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Marcello Malpighi
In 1686, Marcello Malpighi, a physiologist, examined a few sets of fingerprints under a microscope. When he saw were a few series of ridges and loops. -
J. C. A. Mayer
In 1788, J. C. A. Mayer, a German anatomist, wrote his book "Anatomical Copper-plates with Appropriate Explanations", containing drawings of friction ridge skin patterns. Mayer was the first person to declare that friction ridge skin is unique for everybody. -
Sir William James Herschel
Sir WIlliam James Herschel, 2nd Baronet, was a British ICS officer who, in India, used fingerprints for identification. He is credited with being the first European to recognize fingerprints in a unique form of identification. -
Eduardo Alvarez
In 1892, Eduardo Alvarez was the first person to make a criminal fingerprint identification. He identified a woman who had murdered her two sons, then slit her throat, trying to place blame onto another person. Her bloody fingerprint was left on a door post, and Alvarez ID'ed the woman and arrested her. -
The First Criminal Case Using Fingerprints
The first usage of fingerprints in a criminal case was a murder on September 19, 1910. Thomas Jennings, an African American man who had been paroled six weeks prior to the murder, left his fingerprint on a freshly painted railing he used to boost himself up to the window. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-case-where-fingerprints-were-used-evidence-180970883/ -
George "Machine Gun" Kelly (not the current one)
George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious criminal during the Prohibition era. He and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles Urschel. A $200,000 ransom note was paid. What ultimately linked the FBI to Kelly and his gang were Urschel's fingerprints, which he had left on as many items in the house as he could. They were convicted of kidnapping, sentenced to life, and in 1954, Kelly died in prison. http://historicalgmen.squarespace.com/machine-gun-kelly-significant-notes -
Ricardo "The Night Stalker" Ramirez
Known as the Night Stalker, Ricardo "Richard" Ramirez was a serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, child molester, and burglar. His last crime involved him shooting a husband and raping his wife. The LAPD were able to recover a very partial fingerprint, and used it in the AFIS system (Automated Fingerprint Identification System), and they identified him in a few minutes. He was then sentenced to the death penalty in 1989. -
Rape and Murder of 1987
Grace Hayden was raped and murdered in 1987 in California. Using fingerprint technology, a San Diego District Attorney Investigator, Tony Johnson, was examining the crime scene when he noticed a single fingerprint on a left ring finger on Hayden's kitchen stove. Using fingerprint analysis, they matched the fingerprint with 62 year-old Kevin Ford in North Carolina. He was then arrested in 2018. https://abcnews.go.com/US/single-fingerprint-led-arrest-cold-case-murder-elderly/story?id=56535934 -
AFIS
The use of AFIS, or the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, was first introduced in 1991. What AFIS does is it receives a fingerprint, and within minutes, is able to identify whose fingerprint it is. -
Fingerprinting Children
In 1999, Law Enforcement agencies decided to start a system to keep track of children's fingerprints. They used this system as a means of tracking down missing children. The person who founded Fingerprint America was Christ Migliaro.