Martin 1

Forensics in a Nutshell
By
Katherine Martin

Martin 2

Evidence is collected, taken to a lab, and before 60 minutes has passed, you have a
criminal behind bars and get to move on to the next speedy case. If only real life were as easy as
the crime shows on television. Forensics has come a long way since the early ancient methods
used by Archimedes who used the law of displacement to determine if a goldsmith had used
silver instead of gold for a crown. (Vitruvius)
Forensics for solving crimes has been in use since the 18th century. One of the first cases
involved the murder conviction of John Toms. In this case, a pistol wad, made from paper was
found in the body of the victim. The wad matched up perfectly to a ripped song sheet in Johns
pocket, which proved he was the shooter. (McCrery) Another new technique created in France
in 1899, was ballistics. Professor of forensics, Alexandre Lacassagne
discovered that each gun had a unique pattern it would leave on bullets. This
technique was not taken seriously until 1915 in the United States with the case
Lacassagne

of Charlie Stielow and Nelson Green proved how ballistics could be so

important in proving guilt or innocence. In this case, an expert witness by the name of Dr.
Albert Hamilton tried to say that ballistics showed that bullets found in the murder victims
matched the gun owned by Stielow. However, this was not the case as Hamilton was in fact a
fraud who did not have the proper qualifications to be an expert witness. Had the New York
Detective Bureau not stepped into the case to prove the ballistics accurately Stielow and Green
would have been sentenced to death or life in prison for a crime they did not commit. (McCrery)
Another aspect of forensics is blood. In 1900, a doctor by the name of
Paul Uhlenhuth discovered that one could discern the difference between human
and animal blood. By using egg whites and blood serum, he discovered that the
Uhlenhuth

Martin 3

egg proteins would separate and formed a substance called precipitin. He created serums for
other animals as well so that blood could be differentiated between different animals as well as
humans. He even went on to create safeguards for the test in case faulty results were obtained.
Due to these safeguards, the test would work every time, which was very useful in solving
multiple murders in 1901. In a town in Germany, two little girls went missing; their bodies were
later found in the woods. Witnessed remembered seeing a local carpenter leaving the woods with
dark stains on his clothing. The carpenter insisted that the stains were from dyes used in his
occupation, therefore the police had no choice but to set him free due to a lack in evidence. One
year later in a different town the same carpenter was accused of murdering two boys, again
witnesses saw the carpenter near the scene of the crime. This time the police having heard about
Uhlenhuths studies had him test the clothing and it was discovered that the clothes did indeed
contain wood dye, human, and sheep blood.
Anthropometry is the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human
body was first put into effect in 1880 by Alphonse Bertillon. This
was supposed to be the answer for identifying career criminals. By
choosing 11 measurements such as head size and arm length. This
new system was put into place in 1884 in the Paris police
department, and became known as the Bertillon system in 1885
when in was recognized by the French national prison system. In
Bertillons anthropometry card

1887, Canada and the United States started using this system as

well. This system worked better than previous systems used by police but also came with
drawbacks. The measurements were only as accurate as the person performing the measurements
was; if criminals were not cooperative, there were also miscalculations. The measurements were

Martin 4

very time consuming and many officers skipped needed steps, which later made it so that
identifying career criminals in this way was no dependable. (Yount)
What physical markers could be used to more accurately identify criminals? That was the
question that Francis Galton was asking himself while studying anthropometry in 1884. A cousin
of Charles Darwin, Galton was interested in traits that were inherited. While measuring
physical characteristics from thousands of volunteers he discovered that fingerprinting
might hold the key in discovering more about inherited traits. At the time, Galton had
read Nature, which contained letters from Henry Faulds and William Herschel written
in 1880 that discussed their research in fingerprinting. Herschel had a vast collection of
fingerprints collected from his time in India, where he used fingerprints on documents as a
security measure in 1858 due to the majority of signature forgers.
By studying Herschels collection and his own collection that included over 8,000 sets of
fingerprints Galton determined that fingerprints did not change with age and that two whole
fingerprints being identical was one in 64 billion. (Yount)
Galton also developed the classifying system used in
fingerprinting of whorls, loops, and arches he also had
subdivisions of small variations in the fingerprint called
ridge minutiae such as ridge endings, enclosures,
bifurcation, and islands. To this day law enforcement is still
using the techniques discovered by Galton to identify
criminals and even victims by using their fingerprints.
Frances Glessner Lee started the first forensic science program in North America in
Harvard University called the Department of Legal Medicine. Chaired by George Burgess

Martin 5

Magrath the program started in 1931 but the full-time

academic program was not official until 1937. Lee,
drawn to police work had the desire to improve officer
education regarding the medical aspects of death
investigation. The program chair was later given to Dr.
Lee working on her dioramas

Alan Moritz, a young pathologist. Moritz had a growing

interest in legal medicine, which had started when a coroner had accused a police officer of
killing an inmate who had sustained bruises to his face. Moritz determined that the true cause of
death was a brain aneurysm, which led the inmate to have a seizure. Moritz then hypothesized
that the seizure had caused the bruising and was able to exonerate the falsely accused officer.
(Jentzen)
One of the most unique ways of studying crimes also came from Lee, whose miniature
dollhouse crime scenes where revolutionary in crime scene investigation techniques. Twenty
dioramas were created; eighteen still survive which Lee called the Nutshell Studies of
Unexplained Deaths. Each diorama was lovingly
created and showed great detail. There were calendars
on walls with complete months, blood splatter, and
other clues were placed with precision. The cost of
these dioramas was the same as a regular sized house,
but the training they provided was priceless. Thousands
of law enforcement officials used these dioramas to gain
knowledge in investigation techniques. (Phillips)

Close-up of diorama victim

Martin 6

The point of the dioramas was not to solve the crime but to observe and notice the details
and potential evidence that could affect the investigation. The lights of each diorama work, the
cabinets open, the clothes was hand sewn by Lee herself, and the faces, labels, and writing were
also done by Lee. Because of the detail used, she was only able to make three per year. Lee is
quoted as saying, Luckily, I was born with a silver
spoon in my mouth. It gives me the time and money to
follow my hobby of scientific crime detection, this
hobby lead to many more advancements in the field of
At the Baltimore Medical Examiners office,
the dioramas are on display.

forensics. Lees legacy has not been forgotten and Harvard

Associated in Police Science (HAPS) still use the Nutshells during the twice-yearly seminar to
train investigators from around the country. Lee also has the honor of being the founder of
HAPS.
These are just a few examples of the many great achievements that individuals have
brought to law enforcement. Many techniques are shared worldwide and countless other
techniques are still waiting to be found. One cannot wait to see what they will think of next.

Martin 7

Bibliography
Bush, Erin N. "Death in Diorama.": The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death and Their
Impact on Forensics by Erin Bush. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
Jentzen, Jeffrey M. Death Investigation in America: Coroners, Medical Examiners, and the
Pursuit of Medical Certainty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2009. Print.
McCrery, Nigel. Silent Witnesses. London, UK: Century (UK), 2013. Print.
Phillips, Jennifer. Girls Research! N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Pollio, Vitruvius, and Frank Granger. On Architecture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1931.
Print.
Yount, Lisa. Forensic Science: From Fibers to Fingerprints. New York: Chelsea House, 2007.
Print.