SCIENCE HELPS THE FORCES OF LAW IN THE CEASELESS FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM AND MURDER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 338, 27 September 1932, Page 7

SCIENCE HELPS THE FORCES OF LAW IN THE CEASELESS FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM AND MURDER

L. W.

Holmes

By

THE criminal of to-day realises that science is his greatest foe, and perhaps nowhere else in the world is the science of crime detection better organised than in the United States. People in Europe and in the Dominions are apt to believe that, because the racketeers, hijackers, and gunmen of America have' things very much their own way, the anti-eriminal forces of the country are grossly inetficient. This is not the case. It is only corruption and fear that saves the gangster from his just fate. The evidence against them is there, but juries will not return verdicts when they know that their lives are forfeit if they do so. Apart from gang crimes, murderei's, forgers, and various other criminals are brought to justice in most cases. Science has done a great deal to bring most of them to the prison gates. An example of scientific detection was given in England during the recent Vera Page murder. The police showed that they were able to distinguish between different types oi lint and bandage which to the ordinary man would seem exactly alike. I should point out, of course, that scientific evidence of this type may just as well prove a man innocent as prove him guilty. In the case of a man charged with and acquitted of the murder of a girl at Portsmouth, England, grass seeds found in the turn-ups of his trousers were produced in evidence. In yet another case sawdust found in a man's pockets was classified and used as evidence against him. Some time ago I brought to justice an audacious American criminal beeause of a few scraps of paint flakes found on a screwdriver in his posses-

sion. This crook had taken a position as servant in the home of a wealthy Detroit man, and his general behaviour left nothing to be desired. One night the residence was broken into, and the evidence pointed to the work of an "outside" gang who knew their job pretty well. The police officers handling the case did not believe that the robbery had been effected with the help of anyone inside the residence, and consequently they concentrated on finding clues that would lead them to the gangsters. I had been called into this particular case, and noticed that the door had heen forced with a heavy chisel. For some reason I became suspicious of the crooked servant and searched his rooms. We unearthed a chisel, which was in itself relatively unimportant. Anyone might possess a chisel, and if it was capable of forcing the door, then so were millions of others in existence. I took the chisel to police headquarters, and after microscopic examination, infinitesimal pieces of paint found at its head were provedto be of the same kind as that used recently to paint the doorway of the lxouse. In this way the criminal was brought to justice. He had robbed the house from inside, and smashed the door to make it look like an outside job! Deductions as to the make of a car can be made by the imprints of tyres, and evidence of this nature is now admissible in the United States courts. Science has now reached a stage where specks of earth or gravel found in the ridges of tyres are classified and thus definite evidence may be produced that the car was at a certain plaee at a certain time. Classification even enables the detective to say what load, and therefore how many passengers were in a car.

One of the latest known methods of scientific deduction is that of checking up on doors to prove at what hour they have been opened. Nowadays if a man states that he returned home at a certain time, locksmiths can check his evidence by working out how many times the door has been opened within an hour. Although this may not be conclusive evidence, it is useful in giving detectives a line to work upon. Much has been said lately about the new drug "Scopalamin" invented by an American scientist, which is claimed to force persons under its influence to tell the truth. I have seen this drug tested, and I have no doubt that it will in future prove a great blessing to the agents of justice. The man who underwent the test which I saw was a sceptic, and took the drug determined to answer untruthfully every question put to him. After the inj ection he lay down, and after a few minutes certain personal questions — which I am sure he would not have answered truthfully had he been in possession of his faculties — were put to him. His answers were obviously correct, and when at the conclusion of the experiment a list of questions and answers were put to him, he admitted that the test had been successful. Scopalamin, I was told, has the effect of dulling the brain to the extent that while p^rt of it wishes to answer a question as quickly as possible, the rest struggles for a suitable reply. The result is that the truth, which, of course, instantly suggests itself to the person under examination, comes out before he can fabricate another story. R is a wonderful invention, and as weft 6s finding the guilty should ab-

solve the innocent. Already many criminals undergoing punishment in American penitentiaries are aslcing to be put under Scopalamin in order that their stories of innocence may be attested. The "lie-deteetor" is another instrument that will soon be adopted by the police of the world. It has only been in existence for a couple of years, and police have been cliary of trying it out. Its use was forbidden by the courts of the State of Washington after tests were appliecl to a man suspected of murder. This man was last seen with a young official of the Navy Department, when he was on his way to Seattle to sail for Manila, where he would have become secretary to the American Admiral. He disappeared and it was believed that he had been murdered and his body buried. © The "lie-detector" registers reaction to certain suggestions, and this man was being tested- by the indication of certain points on a map. When the detector registered a jump, it meant that the patient was afraid they were getting close to liis victim's grave. The police had narrowed down the vicinity of the supposed grave to within a few square miles, when an application to the State Courts on behalf of the accused caused the tests td be abandoned. Crime has been further foiled ^ in America by reason of the installation of the machine known as the "crookcatcher." Whenever a job of any kind is "pulled" near a district police station, the station types a report of the affair on to a special machine, and this in tuni types a similar report on the machines of hundreds of stations for miles around. As this machine has been installed in most American police stations, motor bandits are finding it hard work to get clear of a district before their preS* • ence is reported. !