References FINGERPRINTS The Origins of Crime Detection and The Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan David R. Ashbaugh |
Significant Dates and Events |
In France, Francois Eugene Vidocq establishes Europe's first official detective branch and pioneers the use of physical evidence. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Britain opens first national penitentiary at Millbank. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan William Herschel begins privately experimenting with fingerprints in India. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Habitual Criminals Act in England provides longer sentences for hardened criminals with previous convictions. Need to identify prior offenders first arises in Britain. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan The Claimant" sues for the title of Baronet of Tichborne, falsely identifiying himself as the true heir, who was lost at sea fifteen years earlier. This case eventually sparks fingerprint concept in Dr. Henry Faulds's mind. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Herschel, still in India, begins year-long use of fingerprints as signatures on land titles and jailers' warrants. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Faulds, a Scottish missionary working in Japan, discovers fingerprints on ancient pottery and begins extensive experiments. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Faulds becomes first person to publicly suggest fingerprints as a method of criminal identification in a letter published in Nature. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Alphonse Bertillon, in Paris, identifies his first habitual criminal using his newly installed anthopometric system of measurements. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Henry Faulds begins trying to convince Scotland Yard to adopt fingerprints. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Francis Galton begins experimenting with fingerprints as a means of determining physical and intellectual prowess. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan On June 19, 1892, two children were murdered on the outskirts of the town of Necochea on the coast of Argentina. This case is reported as the first murder solved by fingerprints thanks to the efforts of Juan Vucetich, a statistician employed by the Central Police Department in La Plata, Argentina. (South America) Edward Henry, chief of police in Bengal, India, adds thumbprints to the anthropometric records he began taking the previous year. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Britain adopts an identification system which is a hybrid of anthropometry and fingerprints. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Adolf Beck, an innocent man, is jailed for five years after being wrongly recognized as a known con artist by police and a witness. Fingerprints would have shown he was the wrong man. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Henry's assistant Azizul Haque comes up with a comprehensive system for classifying fingerprints, making practical their use without anthropometric measurements. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan In 1897, The National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, based in Chicago, Illinois, was established by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. It's function was to serve as a central storage and retrieval depot for criminal records and it's cost was to be shared by all police organizations that used its services. The records were classified and filed based on Bertillonage, otherwise known as Anthropometry. (U.S.A.) In Canada, the U.K.'s success in identifying criminals using Anthropometry did not go unnoticed. On June 13, 1898, the Identification of Criminals Act was passed into law by the federal government. The act sanctioned the use of the Bertillon system for use by the Canadian police services. (Canada) The Belper Committee in England was established to look into "the working of the method of Identification of Criminals by Measurement and Fingerprints". Edward Richard Henry was one of the experts who gave evidence in support of using fingerprints as a means of identification. In December 1900, the Belper Committee recommended that the current method of 'Bertillonage' be replaced by 'Mr.Henry's system'. (UK) On July 1, 1901, Edward Henry was put in charge of Scotland Yard's new Fingerprint Branch. The previous requirement to take prints only of habitual criminals (re-offenders) widened to include all prisoners whose sentence was more than one month. (UK) The first conviction in the U.K. of an individual was made as a result of fingerprints found at the scene of the crime in June 1902. A burglar by the name of Harry Jackson left his thumbprint on the paintwork of a house he entered in South London and, despite the enormous task of comparing thousands of prints, Detective-Sergeant Charles Stockley Collins and his colleagues at the Branch identified it with Jackson's record card. In September the burglar was sentenced to seven years. Fingerprinting as a means of identification had been vindicated in the English courts. (UK) The New York City Civil Service Commission started using fingerprints to prevent impersonations during examinations. Also in 1903, finger printing was implemented by the New York State Prison System and at Leavenworth Penitentiary. By 1906 there were six police departments in the United States collecting finger prints for identification purposes. (U.S.A.) Constable Edward Foster of the Dominion Police, Canada attended the World's Fair in St.Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. to guard a display of gold. The International Association of Chiefs of Police were also having a convention at this time. Detective John Ferrier of Scotland Yard had been invited to present a paper on fingerprints at the convention. Foster attended Ferrier's presentation and was intriqued by the possibilities of fingerprint identification. He also felt that a national organization, such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, would help to promote an interest in fingerprinting and encourage cooperation among all police services across Canada. (Canada) The Stratton brothers are tried and hanged on fingerprint evidence for the vicious murder of Thomas and Ann Farrow. Henry Faulds takes their side against police. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan On September 6, 1905 an organizational meeting of the newly proposed 'Canadian Chiefs of Police Association' was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The mandate of the committee was to meet with the Minister of Justice and recommend the establishment of a national fingerprint bureau. (Canada) On July 21, 1908 an Order-In-Council was passed sanctioning the use of the finger print system and sanctioning that the provisions of "The Identification of Criminal Act" were applicable. (Canada) Thomas Jennings is the first to be convicted of murder in the United States on the basis of fingerprint evidence. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Feburary 1911, the National Bureau was opened with the offices located in Ottawa. The original files consisted of 2,042 sets of fingerprints taken by Foster between 1906 and 1910. Once the National Bureau was operating, several police services sent their complete fingerprint files to the bureau. (Canada) Francis Galton dies. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Alphonse Bertillon dies. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan Formation, in California, of the International Association for Criminal Identification (IAI). An organization which continues to flourish to this day. (U.S.A.) Herschel dies. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan The Dominion Police was absorbed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Foster continued to head RCMP's Fingerprint Bureau with the rank of Inspector and did so until he retired in 1932. (Canada) Formation of the FBI Identification Division. Records of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation housed at Leavenworth Penitentiary removed to Washington - among them were the core collection of 810,000 fingerprint cards. (U.S.A.) Dr. Henry Faulds dies. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan The first palmprint case was brought before the English court. Due to the prisoner's plea of guilty, however, Detective Inspector Cherrill was not required to present his evidence. (UK) Scottish judge George Wilton begins campaign for Faulds's recognition as a fingerprint pioneer. Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan A meeting between the Home Office and experts from five of the major fingerprint bureaus reached an agreement on a national standard for fingerprint identification evidence given in court. (UK) Gerald Lambourne, as head of Scotland Yard's Fingerprint Bureau, began work on the computerization of the nation's almost two million sets of fingerprints. (UK) The technique of 'lifting' prints became acceptable practice in the British police for the first time. (UK) Computerized Criminal History file added to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) containing personal descriptions of people arrested for serious crime, including a computer-based fingerprint classification. (U.S.A.) "The International Association for Identification assembled in its 58th annual conference in Jackson, Wyoming, this first day o f August, 1973, based upon a three-year study by its Standardization Committee, hereby states that no valid basis exists at this time for requiring that a pre-determined minimum of friction ridge characteristics must be present in two impressions in order to establish positive identification. The foregoing reference to friction ridge characteristics applies equally to fingerprints, palmprints, toeprints and soleprints of the human body." (U.S.A.) "Ridgeology: Our Next Evaluative Step" by David Ashbaugh, RCMP Gazette, Vol45, No3, 1983 is published and the "Ridgeology Revolution" begins! (Canada) "The rationale was that a new word would draw rapid attention to new ideas. New ideas which involved a more scientific approach required to meet the needs of the floating threshold protocol laid out by the Standardization Committee....Over the years ridgeology has gained acceptance as a word describing a friction ridge identification process based on a quantatative-qualatative analysis as opposed to the old static threshold method." (Introduction to Basic Ridgeology by David Ashbaugh, May 1999, p8) Ridgeology is defined as: "The study of the uniqueness of friction ridge structures and their use for personal identification." (Introduction to Basic Ridgeology by David Ashbaugh, May 1999) American fingerprint experts restore Dr. Faulds's grave. The United Kingdom Sixteen Points Report is completed in 1989. However, due to its content it was released much later during a meeting in Israel in June 1995. As a result of this document, the original International Association for Identification Standardization Committee resolution was reaffirmed with a slight change in wording. International symposium on fingerprint detection and identification is held in Ne'urim Israel in June 1995. The following resolution was agreed upon by the friction ridge identification specialists who attended: "No scientific basis exists for requiring that a predetermined minimum number of friction ridge features must be present in two impressions in order to establish a positive identification." Federal Bureau of Investigation installs massive fingerprint computer capable of storing the fingerprints of 65 million individuals. |
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References FINGERPRINTS The Origins of Crime Detection and The Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science Copyright C 2001 Colin Beavan David R. Ashbaugh |
