Key figures in forensic science

Victor Balthazard (1872–1950). A Paris, France, native whose innovative work with ballistics and hair follicles aided forensic investigations, Balthazard studied at the École Polytechnique prior to becoming an artillery officer in 1893. Interested in medical research, by 1904 he quit his military career to focus on forensic medicine endeavors, and he subsequently was named Paris’s chief medical examiner. A 1909 murder initiated Balthazard’s scientific study of hair when he found hair evidence on the victim. Using a microscope, Balthazard compared that evidence with hair collected from a suspect; the comparison resulted in the first forensic use of human hair evidence offered as proof of a suspect’s guilt. Balthazard contributed to the knowledge of ballistics in forensic science: He asserted that not only bullets but also casings and cartridges are marked by the guns that fire them, and he proved his hypothesis by making microscopic comparisons of those objects. Forensic investigators accepted Balthazard’s ideas, which offered them options to study the variety of ballistics evidence found at crime scenes. Balthazard also examined blood spatter patterns to investigate crimes.

William M. Bass (1928– ). Creator of the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility (later known as the Forensic Anthropology Center), informally called the Body Farm, Bass was born in Staunton, Virginia. He studied psychology at the University of Virginia, where he also enrolled in anthropology classes. After completing a bachelor of arts degree in 1951, Bass served in the US Army until 1953, then began graduate work at the University of Kentucky, where he earned a master of science degree in anthropology by 1956. Continuing his academic training at the University of Pennsylvania, Bass received his doctoral degree in 1961 and began teaching as an anthropology professor at the University of Kansas. In 1971 he became the head of the Anthropology Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and in 1972 he established the Body Farm. The facility, located near the university’s hospital, offers forensic scientists and students in forensic anthropology the opportunity to study, in depth, the process of the decomposition of the human body.

Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914). Best known for his pioneering work applying science to criminal identification, Bertillon was born in Paris, France, where his father, Louis Adolphe Bertillon, was a prominent physician and anthropologist. Bertillon began working for the Parisian police department in 1878. Assigned tasks related to arrest records describing criminals, Bertillon dismissed written and photographic techniques as ineffective. He devised a system of anthropometry—that is, measurement of skulls, arms, feet, fingers, and other body parts—to supplement photography of criminals’ faces. Despite initial rejection of his idea, Bertillon convinced the police to try his method, and in 1883 it helped to establish a standardized identification for a man who had used various aliases when previously arrested. In 1892, Bertillon gained international recognition when his measurement method identified a wanted fugitive suspected of bombing a judge’s home. The Bertillon system, also known as bertillonage, later lost favor for identification because it was often impractical for use in identifying suspects at crime scenes, measurements were inconsistently recorded, and it was useless to describe the measurements of twins and other skeletally similar criminals—such persons could be distinguished from one another only through fingerprinting.

Edgard O. Espinoza (1953- ). An innovator in wildlife forensic science, Espinoza was born in Concepción, Chile. In 1975, he immigrated to California, where he studied medical technology at Loma Linda University, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1978. Enrolling in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, Espinoza focused on forensic science studies, completing master’s and doctoral degrees in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He taught forensic sciences at Sacramento State University and provided forensic expertise to aid law-enforcement investigations. Employed at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory beginning in 1989, he held various positions, including chief of the criminalistics section and deputy director. With colleague Mary-Jacque Mann, Espinoza determined how to evaluate Schreger lines in ivory to aid customs agents in distinguishing banned elephant ivory imports from legal ivory sources, and Espinoza and Mann published Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes in 1991. Espinoza also developed a technique using mass spectrometry to analyze minute amounts of blood evidence to identify the animal species from which the blood came according to the hemoglobin proteins present.

Henry Faulds (1843–1930). A pioneer in fingerprint analysis, Faulds was born at Beith in Ayrshire, Scotland. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Anderson’s College, aspiring to become a physician and a medical missionary. Faulds pursued missions in India and then in Japan, starting a mission hospital in the Tsukiji district of Tokyo. He became intrigued by fingerprints pressed into pottery and began collecting fingerprints; subsequently, his examination of fingerprints led to solutions in two criminal cases. After a theft near his home, Faulds identified a servant as the culprit by comparing fingerprint evidence on a cup with prints in his collection. In another case, Faulds compared the fingerprints of an arrested suspect with fingerprints from the crime scene and found they did not match; another person was identified whose fingerprints were those at the crime scene. In an article published in the October 1880 issue of the journal Nature, Faulds stressed the value of fingerprint analysis for apprehending criminals. Experimenting with removing fingerprints, he noted that the ridges on fingers are resilient and do not change despite trauma. In 1905, Faulds published Guide to Finger-Print Identification. His efforts to convince European police to adopt fingerprinting as a method of identification were largely unsuccessful, however.

Francis Galton (1822–1911). An English scientist who contributed basic fingerprint information to forensic science, Galton was born in Birmingham, England. After reading the commentary on fingerprint identification published in the scientific journal Nature by Henry Faulds and William James Herschel, Galton wanted to create a classification method for fingerprints. He wrote to Herschel, who gave Galton his collection of fingerprints. Galton also collected fingerprints from people in London. Examining those samples, he realized that all ten fingerprints on a person vary, that aging does not affect fingerprints’ patterns, and that every fingerprint is distinctive, with duplication impossible even in twins. Galton suggested classifying fingerprints simply according to their loops, arches, and whorls. In 1892, he published a book on the topic titled Finger Prints. As a result of Galton’s work, British law-enforcement authorities began considering securing suspects’ fingerprints in addition to using anthropometry, the measurement method of identification created by Alphonse Bertillon. Realizing that his fingerprint classification was not fully functional for effective forensic use, Galton stopped his work in this area, and most law-enforcement personnel continued to use anthropometry.

Alexander O. Gettler (1883–1968). Known for establishing innovative forensic toxicology methods, Gettler was born in Austria and immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He earned a diploma from City College of New York in 1904 and then attended Columbia University, completing a master’s degree in chemistry in 1910 and a doctorate in chemistry in 1912. He became chief chemist at Bellevue Hospital in 1915, and in 1918, medical examiner Charles Norris named Gettler chief toxicologist at the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office. Analyzing evidence chemically, Gettler conducted research assessing levels of alcohol in blood and how alcohol consumption influences driving ability. He also developed a method for measuring chloride in blood to determine whether drowning was the cause of death when bodies were found in water. Forensic investigators worldwide adopted that technique. Gettler created the first graduate forensic toxicology program in the United States at New York University, where he taught chemistry until 1950, when he became professor emeritus. Gettler retired as chief toxicologist in April 1959. During his career, he wrote numerous scholarly articles on toxicology and testified in court many times regarding his analyses of forensic evidence. The American Academy of Forensic Sciences named an award in Gettler’s honor.

Calvin Goddard (1891–1955). An innovator in the forensic examination of ballistics evidence, Goddard was born in Baltimore, Maryland. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1911, Goddard completed his medical degree there in 1915 and then joined the US Army Medical Corps. Five years later, he was honorably discharged and took the position of assistant director at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1924, Goddard left Maryland for a Cornell Medical School professorship. A year later, Goddard, a gun enthusiast, moved to New York City to work at the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics, where he initiated methods to connect guns with fired bullets by comparing the unique marks etched on bullets as they are discharged from firearms. Goddard next directed Northwestern University’s Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, aspiring to provide educational and laboratory resources for law-enforcement personnel nationwide. At Northwestern’s law school, Goddard taught courses featuring police science, an emerging academic subject. He established the innovative American Journal of Police Science in 1930. His later career involved military laboratory work in the United States and Asia, extending his influence on forensic ballistics.

Ken Goddard (1946– ). A wildlife forensics pioneer, Goddard was born in San Diego, California. He enrolled at the University of California, San Diego, in 1964, and later transferred to the University of California, Riverside, where he completed a bachelor of science degree in 1968. While he studied biochemistry in graduate school at California State University, Los Angeles, where he earned a master’s degree in 1971, Goddard realized that research did not appeal to him. He decided to pursue forensic work, so that his scientific knowledge would aid law enforcement. He worked as a crime laboratory forensic scientist for several California sheriff’s and police departments until 1978, when he applied for a position to oversee a national forensics program for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Goddard became director of the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in 1989. In addition to his work in wildlife forensics, he has written crime novels that incorporate elements of forensic science.

Bernard Greenberg (1922–2017). Considered a founder of forensic entomology, Greenberg was born in New York City. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brooklyn College in 1944 and then served in the US Air Force until 1946. He then undertook graduate studies at the University of Kansas, where he completed a master of arts degree in 1951 and his doctorate three years later. He accepted a position teaching biology as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. Eventually, Greenberg’s research concerning flies resulted in law-enforcement personnel seeking his expertise, starting with a 1976 murder case. Greenberg consulted and testified regarding forensic evidence involving insects and cadavers, particularly the use of insect evidence to determine time since death, establishing the scientific basis for forensic entomology. Greenberg published the two-volume work Flies and Disease (1971-1973) and cowrote, with John Charles Kunich, Entomology and the Law: Flies as Forensic Indicators (2002). In 1981, Greenberg served as scientific governor of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. He retired as professor emeritus in 1990.

Hans Gross (1847–1915). An innovative jurist who recognized the value of the scientific examination of evidence to the legal process, Gross, born in Graz, Austria, pursued education that qualified him to accept a position as an examining judge. Realizing that law-enforcement officers of his time, the mid-nineteenth century, focused on policing civil unrest more than they did on investigating crimes, Gross took it upon himself to secure and examine the evidence in the cases before him so he could deliver effective legal judgments. He relied on scientific approaches to evaluate suspects and the evidence associated with their alleged crimes. Gross also applied science when considering legal proceedings for civil issues. In 1893, Gross published System der Kriminalistik (Criminal Investigation, 1906), which was based on his forensic insights and work. The book gained him global recognition for his views regarding science as an effective investigation technique. Gross, who lectured at the University of Graz and the University of Prague, urged scientists and law-enforcement personnel to seek improved forensic methods using proven technology and scientific developments instead of relying on obsolete techniques and tools. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle studied Gross’s ideas for details he elaborated in his Sherlock Holmes stories.

Edward R. Henry (1850–1931). A forensic fingerprint pioneer, Henry, born in London, worked for the Indian Civil Service in Calcutta as police inspector. Frustrated by the limitations of the measurement system of identification created by Alphonse Bertillon (anthropometry, also known as bertillonage), Henry knew that palm prints and fingerprints were used in India to notarize legal documents. He had read about the ideas of Henry Faulds and Francis Galton concerning fingerprints, and he had met Galton in England. Henry gathered fingerprint data and contemplated how best to organize them. He had an epiphany in December 1896, and created a classification system that differentiated fingerprints by whorls, radial and ulnar loops, and plain and tented arches, recognizing their variations, as well as by the numbers of ridges composing those shapes. Henry compared fingerprinting with bertillonage measurements and proved that fingerprinting, with his classification method, identified criminals more accurately. In 1897, Henry’s fingerprint technique became the standard identification process used in India, and the Indian government published his work Classification and Uses of Fingerprints. Henry subsequently took the position of police commissioner in London. Police in the United States and Europe soon appropriated and improved on aspects of Henry’s classification techniques.

Alec Jeffreys (1950– ). The originator of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fingerprinting, Jeffreys was born in Oxford, England. Jeffreys’s father, an inventor, encouraged Jeffreys’s scientific interests by buying him a chemistry set and microscope. Jeffreys enrolled at Oxford’s Merton College, completing his biochemistry degree in 1972. He pursued graduate work in genetics and earned his doctoral degree in 1975. Jeffreys conducted postdoctoral genetic research at the University of Amsterdam until 1977, when he returned to England to conduct research on DNA in the University of Leicester’s genetics department. While experimenting with DNA components in September 1984, Jeffreys realized that DNA bands differ significantly and could be useful for purposes of identification, much like fingerprints. His work in genetic fingerprinting led to significant changes in the field of forensic science. DNA comparisons were first used publicly to resolve issues of identification in immigration and paternity cases. Law-enforcement authorities then requested that Jeffreys use so-called DNA fingerprinting in two unsolved 1980s murders; the resulting analysis identified the killer and exonerated another suspect. Jeffreys and other scientists subsequently improved on Jeffreys’s original methods with techniques such as Polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Paul L. Kirk (1902–1970). A pioneer in criminalistics in the United States, Kirk was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in 1924 and then earned a master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh the following year. In 1927, he completed a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Kirk stayed at Berkeley to teach and conduct research in criminalistics, and he also agreed to serve as an adviser to California’s state crime laboratory, the first such lab established by a state government in the United States. Kirk helped the university to develop a criminology program that came to be influential in forensic practices. He urged law-enforcement investigators to acquire scientific knowledge and to learn about the varied kinds of forensic evidence they might encounter and consider how such evidence might be connected to crime victims. Kirk wrote several books, including Crime Investigation: Physical Evidence and the Police Laboratory Interscience (1953). He also developed a transportable forensic laboratory that inspired the creation of similar kinds of equipment for use by law-enforcement personnel.

Alexandre Lacassagne (1843–1924). Sometimes referred to as the father of forensic science, Lacassagne was born in Cahors, France. Trained as a physician, he traveled to North Africa to treat military troops; during his time there, he examined soldiers’ injuries caused by bullets and realized that tattoos could be used to identify soldiers who had been killed. When he returned to France, Lacassagne taught forensic medicine as a pathology professor at the University of Lyon. As a result of his research and experiences, Lacassagne devised useful methods of identifying unidentified bodies by examining their skeletal and dental conditions. By 1889, Lacassagne concluded that bullets could be connected to the firearms that discharged them based on the grooves etched into bullets by the weapons’ barrels, providing the theoretical basis for the science of ballistics. Lacassagne also investigated the physical evidence used to prove that people were dead, noting that the skin appears purple when blood stops circulating. His investigations of rigor mortis and body temperature contributed to the forensic techniques used to calculate time since death when bodies are discovered.

Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943). A scientist who recognized the forensic value of basic blood characteristics, Landsteiner was born in Vienna, Austria. He began his unexpected forensic medical achievements when he enrolled at the University of Vienna, aspiring to become a physician. Completing a degree in 1891, he focused his research on serology. His aim was to improve the techniques of blood transfusion, which was a very risky practice for patients receiving blood. Landsteiner discovered the existence of four human blood groups—a discovery with practical applications, as patients requiring transfusions could receive blood that matched their types and would not cause dangerous reactions. Forensic investigators recognized the value of Landsteiner’s discovery for the identification of crime victims and suspects through the testing of blood evidence for type. After completing his blood type research, Landsteiner studied viruses and poliomyelitis. When World War I ended, he moved to the Netherlands and then to New York City, where he conducted research with Alexander S. Wiener to detect blood’s rhesus (Rh) factor; this work also enhanced forensic identification methods. Landsteiner won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research concerning blood types.

John A. Larson (1892–1965). Known for innovating the basic elements of a forensic polygraph tool, Larson was born in Shelbourne, Nova Scotia. He acquired his education in the United States, studying at Boston University, where he completed a bachelor’s degree by 1914 and a master’s degree the next year. Moving to California, Larson enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, to pursue doctoral work to become a criminologist. He earned a doctoral degree in 1920, followed by a medical degree in 1928 from Rush Medical College. In addition to pursuing his education, Larson secured employment with the police department in Berkeley, qualifying for the rank of sergeant. Berkeley police chief August Vollmer assigned Larson the task of creating a machine that could evaluate the truthfulness of a person being interviewed. Larson created a prototype polygraph that included a band that wrapped around the interviewee’s arm to note fluctuating blood pressure. Vollmer served as Larson’s first subject, showing how his lies affected the polygraph. Inspired by Larson’s device, a number of inventors subsequently designed more complex polygraphs.

Leone Lattes (1887–1954). A contributor to the science of the forensic analysis of blood evidence, Lattes was born in Turin, Italy. He advanced his medical studies by visiting European universities, particularly in Germany, where he became intrigued with investigating blood after he met with serological researcher Max Richter. Returning to Turin, where he conducted research at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Lattes focused on learning about blood types. In 1915, a man whose wife thought his bloody shirt proved he had been unfaithful asked Lattes to determine the source of the blood on the shirt. Lattes acquired the shirt three months after it had been stained. Because no technique for analyzing bloodstains yet existed, Lattes assessed the stain by wetting it to identify the blood type. The type matched that of the man, and Lattes concluded that the man had bled on his shirt. Later, while experimenting with blood flakes mixed with fresh blood, Lattes noted that the blood became lumpy if the samples were not of the same blood type. Forensic scientists recognized the value of Lattes’s method for quick assessment of bloodstains, and that technique has retained its investigative value.

Edmond Locard (1877–1966). Originator of the principle of forensic science that holds that “every contact leaves a trace,” Locard was born in France. As a young adult, intrigued by the incorporation of science into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, Locard decided to pursue criminology professionally. He enrolled in the University of Lyon, where he took courses from Alexandre Lacassagne and Alphonse Bertillon. After completing degrees in legal and medical studies, Locard began employment with Lacassagne, where he remained through 1910, when he became director of the Lyon police laboratory. He used forensic evidence and techniques to prove the guilt of thieves, counterfeiters, and murderers. Despite an accused murderer’s alibi in 1912, Locard evaluated skin cells he collected from the suspect’s fingernails and detected the presence of a unique cosmetic the victim had worn. That forensic evidence caused the suspect to admit he had lied. Locard focused on dust as essential forensic trace evidence, studying variations and specifying how investigators should collect it. He also developed poroscopy, or the assessment of the distribution of pores in fingerprints.

James Marsh (1794–1846). An English chemist, Marsh devised a technique and testing device that forensic investigators could use to determine whether arsenic was present in organisms. The technique, known as the Marsh test, employed zinc and either sulfuric or hydrochloric acid to form hydrogen gas, which reacts with arsenic. During the early nineteenth century, arsenic was a favored poison used by murderers, and law-enforcement authorities needed an accurate way to prove whether that toxin had caused deaths. Starting in 1822, Marsh lived in Woolwich and worked as the Royal Arsenal’s chemist. He also secured employment assisting Michael Faraday, evaluating weaponry for the Royal Military Academy. In 1836, Marsh testified at a legal proceeding, using his toxicology testing expertise to present evidence convincingly. An article he wrote describing his test for arsenic appeared in the October 1836 issue of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. Marsh’s peers recognized the value of the test and adapted it when needed; such significant forensic toxicologists as Matthieu-Joseph-Bonaventure Orfila are known to have employed the technique. Marsh’s testing procedure remained useful into the twentieth century, but it was rendered obsolete when more advanced toxicological tests were developed.

Alan R. Moritz (1899–1986). A prominent forensic pathologist, Moritz was born in Hastings, Nebraska. He earned three degrees at the University of Nebraska: a bachelor of science degree in 1920, a master’s degree the next year, and a medical degree in 1923. He subsequently moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he held several pathology positions during his career at Lakeside Hospital and Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Moritz accepted a professorship at Harvard University in 1937. That year, he discovered that by applying a mixture of amyl acetate and nail polish to hair follicles on microscope slides, he could create a clearer microscopic view of the follicles in the dried chemicals than was possible with the raw follicles alone. He provided his pathology expertise to investigations conducted by the Massachusetts State Police Force until 1949, when he returned to Cleveland. Moritz’s widely read article “Classical Mistakes in Forensic Pathology” appeared in the December 1956 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. Moritz testified regarding forensic evidence in such notable trials as the Sam Sheppard murder case and served on the Warren Commission, which was established to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Matthieu-Joseph-Bonaventure Orfila (1787–1853). An important figure in the development of forensic toxicology, Orfila was born in Mahón on Spain’s island of Minorca. After completing courses in chemistry and other sciences in his native country, Orfila moved to Paris, France, to complete his medical studies. Teaching at the University of Paris medical school, Orfila also investigated the chemistry of such poisons as arsenic. He wrote Traité des poisons tirés des règnes minéral, végétal et animal: Ou, Toxicologie générale (1813–15; treatise on poisons drawn from the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, or general toxicology), which was the first text to examine scientifically the physiological and psychological effects of poisons and to explain how medical and legal personnel could determine whether persons had been poisoned and what toxins had damaged their systems. Because of his expertise in poisons, Orfila was called upon to testify at the 1840 murder trial of Marie Lafarge, who was accused of poisoning her husband, Charles. After criticizing a chemist’s testimony regarding circumstantial arsenic evidence in the victim’s home, Orfila used the Marsh test to examine the victim’s internal organs for arsenic. The results of the test were positive, and Marie Lafarge was convicted.

Albert S. Osborn (1858–1946). A pioneer in the field of forensic document examination, Osborn was born in Sharon, Michigan, and grew up on his parents’ farm. Uninterested in becoming a farmer, Osborn studied penmanship at a Lansing, Michigan, college and then accepted a teaching position at the Rochester Business Institute in New York in 1882. Osborn soon became a legal consultant, evaluating documents for evidence of forgery; he established an office in New York City. He became frustrated when judges dismissed his insights regarding the documents he evaluated, so he began writing essays describing his techniques to educate legal professionals. His reputation as a document expert was enhanced when he testified regarding typed documents concerning the federal government’s deployment of naval vessels in 1908. In 1910, he published Questioned Documents, now considered a classic source in the field. In 1935, Osborn testified in court regarding his evaluation of the messages sent to the famous aviator Charles A. Lindbergh demanding ransom for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son; he stated that suspect Bruno Hauptmann’s handwriting matched the notes, contributing to the prosecution’s successful conviction of Hauptmann.

Sydney Alfred Smith (1883–1969). Born in New Zealand, Smith influenced the practices of forensic science on several continents during his career. He enrolled at the University of Edinburgh after moving to Scotland in 1908. Completing his degree with honors in 1912, Smith began to pursue graduate work with Scottish forensic medicine expert Harvey Littlejohn. He earned a public health diploma and master’s degree by 1914, then served during World War I. Following the war, he worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Justice and initiated a forensic medicine program at the University of Cairo. Smith helped to create an internationally renowned forensic medicine laboratory there and became an expert in bullet wounds and ballistics. He created a comparison microscope for use in his ballistics investigations. In 1925, Smith published Forensic Medicine: A Text-Book for Students and Practitioners, and in 1928 he became a forensic medicine professor at his alma mater when Littlejohn died. He remained at the University of Edinburgh for the next quarter century. Smith emphasized that forensic scientists should master specialties within the field and collaborate, sharing their diverse skills and knowledge to evaluate criminal evidence effectively.

Clyde Snow (1928–2014). An innovator in the field of forensic anthropology, Snow was born in Fort Worth, Texas. As a child, he observed his physician father and a deputy as they determined the identity of a human skeleton they found while hunting. Snow graduated from New Mexico Military Institute in 1947, then completed a bachelor of science degree four years later at Eastern New Mexico University. He took medical courses at Baylor University and pursued zoology graduate work at Texas Tech University, where he earned a master’s degree in science in 1955. In 1967, he received a doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona. Named director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Physical Anthropology Laboratory in 1968, Snow worked on identifying the victims of airplane crashes by assessing skeletal remains. He expedited searches for information by creating computer databases of victim descriptions and descriptions of skeletal evidence. After he retired in 1979, he worked with human rights groups to identify the remains exhumed from mass graves worldwide, gathering evidence to prosecute war criminals. Snow’s achievements contributed to the acknowledgment of the field of forensic anthropology by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and encouraged many anthropologists to pursue forensic investigations.

Bernard Spilsbury (1877–1947). Born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, Spilsbury helped to influence public opinion concerning the value of forensic science. He studied natural science at Oxford University’s Magdalen College, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1899. He then took medical courses at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical College, intending to become a general practitioner. Instead, he became interested in forensic science, largely owing to the influence of St. Mary’s Hospital toxicologists and pathologist Augustus Joseph Pepper, who hired Spilsbury to conduct pathology and anatomy work. By 1905, Spilsbury completed his medical studies and began to pursue a career as a resident assistant pathologist working with Pepper, who frequently assisted law-enforcement personnel with forensic investigations. In 1908, Spilsbury became the Home Office chief pathologist after Pepper’s retirement from that position. Spilsbury gained acclaim for his forensic skills and expertise as he testified in notable court cases; he specialized in poisoning cases, particularly cases involving arsenic. His testimony helped to convict murderers who might otherwise have been acquitted, and this increased the public’s acceptance of the value of forensic science.

Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–1880). An important contributor to the shaping of forensic legal perceptions, Taylor was born in Northfleet, Kent, England. He served as an apprentice in London and then took medical courses at Guy’s Hospital and St. Thomas’ Hospital; he also studied briefly in Paris, France, in 1925, earning a degree three years later. He traveled to advance his medical experiences, returning to England in 1831 after studying injuries caused by firearms during Paris revolts. In London he taught forensic medicine at Guy’s Hospital. Applying his medical expertise to legal issues, Taylor published Elements of Medical Jurisprudence (1843), Medical Jurisprudence (1845), and The Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence (1865). Valued for his expertise, Taylor appeared frequently in courtrooms to offer testimony about his evaluation of evidence. At an 1859 trial, Taylor stated that a murdered woman had been poisoned with arsenic. The defendant’s attorneys disputed Taylor’s testimony, noting that his forensic investigation included copper tools that might have been the source of the arsenic in the tested sample. Taylor’s flawed testing method resulted in the defendant’s being exonerated, and this led to some distrust of forensic investigations among the public and questioning of the competence of forensic professionals.

Mildred Trotter (1899–1991). A forensic anthropology innovator, Trotter was born in Monaca, Pennsylvania. Enrolling at Mount Holyoke College in 1916, she studied zoology, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1920. Trotter accepted a research fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, while attending graduate school to become an anatomist. She received a master of science degree in 1921 and a doctorate three years later. Trotter studied physical anthropology at the University of Oxford for a year before returning to teach and conduct research at Washington University, where she became the first woman to hold the rank of full professor. Starting in 1948, she assisted the American Graves Registration Service’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii and provided her anthropological expertise to the US Army in the Philippines during 1951. She focused on researching the human skeleton, investigating maturation and skeletal variations affected by gender and ethnicity. Her findings initiated the method used by forensic anthropologists to determine the approximate height of a deceased person through measurement of the femur (thighbone) when only partial remains are available.

Paul Uhlenhuth (1870–1957). A native of Hannover, Germany, Uhlenhuth studied medicine and became a surgeon for German troops during the late nineteenth century. In 1900, he moved to Berlin to work at the Institute for Infectious Diseases, where he conducted research with renowned bacteriologist Robert Koch, who investigated tuberculosis. Koch encouraged Uhlenhuth to focus on serological research, and Uhlenhuth detected how proteins varied in blood samples from diverse animal subjects. He developed a serum, containing antibodies, to test blood, noting that animal serum clotted with human blood. His findings provided forensic investigators with a technique to determine whether blood evidence, fresh or dried, originated from humans or animals, thus enabling law-enforcement authorities to disprove some suspects’ claims that blood found on their garments and weapons came from animals rather than humans. Uhlenhuth conducted his test for the trial of Ludwig Tessnow, who was accused of killing some children. Tessnow claimed that the stains police found on his clothing were wood dye, not blood, but Uhlenhuth determined that they were human blood, and this testimony resulted in Tessnow’s conviction. After that legal success, many forensic investigators employed Uhlenhuth’s serum analysis.

August Vollmer (1876–1955). An influential figure in the development of forensic science in the United States, Vollmer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He served in the US Army during the Spanish-American War, deployed as a scout in the Philippines, prior to moving to Berkeley, California. As chief of the Berkeley Police Department during the early twentieth century, Vollmer valued forensic science and was interested in developments in the field. He hired college-educated personnel who had scientific experience and encouraged police officers to use science in their investigations. He established a police school specifically to train officers in how to collect and assess evidence that could be useful for the legal prosecution of cases. In 1916, Vollmer assisted professors at the University of California at Berkeley in creating a pioneering criminology program. In 1921, he helped initiate research into polygraphy when he asked Berkeley police sergeant John A. Larson to build a machine that could detect when interviewees were lying. Vollmer established a crime laboratory at Berkeley in 1923 that became a resource for forensic investigation for both Berkeley police and other law-enforcement groups. Throughout his career, Vollmer mentored police officers who later became police chiefs across the United States and incorporated the use of forensic science in their departments.

Alexander S. Wiener (1907–1976). A serology expert, Wiener was born in Brooklyn, New York. After completing a bachelor’s degree in biology at Cornell University in 1926, Wiener earned a medical degree four years later at Long Island College of Medicine. He then served as director of the blood transfusion division at the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn. In 1938, New York’s chief medical examiner, Thomas Gonzales, named Wiener to direct the state’s first laboratory devoted to serology investigations, a position he held until 1976. Wiener collaborated with Karl Landsteiner in comparing blood antigens in humans with those produced by monkeys, resulting in the 1940 finding of the rhesus (Rh) factor. Emphasizing serology as a forensic tool, Wiener evaluated evidence for law enforcement, identifying suspects based on blood types. He wrote several books, including Blood Groups and Blood Transfusion (1935). Wiener and his father, attorney George Wiener, contributed to the drafting of state legislation regarding blood group evidence in paternity and criminal cases.

Jeffries Wyman (1814–1874). Frequently credited as the founder of forensic anthropology, Wyman was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Growing up in Charlestown, where his physician father oversaw the McLean Asylum for the Insane, Wyman was fascinated by scientific topics. He studied at Harvard College, earning a degree in 1833, then enrolled at Harvard Medical School, graduating four years later. Wyman subsequently taught anatomy at Harvard and became curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Wyman’s involvement in forensic activities began when a janitor found body parts, bones, and dentures scattered in an anatomy vault and in the office of Harvard medical professor John White Webster. Wyman guided investigators to evaluate the evidence to determine whether they were the remains of Dr. George Parkman, who had vanished on November 23, 1849, around the time he had attempted to collect a debt Webster owed him. Wyman and his colleagues concluded that the bones and dentures were similar to Parkman’s physique and jaw shape, and Webster was convicted of the killing.

Paolo Zacchia (1584–1659). Considered a forensic medicine pioneer, Zacchia was employed as the Vatican’s physician, providing medical care for popes. Historians credit him with writing the first known scientific text discussing issues that formed the foundation of forensic medicine. From 1651 onward, Zacchia recorded his experiences with a variety of medical processes associated with forensic science, including wound analysis, autopsies, and testing fluids from victims and criminals, and he related his legal concerns in eleven volumes he collectively titled Quaestiones medico-legales (questions of legal medicine). Zacchia comprehensively discussed medical and legal aspects of historical and contemporary cases that occurred during the Renaissance in his innovative work, which retained usefulness among forensic researchers through the eighteenth century.

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