Evening star., 1924-08-27
BANDIT HUNT BASED
| ON OVERALLS CLUE
Professor, in Laboratory,
Connected Brothers With
Robbery and Murder.
BY Consolidated Press.

REDD1NG. Calf, August 27.-A
dozen heavily armed Sheriffs' posses
arc combing the mountain country
north of here in search Of three al
legged train robbers and murderers.
Some time within the next "a hours
they may bring to "A spectacular eli
max drama Of scientific criminology
in which a humble Berkeley College
professor has "out-5herlocKed" Sher-
lock Holmes.
The trio are tbs desperate DAutre-
mont brothers, wanted for the hold
up of Southern Pacific passenger
train and the murder of three railroad
employees near the California Oregon
line, last September, and who since
have eluded capture in 20,000-miie
chase through three countries.
Following the usual precept OF
criminal custom, the three brothers
are believed to have returned to the
scene of their crime few days ago,
and now are in the southern fringes
Of the klamath forest reserve, 40
miles north of here. The man hunt
being waged for them is one Of the
most intensive and implacable ever
staged in the far West.
Traced by Science
Should the pursuing posses be sue
cessful. and the three much sought
as desperadoeS be landed safely be-
hind the bars. they Will owe their
downfall to a bespectacled University
of California tutor, who. when all
others failed, and without moving
from the narrow confines of his lab
atory 200 miles away, picked uner-
ring clues regarding their identity
seemingly out of thin air
The central figure in this modern
day detective tale, which outrivals
the most lurid fiction exploits of Nick
Carter or Conan Doyle's most mySti-
flying story. is Prof. h. O. Heinrich,
chemist, pharmacist. microanalyst
and instructor in scientific crime de-
lection at the University OF California.
In all his life Prof. Heinrich never
carried a pistol, wore a police badge
or actually participated in GRIM
inal man hunt except by theoretical
long distance.
How the college professor took a
pair of oyeralls discarded by one of
the robbers near the scene of the crime
and from few pinches of dust, some
wood chips and other insignificant
bits. found in the pockets not only
furnished the law officers with an
accurate description of the wearer,
but actually established his identity
and connected him with the crime.
was revealed here today by railroad
special agents participating in the
man hunt.
Saved Innocent Man.
In s1e same processes it is also be-
iieyed that he saved an innocent
man. a former convict. who had been
taken into custody and against whom,
there was much circumstantial evil
1ence.
A pair of greasy overalls with
some electric batteries used in ex-
plodins a charge of dynamite under
an express car were the only clues
left behind by the robbers. After
every square inch of the overalls
had beer fruitlessly searched for
clues they were sent to Prof Helm
richs at Bereley. Not, however. be-
fore the batteries had been traced
o a garage several miles away and
a former convict employed as
mechanic there whom the overalls
happened to fit had been arrested
Under the discerning eye of the
college professor, directed through a
microscope, the overalls were not so
clueless. The first discovery made by
Prof. Heinrichs was that the supposed
grease was not grease at all, but
wearer had come in contact at some
spruce fir pitch, whit which the
lumber camp.
Showed Up by Microscope.
Next the fessor-criminologis
searched the pockets of the overalls
thoroughly. While to a casual OBJ
server they contained no clues worth
while, TO a trained scientific observer
they offered wealth of information.
Examined under a stereoScopic micro
scope. which rlagnified 500 times, in
significant pinches of dust resolved
themselves into bits of Douglas fir
needles. finger nail cuttings, tiny pine
chips, bits of leaves and red soil,
common only in one section of west
ern Oregon. Hair found caught on
the buttons of the discarded garb
when put under micrometer was
found to be dark brown. Finally Prof.
Heinrichs advised the law officers of
his findings.
The man WHO wore the overalls
was a left-handed white lumberjack,
brown haired probably dark eyed, of
medium height, rather stockily built,
fastidious, about 25 years of age and
he comes from a certain town in
western Oregon" said the professor.
From the batteries found near the
robbery were developed the finger
prints, which through comparison,
divulged the identity of a young man
with a criminal record from the same
town in western Oregon. Officers in
vestigating further found that the
college professors description of the
former owner of the overalls and the
cred Tailed exactly
Fastened on Brothers.
From these clues, unearthed as it
were by Prof. Heinrichs, where no
clues were deemed by veteran man
hunters to exist, officers of the law
shortly established facts which al
most irrefutably linked one of the
D'Autremonts. and later his two
brothers, with the triple murder and
train robbery.
The fact that the suspect was left
handed was established by the col
lege professor by particles of wood
chips found only in the right-hand
pocket of the overalls. A left-handed
lumberjack, he explained to officers.
always stands on the right side to-
ward a tree when welding an AK, and
it is possible for chips to fall only
in the right pocket.
The same line of deduction led to
of the man as fastidi-
Gus. Only man who was extremely
careful of his personal appearance
pared his finger nails as thin as
those found under the miscroscope in
the pinches of pocket dust.
The best substantiation of the
Berkeley College professors deduc-
tions is the thousands of miles the
D'Autremonts already have fed in
their efforts to evade arrest and the
boast made by them at several places
that they never would be taken alive.