The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-12-22
THE TELL5TALE FINGER PRINT
BY JOSEPH A. F.AUROT.

@ BY JOSEPH
@@@~~@~@~~~~ o
Copyright, 1915, The I
Tracing Crime by the Imprint Of Fin
ger Upon Any Object Near the
:. Scene Now Science, and Regard
ed as Infalible in All Courts Of
Law.
Finger prints never lie. The i'm
preston Of fingers upon any object is
far more infallible as a means of
Identification than photograph Of
that persons features. Give me the
finger print Of an infant in arms and
when that baby grows to ripe old
age nj prove that his finger prints
then are identical with those taken
while in infancy. AS means Of de-
tecting the author Of any crime they
are absolutely unerring, as many a
man now doing long stretch of time
in state prisons will attest.
When the finger print system was
being introduced into the police bu-
reaus of the capitals of Europe was
sent abroad to study it. Of course,
it was in a primitive stage then, but
there was enough there to convince
me that the science was one well
worthy of development, so I set to
work to absorb all I could learn
there, and then upon my return to-.
improve upon the methods there en-
ployed and make it even more far
reaching in scope. Close study for
year convinced me that had taken
the science to that stage where !
could prove its usefulness, as well as
its infallibiiity in any court of justice
should the opportunity present itself.
| I shall never forget the first case
called. for trial in New York City in
which the finger print was the sole
evidence we, the police; had to base
our case on. Fortunately we had
been able to get an, indictment on
what then was called the flimsiesr of
evidence. To convince twelve men,
tried and true, Of the infallibiiity of
this evidence; however, was far diff
ferent matter and I can tell you as I
|
just as certain OF my prisoners guilt.
as was Of my life, had sore mis-
givings as to my ability to prove this
| in court.
Print on Glass My Sole Case.
The. case in question had to do
with an especially daring loft bur-
glary in which the salesrooms OF
Bernstein Brothers in Wooster street
had been entered and robbed of many
| thousands Of dollars worth of expen-
sive goods. To effect an entrance
the burglars had removed pane of
glass from the door of an office on
the floor below that of the place they
expected to rob and then cut their
| way through the ceiling to the loft in
question. New York at that time was
infested with an especially daring
band of loft burglars and the police
were put to their wits ends IN keep
ing up with them.
! AS soon as I learned that a pane
Of glass had been removed instruct
ed my detectives to bring the glass IN
question to police headquarters and
at the same time to exercise Ode care
that no one handled it with bare
hands. 'Let, the man who picks sp
that piece of glass; said, "be sure
to wear gloves, -
With the glass at headquarters we
went over it very carefully and sure
enough the tell-tale finger marks
were still fresh on its surface. These
were carefully photographed and we
set to work to search our files to see
n I11n N n
| less than a minute we learned that
the finger prints were identical with
those of Charles Crispi, a young loft
burglar, whose reputation for cum
ming and desperation was second to
none in his'class. 1t was only a ques-
tion Of finding Crispi, I argued, to
cinch the case for knew In ny heart
| that the author of that crime was
none other than the man had fas-
tened it on.
At police headquarters we have
impressions of thousands upon thou
sands of criminals, all indexed and
carefully filed. One would imagine
to look at that rack of prints in which
to-day there are upwards Of two hun
dred and fifty thousand impressions
that it would be an endless task to
locate any particular one. But that
lis a mere detail Bring US any print
from any point on the globe and if
we have the duplicate we can find it
in less than minute at the outside.
To learn how to group and classify
the prints is a science in itself, yet
when one learns how, it is as simple
as learning ones A B C's. All finger
lines are divided into four classes of
loops, arches, whorls and composites
and it is easy to so group and classify
them.
Crispi Is Arrested.
After satisfying myself that Crispi
was the man we wanted for the loft
burglary sent my men out to arrest
him. We had no difficulty in locat-
ing him in his flat in Hoboken and
when he was appraised Of his arrest
he burst out laughing and told the
detectives be would make them look
foolish as he could account for every
second of his time on the night Of the
burglary and that his alibi could be
proven by at least half a dozen repu-
table witnesses. That made no diff |
ference to Crispi's captors, however,
for nearly every prisoner, no matter
how guilty he is, can always make
bluff at proving an alibi. Alibis in
fact, are second nature to all crooks. |
Crispi was brought before me at
police headquarters and without
mincing words told him that he was
wanted for the Bernstein loft bur-
glary and furthermore that knew he
was the man who had cut out the
pane Of glass from the office door
and then set it over against the wall
in the hallway. OF course, he pro-
tested his innocence. He wasn't in
the least worried, nor did he bluster.
Calmly and in a conservational tone
he said:
From what you tell me I can
prove, and easily too, that was at
the theatre with some friends when
this trick was pulled. I can account
for every second Of my time that
night and the morning following, and