. woman positively declared that the body was that of her husband.

The officials were in a quandary as to What to do and tlieir predicament was not improved by tho arrival of a young man from Newcastle. He bad read of the affair in the newspapers, and after seeing tin body, he gave the City Coroner conclusive proof that the do.id man was bis father.' Some weeks later the missing sailor turned up. Ho had been enjoying life so unwisely that he had been compelled to spend the time he had been away from his ship in gaol LIVE MAN “BURIED.” In railway fatalities, when the injuries received a.ro of an extensive character it is sometimes a 'very _ difficult matter to readily establish identity. This led to an extraordinary happening in Melbourne a few years ago. A body, cut in halves and horribly disfigured, which was picked up on a railway lino was recognised as that of a certain young man, The relatives went into mourning, notices were inserted in tho newspapers, and sorrowing' friends attended the funeral, which took place from a city hotel. About 13 months afterwards .a man was in a. wine shop in Exhibition Street, and was talking to a young woman, who, after looking him over carefully, said to him - “You’re 3: ■—!” Tho man smiled. “No. I’m not,” ho declared. “Yoi’re ' , ’ she repeated with greater emphasis. The man still denied the impeachment. “I tell you you are.” she persisted. “You've got that mole on your neck. You can’t hide that.” Cornered, the man admitted his identity, but he never"explained why ho allowed himself to lid buried. There ar? so many 1 instances of the existence of “doubles” in life that it is surprising' that there are not more cases of false identification. Many years ago in England the fact that a criminal had a “double” led to an innocent man serving a long term of ifnprisonment. He was identified for a crime and convicted despite that ho protested his- innocence from the moment of bis arrest.

While in gaol he still insisted that he had not committed the offence, hut it, was not until after he had completed his sentence that the real offender was arrested and fife innocence of the timeserver established. The victim received monetary compensation. hot that was noor consolation for the pain, of mind and hodv he had had to suffer. VALUE OF FINGER PRINTS.

Although fhe_ use of the fivigcr-print system has mini nised the likelihood of individuals and bodies being wrongly ’identified, mistakes mnst continue to occur.

But finger-print experts contend that the time may come when the State will introduce a general system of fingerprint registration, which will do away i with the possibility of mistakes. ' | Under such a scheme every person’s j prints would he m a bureau, and in the event of a difference of opinion as to the' identity of a dead nerson the prints could be taken and the records used to settle the dispute.