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Period: 1200 to 1299
13th Century China
A murder near a rice field. The victim had been slashed repeatedly, and investigators suspected the weapon used was a sickle. The local magistrate brought all the workers together and told them to lay down their sickles. Though all the tools looked clean, one quickly attracted hordes of flies. The flies could sense the residue of blood and tissue invisible to the human eye. When confronted by this jury of flies, the murderer confessed to the crime. -
Mathieu Orfila
"Father if Foresnsic Toxicology." Orfila worked to make chemical analysis a routine part of forensic medicine, and made studies of asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation. -
William Herschel
Used thumbprints on documents to identify workers in India. -
Alphonse Bertillion
"Father of Criminal Identification." Developed Anthropometry which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Faulds
Used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Published his first Sherlock Holmes story; considered the first "CSI," featured in four novels and 56 short stories, popularized scientific crime-detection methods. -
Francis Galton
Published "Finger Prints." Conducted the first defenitive study of fingerprints and their classification. Gave proof of their uniqueness -
Hans Gross
Wrote first paper describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation. Published "Criminal Investigation." -
Karl Landsteiner
Discovered the ABO blood groups, later recieved Nobel Prize. -
Edmond Locard
Incorperated Gross' principles within a worable crime lab; became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Albert S. Osborn
Published "Questioned Documents." Developed the fundemental principles of document examination. -
Leone Lattes
Developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood. -
August Vollmer
Established the first crime lab in the United States, located in Los Angeles. -
Calvin Goddard
Developed a comparison microscope; first used to compare bullets to see if they were fired from the same weapon.
