-
First case ever recorded using forensic science. Someone was stabbed so all of the knives in the village were taken. But the flies were drawn to the blood on the blade and landed on one of the knife. The murderer, afraid, eventually confessed.
-
Mathieu Orfila was a chemist who published the first scientific paper regarding poisons and their effects on animals.
-
He used thumbprints on document to identify workers in India.
-
Alphonse Bertillon, developed Anthropometry which uses body measurements to distinguish individuals.
-
He used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent man from being a suspect in a burglary.
-
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first Sherlock Holmes story. It is considered to be the first "CSI" story, it features in four novels and 56 short stories. It popularized scientific crime-detection methods.
-
Francis Galton published "Finger Prints". It conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification, he gave proof of their uniqueness.
-
Hans Gross wrote the first paper describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation. He also published "Criminal Investigation".
-
Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood groups, he later received the Nobel prize.
-
Albert S. Osborn developed the fundamental principles off document examination. He also wrote "Questioned Documents".
-
Edmond Locard incorporated Gross' principles within a workable crime lab; he became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyon, in France.
-
He developed a method for determining blood types from dried blood.
-
August Vollmer established the first crime lab in the United States. It is located in Los Angeles.
-
Calvin Goddard developed a comparison microscope; first used to compare bullets to see if fired from the same weapon.
