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1400
First Recorded Case
A man was stabbed so all the knives in the village were collected. Flies were attracted to the traces of blood and landed on only one knife. The owner of the knife confessed to the crime. -
Father of Forensic Toxicology
Mathieu Orfila published the first scientific paper on the detection of poisons and their effect on animals. -
William Herschel
Used thumbprints on documents to verify workers in India -
Father of Criminal Identification
Alphonse Bertillon developed anthropometry which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Fauld
Uses fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Published his forst "Sherlock Holmes" story and therefore popularized scientific crime-detection methods. -
Francis Galton
Published "Finger Prints" and conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification therefore giving proof of their uniqueness. -
Hans Gross
Published "Criminal Investigation" and wrote the first paper describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation. -
Karl Landsteiner
Discovered the A, B, O blood groups -
Edmond Locard
Incorporated Hans Gross' principles in a workable crime lab. Became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France -
Albert S. Osborn
published "Questioned Documents" and developed the fundamental principles of document examination -
Leone Lattes
Developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood. -
August Vollmer
Established the 1st crime lab in the United States. It is located in Los Angles, California -
Calvin Goddard
Developed a comparison microscope that was first used to compare bullets to see if they were fired from the same weapon.
