The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-07-10
ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA, WEDNESDAY,. 10,
DETECTING CRIMINALS
A 1T. Louis Detective Tells How Il ID
Done by Means of Photographs,

A st. Louis Detective Tells How Il ID
Done by Means of Photographs,
Photographs are very useful in the
detection of criminals, but considera-
BILE practice has to be acquired before
they can be used to any great advan-
tage. Criminals resort to all sorts of
tricks in changing their appearance
besides change of dress, clipping hair,
shaving off the beard or altering its
style, etc. The process of shaving off
the mustache and beard and clipping
the hair by a criminal is known in
the parlance of detectives as ring
ing" But there is one unmistakable
manner of scrutinizing the counte-
nance of a man or in studying his pict-
ure. There is one portion of the face
that criminals can not change in their
methods OF ringing" Draw a circle
over the face. taking in the eyes, eye
brows, lower part of the FORE
head, the nose and that part
| OF the checks on each side of
the nasal organ and just beneath the
| eyes. This portion of the face always
remains the same. A man can shave
a long beard off, clip his hair, and
leave or shave his mustache, but that
portion of the face within the circle
described above will remain the same.
Dissipation and consumption will
sometimes make a decided hollow ap-
pearance Of the eyes, and the cheek
Will become sunken, but an expert
enced detective will identify the man
nine times out of ten, nevertheless.
The manner in which detective fixes
an impression of the features of a.
criminal in his mind is very simple.
A small magnifying glass the size of a
half dollar is held over that portion of
the photo described in the circle,
which enlarges the impression of the
eyes and other marks of Identification
until the detective very easily gets a
clear conception of that portion of the
criminals face. This conception he
carries in his mind, and is, of course,
aided by a full description,
which attends of course, the
photo of every criminal in rogues'
gallery, and any marks on the body or
any peculiar twitch of muscles or gait
OF walking, and, in fact, all peculiari-
ties noticeable, are mentioned, and
when these full mental notes of a
criminal are before the detectives
minds eye it is not so strange that he
can pick his man out of a large crowd
and rarely make a mistake. Detectives
often identify criminals from pictures
which look but very little like the
originals, and persons who do not un-
derstand the art of scrutinizing
physiognomy would declare that
mistake had been made. One of the
most successful criminals in ringing
in this country is James Carroll, the
noted bank sneak, who is now serv-
ing term of eight years at
the Joliet penitentiary for rob-
bing the safe of a bank in Gales
burg, Ill. His picture, taken over ten
years ago, adorns almost every rogues'
gallery in the United States. 1t rep
resents him with a long flowing beard
and long hair, with higl forehead
and no mustache. One night several
years ago the police brought in man
on suspicion, and he was lodged in the
holdover, at the Four Courts. Chief
ONeil of the St. Louis detective force
was passing through the holdover on
his regular rounds to identify any
criminals that might be there. He
came to a prisoner whose face at once
struck him as being the original of a
photo in the rogues gallery. He step
ped upstairs to the gallery, and in
a few minutes found the picture of the
prisoner. 1t was Jimmy Carroll, the
bank-robber. But nobody but an expe- |
rienced defective would have ever iden-
titled the prisoner by the photo we
had, and which have been described +
above. Carroll had his hair cut short
and combed it down on his forehead,
his beard was clipped very short, and
the greatest change of all was that he
wore a mustache. He looked very
much younger than the picture we
had, which was taken nine years pre-
vious. His mouth dropped at the cor
ners, his under lip showed plainly, !
while the upper lip was covered, which
was directly opposite to our picture.
But Mr.. O'Neirs Identification was no
mistake. The features of the robbers
face within the circle that had been
described were the same as nine years
before, and by that circle he was
identified. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The Dog Called the Servant.