On another occasion someone had been suspected of breaking into a house, but the sooty imprints of fingers left upon the wall proved beyond all doubt that this was not the person.
The finger-print system of identification was adopted by the police in this country in July, 1901, and the numbers of identifications made since then by the police at Scotland Yard are very remarkable. Up to the end of 1901 there were 93 identifications, which rose in the succeeding years to the following numbers: In 1902, 1,722; in 1903, 3,642; in 1904, 5,155; in 1905, 6,186; in 1906, 6,776; in 1907, 7,701; in 1908, 9,440; and in 1909, 9,960.
There have been some very striking instances of the detection of criminals by means of their finger-prints, a few of which may be quoted by way of illustration.
On March 20, 1908, a man named Chadwick was tried at the Birmingham Assizes on the charge of housebreaking and stealing at Edgbaston. He had left finger-prints upon a champagne bottle, and when these were made clear by the application of powdered blacklead they were found to correspond exactly with the finger-prints of the prisoner. Inspector Collins, in giving evidence on this point, stated that there were a million and a quarter classified finger-prints at Scotland Yard, and that these could all be distinguished from one another. He pointed out that there were twelve ridges which were characteristic and identical in the two prints.
Similar identifications in cases of burglary have been made by means of the impressions left on a wax candle, on windows, on paper, such as a cheque, or on the metallic surface of a cash-box, etc.
On March 11th of last year, a labourer named George Lane was put on trial at Birmingham on the charge of breaking into the house of a bootmaker and stealing several articles. He had left a thumb-nail mark upon a glove-box, and evidence was given as to the identity of this with his own thumb-print. For the defence it was urged that he was in Nottingham at the time, and that he could call as a witness “a tall dark man working in a bar.” The judge offered to postpone the trial for the attendance of this witness, but warned the prisoner that if his statement were found to be untrue he would be prosecuted for perjury in addition to the present charge. The prisoner thereupon said he preferred the trial not to be delayed. He was found guilty, and after evidence of previous convictions had been given he was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude.
In April of last year an equally convincing proof was offered of the value of the finger-print system, when it proved the identity of a dead man. The scattered remains of this man were found upon the railway line near Slough, and there was no clue whatever as to his identity. Upon the off-chance of the victim’s finger-prints being known at Scotland Yard impressions from his fingers were taken by the local superintendent of the police and forwarded to headquarters, where on reference to the index of finger-prints they were immediately recognised. They were those of a man twenty-four years of age, who had been living at Deal.
This was noteworthy as being the first occasion upon which the method has been used to discover the identity of anyone after death.
A striking proof of the value of finger-prints in the identification of an individual by the French police was afforded last year in Paris.
A man named Lemarque, one of a notorious gang of thieves, known as Chaffeurs de la Drome, had escaped when three of his companions had been captured. They were tried at the Assize Court of the Drome Department in July, 1909, on the charges of murder and robbery and were condemned to death, while Lemarque was sentenced by default.