-
1200
13th Century China
The first case in the history of forensic science happened in the 13th century in a village in China. Someone was stabbed, so all of the knives in the village were collected. Flies were attracted to the blood and only landed on one knife, which then the suspect confessed. -
Mathieu Orfila
Orfila published the first scientific paper about detecting poison in the body. He also explained the effects the poison had on animals. He is considered the "Father of Toxicology" -
William Herschel
Herschel used thumbprints to identify workers in India. This was the first time unique fingerprints were used to identify a person. -
Alphonse Bertillon
Bertillon is considered the "Father of Criminal Identification" due to his development of anthropometry (uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Faulds
Faulds uses fingerprint analysis to eliminate an innocent suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Doyle published the first "Sherlock Holmes" story, which popularized crime solving. -
Francis Galton
Galton studied the unique shapes of fingerprints and their classification as an arch, loop, or whorl. -
Hans Gross
Gross wrote the first paper describing the ways to apply scientific principles to investigating crimes. -
Karl Landsteiner
Landsteiner discovered the different blood groups, ABO, and later received a Nobel Prize for his findings. -
Edmond Locard
Locard expanded on Gross' principles and became the founder/director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Albert S. Osborn
Osborn published "Questioned Documents". This paper developed the fundamentals of document examinations. -
Leone Lattes
Lattes developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood -
August Vollmer
Vollmer established the first crime lab in Los Angles, USA. -
Calvin Goddard
Goddard developed a comparison microscope. This tool was first used to compare bullets to see if they came from the same weapon.
