TOLD A TALE

NZ Truth, Issue 1144, 3 November 1927, Page 7

TOLD A TALE

Another Triumph For Fingerprints

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Rep.) It was unfortunate for Sidney Adams and Edward Johnson that when they set out to force the door at the back of Walter Saddler's shop they forgot that there were such things as gloves m the world. FOR they left behind a rich array of finger-prints which a Wellington jury could not disregard and which will result m their thinking unkind things about the man who invented the finger-print system for a year or two to come. Police witnesses reconstructed the attempt for the benefit of the court. The imprint of Johnson's whole four fingers and the heel of his hand were upon the door just m the position where a man would steady it if he gripped the handle with his left hand while a jemmy was being, employed on the edge. Down the hinged side of the door was the mark of this jemmy and found on the other side — as if he stra;hed :t towards him while he levered down with his instrument — were fingerprints of the powerful Adams. . Practically all the stocks of tobacco m the shop were stolen and nothing was recovered. It was Johnson's error m grasping the door which gave the men away. For Johnson was already "known to the police" and the impressions of his finger-tips were carefully stored away along with a large number of other gentlemen with records. Indeed, Senior-Sergeant Dinnie, of the criminal registration branch, told the court that when the prints were brought to him, though they were not extremely good impressions, he searched through their records of 44,000 persons and lighted on Johnson's card within one hour. After that it was only a question of finding Johnson. Once the men were found and thoir finger-prints taken the rest was easy. It appeared that the two men had been sharing rooms behind Saddler's hairdressing saloon and tobacconist's shop, but had left them a few days before the robbery. Butler, a man who did not appear m the case, had rented the rooms, but the rent for them had fallen into arrears and Saddler had taken the effective step' of cutting off the electric light until the money owing to him was handed over. ONE IN MILLIONS This had provoked a rare old shindy Creagh, a fourth man m the rooms behind the shop, had wanted to show Saddler just what he thought of him and had been rather violent aboMt it. Johnson and Adams had pulled him away from the hairdresser and there had been a scuffle round about the door dividing the saloon from the back rooms on which the finger-prints were found. Later, Creagh having broken away, Adams pursued him into the shop, where there had been "a proper dustup all round." Stunned by the blow from a bottle which had cut his head open, Adams had groped his way back towards the rear, handling the door on the way. That, at least, was Adams' story of how he had come to place his fingerprints on that annoying piece of wood. The unfortunate part of it was that it gave no explanation of Johnson's imprints. Adams, moreover, declared that Johnson had not handled the door at all. Lawyer Leicester, who appeared for both the prisoners, made no bones about the impressions being those of the accused men. 1 There was, he said, only one chance m 460,000 millions of two people having the same fingerprints. He would not ask the jury to give the prisoners only that chance. Similarly, he did not take the risk of placing Johnson m the box, where his previous history might nave come out. The jury was somewhat puzzled at the absence of other finger-prints on the door. When an explanation was demanded lt was revealed that — as much as anything — the men m the dock owed their misfortune to Saddler's habit of dusting the door every day. Nevertheless, it took the twelve men almost two hours to arrive at a verdict and then they had to come back and ask Jud^ge MaeGregor's opinion as to intent after an hour of deliberation.