Evening star., 1936-05-08
SCIENCE OF +. B. |.
IS KEPT PRACTICAL
Hoover and Aides Avoid
Theoretical in Use OF
Crime | laboratory.

How the scientific sleuthing OF
the crime laboratory OF the Federal
Bureau OF Investigation helps
G-men track down and catch GRIM
inals is described here In the third
OF series OF four articles. The
writer is a newspaper man ,Dho ,Das
privileged to look into the inner
1gorkings OF the NGtior's crime
fighting organization.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.
In connection with the Chicago
Municipal Court, DR.. William James
Hickson has maintained a crime lab
oratory for many years. He says
congenital criminality may be detected
in early youth. He may be cited as
q typical authority in a field where,
psychiatrists and criminologists In
sist, the eventual. II long-delayed,
solution of the crime menace will be
found.
Sharply set apart from all such
theory and experimentation are j. Ed
gar Hoover's crime laboratory in
Washington. his methods, his objec-
tive and his curriculum for training
men against crime.
"How they get that way" the
reasonable and natural preoccupation
Of the university psychologists and
sociologists, doesn't interest the G.
men. How to catch 'em and hold
'em" Is always the lesson for the
day, as the agents report from the
field for their continuous training and
conditioning.
Hoover, an alumnus of George
Washington University, has nothing
against colleges or professors. He
merely insists on sharp separation
of the theoretical and the Immediately
practical in ook-catching. He re-
cruits college-trained men, and has
444 of them on his staff. Sixty-flve
per cent have had legal training and
l8 per cent are expert accountants.
This emphasis on law and ac-
countancy marks one of the Bureau
Of Investigations unique deviations
from traditional police methods.
Carries Through in Courts.
Lawyer-proof and politician-proof
evidence is what Hoover Graves most.
He'll give you rapid-fire citations OF
scores of cases where criminal
escapes because the police, perhaps
having done brilliant detective work
in getting their man, were batted out
of the witness box by smart lawyer.
Therefore, a large part of the elabo-
rate organization and technique Is
supplementary to the original sleuth-
ing-designed to process evidence
which will stand the wear and tear
Of stiff trial on the crooks home
grounds. So far, Hoover has rated
"a per cent convictions-an un-
matched record in police work.
With this in mind, it is easier to
get clear understanding of the big,
smoothly functioning crime labora-
tory. 1t has been going since 1882.
What did you ever catch with
it?" was my perhaps tactless ques-
ton, put to a clever young college
trained Oman who was showing me
how 1t worked.
Routs So-CaIled Experts.
The answer. abridged for space
reasons, cleared my mind OF Sher-
lock Holmes wool-gathering. The
case where the scientists picked up a
flick of cigar ash, analyzed it and
trapped the snag-toothed killer is
still to come. But sufficient identifi-
cations have been made, or bolstered
up, with microscopes and test tubes,
in minor cases. to more than demon
strate the effectiveness of the labora-
tory. Its uses in supplementing evi-
dence with unassailable analysis are
obvious. It provides ammunition
against the phable. psudo-scientifc
journeyman witnesses who bedevil
American law enforcement, for a fee.
A big buck rabbit in a cage puts
in q full work-day shift with the
G-men. He has been innoculated
with human blood. He starts build
ing immunities. His serum reacts
against human blood, but not against
animal blood. An inquiring sheriff
in any part of the country, sending
in garment with a rusty looking spot
on it, can get hurry-up answer as to
whether it's human blood. The young,
college trained bio-chemists, snappy-
looking lads with smart, belted labora-
tory smocks, work in consultation with
DR.. Karl Landsteiner. of the Brooklyn
Jewish Hospital, and others eminent
in this field.
They have classified human blood
in IS groups. They have made prog
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