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1200
13th Century China
After a man was murdered in a town within China, all knives were collected from the village members. Whichever knife the flies that had gathered around the body landed on, the person who owned it would be found guilty. The man who was convicted later confessed to the crime. -
Mathieu Orfila
Was considered the "Father of Modern Toxicology" due to him discovering that many tests involved with the poisons used to find murderers guilty or innocent were inaccurate. He spent many months testing the different poisons, and later published a book known as "Treatise of Poisons". -
William Herschel
Used thumbprints on documents to identify workers in India. -
Alphonse Batillon
“Father of Criminal Identification”. Developed Anthropometry which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Faulds
Uses 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 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 a criminal investigation. Published Criminal Investigation. -
Karl Landsteiner
Discovered the ABO blood 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 the United States, located in Los Angeles. -
Calvin Goddard
Developed a comparison microscope; first used to compare bullets to see if fired from the same weapon.
