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1200
13th Century China
The first ever case recorded to have used forensic science. In a village in 13th century China, a man was stabbed with a knife. To solve the case, all the people in the village were gathered with their knives. While grouped, flies began to fly around the suspect's knife. The suspect confessed to his crime. -
Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu Orfila, the father of Forensic Toxicology, published a scientific paper on the detection of poisons and the effects of them on animals. -
William Herschel
Used thumbprints to help identify his workers in India. Early example of fingerprinting for identification. -
Alphonse Bertillon
Bertillon became the father of criminal identification. He developed the anthropometry uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Faulds
Henry Faulds used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Doyle published his first novel on the detective Sherlock Holmes. The story of Holmes would soon expand to feature four novels and 56 short stories. -
Francis Galton
In 1892, Galton published Finger Prints, a definitive study of fingerprints and classifications. Also the study proved the individual uniqueness of everyone's fingerprints. -
Hans Gross
In 1893, Gross published Criminal Investigation, a paper over using scientific principles in the criminal investigation field. -
Karl Landsteiner
Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood type groups, and won a Nobel Prize for the discovery. -
Edmond Locard
Locard incorporated Hans Gross' principles of scientific investigation and made them into the first workable crime lab. Locard later became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Albert S. Osborn
Osborn published "Questioned Documents" in 1910, and Osborn also developed the principles for document examination. -
Leone Lattes
Lattes developed the first method for determining blood type from dried blood -
August Vollmer
In 1923, Vollmer established the first crime lab in the United States. The crime lab was created in Los Angeles. -
Calvin Goddard
Goddard developed the first comparison microscope. The device was developed to compare the scratch marks on bullets from rifling to those of bullets found on the crime scene.
