History of Forensics

How science and civil law came together.

People to Know

Mathieu Orfilia – The Father of Forensic Toxicology

Alphonse Bertillion- developed, anthropometry (system of body measurements) (precedes fingerprinting)

Francis Galton- classified fingerprints Leone Lattes- developed test to determine

the blood type in dried blood

Calvin Goddard- Established the comparison microscope for investigating firearms

Albert Osborn- developed principle for document examination.

Walter C. McCrone- responsible for educating thousands of forensic scientists in microscopy technique

Hans Gross- wrote first book dedicated to the application of scientific disciplines to the field of criminal investigation.

Edmond Locard- Developed the concept of the Locard Exchange Principle (whenever two objects come in contact, there is always an exchange of materials between them—no matter how microscopic)

Forensic Timeline

700’s- Chinese used fingerprints to establish identity of documents and clay sculpture, but without any formal classification system.

1000- in Rome, a court case showed bloody palm prints were used to frame a blind man of his mothers murder

1248 A Chinese book, contained descriptions of how to distinguish between drowning and strangulation.

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

1813- Mathieu Orfilia- writes a book on forensic toxicology

1864- Odelbrecht first advocates for the use of photography for identifying criminals and the documentation of evidence and crime scences

1880- Henry Faulds, suggested fingerprints at the scene of a crime could identify a criminal.

1883- Alphonse Bertillon, invented anthropometry

1887- Arthur Conan Doyle publishes first Sherlock Holmes story.

1891- Hans Gross published book describing uses of physical evidence in solving crimes.

1892- Francis Galton published book on the nature and use of fingerprints.

1892- Case of mother killing her own child was accused based on her fingerprints in Argentina. Argentina was the first country to replace anthropometry with fingerprints.

1900- Karl Landsteiner develops human blood groups of A, B, AB, and O.

1903- New York State Prison system is first to use Fingerprints for criminal identification in the U.S.

1904 Locard publishes concept of the Locard Exchange Principle.

1905- President Rosevelt establishes Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

1910- Albert S. Osborne becomes most influential document examiner

1913- Victor Balthazard publishes the first article on bullet markings

1915- Leone Lattes develops antibody to identify ABO blood groups.

1916- Albert Schneider first uses vaccuum aparatus to collect trace evidence.

1920’s- Calvin Goddard uses comparison microscope for use in bullet comparison.

1920’s- Luke May pioneers striation analysis in tool mark comparison.

1923- In Frye vs. United States polygraph test results were ruled inadmissible.

1932- The FBI crime lab was created 1941- Murray Hill studies voiceprint

identification. 1945- Frank Lundquist developed the acid

phosphatase test for semen. 1954- R.F. Borkenstein invented the

Breathalyzer for field sobriety testing.

1960- Lucas applied gas chromatography to identify gasoline.

1974- The detection of gunshot residue using scanning electron microscopy was developed.

1977- The FBI introduced the beginnings of automated fingerprint identification.

1986- DNA was first used to exonerate an innocent suspect. Also first use of DNA to solve a crime.

1987- DNA profiling was introduced for the first time in US criminal courts.

1996- In Tennessee v. Ware, mitochondrial DNA typing was admitted for the first time in a US court.