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1250 BCE
13th Century China
This was the first case ever recorded using forensic science. When someone was stabbed, police collected all the knives in the village were collected. They then used flies to trace the blood on the murder weapon, which caused the suspect to confess -
Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu was considered the father of toxicology. He published the first scientific paper on the detection of poisons and their effect on animals -
William Herschel
William used thumbprints to identify workers in India. -
Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse was called the "Father of Criminal Identification" because he developed anhropoemetry which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals. -
Henry Fauld
Henry used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arther published his first 'Sherlock Holmes' story; It was considered the first "CSI", featured in four novels and 56 short stories, popularized scientific crime-detection methods. -
Francis Galton
Francis published Finger Prints. He also conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification. He then gave proof of their uniqueness. -
Hans Gross
Hans wrote the first paper describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation. He then published Criminal Investigation. -
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Discovered the ABO blood groups, but he didn't discover the AB blood group. He later then recieved a nobel prize. -
Edmond Locard
Edmond incorporated Gross' principles within a workable crime lab. He became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Albert S. Osborn
Albert published questioned documents. He developed the fundamental principles of document examination. -
Leone Lattes
Leone developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood. -
August Vollmer
August established the first crime lab in the United States, which was located in Los Angeles. -
Calvin Goddard
Calvin developed a comparison microscope. He first used to compare bullets to see if they were fired from the same weapon.