The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-10-16
| WOODS MURDER or SOMERSET co.
|RECALLED BY BARBOUR'S ARTICLE
Whittier Has Studied Shell Castings of Bullets
Under All Condition

! blinds down and shutters closed, and
as you step inside the door a breath
/ of cool air strikes you.
Like a modern Sherlock Holmes,
DR.. Whittier explained the process by
which the battling murders can be
solved. And sometimes it is used
mercifully in absolying people who
might otherwise suffer the full pen
atty for crime they did not commit
All empty gun shell, the firing pin
of gun, camera and a microscope
are all that. is needed.
Most often murdered leaves emp
ty shells beside or near the body of
the victim. If Colt automatic is
used the shells are pumped out to the
right automatically. In many cases
the election of a shell from "A gun is
practically an unconscious movement
when man is used to handling a gun,
Dr. Whittier explained
And when the = shell is found. the
murderer might just as we'll have his
confession written on it,
DR.. Whittier, who is professor of
bacterlology at Bowdoin College, has
studied the shell castings of rifle and
revolver bullets under all conditions
He has buried them in the SNOW for
months and in the earth to see what
effect weather, heat and cold has on
them.
PINNING THE MURDER
The markings on them are practic-
ally a language to him.
AS he read what he saw in the
shells that were presented at the
Hoffman trial in New York. the ac-
cused man grew visibly excited The
Bowdoin scientist compares the mic
rophotograph process with the finger
print system and claims that it is just
as unerring.
Professor Whittier is a very tall
man and lean. He has the detached
impersonal air of the trained inyesti-
gator. His gray eyes seem to study
everything they rest upon as If he
were classifying it for some future
reference.
His hands are long and thin. and
as he talked they played nervously on
the arms of his chair.
Every firing pin in any kind of gun
has microscopial markings of its
own" he said, (which differ from the
markings on other pins. When
shot is fired the firing pin makes an
imprint OH the primer of the shell and
the soft metal of the shell forms Ger
tain indentations.
"If microphotographs are taken of
both the pin and the primer mark,
they will be shown exactly alike or
utterly unlike. If you have the gun
that fired the bullet the photographs
ba nd fharn &c GOT
ting away from it.
For instance said the medical
examiner, going over the portfolio
and taking out some pictures, here
is an old case in which the evidence
hinged on the fact whether the bullet
was fired from a certain mans gun
or not.
"If 1t was, he was the murderer
"This was the Terrio case. Empty
shells had been found beside the body
Of the slain man in the lonely Maine
backwoods The rifle of the suspect
ed man had been discovered.
WRITTEN on STEEL
"Now ordinarily all firing pins look
very much alike. But look at this, :
he said, showing me- a photograph.
Under the microscope the firing pin
reveals a distinct geogra nhW There
are ridges and indentations, marks
that could never be noticed on the
smooth surface of the steel with the
naked eye.
"Magnifying the firing pin 30 or az
! diameters revealed that 1t was mark
ed with 10 concentric circles, with an
L-shaped figure in the centre and over
on the right-hand side there was a
star-shaped figure. There was some
thing definite to work on.
when a photograph of the primer
was taken it revealed an indentation
that was an exact duplication OF the
firing pin. showing the circles. the l.
and The star. No other gun could
have fired the bullet but the gun OF
the, accused
To take these ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, all
that is necessary is a camera with
bellows slightly longer than ordinary
and microscope The object to
be photographed is placed on slide
within range of the microscope. IN
ordinary work. where low -powered
lenses only are needed, the eye-piece
is removed from the microscope and
the lens taken out of the camera. The
bellows of the camera is then extend
ed over the microscope so rs to ex-
cludes all light and the photograph
taken in the ordinary way.
In cases where high powered lenses
are required the eye-piece OF the mi
croscope Is not removed.
Coarse objects like the primer of
shell are made under the indirect rays
of an arc-light.
SUGGESTION FROM LAWYER
Photographs we're made in this way
of the firing pin of Hoffman's gun, of
the two shells found near the body of
Mrs. Bauer and of the firing pins of
two other guns and the primers of
cartridges fired from them. These
photographs have to be absolutely
clear and sharply defined. a
1t is curious how such processes Of
criminal detection are born. This
was suggested, Professor Whittier ex-