Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-14

Seated in his modest office at the new labo-
ratory the quiet-mannered criminologist point
ed to his specially designed comparison micro
scope, on a small bench beside his desk, and
said: There is the instrument that has made
gun identification science as dependable as
fingerprint identification, within certain linni-
tations. That microscope, the development OF
a former colleague, Phillip o. Gravelle of South
Orange, N. j., has proved that no two guns
in the world fire bullets exactly alike. Each
barrel leaves individual hngerprints' on the
bullet passing through it, and each firing pin
and breech mechanism stamps its own mark
the shell.
Some years ago. at the Springfield Armory
I had six barrels made with the rifiing as
nearly alike it was humanity and mechani-
caly possible to make them. -Four of the
barrels were made machine and two
on another machine. In my absence. shots
were fired from each of the barrels and the
bullets were secretly marked SO that only the
person firing them knew from which gun each
had emerged. Then the barrels and bullets
were scrambled and given to me for microscopic
study. 1t required but short time to designate
accurately the barrel which had fired each bull
let the secret markings leaving no doubt a. TO
the correctness of the microscopic findings"
More recently, similarly conclusive test was
conducted at the United States Bureau of
Standards, with the cooperation of leading
firearms manufacturer. Two revolvers were
made by the same workman the same ma
chine and with the same tools. Infinite care
taken to see that the rifing of the two
barrels was identical" The rifling tools were
examined after each cutting, resharpened fire.
quently and reset to preclude discrepancies from
The workman, veteran expert of the
factory, challenged even a microscopic to find
any differences in the guns.
DR.. Wilmer Souder, Uncle Sans recognized
authority on ballistics, accepted the challenge
a CraVPlle
dard's laboratory, the Federal scientist had no
difficulty whatever in determining that bullet
shot from one of the test guns could not have
come from the other, and vice versa.
Only recently the reputed dependabiity OF
balistics in police Investigations was put to
critical test, with Col. Goddard and DR.. Souder
playing major roles in the experiment DR..
Souder had identified the revolver of an Airing
ton County, Va real estate man as the one
used by the murderer of Mary Baker, Navy
Department clerk in Washington, who was at
tackled in her parked automobile within sight
of the White House last April by man who
later dumped her brutality assaulted body into
a culvert near Arlington National Cemetery.
The owner of the gun, Herbert M. Campbell,
had turned the weapon over to police volun-
tarily with fantastic tale of his suspicious"
that painter had stolen it from his house and
used it to kill the girl. The painter was APP
pretended in Montreal and he proved his in
nocence. With the gun branded as the fatal
weapon by the Government expert, Campbell
admitted his previous statements had been 'all
lies" concocted to give himself "thrilP' and
the police "some excitement" but steadfastly
maintained he did not kill Mary Baker. Never
thless he was charged with the murder
A bitter legal battle ensued, with Campbell
and his counsel insisting DR. Souder had made
a mistake in identifying the realty operators
revolver as the one which fired the two bullets
removed from the slain girls corpse. In order
to remove all doubt, the Department of Justice,
a party to the three-sided investigation of the
extraordinary case, decided to send the gun
and bullets to the Scientific Crime Detection