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1247
13th Century China
In 13th century China, Sung Tu wrote a book called "The Washing Away of Wrongs". The book tells a story, from Tu's memory, of a murder that occured near a rice field. The victim was stabbed repeatly with a sickle which was a common tool, similar to a knife, used for rice harvest. Every sickle within the village was collected. Flies are attracted to traces of blood so when they discovered flies had only landed on one sickle, they were able to get the suspect's confession. -
Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu Orfila is known as the "Father of Forensic Toxicology" because he published the first scientific paper on the exposure of poisons and how they effect animals. -
William Herschel
First to use thumbprints on documents as a way of identifying workers in India. -
Alphonse Bertillon
Considered the "Father of Criminal Identification". He developed Anthropometry which uses body measurements to distinguish and identify individuals. -
Henry Faulds
He used fingerprints to eliminate innocent burglary suspects. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
He published his first Sherlock Holmes story which is considered the first "CSI". Sherlock Holmes is featured in four novels and 56 short stories. -
Francis Galton
He published the book "Fingerprints" which conducted the first definitive study of fingerprintsand their classification. He gave proof to their uniqueness. -
Hans Gross
He published the first paper, "Criminal Investigation", describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation. -
Karl Landsteiner
He discovered the ABO blood groups and later received a Nobel Prize. -
Edmond Locard
He incorporated Gross' principles within a workable crime lab. He became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France. -
Albert S. Osborn
He published "Questioned Documents" and developed the fundamental principles of document examination. -
Leone Lattes
He developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood. -
August Vollmer
He established the First Crime Lab in Los Angeles, California. -
Calvin Goddard
He developed a comparison microscope and first used it to compare bullets to see if they were fired from the same weapon.
