The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-07-31
CRIMINALS HAVE TO
KEEP UP TO DATE.
Now Employ Scientific Methods in Blowing Safes
knowledge of Chemistry Makes it Easy
for Them to Obtain Nitroglycerin.

from the scene of their offences with
the greatest possible speed. Bank
robbers and others find them an ally.
They are being used extensively IN
the prostitutions of the white slave
traffic. On the other hand the motor
car has it's disadvantage as an object
of theft. The shining surface of the
tonneau takes finger print easily,
and many a motor car thief owes his
capture to the fact that he has left
his finger photograph on the car.
And the harvest is being reaped in the
form of prisoners who are getting in
to the penitentiaries as an indirect
result of the motor car. Weak men
living beyond their incomes steal, en-
bezzle, to get motor cars. We have
banker from Texas in the Federal
Prison now who has been sentenced
to long term of years for violating
the National Bank Act. He blames
his trouble to the motor car. He was
driven to it, in an effort to main
tain two motor cars. His wife de-
manded en extra car and he mortgag-
ed his home to get it, and he went
from bad to worse and involved the
bank and broke it up-all on account
of a motor car. And there are many
others.
Bertillion System.
With the advent of the Bertlllon
and finger print systems the business
of apprehending criminals has large
ly become a matter of bookkeeping.
But it has been 3, long step forward.
During the 16 years was warden of
the penitentiary at Joliet, ILL.,, where
On an average we cared for about the
same number of prisoners as we have
at Fort Leavenworth, we lost and fail
ed to recover on an average OF be-
tween 10 and II prisoners each year.
Here at Fort Leavenworth, under
the new system, We will frequently go
for three to four years and not lose a
man. have been here IA years. Our
largest loss was in 1901, when 26
prisoners got away, but we recovered
% of them. I should say that under
the present system we lose and fail
to recover on an average of not more
than one prisoner each year.
Here in the Identification bureau
located at this prison we now have
about $4,000 sets of finger prints of
criminals. These sets are classified
and indeXed with the utmost care.
For example, finger prints are divided
into four classes, the whirl or circu-
lar type; the arch type, the loop
type and the composite type. All of
these types are classified separately
as means for ready reference. But
We 60 further than that. When the
prints of a criminals fingers are
taken We obtain prints of the entire
ten digits. This system is followed
now because we have on one or two
occasions found two thumb prints
that were exactly similar. 1t might
happen that two fingers or three fin
gers on the same set of hands would
be duplicated out of S0,000,0O0 of
persons, but it is certain that no ten
can be duplicated. There is not the
remotest chance; it is beyond the
realm of possibility that a combina-
tion of ten finger prints would be
duplicated by another set of ten fin
ger prints.
Result of Experiments.
Exhaustive experiments were made
in China, where the authorities took
the imprints of the fingers of whole
anu W ullS uO anu l1Cu IL
was found that the thumb prints
would be duplicated, in no case was
it found that the ten digits of one
person would be duplicated by the
ten digits of another person, nor that
any considerable number of digits of
one combination would be duplicated
by any considerable number of
another combination.
Now, in the presence of such sys-
tenn of Identification, it has been but
natural that there should be a de-
crease in crimes of violence, for
which the penalty is most terrible.
And so it happens that there has been
a very great decrease in the profess
sion of murder. l refer to the men
who kill for hire. There used to be
a great deal of that sort of thing, but
there is little of it any more. Men
seldom, almost never, kill for pay.
1t has become poOr-paying busi-