The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-11-26
CHAFEE'S FINGERS
ARE EXONERATED
Expert Finds That Prints
on Car and Chafee's
Are Not Same.
MUST Be IDENTICAL
There Cannot Be Guess-work in
Establishing Finger Prints,
the Chief Declares.


ster of James Sears was not that OF
Leo Chafee, the Racine man, who was
held here for several days as sus-
pect in the murder case of James
Sears and Madalynne Latimer, who
were shot and killed by an unknown
assailant on the night of Oct. IA,
while keeping a lovers tryst in Sears
car on the North Rowland avenue
road. Chafee is no longer in custody,
as he was long since released as a
suspect, and the case against him on
another charge arising out of a differ
ent matter has been dismissed in the
municipal court following prelimin-
airy hearing.
Chief Logan made the statement to-
day, after receiving report in the
case from the new finger print expert,
Robert Deschneau, who is now in the
employ of the. Kenosha police depart.
ment. The chief had asked for "no
guess work, but dispassionate and
disinterested report" and received
one.
From War Department.
Robert Deschneau has had consid-
cradle experience in finger print work
and was employed for nine months IN
the war department. at Washington, D.
c., and was also employed for three
months by the department Of justice.
He will act as finger prin. and gem
eral Bertillon expert of the police de-
partment as we'll as secretary of the
detective bureau. The need for per-
son of his experience has been felt for
some time, the chief explained, but
was never so keenly apparent as dur
ing the weeks when the police were
anxious to learn positively whether
the fingers of the man whom they had
arrested as suspect, compared in any
way with the print on the Stutz car.
Two members of the police depart
ment, Emil F. Meissner and Leo Buch-
mann, have had some training in TAX
ing finger prints, but have not had the
experience necessary in the compar-
ing of prints, such as training in the
department of justice in the federal
government gives. In no case that has
arisen in the past has the chief been
able to rely on the opinion as to SINH
larity of prints which vixen given by
one who has not had intensive and ex-
tensiye experience alone this line,
amounts to guess work, it was pointed
out.
The first work given the new men,
Der of the department was that of
comparing the print on the Sears car
with that of the prints of the ten Dig
it's of Leo Chafee's hands, taken while
he was held in custody here.
Chief Logan declared that he was
making the final finding public because
the police were not anxious to "pin
anything on Chafee" or anybody else;
their only interest in the case being
to aid, at the request of the coroner,
in solving the murder of James Sears
and Madalynne Latimer by progress
ing from one established and proved
fact to another. The police are again,
he admitted, eat the beginning"
Only One Finger Similar.
Robert Deschneau explained today
something of the procedure which
prompts him to report to the chief
that the bloody print was not that of
Leo Chafee. -
Prints were taken of all of the ten
fingers of Leo Chafee, but OF these
there was only one, the right index
finger, which could stand any COM
parison whatsoever with the print as
taken from the Sears car. The other
nine fingers of Leo Chafee were posi-
lively "not guilty"
There was just one good finger mark
on the Stutz and this print was COM
pared closely by Mr.. Deschneau with
that of the right index finger of Leo
Chafee. There was similarity. This
similarity had been found by others
who had made casual but not inten-
sive examination of the prints. The
two fingers fell into the same general
pattern" according to the classifca-
ton made by finger print experts in
general.
eve can not say" said Deschneaus
"that the finger print taken from the
car is the print of Leo Chafee's right
index finger, and that is as much as
to say that they are not the same. In
determining whether any two finger
prints are alike, there can not be any
halfway measures. In order t" make
a perfect Identification, characteristics
must be just alike in both patterns;
in the case of these two prints, Chat
ee's and the print on the car, there
are no such five identical character
istics. Therefor, to US they are not
the same prints"
The finger print man mitted that
his examination so far had been some
what handicapped by the fact that
he had not had magnifying glasses or
his own outfit with him, and also by
the fact that the core of the finger
print taken from the car was some
what blurred by the blood that had
clotted between the lines.
The fact that these fingers do not
turn out to be the same, does not end
the value of the print on the Stutz
roadster, Chief Logan declared today.
The print will be kept as perhaps the
most valuable record in the case, the
only evidence" which has been col
lected so far which is tangible.
Chief Logan declared that it was not
necessary to compare this bloody print
with that of MadaTynne Latimer's or
James eSars' fingers. The girl was
eliminated because the print was that
of mans fingers; Sears was elimi-
mated because he had been shot in the
car, and as the chief said, ga man with
two bullets in his head isn't apt to get
out and push an automobile"