The morning news., 1894-11-11
DETECTING MURDERERS.
A New Safeguard Thrown Out Against
Murder.


rated From the Blood of Aninals-Dr
Edson's Simple Method--In Moment
BE Has Solved the Problem Of Many
. Years.
(CopyrighO.
New York. Nov. 10.-Another safeguard
has been thrown out against murder.
Daniel Webster's saying that murder
win out" gathers more and more truth as
time progresses. When he first made IT,
1t was epigrammatic and effective, but II
was inaccurate. 1t has been, since time
began. less true that murder win out.
than it has been that burglary, or chicken
stealing, or forgery will out The mur-
derer knows that the penalty of his crime
is death. No man likes TO pay that PEN
atty. Every man will so to the most ex-
travasant extreme to avoid paying IT,
When a mans life instead of merely his
liberty depends on carefully planning a
crime beforehand, and carefully hiding it
afterward, he will make greater efforts
toward both these ends than he would
in any other circumstances. It is true
that almost as large a proportion of muir
der mysteries as of burglar mysteries are
solved, but the proportion is not quite as
large, and 1t should be remembered that
the forces of law and order exert twenty
times as much energy toward tracing a
murderer as they do toward tracing a
burglar. 1t is stll true that the proportion
OF executions is to the proportion Of MUIR
ders as one is to a hundred; that the
number of men who are imprisoned for
life is to the number Of men who shed
blood as three is to one hundred and that
the number Of men who are punished in
other and less rigorous ways Is to the
total number Of murderers as FIVE is to enc
hundred. This leaves 81 per cent. of the
murders-and these figures are for the
| United States-totally unexpiated. Nor Is
1t true that the murderers who go unpun-
ished are principally those who commit
their crimes in rural and sparsely settled
districts. Far less than half the muir
ders in New York city are avenged. The
proportion Is much larger in other great
municipalities, because New Yorks de-
tectiye force, no matter what corruptien
may have been discovered in its dealings
with certain less serious kinds Of vice
and crime, Is, in the matter Of Offenses
like murder and robbery. the most effect
i've In the world. Thomas ByPnes. its
head, is acknowledged to be the greatest
and most expert detective, no matter
what folks may think of him as the ex-
ecutive superintendent of a police de-
partment.
This would indicate that the old methods
Of detecting murder have been developed
TO a point beyond which they cannot 60
The machinery of police and detective
forces has done its best. 1t Is, on the
face of it, evident that the best can con-
sist only of adroitness in basiug suspicion
correctly and Of taking the suspected per-
son before the bar of justice. The police
cannot convict a man of murder; that
| "a bU fty1nn a ND 4t4r
the police can furnish evidence and show
wisdom in gathering 1t. but that is all.
! The case must be presented by lawyers
who will be opposed by other lawyers,
| probably as able. Yet the evidence must
| be presented so convincingly that the Jury
will convict, else the guilty man will go
free. In preparing this evidence for pre-
sentation the police cannot learn TO do
more in the future than they can do al
| ready.
| Yet there is field to fll, and this field
| must be filled by science. Within the past
! two years o score Of murder cases have
| been prominent in the United States, be-
cause Of the very presense Of this scien-
! tifc element. In trials Of men accused of
murder by poison, the scientific testimony
| has been by all odds the most important
! offered. On its purpert in each one of
! these cases has actually rested the life
/ or death, the freedom or liberty of the
class of cases into which the testimony
Of men of science has largely entered.
In one case In great American city,
/ the whole thing went wrong, and the ac-
/ cused man--of whose guilt scarcely any
| one had any doubt--was not even in
dicted, because science had no means Of
dlfferentiating between the blood OF hui
man beings and the blood OF animals. 1t
was clear that the man had had every op-
portunity for committing the crime. and
| Indirect evidence OF a motive for Il ez-
| isted but when the matter was placed be-
fore the grand jury, the only direct evil
| dence that he had been concerned in II
! was his possession OF n knife stained
| with blood. He acknowledged that the
| knife was his and that Il was he who
had stained II with blood but he claimed
that Il was the blood Of a pet dog, upon
whose leg he proved that he had per-
| formed a rude operation, and although
all the scientific knowledge I'm the city
was brought 10 bear upon the subject.
| not one learned man was found who was
| certain enough Of his learning to swear
| the life Of the accused away by testifying
| positively that the blood was human
| and not animal. In fact, this point has
been one which has bafied scientific
| criminoiogy ever since crimlnology be-
came scientific. The minds OF the great
est scientists IN the world have been de-
voted 20 this problem, but have always
failed 10 find solution for It, Records
| exist Of cases Ia which this very point
| puzzled prosecutions as long as n century
ago n remained, in fact for n New
. York scientist 20 make this discovery
less than three weeks since. and In his
article is given positively the hrst hint
Of II which has been heard by the public.
The scientist n DR. Cyrus Edison. ia
/ ig already famous aH sanitationist ana
| through this expert knowledge has risen
. a. the high position of president OF the
/. New York atnto board Of health and com.
/ missioner OF health in New York city To
ia an invoatigating scientist. His wide
I reputation and bis prominent public posi-
T ton have caused him % be frequently
called an expert in murder cases, often