THUMB PRINT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20927, 5 January 1938, Page 5

THUMB PRINT

ONLY CLUE FOUND LONDON. December 10. A solitary thumb-print on a whisky glass was the only clue police found in the storeroom of Hornchurch Conservative Club after a night raider had escaped with all its money—just over £l2. Later a London Sessions jury heard a lot about that print, and the room at Scotland Yard where more than 5,000,000 others are kept . Stanley Bennett. a 44-year-old labourer, stoutly denied to them that he was the one who robbed the club. He had told the detective who arrested him: “If you’ve found any ‘dabs’ in the place they’re not mine.” A "dab” is what the underworld calls a finger-print. When a detective found the one on the whisky glass it was sent to Scotland Yard where it was photographed and enlarged. Bennett, a suspect, was charged. He had his finger-prints taken, first in Romford police station, then in Brixton Prison. Tell-tale Marks When the expert at the “Yard” compared the impressions he found ridge marks which proved that all three prints belonged to the same man. Detective Sergeant William Gibson, of the Finger-Print Bureau, produced the tell-tale whisky glass in Court. It was in a box so made that the sides did not touch it. The “Yard” man had no hesitation in saying the thumb-print was Bennett’s. He said there were more than five million prints in the bureau, he had seen them all but he had never found two alike.

Each finger-print had its own characteristics by which it could be identified. In Bennett’s case there were sixteen of these characteristics —more than enough for conclusive identification. The jury without leaving the box found Bennett guilty. Then his criminal past came out. Twelve Convictions He had had twelve previous convictions, for stealing, shopbreaking, housebreaking and assault. The police described him as “a persistent shopbreaker,” and the chairman, Mr Enstance Fulton, sent him to twelve months’ hard labour. The ‘‘Yard” classifies the fingerprints of convicted persons according to the class of crime in which they are known to specialise. There are groups for ‘‘Con Men”—confidence tricksters; thousands of prints of “dips”— pickpockets; and scores of blackmailers. • Bennett was easily picked out in the “breakers” class, as he was known to specialise in this class of offence.