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1201
13th Century China
This was the very first case to use forensics. There had been a stabbing in a village, so all of the knives among the villagers were collected. The knife that had blood on it had attracted flies to it, pushing the person to confess their crime. -
Mathieu Orfila
Orfila is considered the "Father of Forensic Toxicology." He was a chemist who had published the first scientific paper on the detection of poisons and their effects on animals. -
William Herschel
Herschel used thumbprints on documents to identify workers in India. -
Alphonse Bertillon
Bertillon is described as the "Father of Criminal Identification." He developed anthropology, which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Faulds
Used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Doyle published his first Sherlock Homes story; Considered the first "CSI" or crime scene investigator. He is featured in four novels and 56 short stories, and popularized scientific crime-detection methods. -
Francis Galton
Galton published "Finger Prints." He conducted the first study of fingerprints and their classification, and he gave proof of each fingerprints' uniqueness. -
Hans Gross
Gross wrote the first paper describing the application of scientific principles into the field of criminal investigation. He published the book "Criminal Investigation." -
Karl Landsteiner
Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood groups, and he later received the Nobel Prize. -
Albert S. Osborn
Osborn published the "Questioned Documents." He also developed the fundamental principles of document examination. -
Edmond Locard
Locard incorporated Hans Gross' principles within a workable crime lab. Locard because the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Leone Lattes
Lattes developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood. -
August Vollmer
Vollmer established the first crime lab in the United States, located in Los Angeles. -
Calvin Goddard
Goddard developed a comparison microscope, which was first used to compare bullets in order to see if they were fired from the same weapon.
