Evening star., 1934-11-25

QeCecLlVe, sherlock homes, was
considered a creature Of myth.
Every one has laughed at the
= cartoons of Holmes creeping
about hunting clues with his
magnifying glass.
Today the scientific investigator of crime is
beginning to receive the respect his efforts merit
increasingly the public realizes that he gives
the surest protection for the innocent and pro-
vides the unshakable evidence that brings the
guilty to punishment.
Old methods of crime conviction held big
chance of error. Legal history is full of in
stances of the punishment of people for wrongs
they did not do.
The identification of suspects by witnesses,
for example, is often mistaken. This is partic
ulary true when the criminal has been seen
but briefly and when, often happens, the
witness does not face the suspect for many
months.
In a famous English case of recent years a
man was identified by 13 witnesses as the person
who had interviewed them and defrauded them
of money. While the man, who protested his
innocence, was serving the sentence imposed
on him. the true criminal was found. Not one
of the l3 witnesses. when recalled to face the
two men, was able to say which man had VIC
timized them
The alibi is an uncertain defense of the inno-
cent. 1t is rare thing for a person to be
able to tell honestly where he was outside of
working hours at given time some weeks
States could really establish today where he
was two and one-half years ago on the night
of the Lindbergh kidnapping.
EUROPE was using scientists to pin criminals
to their crimes long before the United
States started to do so. Probably the oldest and
best crime laboratory in the world belongs to
Vienna.
Until very recently most of the more COM
plicated scientific crime tests in this country
were made in the laboratories of few uni
versities, and their services were used only in
notable cases, such as the Shasta mail robbery.
Even New York City has not had scientific
police laboratory until this year, although she
had a coroner and ballistic and other experts
doing good work in crime detection along their
own lines.
In 1882 the United States Department Of
Justice established a Federal crime labora-
tory in its Bureau of Investigation Its services
are open to all Federal and local law enforce
ment bodies and the volume OF work sent to IT,
far in excess of expectations, is a demonstration
of its need.
A central bureau for the of all but the
largest cities is matter of efficiency as well as
economy since certain equipment would be
used but rarely in an area Of small population.
With the aid of precise instruments the crime
scientists can accomplish results that seem
little short of miracles to the uninitiated.
BY use of mercury vapor lamp they can
detect great differences in the papers used
in documents differences no eye could find
unaided. And with the same equipment they
can discover evidence of lead-pencil erasures.
the rays revealing the minute bits Of graphite
that remain imbedded in apparently clean
paper
Fine measuring instruments in their hands
demonstrate those differences in type and
alignment that separate the product of any
one typewriter from the product of every other
typewriter in the world.
Some years ago in New York a man ac-
cused oi having written an extortion note on q
typewriter II, his possession tried to prove the
fallibility of the expert testimony by hiring
workman to duplicate the characteristics of his
machine on another After long labor the
workman gave up the job. 1t could not be
done, he said.
In recent shocking kidnapping case the kid
naper was supposed to have carried away his
bleeding victim in an automobile. suspect of
the crime was found and the cushions Of his
car examined. So far as could be seen the
light upholstery was stainless.
A few years ago the investigation would have
stopped there. In this case the cushions were
turned over to the laboratory.