MURDER BAGS

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 16

MURDER BAGS

FOR SCOTLAND YARD MEN. Scotland Yard detectives have been supplied with what is officially knoun as the murder bag. » It is a brown leather hag packed with scientific instruments and other articles which are essential in the investigation of grave crimes, particularly murder. Five of those bags have so far been provided primarily for the use of chief inspectors of tho Criminal Investigation Department when they go out of town to assist county and local police forces in elucidating baffling mysteries, but, of course, they will lie used in London whenever tho occasion arises. Each murder bag contains the following articles;— Complete apparatus for taking linger pi iuts. Two test tubes for specimens, such as hair or bits of clothing. Two magnifying glasses. Two pairs of rubber gloves. One rubber apron. A pair of scissors. Large and small forceps. A tin of disinfectant and a packet of disinfectant tablets. A towel and a tablet of soap. A roll of tape. > A surveyor’s tape measure. An electric torch. n two-foot rule. A compass for determining, the exact position in which a body is found, and for other purposes. A pair of handcuffs. The importance and value of giving detective officers all the aids that modern science can suggest in the investigation of crime cannot be overestimated. Anyone who handles a dead body, as a detective must, runs a grave risk of septic poisoning unless Ids hands and clothing are adequately protected. A surgeon wears rubber gloves and a rubber apron, and in future detectives will bo similarly safeguarded. The purpose of the other articles is apparent. Tho detective with the aid of a magnifying glass and forceps will be able to find and pick up minute particles which often form powerful links in the chain of evidence, and these will be carefully preserved in tost tubes for the examination oi analytical experts. Finally, there are handcuffs which the detective after a long and anxious inquiry will presumably fasten on the wrists of tho villain of the piece, exclaiming as he does so: “I am Chief Inspector Argus, of New Scotland Yard, I arrest you on a charge of murder, but 1 warn you not to say anything. If you do, F shall take down every word, and it will be used* in evidence,” and so forth.