History of Forensics

1. History of Forensics How science and civil law came together.

2. People to Know • Mathieu Orfilia – The Father of Forensic Toxicology • Alphonse Bertillion- developed, anthropometry (system of body measurements) (precedes fingerprinting) • Francis Galton- classified fingerprints • Leone Lattes- developed test to determine the blood type in dried blood

3. Calvin Goddard- Established the comparison microscope for investigating firearms • Albert Osborn- developed principle for document examination. • Walter C. McCrone- responsible for educating thousands of forensic scientists in microscopy technique

4. Hans Gross- wrote first book dedicated to the application of scientific disciplines to the field of criminal investigation. • Edmond Locard- Developed the concept of the Locard Exchange Principle (whenever two objects come in contact, there is always an exchange of materials between them—no matter how microscopic)

5. Forensic Timeline • 700’s- Chinese used fingerprints to establish identity of documents and clay sculpture, but without any formal classification system. • 1000- in Rome, a court case showed bloody palm prints were used to frame a blind man of his mothers murder • 1248 A Chinese book, contained descriptions of how to distinguish between drowning and strangulation.

6. 1784- In Lancaster England- John Toms was convicted of murder based on the torn edge of a newspaper found in his pistol as well as a piece in his pocket. This was the first documented use of physical matching.

7. 1813- Mathieu Orfilia- writes a book on forensic toxicology • 1864- Odelbrecht first advocates for the use of photography for identifying criminals and the documentation of evidence and crime scences • 1880- Henry Faulds, suggested fingerprints at the scene of a crime could identify a criminal.

8. 1883- Alphonse Bertillon, invented anthropometry • 1887- Arthur Conan Doyle publishes first Sherlock Holmes story. • 1891- Hans Gross published book describing uses of physical evidence in solving crimes. • 1892- Francis Galton published book on the nature and use of fingerprints.

9. 1892- Case of mother killing her own child was accused based on her fingerprints in Argentina. Argentina was the first country to replace anthropometry with fingerprints. • 1900- Karl Landsteiner develops human blood groups of A, B, AB, and O. • 1903- New York State Prison system is first to use Fingerprints for criminal identification in the U.S.

10. 1904 Locard publishes concept of the Locard Exchange Principle. • 1905- President Rosevelt establishes Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) • 1910- Albert S. Osborne becomes most influential document examiner • 1913- Victor Balthazard publishes the first article on bullet markings

11. 1915- Leone Lattes develops antibody to identify ABO blood groups. • 1916- Albert Schneider first uses vaccuum aparatus to collect trace evidence. • 1920’s- Calvin Goddard uses comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison. • 1920’s- Luke May pioneers striation analysis in tool mark comparison.

12. 1923- In Frye vs. United States polygraph test results were ruled inadmissible. • 1932- The FBI crime lab was created • 1941- Murray Hill studies voiceprint identification. • 1945- Frank Lundquist developed the acid phosphatase test for semen. • 1954- R.F. Borkenstein invented the Breathalyzer for field sobriety testing.

13. 1960- Lucas applied gas chromatography to identify gasoline. • 1974- The detection of gunshot residue using scanning electron microscopy was developed. • 1977- The FBI introduced the beginnings of automated fingerprint identification. • 1986- DNA was first used to exonerate an innocent suspect. Also first use of DNA to solve a crime.

14. 1987- DNA profiling was introduced for the first time in US criminal courts. • 1996- In Tennessee v. Ware, mitochondrial DNA typing was admitted for the first time in a US court.