The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-10-09

dent of the county bureau of identi-
fication at Fresno. Cal, who had
made a speciality of enlargements and
lantern slides of prints. besides being
leading expert on finger prints
Tine endorsements and negatives
were made of the bloody print on the
envelope and the one taken of Kuhls
palm by Sheriff Harris. both being
placed on the same plate so that the
comparisons could be made and seen
by the jury.
Mr.. Stone says that last spring at
the regular annual meeting OF the
Pacific coast finger prints experts,
the pictures of the two prints were
submitted to the convention. and each
and every man present unhesitatingly
pronounced the two prints as having
been made by the same palm. 1t was
also passed on by other national fin
ger print experts, who cOncurred
with Mr.. Stone in his decision.
But owing to the fact that this sort
of evidence-p palm prints-was some
thing new in the courts of law. the
experts had to go to extreme lengths
to convince the court that the evidence
was admissible Ordinarily in the
comparison of finger prints eight or
nine distinctive features. or PECULIAR
ties are all that is necessary to estaD-
lish the fact that the prints are iden-
teal and made by the same person.
But i'm the Kuhl palm prints the eX-
perts had selected Is points of similar
tiles for comparison, more than twice
the regularly required number.
This was made possible by the fact
that the bloody print on the envelope.
which was the fleshy portion of the
left hand, contained particularly
plant imprint of a "whOrl," or isl
and" which was duplicated in the
print of Kuhls palm. The experts i'm
testifying before the jury went into
details i'm explaining every peculiar
ity pointing out on the enlarged print
where and how they selected a pecul-
iarity and how the two compared.
Mr. Stone at the conclusion of his
testimony was asked by the state If
he could make a positive statement as
to the hand that made the imprint
on both envelope and the print OF
/ Kuhls palm, answered 81 am as
positive as it is humanity possible
TO be positive of anything. as positive
as ! am that I am in this court room.
that those two prints We're made by
/ the same hand"
Expert Bottorff illustrated his tes-
timony by the means of a projecto-
scope The court room was darkened
and the pictures of the two prints
were thrown on a screen and every
line was magnified many thousand
times. He pointed out the lines and
peculiarities and told the jury the his
/ tory of finger prints and how they
we're used i'm the courts of every civ
ilized nation of the earth from early
times. AT the conclusion of his testi-
mony he stated positively that the
print on the envelope and the one
made from Kuhls palm was made by
the same hand
The legal battle between the attor-
neys on the admission of the palm
prints occupied the attention of the
court for two days and was bitterly
fought by the defense With the jury
excluded from the court room the two
experts were placed on the stand and
every detail was given to the court
the enlarged pictures of the prints
the methods that were to be used by
the state in presenting the evidence
to the jury and the testimony of the
two experts, even more fully than Civ
en- to the jury. were brought out be-
fore Judge Taber would rule on the
objections of the defendant It was
most interesting part of the case
and the court room was daily filled
with men and women attracted by
this unusual feature. as this testimony
was conceded to be the keystone OF
the states case which had been built
up with painstaling work by the DIS
trict attorneys office and which was
needed to complete the chain of civ
cumstantial evidence to fasten the
crime on the defendant, Kuhl.
The next case will be that of Beck
one of the three charged with the
crime. 1t is not expected that either
of the two remaining cases will con-
sumo as mn. h time as the Kuhi cas-
as many features of the case which
will again come up. have been fought
out and decided by the court, thus
sewing considerable time and mat rial
IS shortening the other cases.