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1235
First Case - 13th Century China
A villager was stabbed to death and authorities determined that his wounds were inflicted by a sickle. The villagers assembled in the town square where they would temporarily relinquish their sickles. Within minutes, a mass of blow flies gathered around one sickle and none other, attracted to the scent of traces of blood unseen by the naked eye. It became apparent to all that the owner of that sickle was the culprit. -
Mathieu Orfila
Considered to be the "father of toxicology" because he published the first scientific treatise on the detection of poisons and the effects on animals -
William Herschel
Used thumbprints on documents to identify workers in China. -
Alphonse Bertillon
"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
publish "finger prints" conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification, gave proof of their uniqueness -
Hans Gross
wrote the first paper describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation, published "criminal investigation" -
Karl Landsteiner
discovered the ABO groups, later received nobel prize -
Edmond Locard
incorporated gross' principles within 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. developed the fundamental. principles of document examination -
Leone Lattes
Developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood -
August Vollmer
established the first crime lab in US located in LA -
Calvin Goddard
developed a comparison microscope; first used to compare bullets to see if fired from the same weapon