History of Fingerprints

By JamesU24
  • 200 BCE

    China

    Records from the Qin Dynasty have details on fingerprints used as evidence.

  • Grew

    Dr. Nehemiah Grew was the first European to publish his friction ridge skin observations.

  • First Mention of Uniqueness

    Johann Mayer was the first to author a book about how fingerprints are all unique but have similarities.

  • Herschel

    William Herschel was the first to use fingerprints on native contracts.

  • Taylor

    Thomas Taylor mentioned how finger and handprints on surfaces and objects can be used to solve crimes.

  • Galton

    In 1888, Francis Galton began observing fingerprints for a means of identification.

  • Vucetich

    Juan Vucetich began the first fingerprints files.

  • Alvarez

    In 1892, Inspector Alvarez made the first ever criminal fingerprint identification. He identified a woman who killed her two sons.

  • U.S. Army

    The US Army starts to use fingerprints.

  • 1940s

    After World War 2, the twelve point rule was dropped by the FBI. The introduction of the automated fingerprint identification system split the computerized files into criminal and civil files.

  • 30 Year Old Murder Solved

    In 1978, Carroll Bonnet was murdered in his apartment, and his car was stolen. Police investigated the scene and found the victims car in Illinois. They found multiple prints and DNA, but they couldn’t find any matches so the case went cold. But in 2008, Omaha police department received an inquiry on the case. They ran the prints again using AFIS, which didn’t exist back then, and found possible matches. After close examination, a positive match was found, Jerry Watson. He was then convicted.

  • Murder of Woman 31 Year Old Case

    In 1987, Grace Hayden was raped and murdered in San Diego. The case was investigated and went cold after. Then years later, investigator Tony Johnson reviewed the case and found a single fingerprint on a Hayden's kitchen stove. he then resubmitted the print to the national fingerprint database and found a match to Kevin Ford. Ford previously had an arrest warrant and had been fingerprinted. It was these prints that matched Ford to the murder of Hayden. Ford will be tried for first degree murder.