Vital Clue Ignored for 50 Years
Up for auction this week is a letter from 1840, written by Robert Blake Overton, a surgeon from the Norfolk village of Grimstone. What is extraordinary about this letter is that Overton writes that fingerprints could be used as a tool for solving murders. Overton suggests fingerprint use in criminal investigations 50 years before they came into use. This means that some of the most notorious criminals of the 19th century could have been identified. In the letter, Overton wrote about a murder he was investigated and stated: “It is not generally known that every individual has a peculiar arrangement [on] the grain of the skin … I would strongly recommend the propriety of obtaining impressions from the fingers of the suspected individual and a comparison made with the marks on the sheets and pillows.”
Date of Article: December 9, 2012
[Abstract by David Miller, ForensIQ Intern, December 13, 2012]
Citation
Alberge, Dalya. “Vital Clue Ignored for 50 Years.” The Independent. N.p., 9 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/vital-clue-ignored-for-50-years-8395985.html>.