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The first case in the history of forensic science happened in the 13th century in a village in China. Someone was stabbed, so all of the knives in the village were collected. Flies were attracted to the blood and only landed on one knife, which then the suspect confessed.
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Orfila published the first scientific paper about detecting poison in the body. He also explained the effects the poison had on animals. He is considered the "Father of Toxicology"
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Herschel used thumbprints to identify workers in India. This was the first time unique fingerprints were used to identify a person.
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Bertillon is considered the "Father of Criminal Identification" due to his development of anthropometry (uses body measurements to distinguish individuals.
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Faulds uses fingerprint analysis to eliminate an innocent suspect.
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Doyle published the first "Sherlock Holmes" story, which popularized crime solving.
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Galton studied the unique shapes of fingerprints and their classification as an arch, loop, or whorl.
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Gross wrote the first paper describing the ways to apply scientific principles to investigating crimes.
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Landsteiner discovered the different blood groups, ABO, and later received a Nobel Prize for his findings.
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Locard expanded on Gross' principles and became the founder/director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France.
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Osborn published "Questioned Documents". This paper developed the fundamentals of document examinations.
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Lattes developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood
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Vollmer established the first crime lab in Los Angles, USA.
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Goddard developed a comparison microscope. This tool was first used to compare bullets to see if they came from the same weapon.
