|
 |
FORENSIC
SCIENCE, HISTORY AND METHODS OF IDENTIFICATION FOR
AGENT AND INVESTIGATORS
Methods
of Criminal identification have progressed from the maiming and branding of early history,
through the "photo-graphic memory" of law enforcement officers, through the 1870
introduction of the Bertillon measurements, to the present infallible system of positive
identification through fingerprinting, dna mapping and retinal scanning. The Bertillon
system was utilized for over 30 years but lost its reputation for reliability due to the
West Brothers Identification
History
of West Brothers Print Methodology Within the United States.
In 1903, one Will West was convicted and sentenced to be committed to the United States
penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. A few days thereafter he was brought to the
office of the record clerk to customarily be Bertillon measured and photographed. He
denied being in the penitentiary before, but the clerk doubting the statement, ran his
measuring instruments over West. From the Bertillon measurements obtained he returned with a card bearing the name "William
West." Will West, the new prisoner continued to deny the card was his even
though the photographs of the two men appeared to be identical. Whereupon the
Leavenworth record clerk turned over Will West's card and read that William West was
already a prisoner in that institution, having been convicted of a life sentence on
September 3, 1903, for murder.
Upon fingerprinting the
two prisoners, it was discovered there was no resemblance between the two pairs of
fingerprint cards. The unreliability of three thought to be tried and true means of
criminal identification: Bertillon measurements, facial similarity, and names were all
thus disproved as accurate beyond disapprobation, and the value of fingerprinting was
established as the foremost method of verification of Identification for adjudication,
Judicial Review and the Criminally incarcerated. Thus, Will West had told the truth.
by Dr. Scott D. Neff
MD
CFE DABFE FFAAJTS ISPS
The
Honorable J. Edgar Hoover autographs picture
for two of the Founders of the InfoJustice Journal and
the American Academy For Justice Through Science. (03/09/56).
"Health Care is a Team Effort and must not remain divided!" 
Scott D. Neff, MD CFE DABFE FFABS FFAAJTS
|
