From: russell-watson@att.net   
      
   On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 14:44:16 -0500, Gerald Clough    
   wrote:   
      
   >Russell Watson wrote:   
   >   
   >> I see there's a new western starring Tom Berenger called "Peacemakers"   
   >> coming out in a couple of weeks. Appears to be about the "old ways" of   
   >> crime investigation rubbing up against the "new ways" as the primary   
   >> storyline.   
   >> '97 FLSTF   
   >> To reply by e-mail, remove nospam from address.   
   >   
   >At least they seem to have checked on the feasibility of such things as   
   >the use of finerprints in the 1880's. I suspect they will stretch the   
   >reality to practices that wouldn't arise for many more years, since   
   >methods in that period were physically cumbersome, and there were few   
   >detectives familiar with them, but it won't hurt the stories for anyone   
   >not demanding complete authenticity.   
   >   
   >The reality is that it was 1911 before anyone was convicted in the US   
   >solely on fingerprint evidence, the expert witness in the case having   
   >been Canada's first fingerprint expert. It was a very long way from   
   >recognizing the uniqueness of fingerprints and their use in identifying   
   >individual prison inmates to their routine use as criminal evidence. For   
   >a good many years, objects with patent prints in blood or something like   
   >paint that had been wet at the time they were deposited had to be   
   >physically recovered and preserved or photographed. It took quite a   
   >while to establish the validity of developing and preserving prints by   
   >other methods.   
   >   
   >Mark Twain, though, used fingerprint identification along about the   
   >1880's in one of his stories.   
      
   Didn't Scotland Yard try to use fingerprint evidence to discover the   
   identity of Jack the Ripper in 1888, but were thwarted because he   
   apparently wore gloves all the time? I seem to remember that, but it's   
   hard to separate what really occurred from the various fictitious   
   portrayals from down through the years with going back and re-reading   
   the actual case history to cut through the BS.   
   '97 FLSTF   
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