Science and the Criminal
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Title: Science and the Criminal
Author: C. Ainsworth Mitchell
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENCE AND THE CRIMINAL ***
SCIENCE AND THE CRIMINAL
_UNIFORM WITH THIS BOOK_
HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION
By BERNARD HOLLANDER, M.D.
"It is the work of a man of established reputation, who has devoted
himself for years to the subject, and whose aim it is to tell what
Hypnotism really is, what it can do, and to what conclusions it seems to
point."--_Globe._
[Illustration: TRIAL OF CAROLINE RUDD
_Frontispiece_]
SCIENCE AND THE CRIMINAL
BY C. AINSWORTH MITCHELL
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1911
TO MARK HANBURY BEAUFOY, ESQ., J.P. AS A MARK OF REGARD AND ESTEEM
PREFACE
In the following pages I have endeavoured to give some account of the ways
in which scientific discovery has been utilised in the struggle between
society and the criminal.
I have tried to describe the principles upon which different kinds of
scientific evidence are based, and at the same time to bring human
interest into what would otherwise tend to be dry detail by giving an
outline of trials in which such evidence has been given. It is, perhaps,
hardly necessary to mention that in many of these illustrative trials the
accused persons were proved innocent of the charges brought against them,
and that although their cases were tried in the criminal courts the title
of the book in no way applies to them.
For the accounts of the older trials I have drawn freely upon Cobbett's
_State Trials_, Paris and Fonblanque's _Medical Jurisprudence_, and the
first edition of Taylor's _Medical Jurisprudence_, while I must also
acknowledge my indebtedness to the _Circumstantial Evidence_ of Mr.
Justice Wills and the recent excellent lectures on _Forensic Chemistry_,
by Mr. Jago.
In the later cases I have mainly relied upon contemporary accounts and
upon my own impressions of some of the trials at which I have been
present.
My best thanks are due to all those who have given me valuable and
ungrudging assistance. In particular I would mention Major Richardson, who
has kindly given me a photograph of one of his trained bloodhounds and has
allowed me to quote the description of an actual man hunt with
bloodhounds, from his book, _War, Police, and Watch Dogs_; and
Mademoiselle Arlette Clary (and the _Daily Mirror_) who have supplied me
with a photograph of a Paris police dog.
I am further indebted to the late Sir Francis Galton and his publishers,
Messrs. Macmillan & Co., who gave me permission to reproduce illustrations
from his book on _Finger Prints_; and to Mr. Thorne Baker and the _Daily
Mirror_ for photographs illustrating the use of telegraphy in transmitting
portraits.
The excellent drawings of the hairs of different animals were made by my
friend Mr. R. M. Prideaux, and are reproduced here by the kind permission
of Messrs. Scott Greenwood & Co.
Finally, I would thank the proprietors of _Knowledge_ and the Editor, Mr.
Wilfred Mark Webb, for the loan of various blocks and for permitting me to
make use of material from several articles of mine on handwriting, which
have appeared in that journal.
C. A. M.
_White Cottage,
Amersham Common,
Buckinghamshire._
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Conflict between the Law-maker and the Law-breaker--
Illustrations of Deductive Reasoning in Criminal Cases--
Scientific Evidence--Scientific Assistance for the
Accused--Instances of Advantages of Conflict of Scientific
Evidence--Scientific Partisanship 1
CHAPTER II
DETECTION AND CAPTURE OF THE CRIMINAL
Contrasts between Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries--Margaret Catchpole--Tawell--Crippen--Portraits
and the Press--Charlesworth Case--Bloodhounds--Police
Dogs--Circumstantial Detection 22
CHAPTER III
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
McKeever's Experiment on Fallibility of Eye-witnesses--
Gorse Hall Murder--Cases of Mistaken Identity--Gun-flash
Recognition--Self-deception--Tichborne Case 37
CHAPTER IV
SYSTEMS OF IDENTIFICATION
Photography--Anthropometry--Finger-prints and their Uses 48
CHAPTER V
IDENTIFICATION AND HANDWRITING
Heredity--Emotional Influences--Effects of Disease on
Handwriting 70
CHAPTER VI
EVIDENCE AS TO HANDWRITING
Illustrative Cases--Handwriting Experts 85
CHAPTER VII
FORGED DOCUMENTS
Use of Microscope--Erasures--Photographic Methods--
Typewritten Matter--Examinations of Charred Fragments--
Forgery of Bank Notes 93
CHAPTER VIII
DISTINGUISHING INKS IN HANDWRITING
Elizabethan Ink--Milton's Bible--Age of Inks--Carbon
Inks--Herculaneum MSS.--Forgery of Ancient Documents 105
CHAPTER IX
TWO NOTABLE TRIALS
Trial of Brinkley--Trial of Robert Wood 116
CHAPTER X
SYMPATHETIC INKS 130
CHAPTER XI
REMARKABLE FORGERY TRIALS
Trials--William Hale--The Perreaus--Caroline Rudd--Dr.
Dodd--Whalley Will Case--Pilcher, etc. 135
CHAPTER XII
IDENTIFICATION OF HUMAN BLOOD AND HUMAN HAIR
Structure of Blood--Human Blood--Blood of Animals--Blood
Crystals--Libellers of Sir E. Godfrey--Trial of Nation in
1857--Physiological Tests--Precipitines--First Trial in
France--Gorse Hall Trials--Human Hair--Hairs of Animals 154
CHAPTER XIII
EARLY POISONING TRIALS
Murder of Sir T. Overbury--Mary Blandy--Katharine Nairn,
etc. 171
CHAPTER XIV
NOTABLE POISONING TRIALS
Use of Poisons--Arsenic and Antimony--Chapman Case--
Strychnine in Palmer Trial--Physiological Tests--Case of
Freeman--Error from Quantitative Deductions--Poisonous Food
Given to Animals--Mary Higgins--Negative Result of
Physiological Tests--Hyoscyamus Poisons--Crippen Case--
Experiment on Cats--Time Limit for Action of Arsenic--
French Case 190
CHAPTER XV
THE MAYBRICK CASE 206
CHAPTER XVI
ADULTERATION OF FOOD
National Loss from Adulteration--"Adulterated"
Electricity--The Beer Conner--Conflict of Evidence--The
Notice Dodge--Preservatives--Standards for Food--Court of
Reference--Administration of the Law 214
INDEX 239
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
TRIAL OF CAROLINE RUDD _Frontispiece_
WAR PLAN SENT BY WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 24
PHOTO SENT BY TELEGRAPHY FROM PARIS 26
PORTRAIT SENT BY "WIRELESS" 28
MAJOR RICHARDSON'S MAN-TRACKER "PATHAN" 30
FRENCH POLICE DOG 32
PURKENJE'S STANDARD FINGER-PRINTS 64
TYPES OF FINGER-PRINTS 66
HEREDITY IN HANDWRITING 71
INFLUENCE OF TRAINING ON HANDWRITING 74
SIGNATURES OF NAPOLEON AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF HIS CAREER 77
WRITERS' CRAMP 78
SPECIMEN OF AGRAPHIA 78
WRITING OF LENAU, BEFORE AND DURING INSANITY 79
WRITING OF HÖLDERLIN, BEFORE AND DURING INSANITY 79
MIRROR WRITING IN PARALYSIS 80
HYPNOTIC HANDWRITING 82
GARIBALDI'S SIGNATURE 83
DETECTION OF FORGERY BY MEANS OF CAMERA AND MICROSCOPE 100
FURTHER SPECIMENS OF DETECTION OF FORGERY, AND TESTS TO
DISTINGUISH OLD FROM NEW INKS 102
ELIZABETHAN DOMESTIC RECIPE FOR INK 107
THE TINTOMETER 109
GOAT'S AND COW'S HAIR 162
KANGAROO'S AND HUMAN HAIR, AND THE HAIR OF A CAT AND A DOG 164
FIBRES OF CHINESE SILK 164
RABBIT'S AND HORSE-HAIR 166
WOOL FIBRES FROM DIFFERENT BREEDS OF SHEEP 168
COTTON AND FLAX FIBRES 170
ANNE TURNER 172
Science and the Criminal
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Conflict between the Law-maker and the Law-breaker--Illustrations of
Deductive Reasoning in Criminal Cases--Scientific Evidence--Scientific
Assistance for the Accused--Instances of Advantages of Conflict of
Scientific Evidence--Scientific Partisanship.
In the constant state of warfare between the law-maker and the
law-breaker, which began when mankind first organised itself into
communities and has existed ever since, every new invention or practical
application of scientific discovery has supplied each side with new
weapons frequently of much greater precision.
The advantage thus conferred tends to be on the side of the law-maker but
not invariably so; for in spite of all the facilities of investigation now
available it is surprising how many crimes remain undetected, or how
frequently in suspicious cases it is impossible to discover the truth. The
law-breaker's primitive weapon of natural cunning has thus often proved
more than a match for all the weapons at the disposal, of his opponent.
There is much to be said, therefore, for the suggestion which has recently
been put forward on many sides that a department specially trained for
the work of criminal investigation should be created.
Under the present conditions the rank and file of the detective force,
recruited as it is from the best of the uniformed policemen, contains many
men of acute intellect and reasoning capacity, but it cannot be doubted
but that in many cases their efficiency would have been enormously
increased by a scientific training.
The present system somewhat recalls that under which doctors acquired
their knowledge of medicine in the early part of last century. Their
mistakes taught them what not to do, but in the meantime the patient
sometimes died.
Methods of scientific reasoning so as to draw deductions from observed
facts cannot be acquired by solitary night watches upon a "beat," nor does
the facility for breaking up a tangle in traffic which the constable
acquires as the outcome of his daily duties, necessarily render him more
capable of extricating from a mass of confused details the essential facts
upon which stress should be laid.
In some of the unsolved mysteries that have occurred during the last few
years the presence of a highly trained intellect at the first hour of the
investigation might conceivably have led to the detection of the criminal.
As a rule, it is only after the first examination is over and the case
appears likely to be a difficult one, that the best brains of the
department are brought to bear upon the facts, and it may then be too late
for effective action.
It should be made possible for a man who possesses a facility for this
type of work to join the criminal investigation department without having
to go through the routine work of a police constable, which will probably
add nothing to his powers of following up a clue; but, on the other hand,
this period of probation should be occupied by practical training in
scientific methods of working.
The present conditions both of payment and of status are not of the kind
that will attract the highest type of brain to the work of criminal
investigation, and yet there is no reason why it should not be made to
offer the advantages of other branches of professional work.
An apt illustration of the use of acute observation and deduction in
solving a mystery is afforded by the strange story of a shooting accident,
that, according to a writer in one of the leading morning papers, took
place many years ago.
A country gentleman was found lying dead upon a sofa, with the whole of
the charge of a sporting gun in his body. The discharged gun was hanging
in its usual place upon the wall, and there were no indications of any
struggle having taken place. All the circumstances apparently pointed to
the man having been murdered in his sleep, for it was impossible for him
to have shot himself and have then replaced the gun upon the wall, and
strong suspicion fell upon one of the servants in the house.
This man was arrested, and would probably have been convicted had it not
been for the detective noticing that the dead man's watch, which had been
smashed by some of the shot, had been stopped early in the afternoon, and
that at exactly the same moment the sun was focussed through a bottle of
water that was standing upon the table in such a way that the ray fell
upon the nipple of the gun upon the wall.
Accordingly he loaded the gun again, hung it in the same spot, and placed
a dummy figure upon the sofa, and as soon as the sun's rays passed through
this unintended burning-glass and were focussed upon the gun, an explosion
occurred and the contents were discharged into the figure.
The writer has been unable to trace the date of this occurrence, but even
if it is not founded upon fact it is not impossible, for there are
undoubtedly cases where papers have been set on fire by the rays of the
sun being concentrated upon them, through a bottle of water.
An instance of the way in which one small fact may give conclusive proof
that a crime has been committed is afforded by the trial of Swan and
Jefferies in the early part of last century.
The prisoners, who were indoor servants, had committed a murder and then
raised an alarm with the object of throwing the suspicion upon burglars,
who they alleged had broken into the house. But an examination of the
grass outside the house showed that although dew had fallen heavily
through the night there were no indications of its having been disturbed
by footsteps. This piece of circumstantial evidence led to their arrest,
and they were subsequently convicted and executed.
Equally convincing were the clues that led to the arrest of Courvoisier in
1840, for the murder of Lord William Russell, who was then seventy-five
years of age.
The prisoner had only been in the service of the murdered man for a short
time. He stated that on the night before the murder he had left his master
reading in bed, as was his frequent custom, and a fact in support of this
was that the candle had burned down to the socket.
Early in the morning the housemaid found the silver plate scattered about
the room, and various articles of value tied up in bundles, as though
burglars had broken into the house and had been interrupted in their work.
She called Courvoisier, and he appeared almost immediately, fully dressed,
and going into the room of Lord William Russell found him with his throat
cut.
On a door were marks which indicated that it had been broken in by the
supposed burglars, but closer examination showed that the damage had been
done from the inside. In addition to this, any burglars entering the house
through this door must have passed over a wall, and this was found to be
thickly coated with dust which had not been disturbed.
For a long time no trace of the missing valuables were discovered, but
finally after a thorough search of the premises, some of the money was
found hidden behind the skirting in the pantry of the accused, while later
on the stolen plate was discovered in the keeping of a man with whom
Courvoisier had formerly lived.
Mainly on the circumstantial evidence of these facts the prisoner was
convicted; afterwards he made a full confession of the crime.
Clever deductive reasoning was also shown in the following case, in which
the author of a shooting outrage that occurred in 1831 at Ayr was
discovered in a singular manner. Someone had maliciously fired a gun into
a church, and had hoped to escape detection. It was noticed, however, that
some of the bullets, after having passed through the windows, had left a
mark upon the wall opposite. By drawing a straight line between these
marks and the holes in the windows, and extending the line outside the
church, the other end was found in a window on the other side of the
street. Subsequently other proof was obtained that the gun had been fired
from this window.
Numerous cases might also be quoted where the trained observation of a
doctor has called attention to some slight point which would otherwise
have been overlooked, but which has furnished the clue to the detection of
a crime.
In the year 1806 a man named Blight was shot with a pistol at Deptford by
someone unknown, and died from the wound. Sir Astley Cooper, who was
called in to attend to the victim, carefully noted the relationship of the
body to other objects in the room, and from the position of the wound
concluded that the shot had been fired by a left-handed person. This
inference drew suspicion upon a gentleman named Patch who was the only
left-handed person who had been seen with Mr. Blight. He was a close
personal friend of the latter, and no one had dreamed of suspecting him of
the crime. The results of further inquiries proved that this man had
fired the shot, and after his conviction he confessed that he had been
guilty of the murder.
The fact that a weapon is tightly held in the hand of a person who has
been shot is strong presumptive evidence that it is a case of suicide,
since it is improbable that the hand of a dead man could subsequently be
made to grasp a pistol.
There is a remarkable case on record, however, in which the fact that a
pistol was found clenched in the hand of a dead man was at first regarded
as evidence of a murder. A son of the deceased, who had slept in the same
room was accused of having killed him and of then placing the discharged
pistol in his hand to give the suggestion of suicide. Experiments were
made in which the hand holding the pistol was lifted into the position in
which it must have been held if it had been a case of suicide, and in each
instance the hand, when allowed to fall, did not retain the pistol. For
the defence medical evidence was given that the spasmodic contraction of
the muscles after death would account for the pistol being still clenched
in the hand, while the inability of the hand to grasp it afterwards did
not prove anything. Evidence as to the presence of a motive was given, but
the scientific evidence was regarded as decisive and the prisoner was
discharged.
The question whether a person who has apparently committed suicide could
possibly have made use of the degree of force to which circumstances
pointed has frequently arisen.
The most notable instance of the kind was in reference to the Earl of
Essex who was found dead in the Tower in July, 1683, his throat having
been cut. A razor was lying by his side with its blade notched, and public
opinion was strongly divided as to whether he had committed suicide or had
been murdered. The medical men who supported the former view explained the
notches upon the razor blade as the result of its having been drawn
backwards and forwards across the neck bone, although for a suicide to
have done this would have been an impossibility.
Occasions have arisen where a chemical expert has been asked to state
whether a gun or pistol found lying near a body has or has not been
recently discharged.
Even in the case of firearms that had been loaded with black powder no
very definite answer can usually be given to this question. Taylor
suggested that the presence of potassium sulphide (formed from the powder)
adhering to the barrel would indicate that the gun had recently been
fired, whereas after a short time this sulphide would become oxidised, and
no longer give the reactions of a sulphide. After a longer time traces of
iron oxide formed from the iron of the barrel might be expected.
It would not be safe to lay stress upon conclusions based upon such data
as these, and at best they could only afford corroborative evidence.
An amusing instance within the present writer's experience affords another
example of the way in which a trifling point being overlooked may be
strong presumptive evidence of attempted fraud. A family of the name of,
say, Abendessig, effected an insurance against burglary with a company
which may be described as the Safeguard Assurance Co.
It was not long before they were the unhappy victims of a burglary in
which Miss Abendessig lost several valuable pieces of jewellery including
a watch, a diamond ring, and several brooches.
In proof of her claim she produced receipts from the jeweller from whom
she stated she had bought these articles, the total value of which was
given at £150.
There were three receipts in all, dated at intervals of two or three
months, the first being made out to Miss Abendessig and the last to Mrs.
Lab, she having been married in the interval, and the second to her
father, Simeon Abendessig.
The Safeguard Assurance Co. had a suspicion that the jeweller, who had an
address but no shop, was in league with the Abendessigs, and that the
first and third receipts had been written at the same time.
The present writer was therefore asked to examine these documents to see
whether any evidence of the date of writing could be obtained.
They were both written in blue ink upon common billheads, but the fact
that the ink and paper were of the same kind was no proof that they were
not genuine receipts.
When, however, the receipt stamps were examined under the microscope it
was obvious that the right-hand side of one stamp corresponded with the
left-hand side of the other stamp. That is to say, the little projections
of paper left when two stamps are torn apart across the perforation
exactly coincided in every instance, a long projection on one being
matched by a short projection on the other, and so on.
The exact coincidence of seventeen points could not have been the result
of chance, and the stamps on the two receipts must therefore originally
have been attached to one another in the sheet.
The further inference was that the jeweller must either have torn them
apart and put one on the earlier receipt and the other on the later one at
the same time, or he must have had the second stamp put aside for three
months and then affixed it to the later receipt.
A much more obvious slip than this was made some years ago in a bogus
claim upon a fire insurance company, the story of which is related in Lord
Brampton's "Reminiscences." The fire broke out on the premises of a firm
of tailors, and it was claimed by them that the whole of their stock,
including many hundred pairs of trousers, had been destroyed.
The insurance company, after examining the burnt-out building, instructed
a number of their agents to sift carefully the whole of the ashes.
At the hearing of the case the counsel for the company remarked that it
was strange that in a fire in which so many pairs of trousers had been
burned the metal buttons upon them should not have been found.
On the next day the tailors appeared with a whole bucketful of buttons,
but their production was too late to be convincing, for the ashes had been
thoroughly sifted before the claimants attempted to make good their
oversight, and only a very few trouser buttons had been discovered.
On the other hand, the danger of jumping to a sudden conclusion from
circumstances has been frequently demonstrated. Thus, a very extraordinary
case in which some facts that clearly pointed to the guilt of a prisoner
were found to have misled many witnesses, was tried in 1813 at the assizes
at Bury St. Edmunds. A farmer who owned upwards of 1,200 acres was accused
of burglary, and as evidence against him it was positively stated that
certain articles in his possession had been stolen from the house. The
witnesses swore that they had identified some sheets by stains upon them
and a cask by the fact of its being marked with the letters P.C. 84 in a
circle. For the defence, witnesses stated that the prisoner was in
possession of sheets stained in exactly the same way, and that the cask
was one of those in which he had received cranberries from Norwich, all of
which casks were marked in the same manner. The prisoner was acquitted.
Scientific testimony is another form of the so-called "circumstantial
evidence," and as such is sometimes looked upon with suspicion. Yet in how
few cases is it possible to produce the man who can say, "I saw the deed
done," and even in such cases, what errors of identification may occur! In
far the greater number of crimes the proof must depend to a large extent
upon the evidence of circumstances. But these must be so convincing that
it is impossible in reason to draw any other conclusion from them. In this
country it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the guilt, and unless
that is done in such a way as to leave no shadow of doubt in the minds of
the jury, a prisoner is entitled to be acquitted.
There must be no speculation upon a man's guilt. A man is regarded as
innocent so long as it is impossible to connect to him the last link in a
long chain of circumstantial evidence.
In the brief accounts of various celebrated trials in the following pages
an attempt has been made to give an outline of the scientific
circumstantial evidence that has led to the conviction or acquittal of the
prisoners. In some of these trials proof of guilt has been overwhelming,
although the testimony of an eye-witness has been lacking, but in others
the Scotch verdict of "Not proven" (a curious equivalent of which,
however, was once given in the trial of Mrs. Rudd) would be a more fitting
deduction from the evidence, than the alternative of "Guilty" or "Not
guilty," which is all that is allowed by the English law.
A good illustration of the value of scientific proof was seen, in 1884, at
the trial of a woman named Gibbons on the charge of having shot her
husband.
For the defence it was urged that the man had committed suicide. There
were four bullet wounds from a revolver in the body, and the medical
evidence went to prove that although any one of the wounds might have been
inflicted by the man himself, it was extremely improbable that all of them
had been. Moreover, some of them were in such a position that they could
only have been self-inflicted if the revolver had been held in the left
hand, whereas witnesses testified that the deceased was not left-handed.
The prisoner was found guilty.
Attempts have frequently been made by defending counsel to obtain
permission for a scientific man to be present on behalf of a prisoner at
any examination made before a trial, but all such requests are invariably
refused.
It is quite a common occurrence, however, for the evidence given by
scientific witnesses for the prosecution to be controverted by scientific
witnesses for the defence, and the most recent instance of the kind at the
trial of Crippen will be fresh in the memory of everyone. Where there is
any possibility of doubt it should be possible for every prisoner to
obtain scientific assistance.
An accused person who lacks the means to procure legal assistance in his
defence has assigned to him by the Court a barrister who will represent
his interests and see that they do not suffer from ignorance of legal
technicalities.
This principle might well be extended so as to cover the ground of
scientific evidence. Under the present conditions the prosecution has
unlimited facilities for applying every description of test, but it has
not always been easy for the representatives of the accused person to
obtain scientific help in criticising the nature of this evidence.
Scientific evidence should be, and usually is, quite impartial, but the
everyday conflict of honest opinion in civil actions illustrates the
possibility of mistakes occurring or of certain points that would tell in
favour of the accused being overlooked.
For instance, suppose a stain on the clothes of a person accused of murder
were examined by a chemist for the prosecution and found to consist of
blood. The fact would tell against the accused, even though the witness
(as in a recent case) could express no opinion whether it was human blood,
or the blood of an animal. Assuming in this hypothetical trial that the
blood stain was really due to rabbit's blood, another chemist representing
the prisoner might be acquainted with the comparatively recent
physiological methods of distinguishing between the blood of different
animals, and thus be able to prove the real nature of the blood stain and
break one of the links in the chain of evidence.
In most of the important criminal trials the scientific evidence is given
by more than one witness, and the possibility of mistake is thus greatly
reduced, but this is not invariably the rule.
Scientific criticism derived from a first-hand examination of the material
would be of much more value than the criticism of the statement of the
results, and might have considerable weight upon the conclusions of the
jury.
A defending counsel cross-examining a scientific witness is usually
dealing with an unfamiliar subject, and lacks the specialised knowledge
that would enable him to point out the weak points in the evidence.
When a wealthy person is on trial, however, the counsel has the advantage
of getting the best expert advice upon the scientific matters put forward
in evidence, and is thus able to lay stress on all that will help his
client, but a poor prisoner lacks this advantage, and therefore runs a
greater chance of being convicted.
An early trial in which the prisoner owed his acquittal to a conflict of
scientific evidence was that of Spencer Cowper, the grandfather of
Cowper, the poet, who was tried at the Hertford Assizes in 1699 for the
murder of a young gentlewoman named Sarah Stout.
With Cowper were also tried several of his friends, whose remarks having
been overheard had suggested that they were aware of what had happened to
the girl.
Cowper, who was a barrister, defended himself and incidentally his
companions. The story told by the prosecution was that at the previous
Assizes the prisoner had stayed for a night at the house of Mrs. Stout,
the mother of Sarah Stout. The servant-maid stated that she had been told
to prepare Mr. Cowper's bed, and that when she came downstairs again, it
then being about eleven o'clock in the evening, he had gone out,
presumably with Sarah Stout, who was never again seen alive. The next day
her dead body was found floating upon the river.
The condition of the body was, it was asserted, conclusive proof that she
had been strangled and then thrown into the water; for, to quote the words
of the counsel for the prosecution, "when her body came to be viewed it
was very much wondered at; for in the first place it is contrary to nature
that any persons that drown themselves should float upon the water. We
have sufficient evidence that it is a thing that never was; if persons
come alive into the water, then they sink; if dead, then they swim. At
first it was thought that such an accident might happen though they could
not imagine any cause for this woman to do so, who had so great
prosperity, had so good an estate, and had no occasion to do an action
upon herself so wicked and so barbarous. Upon view of the body, it did
appear there had been violence used to the woman; there was a crease round
her neck, she was bruised about her ear; so that it did seem as if she had
been strangled either by hands or a rope."
The evidence brought forward to support the theory that Sarah Stout had
been killed, before being thrown into the water, included that of several
local doctors who had examined the body, and also that of several London
doctors who were called in as expert witnesses.
These all gave as their opinion that the body of a person who had been
drowned must contain water in the thorax, and that since no water was
present in the body, death must have been caused in some other way. Two
seamen of the Royal Navy were also put into the box, and both were
emphatic in their opinion that the body of a person who had been drowned
would sink, while a dead body thrown into the water would float.
Spencer Cowper, who, as has been stated, conducted his own defence,
cross-examined the medical witnesses and made them admit that they had no
knowledge of the way in which the body of a person who had drowned himself
would behave.
He entered a strong protest against the body having been examined after
the coroner's inquest (at which a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind
had been found) by medical men acting in the interests of the relations of
the dead woman, with the intention of becoming prosecutors. "If," said he,
"they intended to have prosecuted me or any other gentleman upon this
evidence, they ought to have given us notice, that we might have had some
surgeons among them to superintend their proceeding. My Lord, with
submission, this ought not to be given in evidence." The judge overruled
this objection, saying that supposing an ill thing had been done in taking
up the body without some order, that was no reason why the evidence should
not be heard.
In further cross-examination Mr. Cowper succeeded in throwing doubt upon
the statements of witnesses, who alleged that they had seen marks of
strangling, and produced witnesses to prove that any marks upon the body
had been the result of contact with stakes in the bed of the river. Then
he brought forward his own expert medical evidence, which was given by ten
of the leading doctors of the day, including Sir Hans Sloane and the
celebrated surgeon William Cowper. These held a different view from that
of the doctors called for the prosecution, and gave their reasons for
concluding that the appearance of the body was quite consistent with death
by drowning.
Some described experiments they had made upon animals, which proved that
when killed and thrown into the water the body sank at first and then rose
to the surface, and also that drowning could take place without much water
being swallowed.
As proof of the dead woman having been of a melancholy disposition and not
of sound mind, letters of hers were read to the jury, but these her mother
and brother would not admit were in her handwriting, since, they asserted,
it did not suit her character. (See p. 85.)
The judge, Sir Henry Hatsell, in summing up confessed that he was very
much puzzled, and that he perceived that "doctors do differ in their
notions about these things."
The conclusion of his remarks is worthy of quotation: "I am sensible I
have omitted many things; but I am a little faint, and cannot remember any
more of the evidence."
It is not surprising that, soon after Queen Anne came to the throne, he
was removed from the bench.
The jury believed the medical witnesses for the defence, and after a short
discussion found Spencer Cowper and the other prisoners "Not guilty."
To come to more modern times, the advantage of a conflict of scientific
opinion to the accused was seen in the celebrated Maybrick poisoning case.
At the trial evidence was given by Professor Tidy to the effect that the
symptoms and appearances were not those of arsenical poisoning and that
the amounts of arsenic found in the body were not greater than those
present in cases where arsenical medicines had been taken months before
death, and where there was no suspicion of poisoning. Although the
prisoner was convicted and sentenced to death, there can be little doubt
but that this evidence had an important influence in determining the
subsequent alteration of the sentence to penal servitude.
There is no necessity for such scientific assistance given to the defence
to degenerate into partisanship, such as was shown at the trial of Palmer
for poisoning in 1856. That case was characterised by many remarkable
features, the suspected person, for instance, being allowed access to the
bottle in which had been placed the material taken from the body for
analysis, and also being given the opportunity of attempting to destroy
it.
Prior to the trial, Taylor, the chemist who was to give evidence as to the
presence of poison in the body, communicated with the papers, while
Herapath, one of the witnesses called for the defence, publicly accused
Taylor of incompetence.
So acrid were the statements of the scientific witnesses for the defence
at the trial that the judge commented in vigorous terms upon their
evidence as having been given with the object of obtaining an acquittal at
all costs. "It is indispensable," he said, "to the administration of
justice that a witness should not be turned into an advocate, nor an
advocate into a witness."
In another poisoning trial which took place three years later, the
chemical evidence brought forward by the defence resulted in the prisoner
being set free, after having been sentenced to death. In this case a
doctor named Smethurst was accused of poisoning a young woman named
Isabella Banks.
Dr. Taylor, who was the chief chemical witness called for the prosecution,
had found arsenic in material from the body, although he could not detect
any remaining in the tissues. On the other hand, Dr. B. W. Richardson, who
was called as a witness for the defence, stated that arsenic was a
cumulative poison, and that if it had been given for a long period, as
alleged, traces must inevitably have been present. Hence in his opinion
the absence of arsenic in the tissues was conclusive proof that death was
not the result of slow arsenical poisoning.
The medical evidence called by the defence, also left room for some doubt
as to whether death might not have been the result of dysentery, the
symptoms and appearance, it was alleged, being as consistent with that
cause as with arsenical poisoning.
The scientific witnesses for the defence did not succeed in convincing the
jury, but after sentence of death had been passed the judge forwarded the
papers to the Home Secretary, and advised that the opinion of an
independent scientific authority should be taken. Accordingly the whole of
the chemical and medical evidence was studied by Sir B. Brodie, whose
report was that there were six reasons which led to the conclusion that
Smethurst was guilty, and eight reasons which pointed in the opposite
direction; and that, therefore, the impression left upon his mind, was
that the proof of Smethurst's guilt was not absolutely convincing.
The Home Secretary, on receiving this statement of opinion from his
scientific referee, immediately granted a free pardon. In this case, but
for the conflict of scientific opinion upon the medical and chemical
evidence the prisoner would have been hanged.
Instances such as these might be largely multiplied, but the above are
sufficient to show that a scientific defence may succeed in breaking down
the scientific evidence brought by the prosecution in criminal cases; or,
failing that, may (as in the Maybrick case) help to bring about a
commutation of the sentence.
There is thus abundant justification for the plea that the poor prisoner
should have the same advantages as regards scientific assistance as he now
possesses in legal matters, and thus be placed on an equality with a
wealthy prisoner.
It ought not to be a difficult matter to draw up a list of men of
recognised standing in chemistry and medicine, who would be willing to
serve in this capacity when selected by the judge in a trial.
CHAPTER II
DETECTION AND CAPTURE OF THE CRIMINAL
Contrasts between Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries--Margaret Catchpole--Tawell--Crippen--Portraits and the
Press--Charlesworth Case--Bloodhounds--Police Dogs--Circumstantial
Detection.
In the days of the stage-coach a fugitive had a better chance of escaping
than in the present age of steam power on land and sea. For then, slow as
were the ways of escape, the ways of advertising the crime were slower
still, and once on board a ship a runaway was comparatively safe from
arrest.
The story of Margaret Catchpole, which has now become almost classic, may
be cited as a good illustration of the way in which the pursuers were
handicapped, when the fugitive had had a few hours' start.
It was in 1797 that Margaret Catchpole, a servant-maid at Ipswich, stole a
horse from the stable of her master, in order to join her lover, and
disguised as a lad rode all the way to London in eight and a half hours,
with only a single stop at Marks Tey, in Essex.
A few hours later the horse was missed, and handbills describing it and
offering a reward for the capture of the thief were hurriedly printed and
sent out of Ipswich by every vehicle that left the town.
Two men were also despatched in pursuit along the London road, but being
falsely directed were about to turn off in the direction of Maldon, when
they chanced to meet a man who had seen Margaret riding to London. But
for this chance meeting Margaret would probably have escaped capture.
As it was, the pursuers reached London the following day and Margaret was
arrested just as she had concluded a sale of the horse with a dealer.
She was tried at the Bury Assizes and sentenced to death, but through the
influence of her former master the sentence was commuted to a term of
imprisonment.
Three years later her lover, Laud, who was a smuggler, assisted her to
escape from Ipswich gaol, and again handbills for her arrest were issued.
She was captured on the beach while in the act of embarking in Laud's
boat, and Laud himself was killed in the fight. For the second time she
was sentenced to death, and was once more reprieved, her sentence now
being transportation to Botany Bay. There she married, and died many years
later.
The introduction of the railway did not materially change the relative
position of pursuer and pursued; for although the fugitive could travel
more rapidly than before, and thus when chance favoured him could get to
the coast and on board a ship about to sail, he had against him the more
speedy notification of the crime in all directions, which was also
rendered possible by the railway.
It was not until a means of communication infinitely more rapid than the
steam engine had been discovered, that the balance turned decisively
against the man endeavouring to elude the grasp of the law.
It is strange to reflect that it was not until it had been employed in the
capture of a criminal that it was recognised in how many directions the
electric telegraph might be of service to mankind.
Prior to that time the invention had been little better than a failure
from a commercial point of view, for, although the railway companies had
some time before this realised the advantages of the new system of
communication, the Government had refused to have anything to say to it.
It was thus little short of a revelation to the public when, in 1845, the
news was made known that a suspected murderer had been arrested through
the agency of the telegraph.
A woman had been brutally murdered not far from Slough, and a neighbour,
who had heard her screams, rushed to the spot with a lighted candle in her
hand just in time to see a man in Quaker garb hurrying away.
This man, John Tawell by name, a former member of the Society of Friends,
succeeded in escaping unchallenged to the station and in catching a train
to London, and had it been two years earlier would probably have managed
to get out of England; for news still travelled slowly in those times, and
the train service to London was very infrequent.
But the police bethought them of the telegraph, which had not long been
established on the Great Western Railway, and a description of the wanted
man was sent over the wires to London. Although Tawell had had a good
start, the message arrived long before him, and detectives were awaiting
the arrival of the train at Paddington. He was followed from the station
to the Bank, and from there to an eating-house, where he had a meal,
and finally to a lodging-house in Cannon Street, where he meant to pass
the night. Here, much to his amazement, he was quietly arrested. His trial
followed in due course, and he was convicted and executed.
[Illustration: WAR PLAN SENT BY WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
_By kind permission of Mr. Thorne-Baker and "The Daily Mirror"_]
There were several points of scientific interest in his trial, which are
described on another page.
Last year, sixty-five years after the sensational capture of Tawell, the
attention of the whole world was rivetted upon an Atlantic steamer on its
way from Antwerp to Canada.
It had on board a man and a woman, who disguised as a Quebec merchant and
his son, were expecting to reach Canada without detection. For a week
previously search had been made for them in every corner of Europe, and
once on board a ship sailing from a foreign port they might reasonably
have anticipated that they were safe.
But their portraits had been so widely circulated by the newspapers that
their faces were familiar wherever English papers were read, and the ship
was only a few miles on its journey when their disguise was penetrated by
the captain.
The vessel was fitted with a wireless installation, and now for the first
time since its invention wireless telegraphy played the leading part in
the capture of fugitives from the land.
The police in London were thus immediately acquainted with the whereabouts
of the wanted pair, and an officer was sent off by a swifter steamer to
greet them on their reaching Canada. Day by day, with almost feverish
excitement, the progress of the _Montrose_ across the ocean was followed,
and the chief topic of public interest was the race between the police
officer on one steamer and the fugitives upon the other.
The inspector won easily, and was ready waiting to arrest Crippen and his
companion at the first approach of the _Montrose_ to the Canadian shore.
The trial that followed had many features of scientific interest to which
reference is made in another place.
The recent advances in the methods of telegraphing a facsimile of a
specimen of handwriting or a sketch, or of reproducing a photograph at a
distance have greatly increased the difficulties of criminals escaping
detection, and the telectrograph, as it is termed, will prove a powerful
weapon in the hands of the detective.
The selenium machines of Professor Korn were employed by the _Daily
Mirror_ in transmitting the portraits of the chief actors in the Steinheil
case, and one of these photographs, which was received in London while the
Court was still sitting in Paris, is shown in the accompanying picture.
A still more practical telectrograph is that invented by Mr. Thorne Baker,
which weighs only about twenty-four pounds. This has been simplified to
such an extent that the photograph may be printed upon a flexible plate
with a backing of lead foil, and by attaching this to the transmitting
cylinder the thousands of minute points which go to make up the image will
be exactly reproduced upon a receiving cylinder at the other end of a
telephone wire.
The instrument may also be used with wireless installations for the
transmission of simple pictures or diagrams, and by its means it would be
easy for a ship at sea to send or receive portraits of an individual under
suspicion.
[Illustration: PHOTO SENT BY TELEGRAPH FROM PARIS
_By kind permission of "The Daily Mirror"_]
The accompanying illustrations, which are reproduced here by the
permission of Mr. Thorne Baker and the _Daily Mirror_, show a portrait of
King Edward VII and an outline war map which were thus transmitted by
"wireless" telegraphy.
Mr. Thorne Baker states that the use of his instrument renders "tapping"
impossible, since by merely making a slight alteration in the speed of
running the machines, in accordance with a signal arranged beforehand, the
pictures would be so distorted as to be unrecognisable.
As an early instance of the use made by the police of a portrait in
identifying a suspected individual the case of Arden, who was executed for
murder at the beginning of last century, may be mentioned.
Arden had given a drawing of himself to a youth, and this was handed to
the police who were thus able to identify the accused in London a month
later.
The general use of photography in the press has frequently come to the aid
of the police, and instances of photographs of a wanted individual being
employed for this purpose will occur to everyone. At any police station
may now be seen reproductions of photographs of missing individuals, and
these being circulated all over the world, reduce to a small compass the
limits within which a suspect may go without detection.
Reference may be made to two recent cases by way of illustration. A nurse
had kidnapped a child and all traces of her whereabouts were lost for some
days. Her portrait was published in all the leading papers, and being seen
by the proprietor of an hotel in the Midlands was recognised as that of
one of his guests.
Acting on this information a police inspector suddenly accosted the
suspected woman and addressed her in her real name, and she, taken off her
guard, answered his remarks naturally, and was at once arrested.
In January of 1908, Miss Violet Charlesworth succeeded in filling pages of
every English paper by suddenly vanishing from her creditors, under
circumstances intended to suggest that she had been killed. She arranged a
motor-car "accident" upon the cliffs at Penmaenbach, and ostensibly was
flung through the glass screen of the car into the sea.
As no trace of the body could be found it was soon suspected that there
had been no accident, and that before long the victim would come to life
again. Her portraits were published in hundreds of papers, and were posted
at police stations all over the United Kingdom, and amateur detectives by
the score endeavoured to discover her whereabouts.
She was recognised from the portraits in half a dozen parts of the country
at the same time, but it was not until a fortnight later that she was
positively identified at Oban.
The anti-climax of the farce was reached, when, a few days later, she paid
a visit to the London office of her solicitor, and was attended from the
station by a string of motor-cars each containing the special
representative of a London paper.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT SENT BY WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
_By kind permission of Mr. Thorne-Baker and "The Daily Mirror"_]
Two years later she was found guilty of having defrauded a poor landlady
of a large sum of money at the time when everyone had accepted her great
"expectations" at her own valuation.
There have been frequent failures in the use of bloodhounds to detect a
criminal, but this must be attributed, in part at all events, to the
circumstance that the dogs have often not been employed until every other
means has failed.
In the Luard case, for instance, in 1908, bloodhounds were set upon the
track of the supposed assailant of the murdered woman, but the trial was
not made immediately after the discovery of the crime. The scent had
become faint, and it was therefore not surprising that the dogs, after
starting hotly upon the trail, soon lost it again.
The writer is indebted to Major Richardson for the accompanying photograph
of his trained bloodhound, "Pathan," and for his kind permission to quote
the graphic description of actual man hunts from his fascinating book upon
the subject.[1]
[1] _War, Police, and Watch Dogs_, by Major E. Richardson (Blackwood
and Sons).
"On one occasion, when searching for the body of a woman, I used two
collies and a bloodhound. It was summer, and the police, after patrolling
the entire countryside, had narrowed the search down to a mountain covered
with a dense wood and undergrowth of rhododendron bushes. It happened in
mid-summer, and the day was very hot. The collies worked industriously
for almost two hours, keeping well ahead, but after that time they began
to flag, and soon refused to leave my heel. The bloodhound, on the
contrary, continued persistently to search ahead of me all through the
hottest part of the day, until the woman's body was found on the top of
the mountain.
"As further illustrating the persistency of the bloodhound when on the
trail, I may mention the case of a murder to which I was called in to
assist the police in Scotland. As I and my hounds were in England at the
time, it was seventeen hours after the murder when we reached the scene.
Not only this, but severe frost had intervened during the night, rendering
the ground very unfavourable for scenting purposes. The murder had taken
place in a town, but evidences were found that the criminal had been at a
certain spot outside the town on the cliffs where he had discarded certain
belongings.
"I took my hounds to this spot and laid them on the trail, first giving
them the scent from the discarded articles. They went clear away for some
distance, and leaving the main road crossed some fields through a wood to
a cottage. Here they seemed to be at fault, and ran about whimpering. On
inquiry at the cottage it appeared that a man had shortly after the murder
called there for some water.
"Feeling the hounds were right so far I cast them round about in hopes of
their picking up the trail again. After working persistently for a little
time one of them, 'Solferino,' opened to a line beyond the wood, and went
off at a steady rate followed by the other hound, 'Waterloo,' who also
found the line himself. They held to this for a while until checked by a
main road.
[Illustration: MAJOR RICHARDSON'S MAN-TRACKER "PATHAN"
_By kind permission of Major Richardson_]
"The murderer had evidently walked along the road some distance, until,
perhaps, scared by a pedestrian or vehicle, and he then evidently took to
the fields again.
"Although checked by the road, where the trail became obliterated, the
hounds, nothing daunted, kept steadily onwards, casting all the time on
each side, until they found it again in the fields. By steadily working in
this manner they led us for four miles, partly across country, and partly
on the road, to a populous town, and to the vicinity of a railway station.
Here the trail was completely obliterated, and it was evident that by this
time the murderer had got clear away, probably by train, and was not
hiding in the neighbourhood.
"The chief constable testified to the excellent work of the hounds on this
occasion, and there is not the slightest doubt, that had this town been
supplied with a bloodhound which could have been put on the trail
immediately on the discovery of the murder, the murderer would have been
quite easily run to earth."
In Moscow a bloodhound is systematically used by the police to discover
stolen property, and some of his "finds" have been recorded in all the
European papers. In the early part of March of last year this police dog,
"Tref," recovered a number of bank-notes and a quantity of silver plate
that had been taken from the house of a Moscow gentleman.
"Tref," having been put upon the scent, followed the trail through
several streets until he came to a night-shelter. Here he made for a coat
that belonged to a house-painter, and in the pockets of this were found
the missing notes. He then left the shelter and followed the trail to the
shop of a dealer in old silver, and here the stolen plate was discovered.
In addition to their occasional use as detectives, dogs are now being
systematically employed as scouts to accompany the police on their rounds
and to aid in the capture of evil-doers.
The Paris dogs, which are specially trained for the police by Mademoiselle
Arlette Clary, are cross-bred hounds described as "wolf-shepherd hounds,"
and "brindled mastiff bulls." They are powerful beasts weighing upwards of
twelve stone, and can easily overthrow and master a man.
When attacking, they at once make for the right arm, so as to guard
against a pistol bullet, and they are also trained to refuse food except
from the hands of those they know, so as to safeguard them against
poisoning. As a proof of their efficiency, Mademoiselle Clary informed the
writer that one of her police dogs had captured nine apaches in one night.
Last year a demonstration was given in London before the most eminent
representatives of the Metropolitan police force, the apache being
represented by a man thickly padded to protect him from the teeth of the
dogs. When the man attempted to escape over a screen representing a wall
the great hound, "Max," promptly caught him and dragged him down again, as
is shown in the accompanying photograph which is here reproduced by
permission of Mdlle. Clary and the _Daily Mirror_. The dog also easily
cleared this wall, which was 8 ft. 10 in. high, in one bound, and captured
a "padded apache" as he climbed down on the other side.
[Illustration: FRENCH POLICE DOG
_By kind permission of Mdlle. Clary and "The Daily Mirror"_]
Police dogs trained on these lines have for some time past been used to
assist the police in Glasgow, and within the last few months Nottingham
has strengthened its police force by the addition of dogs.
The dogs used in this country are powerful cross-bred animals of the
Airedale terrier type, specially reared and trained by Major Richardson.
The first dog used for the purpose in this country was given to the
Berkshire Constabulary, and its duties are to accompany a policeman on his
rounds at Windsor, to protect him from attack, and, if necessary, to
capture escaping criminals.
From two to three months are required to train the dogs for this purpose.
In what may be described as circumstantial detection a very faint clue has
sometimes resulted in the discovery of a criminal. One of the most
striking examples of the kind was seen in 1864, when a gentleman named
Briggs was murdered on the North London railway, for the sake of his watch
and money.
The murderer succeeded in escaping without having been noticed by anyone,
and the crime would probably have made another in the long list of
unsolved mysteries, but for several slips that were made by him.
He had changed hats with his victim and his soft felt hat, which was found
upon Mr. Briggs, was one of the chief factors in his subsequent
identification.
Hats of this particular shape, by the way, were for many years afterwards
popularly known as "Müllers."
The watch and chain of the murdered man were soon traced to the shop of a
London jeweller, who stated that he had given another watch and chain in
exchange for them. He remembered the man and was able to give a
description of his appearance, although he had no knowledge of his name or
whereabouts.
At this point all further signs of the trail were lost, for all efforts to
discover the jeweller's customer proved fruitless.
Some time afterwards, however, a man called at Scotland Yard with a
jeweller's small cardboard box, which, he said, a man who had recently
been lodging at his house had given to his little girl. On this box was
stamped the jeweller's name, which, ominously enough, was "Death," and
this man was the very jeweller to whom Mr. Briggs' watch had been taken.
Thanks to this clue Müller was tracked first to Liverpool and then to New
York, where he was arrested and extradited.
At the trial the changed hat found upon the victim helped to prove his
identity with the murderer, and he was convicted and hanged at Newgate.
No more extraordinary instance of a single circumstance leading to the
detection of a criminal can be offered than in what was known as the
"Yarmouth Murder."
On September 23rd, 1900, a woman was found lying dead upon the beach at
Yarmouth, and from the appearance of the body she had evidently been
strangled. On her fingers were some rings, but with the exception of the
laundry mark upon her clothes, there was no clue by which she could
possibly be identified. She had been staying for some days in lodgings in
the town, and was known to her landlady as Mrs. Hood. While she was there
letters bearing a Woolwich postmark had come addressed to her by that
name. Only a day or two before her death she had had her photograph taken
upon the beach.
All investigation to discover who the woman really was or to trace her
murderer proved unavailing, and at the coroner's inquest a verdict was
brought in of wilful murder against some person unknown.
Subsequently it was discovered that the laundry mark upon the dead woman's
clothes, 599, was that put by a laundry upon the clothes sent to them from
a particular house in Bexley Heath. Further inquiry showed that a woman
named Bennett had formerly lived there, and she was identified as the
original of the photograph that had been taken at Yarmouth.
This led, early in November, to the arrest of the dead woman's husband,
Bennett, who was a workman in Woolwich Arsenal, and he was committed for
trial on the charge of murder. He denied all knowledge of the crime, and
asserted that he had never been to Yarmouth. This was disproved, however,
by collateral evidence, and many facts were brought forward connecting the
prisoner with the murder.
The motive alleged for the crime was that Bennett might be free to marry
another woman. The date of the wedding had been fixed, and it was shown
that his behaviour after the night of the murder pointed to his having a
knowledge of his wife's death. So convincing was the whole of the
circumstantial evidence, that after a short deliberation the jury brought
in a verdict of "Guilty," and Bennett was executed.
CHAPTER III
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
McKeever's Experiment on Fallibility of Eye-witnesses--Gorse Hall
Murder--Cases of Mistaken Identity--Gun-flash
Recognition--Self-deception--Tichborne Case.
The untrustworthiness of the eye-witness as to detail was recently
demonstrated by Professor McKeever at the Kansas State College in the
following manner.[2] He asked twenty-five students at the college to
witness a short drama, and immediately afterwards to write a detailed
description of the characters and incidents.
[2] _Daily Mirror_ report.
This little drama, which was supposed to take place in one of the
class-rooms, ran as follows:--
Jones, a tall man, wearing a hat and a black mask over his eyes, nose
and mouth, and dressed in a grey rain-coat rushed in carrying a salt
bag half full of nails in his left hand and a small wrench in his
right hand. Across his left cheek was a streak of red paint.
When just inside the door he turned and pointing the wrench at some
pursuers, shouted "Stand back, or I'll shoot." He then ran across the
room, fell on his knees, and dropped the bag, saying, "There it is,
take it"; after which he got up and rushed from the room.
Smith dashed into the room after Jones, crying "Give it up, you
scoundrel," and picked up the bag which Jones had dropped. White,
short and stout, dressed in a blue serge coat and cap, and carrying a
revolver with its cylinder removed, came in last. He called out to
Smith, "Take it from Eddie, he won't hurt you!" He then went out after
Jones but before Smith.
The professor pretending to be alarmed jumped up from his chair and
exclaimed, "Men, what are you up to here?"
These were the actual facts, and the manner in which the accounts of
the twenty-five witnesses disagreed may be shown by a few examples of
the different particulars described:--
Jones' appearance: (1) Black coat, light mask. (2) Red mask, cheeks
painted red. (3) Black coat, mouth painted red. (4) Carried pistol.
(5) Cheeks more than natural redness; club in his hand; dark suit. (6)
Dark suit. (7) Black clothes. (8) Red mask on; black clothes. (9)
Hatless.
Smith's appearance: (1) Wore a grey suit. (2) Six-footer. (3) Dark
grey suit. (4) Bareheaded. (5) Blue suit.
White's appearance: (1) Dark suit and raincoat. (2) Bareheaded. (3)
Hardly noticed him (nearly everyone said this).
Smith's conduct: (1) Carried pistol and snapped it several times. (2)
Came in last; went out second; said "Get out of here." (3) Carried
pistol, snapped it several times, and cried "Stop or I'll shoot,"
aiming at Jones. (4) Dropped umbrella on floor. (5) Came in last,
stayed behind; yelled "Catch that man!"
Professor's conduct: (1) Said: "What's all this?" (2) Said: "What does
all this mean?" (3) Said: "Here." (4) Said: "Hullo, what's going on
here"? (5) Said: "Who are these men?"
These discrepancies illustrate how difficult it is for the eye and ear to
record accurately the impressions received in a rapid succession of
events, one of which may focus the attention to such an extent that events
simultaneously occurring are only imperfectly or partially observed.
The fallibility of identification by eye-witnesses was strikingly
demonstrated at the trial of Benjamin Bates and John Green at the Old
Bailey in 1776, on the charge of burglary.
The house of James Penleage had been broken into, and plate to the value
of four or five hundred pounds had been stolen.
Mrs. Penleage swore that four men had entered her bedroom, one of whom
carried a dark lantern; that two of these men came, one on each side of
the bed, and held pistols to her head, and that of these men of whom she
had a perfect view, she recognised one as Green and the other as Bates.
Her husband testified as to the house having been entered, and as to his
loss, but stated that as he was near-sighted he would not swear to the
men, though he believed Bates had presented a pistol to his head.
Evidence was also given by a servant and by another woman, and
notwithstanding the good character given to the prisoners by a number of
witnesses, the jury brought in a verdict of "Guilty."
The newspapers of the day called attention to the inconclusive evidence
of identification, and as a result the prisoners were respited from month
to month.
At last another man, who was executed in the country, confessed that he
had also been the author of this burglary at the house of Penleage, and
that the two men who had been convicted had had nothing to do with it. In
consequence of this Bates and Green received a free pardon, but not until
they had been in prison for many months.
A contemporary comment upon this trial richly warrants quotation:--"On
this occasion Britons have cause to triumph in the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.
If newspapers had not been printed in this country, the lives of two
honest men would have been sacrificed to the rigour of the laws, yet no
party concerned have been the least to blame. The ways of Providence are
mysterious; casual circumstances frequently produce great effects; and a
life may be saved or lost by an accident apparently beneath the notice of
a common observer."
Another very curious instance of mistaken identity was that brought out in
a trial for robbery in 1784. A barrister had been attacked and robbed in
broad daylight, and he positively swore that he had recognised two men
named Wood and Brown as his assailants. Fortunately for them the prisoners
were able to prove an alibi, which showed beyond all doubt that they were
far from the spot at the time, and they were accordingly acquitted.
Subsequently the real robbers were discovered and found in possession of
the missing property. In this case there was a man of trained
observation, being absolutely certain of the identity of two men, who had
never been near the place.
The case of the Perreaus, related in a subsequent page, was another
example of the kind. The two brothers, who were twins, were so exactly
alike that a money scrivener who had drawn up bonds by order of one or the
other of them hesitated to fix upon either. At last, when pressed to make
a positive declaration, he fixed upon Daniel as the brother who had come
to him in connection with the forged bond.
In 1797 a mistake as to identity resulted in the death of two men. Martin
Church, a bookseller, and James Mackley, a printer, were tried that year
at the Old Bailey on the charge of murdering Sydney Fryer, at the back of
Islington workhouse. Miss Anne Fryer, who was with her cousin at the time
he was attacked, swore positively that the two prisoners were the
assailants.
Some years later Burton Wood, who was executed at Kennington Common, and
Timmins, who was hanged at Reading, confessed separately that they had
done the deed for which the other men had suffered.
In modern times the case of Adolph Beck, who was twice wrongfully
convicted through his unfortunate resemblance to another man is notorious,
and has been the subject of a special report.
The most recent and strangest instances of wrong identification arose out
of the mysterious crime which became known as the "Gorse Hall" murder.
In November, 1909, Mr. Storrs, a wealthy mill-owner, who lived at Gorse
Hall, in a lonely district in Cheshire, was attacked by a man who had
forced his way into the house. A desperate struggle followed, in the
course of which Mr. Storrs was repeatedly stabbed with a knife and fatally
wounded. His assailant also attempted to shoot him with a revolver, but
this was snatched from him by Mrs. Storrs.
A relation of Mr. Storrs, named Howard, who was an ex-soldier, was
arrested and charged with the murder. At the trial that took place at the
Chester Assizes in March, 1910, he was positively identified by the widow
of the murdered man, who swore that she recognised him by "the look in his
eyes." He was also identified by some of the servants at the Hall as the
assailant of Mr. Storrs.
Fortunately Howard was able to prove conclusively that he was somewhere
else at the time of the murder.
Some time later, another ex-soldier named Mark Wilde was arrested upon the
same charge, and once more evidence of identification was given by the
same witnesses as in the previous trial, though they were now less
positive in their assertions.
The two men, Howard and Wilde, bore a singular resemblance to each other,
and evidence was given that at the time of the murder Wilde was dressed in
dark clothes, dark cap and muffler, which was the description of the
clothes of Mr. Storrs' assailant given by witnesses at the first trial.
Stains upon the prisoner's clothing were identified as human blood by the
serum test. The revolver which Mrs. Storrs had snatched from the murderer
was also identified as having belonged to Wilde, for it was recognised by
two ex-soldiers who had, they alleged, frequently seen it in his hands,
by its broken spring and marks upon its barrel.
For the defence, however, witnesses were called to prove that the revolver
taken from the murderer was not identical with that of Wilde, and that the
blood upon his clothes was the result of a fight he had had upon the night
of the crime.
No motive could be alleged, and the jury distrusting the evidence of
identification, found the prisoner "Not guilty."
The murder was thus unique in the fact that two innocent men were in
succession identified as the assailant and acquitted.
With regard to the amount of light needed for the recognition of a person,
curious scientific evidence has been given in trials, and several cases
are on record where witnesses have claimed to identify a person by a
momentary flash. A notable instance of this kind was seen at the trial of
Joseph Brook for burglary at the York Assizes in 1813.
The prisoner, it was alleged, had broken into the house of a farmer named
Strickland at Kirk Heaton.
Anne Armitage, a niece of the farmer, deposed that he had struck upon the
stone floor with something she took for a sword to intimidate her, that it
produced a flash, and gave a light by which she could see his face. She
swore that she had seen enough by the momentary flash to recognise him
again. She had also heard his voice, and knew it again when she heard it
later, and thought she could undertake to say that it was the voice of the
accused man.
The prisoner set up an alibi, and the jury, although as they stated
subsequently, not believing in this alibi, returned a verdict of "Not
guilty."
The question of the possibility of a person firing a gun or pistol being
identified by the light of the flash was submitted to a committee of
scientific men in Paris, in 1809, and their conclusion was that such
identification was not possible.
On the other hand, the evidence in a case that was tried shortly
afterwards in France indicated that under favourable conditions the face
of the person who had fired a gun might be recognised. A man had fired at
another at night, and a woman who was near at the time, swore at the trial
that the flash had plainly shown her the face of the assailant. Similar
evidence was also given by the man who had been wounded.
Experiments to determine this point were made by Desgranges, at Lyons, and
from the results of these he concluded that there was a possibility of
such identification at a short distance from the flash of the gun,
provided that the night was very dark and that there was no other source
of light to interfere with the gun-flash; but that if the flash was very
pronounced, or much smoke was produced it was not possible to recognise
the person firing the gun.
Juries have always been reluctant to convict a prisoner upon evidence of
this kind. For instance, at the trial of a man named White at Croydon in
1839, the prisoner was accused of firing at a gentleman while he was
driving home in an open trap, and his intended victim, who was shot in the
elbow, swore positively that the flash of the gun showed so clearly the
features of his assailant that he was absolutely certain that he was the
prisoner. The defendant denied the charge and, notwithstanding the
positive statement of the principal witness, was acquitted.
There are other instances, however, where convictions have resulted from
such momentary glimpses. Thus, at the trial of some highwaymen in 1799,
which is quoted by Paris and Fonblanque (1823), it was stated by a Bow
Street officer that he, together with some of his companions, had been
fired at by the prisoners upon a dark night, upon Hounslow Heath. He swore
that the flash of the pistol enabled him to see that one of the
assailants, a man named Haines, who had come up to the side of the coach,
was riding upon a dark brown horse which had certain peculiarities about
its head and shoulders, and that the rider was wearing a rough brown coat.
Afterwards, said the witness, he had seen the same horse in a stable in
Long Acre, in London, and had recognised it as the one upon which the man
was riding by its curious square head and thick shoulders. The jury
believed the evidence of this witness, and the prisoner was convicted.
A case within the experience of a former Recorder of Birmingham (Hill) is
mentioned in Wills' _Circumstantial Evidence_. A man was committed for
trial at the Assizes at Derby, in 1840, on the charge of shooting at a
young woman.
She was prepared to swear that she had recognised him by the momentary
flash of the gun.
Experiments were made to determine to what extent reliance could be placed
upon such identification, and the conclusion drawn from these was that
"all stories of recognition from the flash of a gun or pistol must be
founded on a fallacy."
In addition to these, several instances, collected from different sources,
are referred to in Taylor's _Medical Jurisprudence_, where the general
conclusion is drawn that occasionally it may be possible to identify an
assailant in this way.
From the same source comes the amusing story of a man who swore that he
recognised an assailant who attacked him in the dark, by the flash
produced by a blow upon his eye! The absurdity of the claim is
self-evident, for the "flashes" due to a blow do not emit light, and can
therefore never cause any external object to be visible.
A curious factor influencing the value of evidence of personal
identification is the readiness with which credulous humanity will accept
any story however improbable. But for this the notorious Tichborne case,
which dragged on for years, would have been settled in a few days. It is
difficult now, recalling the facts, to understand how anyone could have
believed in the identity of the butcher, Arthur Orton, with the missing
heir to the estates, Roger Tichborne. The latter was of a slim build,
while the claimant was a couple of inches taller and weighed twenty-five
stones. The real Roger had had the education of a gentleman, while the
claimant could neither write nor speak correctly.
Yet, notwithstanding the enormous dissimilarity in appearance and manners
of the two men, the mother of Roger Tichborne recognised Orton as the son
whom she and everyone else had believed to have been drowned when the
ship was wrecked. When he came to England to see her he had thought it
prudent to feign illness. Lady Tichborne, therefore, went to see him, and
he got on the bed, and turned his face to the wall. His adopted mother,
however, recognised him by his "ears so like his uncle's."
This must have been an instance of self-deception, for there was evidence
that the lobes of the ears of the two men were absolutely different.
It was this recognition, however, that encouraged Orton to persevere with
his claim to the estates, and assisted in aiding the recollection of other
people, who swore that he was Roger.
CHAPTER IV
SYSTEMS OF IDENTIFICATION
Photography--Anthropometry--Finger-prints and their Uses.
The discovery of photography was welcomed by the police authorities of
civilised countries as affording a certain means of registering criminals
for subsequent identification. But the promise that the photographic
method held out was not fulfilled; for with the accumulation of
photographs there was a corresponding increase in the difficulties and
uncertainties attending the identification of the originals.
Apart from difficulties due to the effects of the changes produced by time
or by intentional disguise, it was no light task to search through many
thousands of prints to see whether a particular individual had been
photographed ten years previously, and physical weariness of the searchers
must frequently have set an obstacle in the way of the identification.
On the other hand, it is a matter of common knowledge, that two
photographs of the same person, taken under different conditions of
lighting or with different lenses may readily be thought to be the
portraits of two distinct individuals, or that a photograph of one person
may unduly emphasise a momentary expression differing from the normal one,
with the result that the portrait may be mistaken for a likeness of
someone else. These considerations fully explain the numerous instances of
mistaken identification, some of which are cited below, where the police
based their recognition upon old photographs.
Prior to the introduction of the anthropometric and finger-print systems,
the insufficiency of the photographic records kept by the police in this
country for the identification of criminals was repeatedly proved. The
advisability of introducing the French anthropometric system into England
was raised in Parliament on several occasions in 1887 and 1888, but each
time the Home Secretary defended the system of photographic registration
as being sufficiently satisfactory, while he considered it doubtful
whether the French system would be any better.
A sufficient answer to this official defence was afforded by the number of
cases of mistaken recognition from photographs, that shortly afterwards
were brought before both Houses of Parliament.
In 1888, the Lord Chief Justice (Coleridge) mentioned an instance that had
come under his notice at the Gloucester Assizes. After a man had been
convicted of some small offence police evidence was given that the
prisoner was a man who had been convicted before. This was subsequently
proved to be a mistake.
Again, in July, 1889, after the conviction of a prisoner, evidence was
given by a warder that the man was one who had been sentenced to seven
years' penal servitude and seven years' police supervision.
It was found afterwards, however, that this man had been previously
convicted in 1882 and therefore could not possibly have been the person
alleged. The remarkable feature about this mistake was that both men had
been under the police control at the same time.
The failure to identify a criminal from the photographic records had a
tragic result in 1888, when a man named Jackson was given a light sentence
as a first offender. Although he had been previously convicted of numerous
crimes, and was at the time "wanted" by the police for housebreaking and
other offences he escaped recognition, and was able to take advantage of
the lenient treatment he received by murdering a warder in the prison at
Manchester.
In 1894 a Special Committee was appointed to examine and report upon the
different systems of identifying criminals, and they recommended that the
anthropometric system was the most satisfactory for preliminary
classification, but that for further grouping the finger-print method gave
the best results. Accordingly a system including both methods was adopted
in this country and was in use until 1901, when, as is mentioned below,
the present system of finger-print identification was introduced.
The success of M. Bertillon's system in France speedily led to its
adoption in other countries. Early in 1892 it was introduced into India,
and within six years upwards of a quarter of a million of classified cards
had been collected.
The chief difficulty was found to be in the classification of the
measurements for reference, and a committee was accordingly appointed by
the Indian Government to report upon the system. Their report stated that
the finger-print method was preferable to the anthropometric system in
simplicity, rapidity and certainty.
Since that time (June, 1897) the finger-print method has been in use in
India for the identification of criminals.
The system of identification by bodily measurements, which has now come to
be known as _bertillonage_, was first introduced as a method of police
registration in Paris in 1882. During the first year of its employment it
detected forty-nine criminals giving false names, while in the following
year the number rose to 241.
In 1889 M. Bertillon stated that there had not been a single case of
mistaken identity since the system had been introduced, and that in the
previous year 31,849 prisoners had been measured in Paris, 615 of whom
were in this way recognised as former convicts, while fourteen were
subsequently recognised in prison. Of the latter, ten had never previously
been examined, so that the failures were only four in 32,000, or one in
8,000.
The system, as described by M. Bertillon himself in a pamphlet on _The
Identification of the Criminal Classes_, consists in taking the
measurements of the body structure of each individual. Although such
measurements might be indefinitely extended, the number is usually
restricted to twelve, including the height, length and width of the head,
length of the middle finger, of the foot, etc.
These measurements are rapidly taken with standard instruments by a
special staff, and are recorded upon a card upon which are pasted full
face and profile photographs of the prisoner.
The data obtained enable the photographs to be classified into different
groups of short, medium, and tall men, and these, again, may be
subdivided into groups of short, medium, and long heads, while further
subdivisions are afforded by the width of the head, width of the arms
outstretched at an angle of the body and so on. The colour of the eyes
affords the means for a further subdivision, while special birthmarks or
peculiarities differentiate the individuals still further.
In this way alone, M. Bertillon claims that 100,000 persons can be
classified into groups of ten each, the portraits in which would offer no
difficulty in examination.
M. Bertillon undoubtedly puts the position too favourably here, in
assuming division into equal groups; for out of his hypothetical 100,000
individuals, seventy-five per cent. might conceivably be tall men, and
seventy-five per cent. of these, again have long heads, so that the final
groups would in some cases have no representatives, while in the other
groups there might be 1,000 individuals.
In recording the colour of the eyes a special table is used, the scale of
which is based upon the intensity of the pigment of the iris. A number
corresponding to one of the following groups is then assigned:--(1) Iris,
azure blue, with areola pale but free from yellow pigment; (2) Iris blue
or slate, with light yellow areola; (3) Same shade, with larger areola
approaching orange; (4) Iris, greenish reflection; hazel areola; (5) Same
shade with dark hazel areola; (6) Hazel distributed over surface of iris;
(7) Eye entirely hazel.
When first the system was introduced into Paris it was a common practice
for the old offenders to change their names and try to escape
identification, but, according to M. Bertillon, after a few years this was
only done by those who had been away from Paris for a long period, or had
some very special reason for attempting to slip through the examination
unrecognised.
A similar method is employed in the United States Army for recognising
deserters. Each man on joining is measured, and an outline figure card
showing the measurements of the front and back surfaces, which are divided
into areas by means of dotted lines, is filed in the Medical Department of
the War Office. When a man deserts or is dismissed his card is placed in a
separate file, and the new cards of recruits are compared with those in
this particular file.
A special register, ruled into columns corresponding to the areas on the
cards, and giving the measurements and any peculiarities such as scars,
tattoo marks, etc., is used to facilitate the search, and when, on
reference to this, there appears to be a probability of a recruit being
identical with a deserter, the original card is used for the comparison.
During the first five months after the system was instituted (1891)
sixty-two men were suspected of concealing their identity, and in
sixty-one of these cases the suspicion was justified and the identity
acknowledged.
A drawback of the Bertillon system of identification is that much depends
upon the accuracy of the person who takes the measurements, and that,
therefore, a permissible error must be admitted. In the United States
Army an error of one inch in either direction is allowed, for the recorded
height. In addition to this, some degree of natural variation will take
place in the course of years, and due allowance must also be made for this
influence upon the measurements.
Striking as has been the success of M. Bertillon's system of
anthropometrical measurements as a means of identification, it has been
altogether surpassed in certainty by the methods of recording the
impressions of the fingers. From time to time in the past use has been
made of a finger or thumb impression as a seal or to give a personal mark
of authenticity to a document. One of the earliest examples extant of the
use of the manual seal is to be seen on one of the Assyrian clay tablets
in the British Museum.
This is imprinted in cuneiform characters, and contains a notice of the
sale of a field, which concludes with the imprint of a finger nail, and
the statement that this had been made by the seller of the field as his
nail mark.
Similar imprints of nails are to be seen upon Chinese coins, as has been
pointed out by Sir Francis Galton, and a tradition has it that they were
first put there as a compliment to an early Chinese Empress who had
accidentally pressed her finger nail into the wax model of a coin that had
been submitted for her approval. The ancient Egyptians caused criminals to
seal their confessions with finger nails.
There are also numerous instances in which impressions of finger-tips are
found upon documents, but these do not seem to have been put there with
any idea of identification, but rather to have been of the nature of a
ceremonial observance comparable with the legal survival of putting a
finger upon the seal of a document, and delivering it as "my act and
deed."
The first attempt by Europeans to make use of the characteristic ridges of
the fingers to record the identity of individuals appears to have been
that of Sir William Herschel, who introduced a method officially into
Bengal.
His system arose out of the difficulty of checking forgeries by the
natives in India, and his having made two of them record their finger
impressions upon contracts, so that he might be able to frighten them
should they subsequently deny their signatures.
This was in 1858, and the device proved so unexpectedly successful that
for several years Sir William Herschel made a study of the use of
finger-prints in identification, and finally found them so satisfactory
that, in 1877, he gave instructions for their systematic use in the
Hooghly.
A description of the advantages that were thereby reaped is given in
_Nature_ (1880, Vol. XXIII, 23). The frequent attempts previously made by
the natives to deny their own signatures were completely frustrated, and
documents thus stamped with a finger-print could not afterwards be
disputed.
The use of finger-prints was also invaluable as a means of preventing the
fraudulent claims of pensions by persons who were not entitled to them.
Then as the system was found to work so well in these cases it was
introduced into the prisons, each new-comer being made to sign the
register with the finger. The official visitors had thus the means of
satisfying themselves as to the identity of each inmate of the prison.
Although Sir William Herschel tried to obtain permission to extend the use
of the finger-print identification still further, his attempts did not
meet with success.
About the same time that Sir William Herschel published the account of his
system a suggestion was made to register the Chinese in California by a
similar process, but nothing was done in the matter.
There have also been occasional applications of the method to prevent
forgery, as, for instance, in 1882 in the payment orders signed by Mr.
Thomson of the American Geological Survey, upon which, as a safeguard, he
made the imprint of his own finger.
It is to Sir William Herschel, however, that the credit is due of having
established the first modern systematic process of registration of
individuals by means of finger impressions.
According to Dr. Faulds, the Chinese from time immemorial have caused
their convicted criminals to make impressions of their finger-tips as a
record, but he gives no details of their system of classifying the prints,
if such exists.
The curious markings upon which are based these systems of identification
are not confined to the human race, but are also shown by monkeys and to a
less pronounced extent by other animals.
The pattern upon the surface of the skin upon the palms of the hand and
soles of the feet is formed by the arrangement of what is known as the
papillary ridges. It is readily recorded by carefully coating the
finger-tips with a fine layer of printing or ordinary ink and pressing
them upon paper so as to leave an imprint of the markings upon the finger.
The uses of these ridges is to assist the delicacy of touch, and also to
excrete perspiration through the minute pores with which they are covered.
The effect of rough work upon the ridges is to increase their height, and
eventually they may become covered up by the horny accretions known as
callosities. On the other hand, the ridges upon the palms of people who do
very little manual labour are much less apparent, and when the skin is
thin are very low. Hence, in the hands of bedridden invalids there is only
a slight development of the ridges.
Several circumstances may lead to a temporary obliteration of the ridges,
such as, for instance, the constant puncturing of the skin by the head of
a needle in sewing, and the imprint of the forefinger of a tailor will
therefore often present a very characteristic mottled appearance.
More permanent alterations are produced by cuts or by wounds that have
healed and left a white scar. An instance of this is seen in D in the
plate (p. 66), which represents a print of the left-hand thumb of the
present writer. Running across the ridges, and breaking their continuity
is a line which marks the place where twenty years ago the slip of a knife
nearly severed a piece from the thumb. The effect of this cut has been to
add a fresh feature of identity to those furnished by the original ridges,
without interfering with the identification of the latter.
In the case of jagged cuts or of scars formed in the healing of an ulcer
the ridges may be so distorted as to be practically indistinguishable in
that place, or they may even be entirely obliterated. Old age has also an
obliterating effect upon the ridges, so much so that the finger-prints of
an old man frequently exhibit transverse white markings, indicating signs
of the surface disintegration of the skin.
A most important point in the application of finger-prints to the
identification of the individual is the persistence of the main details
throughout life, since otherwise much of the value of the method would be
lost. The observations made by Sir William Herschel in India showed that
after the lapse of twenty years there was so little change in the
finger-prints of a large number of persons that they could still readily
be identified in this way.
Sir Francis Galton has also proved the persistence of the general
peculiarities in the prints for periods of over thirty years. He points
out that an exact correspondence as to the minutiæ is not always to be
expected, since what appears to be a ridge in one print may be really the
result of imperfect printing of an enclosure. Apart from possible
imperfections in the method, there is also a possibility of variation due
to the effect of age rendering the ridges less continuous.
In one of the examples given by him finger-prints were taken of a child of
two and a half in 1877, and again thirteen years later. Between two of the
prints there were forty-two points of resemblance and only one point of
difference. This was a small forked ridge which appeared in the print of
the baby, but had been filled up in the print from the boy. This instance
is mentioned as unique, for in every other case examined by Sir Francis
Galton, comparing prints of the boy with the man, and the man with the old
man there was perfect correspondence between the selected points. He
therefore concludes that "we are justified in inferring that between birth
and death there is absolutely no change in, say, 699 out of 700 of the
numerous characteristics in the markings of the same person such as can be
impressed by them whenever it is desirable to do so."
An interesting series of photographs was recently exhibited by the Chief
Commissioner of the Police. These included the portraits of three men who
so closely resembled one another that they would readily have been
mistaken for one another in photographs. Their finger-prints, however,
were quite distinct.
So persistent are these distinctive markings that they last as long as the
skin itself, and may be clearly seen upon the fingers of Egyptian mummies.
However much the general dimensions of the pattern of the prints may be
changed by the advance of age or the effect of disease, the number of the
pattern will still remain. To use the apt illustration of Sir Francis
Galton, the changes to be expected are comparable with those seen in a
piece of lace. The material may be stretched in one or the other direction
or shrunken to half its former dimensions, but the individual loops and
knots may be identified with those in the original fabric.
As is the case with all the other measurements of the human body
alterations will occur in the size of the markings; for the pattern as a
whole increases with the growth of the finger, but this growth does not
affect the arrangement of the loops and ridges that make up the markings
upon the skin.
In no other way than a study of the finger-prints is it possible to find
over a thousand points of comparison upon which to establish the identity
of an individual.
In estimating the value of finger-prints as evidence of identity, Sir
Francis Galton found that out of 1,000 thumb-prints the collection could
be classified into 100 groups each containing prints with a more or less
close resemblance to one another. He further found that on the average it
was impossible to put great reliance upon the general resemblance between
two given prints as a proof that they were produced by the same finger,
though obvious difference was a proof that they were produced by different
fingers.
But on studying the minutiæ of the patterns, and calculating the chances
that the print of a single finger should agree in all particulars with the
print of another finger, he concluded that it was as one is to about
sixty-four millions; so that the chance of two persons giving similar
prints from a single finger would be less than one in four. If the
comparisons were extended to two fingers the improbability of agreement in
all details would be squared, "reaching a figure altogether beyond the
range of imagination."
The general conclusion drawn from these numerical results was that even
after making all allowance for ambiguities and for possible alterations
caused by accident or disease, a complete, or nearly complete, agreement
between two prints of one finger and infinitely more so between two or
more fingers, afforded evidence, which did not stand in need of
corroboration, that the prints were derived from the fingers of one and
the same person.
In finger-prints, therefore, we have the only means of proving the
identity of an individual beyond all question.
In the prehistoric flint-holes at Brandon, in Suffolk, there was found
some years ago a pick made from the horn of an extinct elk. This had been
used by some flint-digger of the stone age to hew out of the chalk the
rough flints which were subsequently made into scrapers and arrow-heads.
Upon the dark handle of this instrument were the finger-prints in chalk of
the workman, who, thousands of years ago, flung it down for the last time.
It is strange to reflect that in these perishable impressions he had left
a far more permanent record of his identity than he could have done by any
other conceivable means.
A striking feature in the scriptural account of the death of Jezebel is
that her body was devoured by the dogs, which left nothing but the skull
and the palms of her hands and soles of her feet, so that no man might say
"this is Jezebel." Yet, as Sir Francis Galton pointed out, it was upon
those parts that the dogs had spared that Jezebel carried the only certain
proofs of her identity.
The question of heredity in finger-prints is not only interesting but
might also conceivably be a point of some importance in a criminal trial.
Dr. Faulds concluded that heredity played a great part in the particular
form of the markings. "The dominancy of heredity in these patterns is
sometimes very striking. I have found unique patterns in a parent repeated
with marvellous accuracy in his child."
He suggested that there might thus possibly be an Orton type of pattern
and a Tichborne type, to one or other of which experts might have referred
the finger impressions of the claimant in the celebrated case.
While there is unquestionably a general tendency for a particular type of
finger-prints to be inherited just as any other bodily peculiarities are
liable to be passed on from the parents to the children, there is by no
means that definite relationship that Dr. Faulds hoped to establish.
The observations made by Sir Francis Galton upon this point, and the
mathematical considerations based upon them render it impossible to doubt
that the average resemblance between the finger-prints of two brothers or
of a brother and sister is greater than in those of two persons selected
at random.
The general similarities in the finger-prints in rows A and B in the plate
(p. 66), which are those of two sisters, are obvious.
The case of twins is particularly interesting, for it is well known that
when of the same sex they frequently show remarkable physical and mental
resemblances or the reverse. Here, too, it was found by Sir Francis
Galton that the finger-prints exhibited a strong tendency to similarity,
although in no case were the resemblances so close that the prints of one
twin could be mistaken for those of the other.
For instance, the resemblance may lie in the pattern being made up of
loops or whorls in both, but the smaller details, such as the number of
the ridges or their minute peculiarities (_e.g._, dividing and then
reuniting to form a small island), will not be shared.
The results of other observations tended to show that the influence of the
mother upon the type of finger-print is more pronounced than that of the
father.
The existence of racial peculiarities in finger-prints, which Dr. Faulds
believed that he had discovered in the case of the Japanese, has not been
borne out by the experience of others.
The observations of Sir Francis Galton upon numbers of prints
representative of pure English, pure Welsh, Hebrew and Negro proved
unquestionably that there was no pattern peculiar to any of these races.
The only suggestion of any difference was that the width of the ridges
appeared to be more uniform and their direction more parallel in the
finger-prints of negroes than in those of the other races.
The same conclusions were drawn from the observations upon the
finger-prints of different classes of individuals, those of art students
being compared with those of science students, of field labourers, and of
idiots. In each instance it was possible to match the type of patterns in
one class with those in any of the others. The patterns of the
finger-impression of a statesman, for instance, could be matched by those
of an idiot.
The first attempt to classify the various patterns formed by the ridges
was that of Purkenje, a doctor of medicine who, in 1823, delivered a
thesis upon the subject at the University of Breslau.
He concluded that all the varieties of curves might be grouped under nine
main heads or standard types, which he described as follows:--
(1) _Transverse curves._ (2) _Central longitudinal stria._ (3) _Oblique
stria._ (4) _Oblique sinus._ (5) _Almond._ (6) _Spiral._ (7) _Ellipse or
elliptical whorl._ (8) _Circle_ or _circular whorl_; and (9) _Double
whorl_.
The differences between these different types are best shown by diagrams,
and the accompanying figure, reproduced by permission of Sir Francis
Galton, represents the cores of the nine standard patterns.
This classification, resting as it does upon merely superficial
appearances, does not afford a certain means of separating the types,
since factors, such as the depth of printing, the size of the patterns,
and the prominence of secondary details may have an undue influence in the
placing of a particular print in one or the other group.
After numerous futile attempts to make use of Purkenje's system, Sir
Francis Galton discarded it in favour of a system in which the triangular
space or spaces found in the majority of finger impressions was made the
basis of classification. Starting upon the two divergent ridges from these
spaces an outline was then drawn as far as it could be traced, the course
of each ridge being followed with minute fidelity. In this way a series
of sharply-defined outline figures were obtained.
[Illustration: THE STANDARD PATTERNS OF PURKENJE]
[Illustration: CORES OF THE ABOVE PATTERNS
1. Transverse flexures
2. Central longitudinal stria
3. Oblique stria
4. Oblique sinus
5. Almond
6. Spiral
7. Ellipse
8. Circle
9. Double Whorl
_By kind permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd._]
The various patterns may, as a rule, be classified into the three main
groups of arches, loops and whorls, while some of the transitional forms
may be grouped under more than one of these heads. Other patterns, again,
which are of rare occurrence, are not suitable for inclusion in any of the
three groups.
A system of indexing based upon this method of classification was also
devised in which letters represented the varieties of patterns. Thus _a,
a, a_ indicate that the outline upon the fore, middle and ring fingers
consists of arches, while _a, w, l_ indicate an arch upon the forefinger,
a whorl upon the middle finger, and a loop upon the ring finger. The
letters _i_ and _o_ are also used, the former indicating a loop with an
inward slope and the latter one with an outer slope upon the forefinger.
The possible variations in such a classification of the impressions of the
three fingers of the right hand cannot exceed thirty-six, and a thousand
prints may therefore be indexed into one of these thirty-six groups.
Subdivisions of these main groups may then be based upon the
characteristics of the prints of the fingers of the other hand and of the
thumbs, while differences in the cores of the patterns afford a means of
forming smaller divisions of the loop patterns.
From observations of the 5,000 prints of 500 individuals Sir Francis
Galton found that arches were present in 6·5 per cent.; loops in 67·5 per
cent.; and whorls in 26·0 per cent. Each digit and hand, however, had its
own peculiarities, and the variations in the percentage of arches upon
different digits ranged from 1 to 17; that of the loops from 53 to 90; and
that of the whorls from 13 to 45.
Loops occurred with most frequency upon the little finger and then upon
the middle finger, while whorls were rarely met with upon these fingers,
but were of common occurrence upon the thumb and ring finger.
The classification employed by the English police was devised by Sir
Edward Henry and is a modification of that of Sir Francis Galton, from
which it differs in making use of four types instead of three. The
impressions are grouped into arches, loops, whorls, and composites. The
last group includes patterns made up of combinations of the other three,
or those which might be classified either as loops or whorls. There are
also numerous subdivisions of the group into patterns with characteristics
in common such as "central pockets" and "accidentals," and further
differentiation is effected by counting the number of ridges between two
fixed points in the patterns.
Examples of these four groups are shown in the plate facing p. 66.
Dr. Faulds, who, while at a hospital in Japan, made an exhaustive study of
the finger impressions of the Japanese, appears to have been the first to
suggest the possibility of tracing a criminal by the imprints of his
fingers upon external objects.
He mentions two instances where the method had afforded valuable
evidence, and these are worth recording as early examples of the use of
the system in detective work.
[Illustration: TYPES OF FINGER PRINTS]
In one case some rectified spirit had been drunk, and the greasy marks of
the fingers upon the bottle plainly showed who was the culprit, for their
pattern was identical with that of an imprint in Dr. Fauld's collection.
On another occasion someone had been suspected of breaking into a house,
but the sooty imprints of fingers left upon the wall proved beyond all
doubt that this was not the person.
The finger-print system of identification was adopted by the police in
this country in July, 1901, and the numbers of identifications made since
then by the police at Scotland Yard are very remarkable. Up to the end of
1901 there were 93 identifications, which rose in the succeeding years to
the following numbers: In 1902, 1,722; in 1903, 3,642; in 1904, 5,155; in
1905, 6,186; in 1906, 6,776; in 1907, 7,701; in 1908, 9,440; and in 1909,
9,960.
There have been some very striking instances of the detection of criminals
by means of their finger-prints, a few of which may be quoted by way of
illustration.
On March 20, 1908, a man named Chadwick was tried at the Birmingham
Assizes on the charge of housebreaking and stealing at Edgbaston. He had
left finger-prints upon a champagne bottle, and when these were made clear
by the application of powdered blacklead they were found to correspond
exactly with the finger-prints of the prisoner. Inspector Collins, in
giving evidence on this point, stated that there were a million and a
quarter classified finger-prints at Scotland Yard, and that these could
all be distinguished from one another. He pointed out that there were
twelve ridges which were characteristic and identical in the two prints.
Similar identifications in cases of burglary have been made by means of
the impressions left on a wax candle, on windows, on paper, such as a
cheque, or on the metallic surface of a cash-box, etc.
On March 11th of last year, a labourer named George Lane was put on trial
at Birmingham on the charge of breaking into the house of a bootmaker and
stealing several articles. He had left a thumb-nail mark upon a glove-box,
and evidence was given as to the identity of this with his own
thumb-print. For the defence it was urged that he was in Nottingham at the
time, and that he could call as a witness "a tall dark man working in a
bar." The judge offered to postpone the trial for the attendance of this
witness, but warned the prisoner that if his statement were found to be
untrue he would be prosecuted for perjury in addition to the present
charge. The prisoner thereupon said he preferred the trial not to be
delayed. He was found guilty, and after evidence of previous convictions
had been given he was sentenced to three years' penal servitude.
In April of last year an equally convincing proof was offered of the value
of the finger-print system, when it proved the identity of a dead man. The
scattered remains of this man were found upon the railway line near
Slough, and there was no clue whatever as to his identity. Upon the
off-chance of the victim's finger-prints being known at Scotland Yard
impressions from his fingers were taken by the local superintendent of the
police and forwarded to headquarters, where on reference to the index of
finger-prints they were immediately recognised. They were those of a man
twenty-four years of age, who had been living at Deal.
This was noteworthy as being the first occasion upon which the method has
been used to discover the identity of anyone after death.
A striking proof of the value of finger-prints in the identification of an
individual by the French police was afforded last year in Paris.
A man named Lemarque, one of a notorious gang of thieves, known as
Chaffeurs de la Drome, had escaped when three of his companions had been
captured. They were tried at the Assize Court of the Drome Department in
July, 1909, on the charges of murder and robbery and were condemned to
death, while Lemarque was sentenced by default.
All attempts to discover the missing man proved fruitless, until in March,
1910, a man was arrested for theft at Nîmes. He gave the name of Charles
Garnier, but the police suspecting that the description he gave of himself
was false, took impressions of his finger-prints, and forwarded these,
together with the man's description and photograph, to the
Anthropometrical Department of the Prefecture of Police in Paris. The
finger-prints were immediately recognised by M. Bertillon, and Charles
Garnier was identified as Lemarque, the man who had so long been
"wanted."
CHAPTER V
IDENTIFICATION AND HANDWRITING
Heredity--Emotional Influences--Effects of Disease on Handwriting.
The identification of an individual solely by means of his handwriting is
always liable to lead to a miscarriage of justice, for even in the cases
of the closest resemblance between two writings there can be no certainty
on this point. In the following pages I have attempted to point out under
what varying conditions handwriting may show alterations and thus lead to
wrong conclusions.
In the making of handwriting heredity plays a very important part, just as
it does in the characteristic gait and the little mannerisms which are
peculiar to each individual. In addition to this, the writing may be
modified by the results of training and other external influences.
It is obviously not possible to determine from which ancestors all the
features in one's handwriting are inherited, just as it is impossible to
trace the origin of certain obviously inherited traits of character. At
the same time, instances in which close resemblances may be noticed
between the handwriting of a man and that of his father and grandfather
will occur to everyone. Thus a particular slope in the direction of the
writing or a mode of looping the letters or of forming certain words may
be passed on from generation to generation.
[Illustration: HEREDITY IN HANDWRITING]
A remarkable fact in this connection is that there is frequently a
tendency for a son to inherit certain characteristics in the father's
writing and for the daughters' writing to resemble more closely that of
their mother than that of their father.
The examples shown in the figure illustrate this tendency. The words were
all written by members of one family, the first two lines being those of
the father and the mother. The third, fifth, eighth and ninth lines were
written by their daughters, and the fourth, sixth and seventh lines by
their sons.
It will be noticed among other points of resemblance that the bold
characteristic looping of the letter L in the mother's handwriting is
reproduced more or less closely in the writing of all the daughters, while
the sons form the same letter with a small loop, as in the word written by
their father. The angles at which the different words are written also
show the effect of this "parallel heredity," as it might be termed.
While possessing such points of resemblance obviously inherited from the
parents' handwriting, the writing of each of the children also shows
characteristics of its own that distinguish it from the writings of the
others--characteristics partly inherited from other ancestors and partly
the result of environment.
So close, however, is the resemblance between the handwriting of the
father and of the eldest son that on more than one occasion one has been
mistaken for the other by other members of the family.
The normal handwriting of every individual is affected by very many
external influences, the term "normal" being used here to describe writing
that is done when the thoughts of the writer are being concentrated upon
what is being written and without a mental side-glance at the form of the
writing itself.
In the latter case various psychological influences cause the writing to
vary more or less. For instance, the handwriting of an artist may show
marked variations at different periods, especially in the form of the
capital letters; for the artist usually keeps before his eye the
decorative effect of his letters and words, and is constantly making
experimental changes in his writing.
In like manner, handwriting is often influenced to a considerable extent
by sub-conscious memories of the writing of other people, especially of
those whom the writer tries to imitate in other respects. In some
individuals this unintentional imitation of other handwriting is so
pronounced that they are unable to answer any letter without its
characters having some effect upon their own writing.
Conscious imitation is a still more frequent influence upon the form of
writing and some of its effects may become fixed characteristics.
Instances of this are to be seen in the "good" writing of the
old-fashioned writing-master, whose ideal was the copper-plate engraving
of the visiting card with its thick down-stroke and thin up-stroke and
absolute regularity of letter; in the pointed Italian writing, taught
generally in mid-Victorian ladies' schools; in the Civil Service "hand"
set as a standard for securing marks in examination; and in modern
commercial handwriting now rapidly giving place to the typewriter.
An instance which illustrates the manner in which a writing-school will
turn out hundreds of pupils all writing in the same manner is shown in the
accompanying figure, for which I am indebted to Mr. W. J. Kinsley, of New
York. The members of a class in the Packhard Business School at New York,
numbering about forty young men and girls ranging from sixteen to twenty
years of age, were all told to write the same words: "This is a specimen
of my writing," without any directions being given them and without
knowing for what purpose it was wanted. The results obtained, some of
which are here shown, were published in a paper in New York. The striking
resemblance among them all is obvious at the first glance, and when these
specimens first appeared a lawyer wrote to the editor complaining that an
attempt had been made to pass off the handwriting of one person as having
been done by several.
[Illustration: Influence of training on handwriting
Each of these lines was written by a different person]
The writing of the writing school is no more the real writing of the
individual than laborious printing in capitals would be.
Even when what must be regarded as the vicious style of the writing school
has been so thoroughly acquired that the writer ceases to be conscious
that he is copying a model, the writing not infrequently reverts to a
normal state and will then tend to show indications of inherited traits.
Under ordinary conditions, where there has been no prolonged attention
given to the form of the writing, as in conscious imitation or
experimental alteration, and but little unconscious imitation, certain
distinctive features may persist for a very long period. Thus the angle at
which the writing slopes may remain practically the same for years, or the
form of a particular slope beneath a signature will repeat itself almost
exactly time after time, and even the absence of a flourish may become a
significant characteristic.
Emotional influences often have an effect upon handwriting, though the
alterations thus produced are frequently only slight and temporary. Thus
a man weighed down by overwhelming grief will often write in smaller
characters than usual, while violent anger will find its expression in
more vigorous cross strokes to the "t's," heavier dotting of the "i's,"
and the thickness of a flourish to a signature. On the other hand, slight
changes caused by long-continued depression may leave permanent traces
upon the handwriting.
A deeply interesting historical instance of this tendency of handwriting
to vary with the mood of the writer is to be seen in the signatures of
Napoleon at various periods of his career. Several of these written on
occasions calling forth widely differing emotions are here reproduced, and
it is not difficult to discern in some of them the effect of emotional
influence. Very striking, for instance, is the difference between the
orderly signature written after the victory at Austerlitz and the blotted
scrawl dashed off after the defeat at Leipzig. Nor will it escape notice
that nearly all the signatures written at moments of depression or failure
have a downward slant, whereas that of the victor of Austerlitz runs
upwards. A great contrast, too, is shown between the general features of
the first three signatures penned in moments of triumph or success, with
that written on the retreat from Russia and the still less assertive
signature of the prisoner of St. Helena.
Instances of the effects of passing emotions upon writing might be
multiplied indefinitely, but what has been said above is sufficient to
show that this factor is of importance in drawing any conclusions as to
the identity of an individual from his handwriting.
[Illustration: SIGNATURES OF NAPOLEON AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF HIS CAREER
1804. After being crowned Emperor.
1805, Dec. 2. Signature on proclamation after the victory at
Austerlitz.
1806. After the campaign of 1806.
1812, Sept. 21. After entrance into burning Moscow.
1812, Oct. On the retreat from Russia.
1813, Oct. 23. Signature to a document signed at Erfurt. After the
defeat at Leipzig.
1814, April 4. Fontainebleau, prior to abdication.
At St. Helena.]
If passing emotions can have so great an influence upon handwriting, how
much greater must be the effect when the centre or centres in the brain
that control the writing mechanism are affected or destroyed by disease!
Among the disturbances of handwriting due to defective control of the
muscles we may include the so-called _tremor-writing_, which is common in
old age, and the writing of people suffering from writers' cramp, an
example of which is shown in the figure.
[Illustration: Writers' Cramp]
Other forms of defective writing may be the result of a paralytic stroke
affecting the writing centre of the brain, which causes the patient either
to form only parts of letters or endlessly to repeat the same letter under
the impression that sentences are being formed, while in extreme cases
there may be merely a succession of meaningless strokes in place of
written characters.
[Illustration: Specimen of Agraphia]
The writing of insane people almost invariably shows the effect of mental
disturbance. In some cases the form of the letters is changed, but they
are still used in their right places. An illustration of this is given in
the accompanying figure, which represents the signatures of the poet Lenau
before and during his insanity.
[Illustration: Writing of Lenau, the poet, before and during insanity]
In other instances there is both alteration in the form of the writing and
_paragraphia_, or the use of the wrong letters. Thus Hölderlin, the German
poet, who became harmlessly insane in 1806 at the age of thirty-six, ever
afterwards misspelled his name in the manner here shown.
[Illustration: Signature of Hölderlin before and during insanity]
A very interesting derangement of writing, which is probably due to the
writing centre in one hemisphere of the brain becoming adapted to do the
work of that in the other, is that commonly known as _mirror writing_. An
example of this which came under the writer's observation is shown below.
This shows the ordinary handwriting of a working woman of about sixty-six,
who for the last three years has been paralysed in the right arm, and
since then has produced mirror writing with her left hand.
[Illustration: Mirror writing in paralysis]
The most remarkable instance of mirror writing on record is to be seen in
the last manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci, known as the _Codex Atlanticus_,
in the library at Milan. Various speculations have been made as to why
backward writing should have been employed here, but the obvious
explanation may be deduced from the letter of a monk, Antonio de Beatis,
who, after visiting Leonardo in his retirement at Amboise, wrote that the
artist would never paint again, as his right arm was paralysed. The
manuscript was in all probability, therefore, written with the left hand,
and, as frequently happens in such cases of paralysis, the other
hypothetical writing centre was brought into action and mirror writing was
produced.
Of all the temporary influences tending to modify handwriting none is more
remarkable, or affords a better proof of the way in which written
characters vary with the condition of the mind than the effect of hypnotic
suggestion.
The experiments of Professors Lombroso and Richet have proved that a
suggested change of personality is accompanied by an appropriate style in
the handwriting of the subject. Thus, a young hysterical girl when
hypnotised under the suggestion that she was a child wrote in childish
characters.
Still more striking were their experiments upon a young Austrian student,
Chiarloni Clementino, who within little more than an hour was made to
assume successively the characters of a child, of Napoleon, of Garibaldi,
of a clerk, and of an old man of ninety. He was made to write some words
on each of his assumed characters, and the writings not only differed to a
marked extent from his normal handwriting, but also had characteristics
suggestive of the type of individual he was temporarily personating.
[Illustration]
The results of some of these experiments, which the present writer had the
permission of the late Professor Lombroso to reproduce, are shown in the
accompanying figures. The normal writing of the student is represented
below, while Fig. A (p. 82) shows words written under the suggestion that
he was Napoleon, Fig. B, his writing as the old man of ninety, and Fig. C
that done as Garibaldi.
[Illustration: HYPNOTIC HANDWRITING
A. As Napoleon
B. As an old man
C. As Garibaldi.]
The handwritings of the suggested Napoleon and Garibaldi were quite
different from the writing of the real individuals, although it is
interesting to note that there is some attempt to form the letters of
Garibaldi's signature in the same manner as in the genuine signature here
shown.
[Illustration]
In a private letter to the present writer Lombroso mentioned that it was
quite possible for the hypnotised student to have been familiar with the
signature of Garibaldi. Or, again, the hypnotisers may have had their
thoughts upon the form of the genuine signature while the student was
writing the suggested version of it.
It has been observed by Dr. Preyer that certain individuals, when under
hypnotic influence, write in a better handwriting than when they are in
their normal condition, whereas in the case of other subjects the letters
are childish and badly formed. It is even possible to make them omit by
suggestion particular letters from each word they write, "Europe," for
instance, becoming "Urop," and so on, while by further suggestion they may
be induced to make use again of the missing letters.
The fact that handwriting may be completely altered under the influence of
hypnotism is not only of great scientific interest, but may also have an
important bearing on the results of legal cases in which handwriting is
concerned.
It was pointed out some years ago by Dr. Bianchi that hysterical women are
particularly prone to write anonymous letters, and it is well known that
such women are readily responsive to hypnotic suggestion.
Facts such as these suggest how necessary it may often be to take into
account the possibility of hypnotic influence before deciding upon the
authorship of a given piece of writing.
The extent to which a man should be held responsible for what has been
written as the result of hypnotic suggestion from another person will
obviously depend upon whether he was the dupe or the willing instrument of
the hypnotiser. In any case it may not be easy to prove that the writing
is his, for it will probably be very different from his ordinary
handwriting.
Hitherto no case of criminal libel involving such delicate questions as
these appears to have come before the courts, but it is one that might
conceivably occur at any time, and a jury would then have to decide upon
the responsibility of the writer.
CHAPTER VI
EVIDENCE AS TO HANDWRITING
Illustrative Cases--Handwriting Experts
At one time the only evidence that was allowed to be given as to
handwriting was that of the writer himself, or of someone who had seen the
writing done, or was well acquainted with the handwriting in question.
Examples of evidence of this kind are numerous and occur in many of the
cases mentioned in other parts of this book, such as the trial of Spencer
Cowper in 1699, or of that of the Perreaus in 1775.
In the trial of Spencer Cowper (1699) an important part of the defence was
that the girl had drowned herself in a fit of depression, and letters
written by her were put forward to prove this view.
A gentleman named Marshall produced letters that he had received from her,
and a man named Beale gave evidence that he believed it to be in her
handwriting, having seen her write and holding a receipt of hers.
The jury declared they were satisfied with the evidence, but the judge
(Baron Hatsell) remarked that they might ask the mother to say whether it
was her daughter's handwriting.
Sarah Stout's brother was also questioned.
_Mrs. Stout._--How should I know! I know she was no such person; her hand
may be counterfeited.
_The Judge._--But if it were written in her more sober style, what would
you say then?
_Mrs. Stout._--I shan't say it to be her hand unless I saw her write it.
_Mr. Stout._--It is like my sister's hand.
_The Judge._--Do you believe it to be her hand?
_Mr. Stout._--No, I don't believe it; because it don't suit her character.
The judge in his summing up remarked that if the jury believed that the
letters were in the handwriting of Sarah Stout there was evidence to show
that although she was a virtuous woman a distemper might have turned her
brains, and discomposed her mind.
The history of the admission of expert evidence on handwriting in this
country is a curious one, and shows that opinion has long been divided as
to its value.
In a trial that took place in 1836 a bank inspector was put in the box to
give an opinion as to the genuineness of a signature and the judge refused
to admit this as evidence. The point was carried to the Court of Appeal,
but was still left unsettled, an equal number of judges being for and
against the admissibility of such evidence.
Mr. Justice Wills, in his standard work on _Circumstantial Evidence_,
relates that Lord Denman pronounced that evidence as to handwriting might
be regarded as an expunged chapter in the book of evidence. In spite of
this dictum, however, the evidence of the handwriting expert was made
legal in Civil Cases in 1854, and eleven years later it was also legalised
in Criminal law.
Long before a witness was permitted in this country to give his opinion
upon writing which he had not actually seen written, or with the author
of which he was unacquainted, expert evidence of this kind was admitted in
the laws of different countries in Europe and in many of the American
States.
HANDWRITING EXPERTS.
A good deal has been heard of late of the shortcomings of the handwriting
expert, and owing to a mistaken idea as to the nature of his evidence, the
view has been strongly expressed that such evidence should no longer be
admissible.
The present feeling against evidence on handwriting is partly due to an
exaggerated importance having frequently been attached to the conclusions
of the expert, so that as soon as it could be shown that he had made a
mistake, no further trust was to be placed in his opinion; and partly to
the dogmatic attitude of certain experts in the past.
As Lord Brampton pointed out in his _Reminiscences_, the judges in
mid-Victorian days were afraid to trust their own judgment in matters of
handwriting, and powers almost occult were ascribed to the expert, who,
after all, only uses ordinary scientific methods.
The true function of the handwriting expert is to act as a sign-post to
the jury. His observation has been trained to notice minute points of
resemblance and difference, and he is thus in a position to point out in
what respect and to what extent two handwritings resemble one another or
differ, and it is then for the jury to draw their own conclusions from the
facts laid before them.
It is now no uncommon occurrence for a judge in summing up a case to the
jury to emphasise the point that the evidence of the expert is only a
matter of opinion, and that the real decision rests with them. In this way
it is possible for the judge to correct the too decided statement of
opinion which the expert is sometimes, under stress of cross-examination,
forced to give.
Netherclift, who was the chief expert in the days when Lord Brampton was
at the bar, had such faith in his methods that finally he came to believe
that he could never make a mistake.
This belief received an amusing check in a case in which he was under
cross-examination by Lord Brampton (then Mr. Hawkins).
Netherclift had claimed that his system gave infallible results, and had
further stated that his son, whom he had trained, made use of the same
system.
"Then," said the wily advocate, "your son working on your system is as
good as you are?"
"Yes," replied the father with some pride in his voice, "he is."
"That is to say, he, too, is infallible?"
"Yes," again replied the witness.
"Well, now, Mr. Netherclift, was there ever a case in which you and your
son appeared on opposite sides?"
Netherclift tried to evade the question, which, he complained, was an
unfair one, but on being pressed was forced to admit that on a certain
occasion he had given evidence on one side and his son upon the other.
Swift came the unanswerable retort, "How comes it then that two
infallibles appeared on opposite sides?"
Netherclift's dogmatic manner rendered him peculiarly liable to fall into
traps like this, and many were the occasions on which he was found
tripping.
Readers of Lord Brampton's book will recall another amusing instance in
which the expert was "put in a hole" by his opponent, who tells the story
in these words: "When I rose to examine I handed to the expert six slips
of paper, each of which was written in a different kind of handwriting.
"Netherclift took out his large pair of spectacles, magnifiers, which he
always carried. Then he began to polish them with a great deal of care,
saying as he performed that operation, 'I see, Mr. Hawkins, what you are
going to try to do--you want to put me in a hole.' 'I do, Mr. Netherclift,
and if you are ready for the hole, tell me--were those six pieces of paper
written by one hand about the same time?'
"He examined them carefully, and after a considerable time, answered: 'No;
they were written at different times, and by different hands.'
"'By different persons, do you say?'"
"'Yes, certainly.'"
"'Now, Mr. Netherclift, you are in the hole! I wrote them myself this
morning at this desk.'"
The feeling of distrust with which the evidence of the expert in
handwriting is often regarded by the legal profession is illustrated by a
capital story that was told recently by Sir Edward Carson in a letter to
the _Times_. An Irish counsel in a now forgotten case began his
cross-examination of a handwriting expert with the curious
question--"Where's the dog?"
"What dog?" said the bewildered witness.
"The dog which the judge at the last assizes said he would not hang upon
your evidence."
How closely two distinct handwritings may resemble one another was shown
in a celebrated case in which handwriting experts were proved to be
utterly mistaken. This was the trial of Sir Francis Truscott, a former
Lord Mayor of London, at the Old Bailey in 1879.
It was asserted that the defendant had sent a post card to a friend named
John Kearns, who had at one time served with him upon the City Council,
accusing him of a criminal offence and warning him that he was being
watched by the police.
At the trial evidence was given in the most positive manner by a lady who
was acquainted with Sir Francis Truscott to the effect that the moment she
had been shown the card she had recognised the writing as his.
This opinion was supported by Charles Chabot, an expert in handwriting,
who stated in the witness-box that he was certain that the writing on the
post card had been done by the same individual who had written certain
letters of the defendant which he had examined. The similarities between
the two writings were, he asserted, too close not to have been the work of
one individual.
Evidence of the same character was then given by Netherclift, who swore
that from a minute comparison of the libellous post card with letters in
the admitted writing of the accused there could be no doubt but that they
were written by the same person.
The defence was opened by a witness named Smith being put in the box. He
stated that he knew both Mr. Kearns and Sir Francis Truscott, and was
aware that the friendship between them had ceased. He was then shown the
post card and asked whose was the handwriting upon it.
"I wrote the post card," he said. "It is my own writing."
Answering further questions, this witness stated that he had been abroad
when the charge was brought against Sir Francis Truscott, and that as soon
as he learned what had happened he had made an affidavit that the writing
was his.
The father of this witness produced post cards written by his son and
stated that the libellous post card was in the handwriting of his son and
not in that of Sir Francis. Evidence was also given by another witness who
knew both Sir Francis and Mr. Smith, and who had no doubt but that the
post card was in the handwriting of the latter.
At this stage the jury intimated that they had heard sufficient, and
brought in a verdict of "Not guilty."
Mr. Justice Wills records a case in which a bank clerk being shown a
forged signature swore positively that he had written it, while he was
doubtful as to the authenticity of signatures that were undoubtedly his.
Another instance of the way in which writing may be so skilfully imitated
as to deceive even the man whose writing it purports to be is afforded by
the trial of a solicitor named Shaw at the Derby Assizes in 1861.
He was accused of having forged a mortgage, and at the trial a client of
his named Abel went into the witness-box and in all good faith swore that
his genuine signature upon a document was not his, while he recognised the
forged signature as his genuine writing.
It was proved conclusively, however, at a subsequent action that was
brought three years later, in connection with the forged deed, that Abel's
signature upon it had been forged, and the convicted solicitor was brought
into court to give evidence that he had himself signed the document.
Another curious example, also cited by Wills, of the uncertainty of
evidence as to writing was that of a trial in which a deed that was
produced bore the signature of Lord Eldon. The solicitor in the case had
no doubt as to this being a genuine document, and yet it was positively
stated by Lord Eldon that he had never witnessed any document in his life.
The cases of wrong conclusions as to handwriting have been as numerous as
those of mistaken identity of person, and have had as tragic consequences.
The notorious case of Beck will occur to everyone as an instance of a man
being not only wrongly identified, but of being also the unfortunate
possessor of a handwriting that had a close resemblance to the writing of
someone else.
The two false identifications combined were sufficient to send an innocent
man to prison, and it was long before it was established that the
witnesses upon whose evidence he had been convicted had been utterly
mistaken both with regard to his identity and his handwriting.
CHAPTER VII
FORGED DOCUMENTS
Use of Microscope--Erasures--Photographic Methods--Typewritten
Matter--Examinations of Charred Fragments--Forgery of Bank Notes.
The most valuable methods of detecting forgery have been based upon the
use of the microscope, which will frequently reveal alterations that are
quite invisible to the naked eye.
For instance, a letter may have been so carefully erased as to defy
detection by ordinary examination, but a microscopical examination will
show the slightly roughened surface of the paper, where the fibres have
been disturbed in the process of erasure. A notable example of this was
seen in the Whalley will case, an account of which is given on a later
page, and numerous instances of the same kind have come under the direct
observation of the present writer.
In one of these cases, which was settled before it reached the courts, a
letter which was to be put in evidence in a dispute as to some property
had originally contained the words "your house," but the "y" had been
skilfully erased, so that the words read "our house."
When the paper was held to the light it showed an almost imperceptible
thinness at that place, but under the microscope the ruffled fibres on the
surface of the paper where the sizing had been scratched off, were very
noticeable.
Skilful forgers guard against this obvious sign of alteration by treating
the erased place with a solution of rosin in spirit, which leaves a fine
shiny layer upon the paper similar to that of the original sizing.
A treatment first with hot water and then with alcohol will remove this
coating of glue or rosin, and when the paper has been dried again it will
be found that this part, which will now be free from its protective layer,
will absorb a drop of water more rapidly than the rest of the surface.
Another simple test to reveal erasure is the use of iodine vapour, which
will often cause a blue coloration (due to starch) upon the moistened
surface from which sizing has been removed, but will only colour the
remainder of the paper brown.
This test gave a very pronounced result in the examination of the letter
to which reference has been made, in which erasure of the letter "y" had
been suspected from the general appearance and microscopical examination
of the surface of the paper.
The course of the tests described above should be followed under the
microscope, although in some instances the fraud is so extensive as not to
require any magnification. As a rule, however, it is preferable to use
only one drop of a reagent, and to follow closely under a low power of the
microscope, its action, both upon the material of paper and upon the ink
of any writing, which it may render visible.
The detection of mechanical erasure, which as was mentioned above, is
frequently indicated by the paper being thinner and more transparent at
that place, is often rendered more certain by photography.
Thus if the document on which was the suspected erasure is placed between
a strong light and the camera, the negative will show a darker area
corresponding to the place where more light was transmitted through the
paper.
A photograph taken in direct light would probably in such a case show
nothing, but in a negative taken with the light falling obliquely upon the
paper, the fibres that had been roughened by the erasure would be visible,
unless a subsequent treatment with glue or rosin had been used to conceal
the injury to the surface.
Ink applied to the surface of paper from which the sizing has been removed
will show more or less tendency to spread, as upon blotting paper, and
although this may be so slight as to escape the notice of the naked eye,
it will be plainly visible under the microscope, and on a photographic
enlargement the rough edges of the marks will be very pronounced.
Every little fault or attempt at touching up will be brought into
prominence, and in cases where writing has been removed by the use of
chemical reagents the slight yellow stain which is frequently formed upon
the paper--a stain so trifling that it would not ordinarily attract
notice--will appear as a dark blotch upon a photographic reproduction. It
has frequently been claimed that it is possible to distinguish between
different kinds of ink by means of photography. Since inks contain
provisional colouring matters which cause the dried pigment upon the paper
while apparently black to be in reality red-black, blue-black, etc., it
was asserted that such differences would be made manifest in photographs
taken on an ordinary plate, and still more by the use of colour-sensitive
plates.
The present writer, however, has been unable to confirm these statements.
It is true that differences in intensity appear upon the negative, but
these are not any more pronounced than the differences obvious to the eye
in the writing, and the use of special plates and screens does not give
any more satisfactory results.
The chief use of the photographic methods is to distinguish differences in
form rather than in colour, and to record them for purposes of
demonstration.
One direction in which photography is particularly useful is in
deciphering the words in faded ink upon old documents, for the yellow
colour of the ancient vellum is due to the formation of iron oxide.
Of recent years photography has supplied another valuable means of
detecting alterations in documents, and it has been found particularly
useful for demonstrating to a judge and jury the results of a
microscopical examination.
Photographic reproduction and enlargement has the advantage over chemical
methods of not producing any alteration in the ink or paper, and in some
instances is just as effective as the latter. In the examination of wills,
for instance, it is necessary to obtain the express permission of the
President of the Probate Court, before any chemical tests may be applied
to the document, and except under special circumstances such permission
would certainly be refused.
All the details of the writing and of the texture of the paper may be
recorded by the camera, and a photographic enlargement may then be made to
any required extent, so as to obtain what practically amounts to a record
of the microscopical appearance. And the process has the additional
advantage over microscopical examination that a large portion of the
magnified surface may be examined at the same time, whereas in studying a
document under the microscope, the view is restricted to a very minute
portion of the surface.
With the more general use of the typewriter it became possible to write
libellous letters with much less risk of detection than in the case of
letters written in ordinary pen and ink, for the machine eliminates the
personal characteristics of the writer.
The differences between various makes of typing ink are also less
pronounced than the differences between different kinds of writing ink,
and the proof of the identical character of two inks has, therefore,
usually less significance.
There are, however, certain typewriting inks, which are characteristic
from the fact that they contain finely-divided carbon, and are, therefore,
unlike most typing inks, exceedingly permanent, and it is also possible to
distinguish between the more common violet aniline inks by the different
degrees of resistance that they offer to bleaching reagents.
Although it is not possible to identify the writer of a typed document by
a study of the typing it is frequently not a difficult matter with the aid
of the microscope to identify the machine upon which it was written.
The principle underlying such identification is that the letters upon a
new typewriter are arranged at very nearly equal spaces from each other
and produce a fully horizontal line of writing. But after being in use for
a very short period some of the letters are certain to get out of
alignment, and to give faults in their relative position, which are
usually reproduced every time those letters are struck. Thus, for
instance, an "a" may be a little above the line and an "r" fall too much
to the right, and these peculiarities will almost invariably recur
throughout every scrap of writing done upon that machine, until the
alignment has been adjusted. In no two machines are exactly the same
variations in the relative positions of the different letters likely to
occur. The chances of this happening is exceedingly remote, for there are
some seventy letters and signs upon a typewriter.
A practical illustration of the value of the evidence thus afforded, was
seen in a case that occurred about a year ago. It was suspected that a
letter had been written in collusion with a clerk in a certain office, and
proof of this was thought likely to have considerable influence upon the
issue of the trial.
When this letter, which was in typewriting, was compared with another
letter that had unquestionably been written in that office it was found
that the faults of alignment in both were identical. Wherever a letter, or
combination of letters, in the one fell above or below the line, the same
thing occurred in the other, and wherever there was unequal spacing
between two letters the distances were invariably equal in both cases.
In addition to this, the ink, which was of the violet type, contained the
same pigment, and the watermarks on the two sheets of paper were the same.
There could, therefore, be no reasonable doubt as to the two letters
having been written upon the same machine. As a matter of fact, this proof
of collusion did not carry the weight that had been expected, for the case
was decided upon issues that were not affected by such proof.
With the aid of a measuring-scale upon the eyepiece of the microscope it
is possible to measure the thickness of strokes of writing only ten
thousands of an inch across, and in some cases to prove in this way that a
certain part of a document was written at a different time or with a
different pen than the remainder of the writing.
In attempting to reproduce a signature a forger will probably make a
preliminary outline with a blacklead pencil and then go over this with
ink.
The imperfect removal of the pencil marks may then betray the fraud, as in
the Whalley will case described on another page. In some instances the
particles of the graphite may be seen with the aid of the microscope to
project beyond the upper layer of ink.
Additions and alterations made to the letters in writing are clearly
visible when magnified, and may be demonstrated in court by means of a
photographic enlargement. Any irregularities in the edges of the letters
or any break between one part of a letter and another appear much more
pronounced when examined in this way, for all faults are enormously
intensified. Thus the figure "0" might be altered into "9" by the
addition of a stroke, or a "3" turned into an "8," but it would be
practically impossible to do this in such a manner as not to show when
slightly magnified.
The accompanying illustrations, for which the writer is indebted to Mr. A.
S. Osborn and the proprietors of _Knowledge_, will make these points
clearer. In Fig. A is shown the result of an attempt to change the number
"11" into "17" by the addition of a stroke to the top of the second "1."
The small inset represents the appearance of the fraudulent alteration,
while beneath it is seen the microscopical enlargement, in which the
joining of the added portion is plainly visible.
Occasionally it happens in fraudulent alteration of writing that a stroke
or part of a letter may touch some of the original writing, and betray
itself by being above instead of below the older letter.
Thus in Fig. B the words "in full to date" were added to the receipt after
the signature had been put, and it will be noticed in the enlargement of
the cross stroke of the "t" in "date" and the top of the capital "C" in
the signature (Fig. C), that the alleged older writing comes uppermost.
The point at issue in this dispute was whether the receipt referred to a
whole sum or only to a payment on account.
The writer in the course of his experience has seen many similar
fraudulent alterations, but has never met with a case like that described
by Mr. Osborn, where the perforations which are in common use as a means
of preventing fraud had been carefully filled in, and new perforations
made. Fig. D shows that a fraud of this kind may be detected with
certainty by the aid of the microscope, the edges of the original
perforations appearing as rings of a lighter hue.
[Illustration: ALTERED NUMBER]
[Illustration: ALTERED PERFORATION
Detection of Forgery by means of the Camera and the Microscope
_By kind permission of "Knowledge"_]
The subsequent addition of writing to a document was in one instance
detected by the fact that the paper had been folded before the later
writing was introduced, and in the crease thus formed the sizing on the
surface of the paper had become worn, leaving the fibres more porous. Here
the ink had shown a tendency to become diffused, and the blurred edges of
the lines thus produced were very manifest.
Even where paper has been so completely charred that no signs of writing
remain visible, it is frequently possible to render the characters visible
once more by continuing the incineration until only a white structure of
ash remains.
When the writing was originally in ink the characters will usually appear
in reddish-brown marks (due to the iron in the ink) upon the white
background of ash. In the case of inks that do not contain iron, or when
the writing was in carbon or aniline typing ink, this method of
incineration will prove unsuccessful.
Writing that has been done with an ordinary lead pencil can usually be
rendered visible by carefully regulating the heat during the incineration,
so as not to burn away the graphite. Marks done with a red pencil are, as
a rule, burned away with the paper, but blue pencil marks usually persist
owing to the presence of an iron compound in the pigment.
In the case of printing inks it is rarely possible to render the
characters visible again, except when, as in blue printing ink, some iron
pigment was present.
The limits of this method of reading writing upon charred paper have
recently been investigated by Habermann, who finds that a main essential
for the successful working of the process is that the paper itself shall
yield a coherent white ash. In the case of common varieties of paper,
especially printing paper, which are loaded with china clay and other
mineral matter, this condition is admirably fulfilled.
With pure rag papers, however, the ash is much less coherent and is too
small in quantity to leave a background. Even in such cases it is possible
to increase the amount and coherence of the ash by painting the reverse
side of the charred paper with a solution of a mineral fixative agent,
such as aluminium acetate. On now drying the paper and continuing the
ignition the added substance leaves its own white ash which binds together
the ash of the paper.
The fragments of white ash upon which writing has been made visible will
obviously be extremely fragile, but they may be rendered firm enough to
handle by applying a solution of collodion to the reverse side, which on
evaporation leaves a layer of nitro-cellulose similar to that with which
incandescent gas mantles are coated.
Any shrinkage or distortion of the letters in the writing caused by the
contraction of the ash of the paper during the incineration is obviated or
minimised by burning the carbonised paper very slowly.
A record of the revivified writing may also be made by means of
photography.
The one pound notes issued by the Bank of England until as late as 1826,
appear to have afforded peculiar temptations to forgery, judging by the
number of persons convicted of the offence.
[Illustration: A FORGED RECEIPT]
[Illustration: PORTION OF THE SAME
_By kind permission of "Knowledge"_]
[Illustration: TESTS TO DISTINGUISH OLD FROM NEW INKS
(SEE PAGE 110)]
The statistics on this point are very remarkable. Between the years 1797
and 1811, 471 people were convicted of uttering the notes or having them
in their possession.
In 1814, the number of fraudulent one pound notes detected was 10,342; in
1815, 14,085; in 1816, 21,860; in 1817, 21,241; and during the first three
months of 1818, 8,937.
The ease with which the notes could be imitated, and the readiness with
which they could be circulated, caused hundreds of people to take up the
trade of forgery, until at length whole days were occupied at the Old
Bailey with the endless trials and convictions.
Much indignation was expressed in the newspapers that the Bank had not
issued notes which could not be imitated, and as a result of this outcry,
a committee of scientific men was appointed to examine and report upon the
best means of checking the evil.
Their report stated that they had examined many specimens of engraving,
but none that had been submitted to them was proof against skilful
imitation. Most of the forged notes had been clumsily imitated, and from
this it appeared that the public were quite ready to be deceived by them.
It was commonly believed, though without foundation, that the Bank placed
a private mark upon their notes by which they could subsequently be
identified.
The general dissatisfaction with the behaviour of the Bank authorities was
intensified by the amount of public money that was spent in the
prosecution of the forgers, and the view was freely expressed that the
Bank had no right to assume the office of prosecutor.
In the year 1818, for instance, there were 242 prosecutions, the cost of
which was £34,357.
So pronounced became public opinion upon the subject that the Bank was
forced to allow the culprits to plead guilty to a minor charge, the
penalty for which was transportation instead of death.
This became almost a necessity, since there were frequently batches of
twenty or thirty convicted forgers awaiting execution, though the death
penalty was only exacted in a relatively small proportion of the cases.
During the seven years ending 1825 there were 78,918 males and 14,800
females tried on the charge of forging these notes. Of these prisoners,
17,874 were acquitted, while out of the remaining 75,844 sentence of death
was passed upon 7,770, though not more than 579 of these were executed.
Even this small proportion gave the terrible yearly average of
eighty-three executions.
As it was at that time impossible to stop these wholesale forgeries the
abolition of the issue of one pound notes, which took place in 1826, was
obviously the only solution of the difficulty.
CHAPTER VIII
DISTINGUISHING INKS IN HANDRWRITING
Elizabethan Ink--Milton's Bible--Age of Inks--Carbon Inks--Herculaneum
MSS.--Forgery of Ancient Documents.
In order to make clear the principles upon which are based the methods of
distinguishing between different kinds of ink in handwriting it is
necessary to give some account of the nature of ink.
Ordinary writing ink is essentially a mixture of a decoction of galls (or
other substances containing tannin) with a solution of copperas, or as it
is now termed, ferrous sulphate. These substances combine with one another
to form a tannate of iron, which gradually changes on exposure to the air
into another iron tannate, which is insoluble and constitutes the black
pigment of writing.
Characters written with a pure freshly-prepared iron gall ink are very
faint in colour when first applied to the paper, and it is only after the
air has acted upon them that they gradually become dark blue and finally
black.
In the old type of iron-gall ink, that which was universally employed down
to the early part of last century, inks were exposed to the air or were
boiled in order that the insoluble black pigment might form within the
liquid, and thus give some colour to the ink when it was first put upon
paper. The objection to this is that ink thus prepared is liable to clog
the pen and not to penetrate properly into the fibres of the paper.
In the modern type of inks, therefore, which are commonly known as
"blue-black" inks, this method of partial oxidation is not employed, but a
colouring matter is added instead, so that the writing has some colour
immediately, pending the formation of the black pigment within the fibres
of the paper.
The nature of this provisional colouring matter varies in different inks,
and no two manufacturers appear to use the same substance for this
purpose. In some inks indigo is employed, in others logwood, while the
introduction of aniline dyestuffs placed an abundant choice of colouring
matters at the disposal of the manufacturer.
In the case of old inks it would only have been possible to distinguish
between writings done with different kinds where some mistake had been
made in the preparation of the ink, and a large excess of iron or of galls
had been used.
The possibility of such mistakes occurring, however, will be readily
understood when it is remembered that ink-making was formerly as much a
part of the duties of the housewife as the baking of bread or the making
of cordials.
As writing was a polite accomplishment restricted to the educated people
of leisure the ink-manufacturer could not have existed, for there would
have been no customers, and recipes for the making of ink were therefore
handed down for generations.
A particularly interesting example of an early domestic recipe for making
ink is shown in the accompanying figure which Mr. G. Weddell has kindly
allowed to be reproduced. This was taken from a collection of old family
recipes dating back to the early part of the sixteenth century, and
including among its odd assortment of items directions for making
everything needed for the household, from apple pasties to cures for the
king's evil. This particular recipe, which was one of several for making
ink, was probably written towards the close of the sixteenth century. It
gives directions for soaking the galls in rain water (or claret, or red
vinegar) and boiling the liquid, after standing for a few days, with
copperas and gum. The whole collection of these recipes, which suggest
many a picture of the life in an English household in the sixteenth
century, has been published in facsimile (_Arcana Fairfaxiana
Manuscripta_, 1890).
[Illustration: Elizabethan domestic recipe for ink]
Ink made by the rule of thumb methods of the housewife must have often
been very poor stuff, and it is to this cause that we must attribute the
want of permanency of the ink in some of the relatively modern writing as
compared with that upon manuscripts centuries earlier.
No more interesting illustration of the effect of the composition of old
inks upon the permanency of writing can be found than in the various names
written in Milton's family Bible, to be seen in the British Museum. It
will be noticed that all the entries of the births of himself and the
members of his family are in the handwriting of Milton, and that with one
exception all the inks are of a good dark tone. The exception is seen in
the entry relating to the birth of his daughter Deborah "on the 2nd of
May, being Sunday, somewhat before three of the clock in the morning,
1652." Here the ink has faded to a faint brown tint.
Considerable variations are possible in the proportions of galls and iron
that may be used without interfering with the blackness of the pigment,
but a deficiency of tannin outside those limits will cause the writing to
turn brown. A lack of tannin to combine with the excess of iron present is
probably the explanation of this faded entry in Milton's Bible.
It is very probable, too, that tests applied to the freshly-written
entries would have shown that the ink in this entry was of different
composition from that of the inks in the other entries.
Lovibond's tintometer, an instrument which enables slight differences of
colour to be distinguished more accurately than is possible with the naked
eye, has been used in matching the colour obtained in chemical reactions
with those given by the colour scales prepared from known or suspected
inks.
For recording colour, strips of glass graduated so as to form a series of
colour scales are employed in this instrument, and in this way a note can
be taken of any given tint.
[Illustration: The Tintometer]
The first occasion upon which this instrument was employed in criminal
work was in the Brinkley poisoning case, in which the colours of the
different inks upon the will and other documents were examined by its
means.
The problem of determining the age of an ink in writing is much more
difficult than that of deciding whether two writings are in the same or in
a different kind of ink.
It is, as a rule, possible to distinguish, with the aid of the microscope
and tintometer, between freshly-written and old writing up to about the
sixth day, after which the black pigment has attained sufficient intensity
to prevent further differentiation until after the lapse of two or three
years or more, when the provisional pigment will have faded or have become
fixed by the iron tannate.
In most cases the provisional pigments used offer greater resistance to
the action of chemicals, but are infinitely less stable than the iron
tannate when exposed to the action of light and air, and eloquent
testimony to this difference is given by the comparison of certain
manuscripts of the seventh and eighth centuries with typewritten matter in
aniline ink, which has been put aside for a few years.
Thus it happens that when characters written in blue-black ink are kept,
the blue pigment will gradually fade out, leaving the black pigment; and
when this stage is reached the ink in old writing is readily distinguished
from ink that has been freshly put upon paper.
Prior to this, however, the blue provisional colouring matter appears to
become enveloped in the particles of iron tannate so that it no longer
reacts rapidly with chemical reagents.
Thus, if writing done within the last year or two be treated with acetic
acid there is an immediate diffusion of the blue pigment, whereas in the
older writing, diffusion, if it occurs at all, is very slow and limited in
extent.
A still more useful reagent for this purpose is a saturated solution of
oxalic acid, which causes the pigment of relatively fresh writing to give
an immediate smudge, but has very little, if any, effect on writing six or
eight years old. The differences in the behaviour of old and relatively
recent writing are seen in the tests here illustrated, in which the old
writing of 1898 was hardly affected by the reagents, whereas the writing
done in 1908 gave the results shown.
Both writings were in the same kind of ink and the tests were applied
simultaneously.
Speaking generally, a writing done with blue-black ink ceases to show such
diffusion after five to six years. When slight diffusion occurs in an
older ink it is seen under the microscope to differ in character and only
to affect the surface of the letters, whereas the diffusion in an ink
written within the last two or three years affects the whole of the
pigment in the letters.
The first occasion on which chemical evidence as to the age of blue-black
ink has been given in the law courts was in the recent forgery case, in
which Colonel Pilcher was accused of forging his cousin's will. This will
was alleged to have been written in 1898; and assuming this to have been
the case, the ink should only have reacted very slowly with the different
reagents; there should have been little or no diffusion with oxalic acid:
and if any slight diffusion occurred it should only have been upon the
surface of the letters.
The ink upon the will, however, gave an immediate reaction with the
different reagents, the blue pigment diffused at once with oxalic acid,
and the diffusion extended throughout the whole of the letters. There was
thus no doubt but that the ink upon the will had been written within the
last year or two--certainly within the last six years.
Cheques written by the deceased lady during the last thirteen years were
also subjected simultaneously to the same tests, and while those written
quite recently gave an immediate diffusion, the ink upon those written in
1903 showed only the slightest diffusion in the heaviest writing, and no
diffusion at all was obtained upon the cheques written in 1901.
The general adoption of blue-black ink for the old iron-gall ink has made
it a simple matter to distinguish between old and new writing, for it is
easy to differentiate the two kinds of ink by tests which show the
presence of the blue pigment.
The test has been found useful of late in checking the statements of
certain claimants of old-age pensions, who, as a proof of their age, have
pointed to the entries of date of their birth in old family Bibles.
In more than one instance the results of a scientific examination of the
inks have failed to support the claim, for they have proved conclusively
that the ink was of recent origin.
It is a simple matter to distinguish between the ancient types of ink that
were in use during the early centuries of the Christian era until they
were gradually replaced by iron-gall inks and modern writing inks. For the
basis of all these ancient inks is lampblack, or some other form of
carbon, which is very resistant to the action of reagents. It is for this
reason that printing ink, the pigment of which is carbon, is so much more
stable than any ordinary writing ink can be. In fact, in order to increase
the permanence of writing inks it has frequently been recommended to add
a small amount of some carbon ink.
The most easily obtained preparation of the kind is the commercial Indian
or Chinese ink, which consists essentially of a mixture of glue with
lampblack in the finest possible state of division.
In order to distinguish between a carbon ink of this nature and an
ordinary writing ink all that is necessary is to apply a dilute bleaching
agent. The blue-black pigment of the writing ink will then gradually
disappear, whereas the fine particles of carbon in the other ink will show
little, if any alteration, and may still be discerned under the microscope
as minute black granules resting upon the fibres of the paper.
It was by a method similar to this that Sir Humphrey Davy proved that the
writing upon papyri found in the ruins of Herculaneum, which was destroyed
in A.D. 79, had been done with a carbon ink, of the same nature as that
used by the ancient Egyptians and by the Chinese and Japanese at the
present day. On none of the Herculaneum MSS. could any trace of iron ink
be detected.
The same tests may be applied to determine whether the writing upon a
document has been lithographed or has been written with ordinary ink.
An amusing instance of the kind came within the present writer's
experience. A sheet of paper upon which was some writing that was believed
to have been written by Nelson had been handed down in a family for
several generations as an heirloom, and had always been looked upon as a
genuine document. The ink had the faded yellow tone of old iron ink, and
there was nothing to show that the writing was not what it professed to
be.
Its present owner, however, happened to notice in a museum what appeared
to be a duplicate of the manuscript in his possession, and when a chemical
test was applied to the ink upon the latter the pigment was quite
unaffected. Hence there could be no doubt as to its being a copy of the
original reproduced by lithography.
Cases in which it is necessary to distinguish between iron-gall writing
inks and printing or other carbon inks occur from time to time in criminal
investigations. As a recent example a case that was tried a few months ago
may be mentioned. The chief clerk of a firm of merchants had for a
considerable time been defrauding his employers, and when suspicion at
length fell upon him, endeavoured to conceal his doings by falsifying the
entries of previous years in the ledger.
In order to do this it was necessary to abstract certain pages in a
particular part of the ledger and to substitute the necessary alterations.
Then, finding that the ink of the writing would appear too new, and thus
invite inquiry, he added a small amount of Indian ink to an ordinary
writing ink, and thus obtained a mixture, which gave an immediate effect
of age to the writing. To the naked eye there was nothing to show that
these pages had not been written on the dates mentioned on them, three or
four years previously, but on applying a weak bleaching agent the fraud
was at once made obvious. The iron-gall part of the pigment faded away,
but the particles of carbon that had formed the basis of the Indian ink
were left, and their nature could easily be recognised under the
microscope. The entries on the other pages in the ledger, which had been
written in ordinary writing were completely bleached in the test.
A very curious illustration of the difficulties that beset the forger of
ancient documents was afforded by the trial of Humphreys in 1839 in
Edinburgh.
The prisoner was the claimant to the earldom of Stirling, and in support
of his claim had produced a number of documents supposed to date back to
the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. One of these purported to
be a portion of a charter granted by King Charles I to the first Earl of
Stirling in 1639, permitting the succession to the earldom to descend
through the daughters of the house.
As witness to this there was appended the signature of Archbishop
Spottiswood described as "our Chancellor," whereas as a matter of history
the seal had been handed to the Marquis of Hamilton a year prior to the
date of the pretended charter. There were also various other anachronisms
in the document, such as margins in red ink, which were not used before
1780.
Scientific evidence was also given that the ink upon the pretended charter
was not old ink, but ink that had been treated in such a manner as to
appear old.
Similar inconsistencies were shown in the other pieces of documentary
evidence, and scientific proof was given that the date upon an engraved
map, upon the back of which were memoranda supporting the claimant's case,
had been added at a later period.
The jury unanimously found the prisoner guilty of forgery.
CHAPTER IX
TWO NOTABLE TRIALS
Trial of Brinkley--Trial of Robert Wood
The first occasion upon which scientific evidence as to the difference of
blue-black inks upon a document was given in a court of law in this
country was at the trial of Richard Brinkley at the Guildford Assizes in
July, 1907, for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Beck.
Brinkley, at the time of his trial, was about fifty years of age. He was a
carpenter by trade, but in the course of his life had turned his hand to
many occupations, and for many months had been living upon the proceeds of
the property which he claimed to have inherited.
For some time prior to her death he had made himself indispensable to an
old lady named Blume, and when, early in 1906, she died, he produced a
will in which she had left him her house and money.
On the strength of this will, which he proved in the usual way, Brinkley
took possession of Mrs. Blume's house, much to the disgust of her daughter
and granddaughter, who had always resented his influence over the old
lady. They had no knowledge that anything was wrong with the will, but
they determined to test its validity, and accordingly a _caveat_ was
entered against it.
Brinkley had not anticipated that he would have to prove that it was a
genuine document, or that he would have to depend upon the testimony of
the men whose signatures as witnesses were present upon the will. He knew
that he could rely upon one of his witnesses, a man named Hird, who had
drawn up the will; but the other witness, Parker, refused to perjure
himself for Brinkley's benefit. He owned that he had signed a paper when
he had been out with Brinkley, but denied that he had ever seen or signed
a will.
As Parker's refusal to appear in court meant that the will would be
declared a forgery, Brinkley decided that he must be cleared from his
path.
He therefore obtained some prussic acid from a man who described himself
as "a friend of our dumb fellow-creatures," alleging that he needed it to
kill a dog, and this poison he introduced into a bottle of oatmeal stout,
which he took round to Parker's lodgings in Croydon, and placed in his
sitting-room.
Before Parker came home his landlady, Mrs. Beck, went into his room and
seeing the bottle of stout called her husband and daughter, and they all
drank the poisoned beer that had never been intended for them. Mr. and
Mrs. Beck died the same night, and their daughter, who had taken less of
the stout, was very ill, though she ultimately recovered.
Parker was immediately arrested, but being able to prove his innocence was
soon set free, and suspicion then fell upon Brinkley who, after the
coroner's inquest, was committed for trial on the charge of murdering the
Becks, the law being that if you deliberately intend to kill one person
and unintentionally kill another you are none the less guilty of murder.
On the way to the police station, after his arrest, Brinkley made the
significant statement: "If anyone says I put poison in stout, he's got to
prove it." Up to that moment there had been no mention of poisoned stout.
At the police court proceedings it was proved that the Becks had died from
the effects of prussic acid, that Brinkley had bought that poison, that he
had bought a bottle of stout in West Croydon, and that he had been seen on
the platform at Wandsworth waiting for the West Croydon train.
The motive of the crime was an important link in the chain of evidence,
but Brinkley held stoutly to his story that the will was signed by both
witnesses in the presence of Mrs. Blume.
Parker's version of his signature, the authenticity of which he did not
dispute, was that while he was out with Brinkley one evening the latter
asked him to sign his name upon a paper petitioning for an outing, and
that they had thereupon turned into a public-house, where he, Parker, had
written his name upon a sheet of paper, the upper part of which was folded
over.
In order to test the truth of Parker's statement the bottle of ink was
obtained from that public-house, and he was told to write his name upon a
sheet of paper in that ink, and this paper and the original will were
submitted to the present writer for examination.
By the aid of the methods described in the preceding pages it was found
that the ink of Parker's signature upon the will and that of the writing
upon the piece of paper were of the same kind--an ink readily recognisable
from its particularly brilliant blue pigment. In addition to this, three
distinct kinds of ink were present upon the will, the body of the
document and the signature of one witness being in one kind of ink, the
signature of the testatrix in another, and the signature of the other
witness in a third.
When the case came on at the Assizes at Guildford Mr. R. D. Muir appeared
for the prosecution, while the prisoner was very ably defended by Mr.
Frampton. Every day the judge, counsel on both sides, the prisoner, and
many of the witnesses went down to Guildford by a train in the morning and
returned to London again in the evening.
Each morning the prisoner when he entered the court appeared quite
unconcerned, and chatted with the warders. As is so often the case, he did
not seem to realise the gravity of his position.
It was shown in the evidence that he had some knowledge of poisons, and
that he had selected one that would disappear more or less rapidly from
the body after death. The chemical evidence as to the presence of prussic
acid in the bodies was given by Dr. Stevenson and Mr. Bodmer, and was not
called in question by the defence.
Evidence was also given by the writer with regard to the inks upon the
will, and this, too, was not disputed. In fact, Brinkley, who went into
the witness-box, when asked how he explained the fact of three kinds of
ink being on the will replied that Mrs. Blume had three different sorts in
the house.
He was then asked what had become of two of them, since only one bottle of
ink was discovered when the house was searched, and to this his answer was
that he had given these to a little girl.
Throughout the trial Brinkley's explanations of damning facts were never
supported by any evidence, while for every statement of Parker there was
abundant corroboration.
The scene in court on the opening day of the trial will probably never be
forgotten by anyone present. A heavy thunderstorm passed over Guildford,
and for some minutes such blackness filled the interior of the hall where
the Assizes were held that it was barely possible to distinguish the faces
of those who were trying a man for his life, excepting when they were lit
up by the vivid flashes of lightning. Throughout the storm Mr. Muir
continued, in clear incisive tones, which could be plainly heard across
the noise of the thunder, to marshal the array of deadly facts, from which
there could be no escape for the prisoner sitting motionless in the dock.
To the journalist nothing that means "copy" is sacred, and the
representative of one leading London paper whispered to another sitting
just behind the writer, "What a pity this couldn't happen while the
sentence of death was being passed!"
Mr. Frampton in his speech for the defence dwelt principally upon other
possible explanations of evidence, which, as he urged, was entirely
circumstantial in character, but he was unable to produce any witnesses to
support the assertions of Brinkley.
After a trial which lasted four days, the judge (Sir John Bigham) summed
up, and the jury, after a short retirement, found the prisoner guilty.
Until the end he protested his innocence.
The most sensational trial that has taken place in this country for many
years was that of Robert Wood, a young artist, in 1907, on the charge of
murdering a woman.
The story of the crime itself is a particularly sordid one, but the
behaviour of the prisoner in court, and the excited state of public
feeling upon the subject gave a profound psychological interest to the
trial.
A woman had been found brutally murdered in her lodgings in a small house
in Camden Town, and no trace could be found of the murderer.
In the fire-grate, however, had been found some charred fragments of a
letter, while in the chest of drawers a post card that had escaped notice
had been discovered.
A reproduction of this post card was posted up at the police-stations and
published in the papers, and was soon recognised by several people as
being in the handwriting of Robert Wood.
In the meantime, Wood, finding that suspicion was likely to attach to him,
persuaded a girl of his acquaintance, named Ruby Young, to promise to
support his statement that he had been with her upon the evening when the
murder took place.
A day or two later Ruby Young became uneasy as to the effect her promise
was likely to produce, and asked the advice of a journalist as to what
would be the best thing to do, putting the case as a hypothetical one. The
man, however, at once saw to what she alluded, and immediately telephoned
to the police, and this led to the arrest of Robert Wood.
At the police court proceedings an expert opinion was given that the
fragments of charred paper found in the grate of the dead woman, were in
the handwriting of Wood, and evidence was also given by the present writer
that the pigment in which the characters were written was identical with
that of a marking-ink pencil found upon the prisoner.
For a long time Wood denied that he had had anything to do with these
fragments. Subsequently, at the beginning of the trial at the Old Bailey,
he admitted that he had written them, though to the end he strenuously
refused to admit that the words had the meaning which they appeared to
suggest.
He denied that they referred to any appointment made with the dead woman
for the day upon which she was murdered.
The proof of the fact that these bits of charred paper had really been
written by Wood brought him very close to the scene of the crime, and his
attempt to create a false alibi and to get Ruby Young to bear this out
still further strengthened the suspicion against him.
The most telling evidence, however, was the statement of a carman, who
had, he asserted, seen a man leave the house of the murdered woman at five
o'clock in the morning. He had not seen the face of the man, but had
noticed that he had a characteristic swinging walk, and when taken to the
police station had identified the prisoner among a number of other men,
who had been made to walk round the yard, as the man that he had seen
coming down the steps of the house.
Other evidence was given as to Wood's having been seen in the company of
the deceased woman on several occasions in the past, although he asserted
that he had only known her a few days and had seen her only once or twice.
The bad reputation of most of these witnesses detracted from the value of
their evidence.
Mr. Marshall Hall, who conducted Wood's defence, made a very brilliant
speech, in which he laid stress upon the weak points in the case for the
prosecution--the evidence that had been gathered from a tainted source,
the complete absence of any motive for the crime, and the fact that the
jury were trying the prisoner for murder and not for immorality or lying.
He urged that the keynote in this case was that Wood, who had a great deal
of vanity, could not take upon himself the responsibility of admitting
what would cause him to occupy a lower position in the estimation of those
who had given him their undivided respect and affection.
What, he asked, was the evidence of murder? The only iota of evidence that
turned the scale against Wood was that of the man McGowan, who stated that
he had seen the prisoner leaving the house, and had afterwards recognised
him by an alleged peculiarity in his gait.
Two months after the arrest of her lover, Ruby Young, for the first time,
had said that he had a peculiar gait similar to that described by McGowan,
and so far as she was concerned this, said counsel, was a gross and
vindictive lie.
The chief evidence called for the defence was that of Wood's father and
brother, who stated that he was at home on the night of the murder, and of
a neighbour who had lived beneath them, who had seen Wood come home that
evening.
A ticket collector named Westcott, employed at King's Cross station,
stated that he lived in the same road, and that on the early morning, when
Wood was stated to have been seen, he left his house at five minutes to
five. He was then wearing a loose overcoat. Westcott was a
broad-shouldered man, and a boxer, and had a brisk swinging walk. It was
this man, it was suggested, whom McGowan had mistaken for Wood.
Wood, himself, was put into the box and gave his evidence in a low, and at
times, nearly inaudible voice, though he showed not a sign of nervousness.
He gave emphatic denials to the questions put to him in cross-examination
by Sir Charles Matthews, but he admitted having lied in the matter of the
false alibi that he had attempted to set up. He was, he said, in a tight
corner, and any man would have done the same if placed in the same
conditions.
With reference to the fragments of paper on which were words in his
handwriting he denied that they were part of a letter, and suggested that
it might have been some scrap of writing taken from his pocket by the dead
woman. The theory of its referring to an assignation was, he suggested, an
act of imagination upon the part of the prosecuting counsel.
The judge, Sir William Grantham, in summing up the case, pointed out that
had it not been for the conduct of Wood himself in telling lies and
keeping back what he knew, there would have been no justification for
such a lengthy trial.
The evidence of McGowan was, he said, open to a certain amount of doubt,
owing to the fact that the witness had not mentioned at once about having
noticed a peculiarity in the walk of the man he saw leaving the house in
St. Paul's Road, just before five o'clock on the morning of September
12th.
Then the statements of Ruby Young did not bring the crime home to the
prisoner at all. That was a remarkable feature in the case. A number of
witnesses for the Crown did not directly connect the prisoner with the
crime.
The inference, in view of the evidence of other witnesses, was that Wood
in his evidence had been lying all through. But the jury could not convict
him because he was a liar. It was mainly in consequence of Wood's own
false statements that the prosecution were bound to rely upon the evidence
of the other witnesses who had come forward.
"Although," said the judge in concluding his address to the jury, "it is
my duty to do all I can to further the interests of justice, it is also my
duty to inform the jury that they must not find a man guilty unless no
loophole is left by which he can escape. In my judgment, strong as is the
suspicion in this case, I don't think the prosecution have brought the
case near enough home to the prisoner--with the exception of the evidence
of McGowan. That evidence, if implicitly relied upon, would justify you in
finding him guilty; but that evidence is considerably controverted. I
don't think the identification, even if true, is sufficient to justify
you in finding this man guilty. Therefore, although it is a matter for you
alone, it is my duty to point out the effect of the evidence, and it is my
duty to point out that unless the effect of the evidence is so conclusive
that there can be no doubt in anyone's mind, you should give the prisoner
the benefit of the doubt, and say you don't think he is guilty."
It was a quarter to eight in the evening when the jury retired to consider
their verdict, and before eight had struck they were back again in court,
and had pronounced their verdict of "Not guilty."
Cheer on cheer swept through the court, and for some minutes it was
impossible for the judge and the court officers to obtain silence. Men and
women thronged round the dock eager to grasp the hand which Robert Wood
held out to them over the rail.
Outside, in the street, the dense mob that thronged up to the very doors
of the court, took up the cry, and yelled itself hoarse with the words
"Not guilty. Not guilty."
The public had long before this decided that Wood was innocent, and the
orgies of wild enthusiasm that followed upon the announcement of the
verdict were some indication of the tense excitement that had been pent up
for so many days. Robert Wood had become the popular hero of the hour.
It is difficult now to account for this hero-worship of a man who had done
nothing to justify such worship, except upon the theory of an emotional
infection that had destroyed the balance of collective judgment. This want
of proportion reached its limit perhaps in an article written for a Sunday
paper by one of the best known actresses. After describing the emotional
stress through which she had passed while waiting for the jury to give
their verdict she mentioned that she had gone into the hall. There she had
noticed a forlorn little figure of a girl wandering listlessly up and
down. Someone told her that this was Ruby Young, and for a moment she had
felt an impulse to go and speak to her, for she pitied her from the bottom
of her heart. And as she looked at her, with tears welling up in her eyes,
she thought of Peter when he had gone out and wept bitterly!
It was a matter of the greatest difficulty for those connected with the
case to force a way through the surging crowd that was waiting to give a
boisterous welcome to the acquitted artist and his solicitor and counsel,
and to vent their disapproval upon witnesses who had dared to give
evidence against him, and particularly Ruby Young.
For hours she waited, trembling, within the building, for it was not
thought prudent to allow her to venture outside; and it was quite late at
night before, disguised as a charwoman, she was able to make her escape
through a small door that had not attracted the notice of the mob.
This was the climax of one of the most unpleasant features of the trial,
in the course of which several of the witnesses had complained to the
judge of the attempts that had been made to intimidate them from giving
their evidence.
Another memorable feature in the trial was the behaviour of the accused.
Throughout his ordeal Wood seemed to be more concerned about the
impression he was making upon the spectators in court than about the
necessity of accounting satisfactorily for many suspicious circumstances
that told against him.
So well did he appear to be able to control his emotions that, as he
himself wrote afterwards, he could notice whether one of the actresses who
attended the trial day by day, smiled upon him.
Never for one moment did he lose this self-control or appear otherwise
than an unconcerned witness of the events upon which his life depended.
This absence of nerves in the accused is what struck most people as one of
the strangest features in a strange trial, and caused Mr. Hall Caine, who
was present in the court throughout the whole time, to write of him: "That
he felt nothing I will not dare to say, that his mental processes were not
frequently stirred to such pain as comes of baffling difficulties, but
that the ordeal of his trial was a terrible one to him I absolutely refuse
to believe. Robert Wood, innocent of the murder of Emily Dimmock, is yet
the most remarkable man alive."
In what trial upon a charge of murder has there ever been witnessed the
sight of the prisoner, whose life was hanging in the balance, laughing and
chatting with his friends, and making sketches of the judge, the counsel,
and the witnesses? Even at the most crucial moment of the trial, when the
jury had withdrawn to consider their verdict he exhibited no trace of
anxiety, but until called below sat calmly sketching, while he waited for
their return.
And thus Mr. Hall Caine wondered, as he got the prisoner to sign his name
upon the back of a copy of the charred fragments of the letter, whether
"with all his mental alertness, his intellectual activity, his
temperamental composure, this was not one of those men, the rare and
mysterious men, who lack some necessary quality on the moral side of their
nature."
CHAPTER X
SYMPATHETIC INKS
The so-called _sympathetic inks_, by which is understood inks that give a
writing that is invisible, or nearly so, until it has been acted upon by
the air or treated with a special reagent, have been put to many ingenious
uses by the criminal.
Some five years ago an innocent-looking individual called at the
laboratory of one of the leading consulting chemists in London, and asked
whether he could be supplied with a writing fluid that would give writing
which would fade away in a short time, and also with another ink that
would produce words that would be invisible for some time and then appear.
He gave as his reason for requiring these that he wanted to amuse a small
boy.
The sequel was seen a few weeks later when the same plausible individual
was arrested for swindling on the race-course. He had made tempting bets
on certain horses, the names of which he had written on slips of paper,
and had handed these slips to those who had accepted his wagers.
In a short time the name of the horse on each slip of paper gradually
faded away while the name of another horse slowly appeared in its place.
One man to whom one of these slips had been given, having been warned by
another victim, hurried away to the police station, and was in time to let
the superintendent see the name of an "outsider" replace that of one of
the favourites upon which he had laid his money.
This appears to have been the last detected attempt to use a sympathetic
ink upon the race-course. A disappearing ink frequently used for this
purpose is a weak solution of starch containing a slight trace of iodine,
the effect of which is to produce a faint blue colour. On exposure to the
air the colour of writing done with such a fluid soon fades away.
Fugitive dye-stuffs have also been employed as disappearing inks, and some
of these, such as quinoline blue, give characters that rapidly disappear
when exposed to sunlight.
An ink that is invisible for some time is a solution of silver nitrate in
ammonia, which gradually becomes black when acted upon by air and light.
Or certain dye-stuffs such as magenta, that have been treated with a
bleaching reagent in just sufficient quantity to decolorise them fulfil
the same purpose, the original colour gradually reappearing as the oxygen
of the air acts upon the pigment.
The earliest inks that were rendered visible by chemical reagents were
believed to act by magnetism.
Thus in a medical book of the seventeenth century, written by Brossonius,
a "magnetic fluid" is described made from "arseniated liver of sulphur,"
which only became visible when looked at with the "eyes of affection."
This appears to have been nothing more mysterious than an ink of lead
acetate, the characters written with which could be rendered visible by
exposing them to the vapour of sulphuretted hydrogen.
Inks of this kind were also mentioned, in 1669, by Otto Tachen, who
referred to them as _aquæ magnetice e longinquo agentes_, but pointed out
that there was nothing magnetic in their action. The term _sympathetic
ink_ appears to have originated with Le Mort, who applied it to the lead
acetate ink, and later on the name was extended to all secret inks.
The best known sympathetic inks consist of solutions of cobalt salts, the
writing done with which changes on heating from a nearly invisible pink to
blue. This peculiarity of cobalt to form two series of salts containing
different amounts of water was discovered in 1715 by Waiz.
Other compounds that may be used as sympathetic writing fluids include
tannin, which forms ordinary ink on the addition of iron sulphate; cobalt
nitrate which becomes blue on adding oxalic acid, and gold chloride which
gives a purple colour with tin chloride.
Some thirty years ago a patent was taken out by Kromer for the use of a
sympathetic ink in detecting any tampering with envelopes. The two dried
constituents of the ink, say tannin and iron sulphate, are separated by
the adhesive gum upon the envelope, so that should steam be applied to
open the letter, the two substances come into contact, and form an ink,
which leaves a stain upon the paper.
Printing inks based upon these principles are used in preparing the
groundwork of cheques, so that any attempt to remove the writing from the
cheque by means of chemical agents will be betrayed by the change of
colour upon the body of the paper.
The value of sympathetic inks in detecting an offender was strikingly
shown in the recent Sutton libel case, in w
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