The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-09-15
DetectiUe Bureau Here Organized by Capt. Dodds Family Name Carried on in Police Department for Years - Work of Local Sleuths Recalled
 by False Identification Convictions.

ger print expert, and the one who secured practically all of the data concerning the history of people arrested for high crime. What a shock the good man got when they retired him in and about 1917. The late Jack Kennaugh Billy Keegan and Joe Stevens suc- cessed him from time to time. Now Joe Bendler heads the bur- eau. Some day, he'll die, too, and some one will take his place. It's life!
 Innocent Man Suffers
 You have all read of the con- viction of one Bertram M. Camp bell, stock salesman of New York, and his 31s years spent in Sing Sing prison for crime of which he has since been proved inno- cent. Stirred by the conviction of an innoc ant man, Gov. Dewey has appointed a committee to embody measures looking to the correction of abuses of the law, so that arr rested persons will have every op- portunity to have their day in court with a legal representative of a society of leading lawyers. who will submit an unbiased re- port of their investigation, in cases where doubt of the guilt of the accused is raised. One of the men appointed is John A. Lyons. state commissioner of correction, a former deputy commissioner of the New York Police Dept, and one time head of the detective bureau.
 What MT. Lyons has to say on the subject question should be read by every detective in the country. He is an experienced man, and thoroughly acquainted with police duty and procedure.
 Here is what he said in the in terview:
 q never believed in having a detective show a witness a picture or confront him with the suspect and say: Is this the man?' he de- clared.
 MT. Lyons stressed the value of trained detectives and investiga- tors as an offset to hysterical iden- tifications and the testimony Of pathological liars. He said detec- tives as part of their training should be warned against over enthusiasm and the desire to break the case" at all costs.
 "They must realize" he went on, "that they are there to protect the innocent as well as to apprehend the guilty"
 Cites Instances
 From his many years of experi- ence as a detective and inspector in the New York Police Depart- ment, MT. Lyons cited typical cases of mistaken Identification. One was the victim of a shooting who with only a minute or two of life gasped out, "that's the man" as soon as a suspect was brought In by detectives. This was worthless from a legal standpoint because the law requires the asking of cer- tain preliminary questions to test a witness" lucidity, MT. Lyons ex- plained, and 1t turned out that the police had picked up the wrong man. The actual slayer later was arrested and convicted.
 MT. Lyons recalled. the positive hysterical Identification" by two witnesses of a suspect in the kill ing of two New York City police men, Reynolds and Romanelli, in 1925.
 "The man they identified had no more to do with 1t than you did, he said. We did not like the iden- tification and 1t did not dovetail with information we had. Subse- quently, 'Chink' Keikert, one oi those involved, revealed that the killing had been done by Ice Wpgon' Crowley, who, with Killer Cuniffe, headed the most danger ous mob of stick-up men and Kill. CTS this country has had to deal with"
 Bruno Hauptmann
 One of the best identifications' MT. Lyons recalled, and one that stood up, was that of Bruno Ricn' ard Hauptmann in the kidnap- ping-murder of the Lindbergr baby by pr. J. F. Condon, the Jaf- sic in the case. ,
 "Hauptmann was lined up witn about twenty others in a room. MT. Lyons said, when Jafsit stopped dead in front of him aric said, T am quite sure that Is the man, but he got heavier. I want to sleep on 1t. A mans life is al stake"
 "Well, we checked and found out that Hauptmann had got heavier since Jafsie had seen him."
 As an instance of the difficulty in getting some witnesses to de.