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44 BCE
death of an emperor
Julius Caesar was assassinated and a autopsy was performed on him. It was determined that 1 of 23 wounds was fatal -
400
Who determines cause of death
Germanic and Slavic societies made law that medical experts must be the ones to determine cause of death in crimes. -
Jan 1, 600
use of finger prints for the first time
Arabic merchants would take a debtor's fingerprint and attach it to the bill. -
Jan 1, 1248
First forensic science book
This was the first known record of medical knowledge being used to solve criminal cases. -
poison investigation
German chemist Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach -
Chemical testing utilized
James Marsh, an English chemist, uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as the cause of death in a murder trial. -
First uses of photos in identification
San Francisco uses photography for criminal identification, the first city in the US to do so. -
Guns are unique
Victor Balthazard realizes that tools used to make gun barrels never leave the same markings, and individual gun barrels leave identifying grooves on each bullet fired through it. He developed several methods of matching bullets to guns via photography. -
Crime labs built
First police crime lab established in Los Angeles. -
Lie detection
Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations.
