Robert Jones

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra details. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Devin had been observing the couple for some time–long enough to confirm that they played bridge with another couple at each other’s homes on alternate Tuesday evenings. On this particular Tuesday, the Engels were hosting the Brents. That would provide Devin with more than enough time.

Devin had recently come from his job as an auto mechanic and was wearing black jeans, a black jacket and a light pair of black leather work gloves. His ensemble enabled him to meld into the darkness between two large shrubs that framed a door at the rear of the Brents’ home.

The door had a common cylinder lock that barred easy access to the house. Devin took a small, leather case from his pocket, unzipped it and removed two simple tools. One was a set and the other was a rake. The set was, a slender bar bent at one end to give it an “L” shape. The rake was a thin bar having a small bump extending at right angles from it at one end. Devin inserted the bent end of the set into the key slot in the cylinder of the lock and twisted it clockwise just enough to apply a bit of torque to the cylinder within its housing. He then inserted the rake, forced the bump end upwardly and pulled it back out so that its bump sequentially forced each of a number of spring-loaded pins extending downwardly from the lock housing to move upwardly. Each raised pin was held in its upward position by the torque applied to the cylinder by the set. After all the pins had been raised, the cylinder and a cam attached to it were allowed to rotate within the housing. Rotation of the cam resulted in the withdrawal of a locking bolt into the lock housing, freeing the door to be swung open. The operation took Devin less time than it takes to read this paragraph.

Devin moved swiftly into the house, up stairs to a second floor and into what appeared to be a master bedroom. With a carefully directed light of a small flashlight, he found an expensive-looking jewelry box in a bottom drawer of a dresser. It was locked, and he left it on top of the dresser to be opened later. In another room, he disconnected and picked up a computer.

At this point, Devin was startled by nearby sounds of voices and closing car doors. Neighbors in a next-door house were apparently receiving visitors. As more visitors began arriving, Devin abandoned the computer and jewelry box as being too large to conceal on his person and quietly slipped out of the Brent house. He had parked his car several blocks away, and he walked as casually as he could toward it while the neighbors were busy greeting newcomers.

Devin’s apprehension was just beginning to ease as he neared his car, but it snapped back in full force when a police cruiser made a quick stop beside him. He was targeted by a beam from a flashlight and was told to stop and warm his hands atop the cruiser’s hood. Two good-sized officers emerged from the car, and one examined the contents of Devin’s pockets. They inquired of him his name and why he had been observed leaving the Brent property. Devin said he had just been taking a walk and denied having been inside the house. He was glad he had worn gloves and had not had time to take anything from the house. The police officers told him that he fit the general descriptions of a person that had been seen near the locations of several burglaries in the neighborhood, and they invited him to accompany them downtown to continue their conversation.

The Brents were subsequently contacted and asked to check their home for missing items. They reported that nothing was missing, but that a jewelry box and a computer had been displaced. Crime scene investigators found glove prints left by grease and dirt on Devin’s gloves where he had left them on the two displaced items. They also discovered a fabric print on a counter upon which Devin had apparently sat while disconnecting the computer. A forensic analyst compared patterns of the gloves worn by Devin when he had been confronted by the police to those found on the jewelry box and the computer. They matched. The analyst also compared the pattern of the fabric print found on the counter to the fabric pattern of Devin’s jeans. They also matched.

During a subsequent trial, Devin’s defense attorney tried every tactic he knew to convince the jury that his client was not guilty. Due to the evidence presented, however, the jury was not at all moved to do so. Having won the case, the prosecuting attorney went home happy. Having closed all the cases involving Devin’s previous burglaries, the police went home happy. Having had a criminal removed from the streets, local citizens went home happy. Having society provide Devin with a new home made everybody happy . . . except one.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Many mistakenly believe that wearing gloves while committing a crime will prevent leaving impressions at a crime scene that can be used to identify and convict them of the crime. Actually, fingers are not the only things that can leave prints.

Surgical gloves were developed to prevent bacteria and such from passing through them. To enable doctors to handle instruments of their trade with precision, they were made to fit tightly–so
tightly that fingerprints can sometimes be transferred through them. Fingerprints can also sometimes be found on inside surfaces after turning surgical gloves, and some leather gloves, inside out.

Dirt, oils, grease, blood and such materials adhere to and/or permeate leather and cloth gloves as they are being worn. The patterns and seams of the fabrics of cloth gloves differ depending on their manufacturers. Their surfaces are also modified as they are recontoured, folded, creased, stretched, cut and torn during wear. The surfaces of leather gloves suffer the same modifications. Having originally served as the hides of living animals, the textures of leather differ from one animal to another. The foregoing factors make it possible to match a glove with its print. As mentioned in Devin’s story, clothing fabric can also leave identifying prints on surfaces upon which someone sits or even upon which someone leans.

Those readers interested in fingerprinting might find two of my previous essays of interest. They can be found in the STORYTELLERS UNPLUGGED archives. LASTING IMPRESSIONS was published on December 19, 2007; and THE CREATURE was published on January 19, 2008.

Note that, due to concerns voiced by latent print examiners, the term “DNA fingerprinting.” is reportedly no longer deemed acceptable.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra details. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Many harbor the thought that seismology has to do only with measuring and recording energy releases of earthquakes and has nothing to do with forensics. A definition of the word “forensics” states that it generally refers to scientific methods used to investigate crimes. This piece describes how a geoscientist, Terry Wallace, who had no apparent connection to criminology, used seismology and smarts to discover a number of criminals and to enable him to actually witness their criminal acts.

Terry was a member of a group scientifically studying ground movement in the area of the Andes Mountains along the Bolivian-Chilean border. He was puzzled by recorded measurements of occasional micro-earthquakes emanating from an out-of-the-way plain located more than 13,000 feet above sea level.. This itself was not too unusual, but the quaking was mysteriously happening only late at night.

Micro-earthquakes are those having a magnitude of less than 2.0 on the Richter magnitude scale and are too feeble to be felt. Many readers will recall having heard of the Richter scale. It is used to quantify energy released by earthquakes and is often mentioned by newscasters when reporting them. A few readers might remember that the Richter magnitude scale is base-10 logarithmic. For example, an earthquake having a magnitude measurement of 5.0 on the Richter scale would indicate that the earthquake had a shaking amplitude of ten times that of an earthquake having a magnitude measurement of 4.0. Accordingly, the amount of energy it released would be equal to the square root of 1,000, or 31.6, times that released by the 4.0 earthquake. Those who stayed home from school with the flu on the day that the Richter magnitude scale was being taught need not be concerned. The Richter magnitude referred to in this piece is less than 1.0.

Knowing that earthquakes were not the only phenomenon that shook seismographs, Terry developed a theory about what might be causing the quaking. Close examination of seismographic tracings led him to believe that the source might be trucks driving across the plain. The approach from one direction would have been across flat land. From the opposite direction, it would have been uphill. He believed he could determine the direction of the trucks by the different traces made when the trucks had been shifted into low gear while driving uphill. Eventually, Terry even began estimating the weight of passing trucks.

Given the route along which they were traveling and the time of night they were doing it, Terry figured that smugglers might be transporting contraband. Confirming that trucks were the source of the seismic disturbances might have cost him his life, but he was sufficiently adventurous to meet such a challenge. He hid one night and observed, as he had suspected he would, a passing parade of blacked-out trucks.

In addition to detecting the passage of trucks in the night, seismologists use thousands of sensitive instruments permanently located around the world to pinpoint and monitor, as they were originally designed to do during the Cold War, nuclear weapons tests. The instruments also provide information bearing on such events as submarine explosions, aircraft crashes, tectonic plate movements, landslides and mine tragedies. Other gathered information aids in predicting tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic actions.

According to Terry, water conducts sound so well that a submerged seismometer (hydrophone) can detect an underwater explosion of a single stick of dynamite anywhere in the world.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

A magnitude 4.0 on the Richter scale would rattle loose items within buildings but would not likely cause serious damage to the buildings. A magnitude 5.0 might cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings, but would not likely cause more than slight damage to those that were well constructed.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that caused the devastation in Japan in March of 2011 had a seismic energy yield equivalent to the energy yield of 480 million tons of TNT.

To put energy yields in some perspective, the asteroid that struck the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico some 65 million years ago had an energy yield equivalent to that of 96 million, million tons (a teraton) of TNT. The asteroid was estimated to have been 6.2 miles in diameter, and it left a crater (the Chicxulub Crater) that was 110 miles in diameter. The strike would have created a tsunami rising thousands of feet.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra bits of detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

The area described in this essay was not chosen merely to represent one of many areas in this country having similar problems. In addition to its problems, the area has historic links to a past that many readers might find interesting.

My previous piece, FORENSICS 150: A ROAD TOO OFTEN TRAVELED, described the treatment a hired killer received while growing up that played a role in developing his murderous lifestyle. This piece describes an important chemical involved in developing a child’s future capabilities and behavior.

Once upon a time in Cincinnati, there had been a waterway named the Miami and Erie Canal that ran southwardly from Toledo. Cincinnati drivers might not be aware that they are following along the course of the old canal when they travel on what is now Central Parkway.

During the mid-1800s, large numbers of German immigrants settled in the area on the far side of the canal from downtown Cincinnati. The immigrants built most of its ornate brick buildings. Architectural styles included Federal,, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Renaissance, Revival and Second Empire.

Bridges spanning the canal provided passage between homes in the area and downtown Cincinnati, and the German residents began to refer to the canal as “the Rhine” in reference to the Rhine River in Germany. The area soon became known as Over-the-Rhine, or simply as the OTR.

A resident of the OTR was Devin, who had grown up in one of the many old houses built prior to 1978. Like many houses in the area, it had originally been painted with bright colors and well maintained. Also like many of the houses, it had more recently been neglected and had fallen into disrepair. The outside had long needed a fresh coat of paint, and even some of the paint on the inside had withered and flaked off areas of aging plaster walls. Paint commonly contained lead to improve its adherence and longevity. Dust containing lead from window frames was created as windows were opened and closed, and this created a substantial health hazard. The neighborhood in general displayed a depressive grayness where, even on a sunny day, a person would be hard-pressed to smile.

Devin attended a neighborhood school He was an unruly student from day one and showed little respect for any of his teachers. Several times, he climbed upon his desk and danced. He rarely paid much attention to lectures. When he did, he often had trouble understanding them. His temper flared easily. When he had trouble solving a mathematics problem, he would swear, wad up his test paper and throw it in the general direction of a wastebasket. Hardly a week passed when he didn’t get into a fight in school or out. As might have been expected, his last day in school was not when he graduated. It was on a day when his temper had exploded, and he had physically attacked a teacher during a class.

Given his academic record and lack of education, Devin found it difficult to get a job. Given his attitude and behavior, it was also difficult for him to keep one. He couldn’t seem to hold a job very long without getting into a serious argument or an actual fight. His lack of ready means to earn an adequate income and his contempt for rules might have first urged him into a criminal lifestyle. His temper and lack of self-control spiraled him into a life filled with violence and cruelty.. Eventually, his violent actions resulted in murder.

Unfortunately, the foregoing, “constructed” scenario does not represent a rare occurrence. It is all too typical of real situations, and these situations have commonly been found to involve lead. The University of Cincinnati has, for some 30 years, been tracking 250 persons from its own, highly lead-contaminated neighborhoods. Evidence compellingly reveals that early lead exposure, even at low levels and even while a child is still in the womb, is linked to later violent crimes. There is apparently no safe level of lead in children’s blood.

All violent acts are certainly not believed to be linked to lead; but, among arsonists, those who had set fires impulsively; and among prisoners, those who had committed impulsive, violent crimes and had exhibited more frequent aggressive and violent behavior, were found to have low levels of serotonin. At normal levels, this chemical reportedly acts as a brake on impulsiveness. Guess what element lowers serotonin levels. Lead.

An important function of the frontal lobes of brains is to recognize future consequences that might result from current actions and to suppress unacceptable social responses. A University of Cincinnati researcher found that children having higher levels of lead had smaller frontal lobes as they reach adulthood.

Experts reportedly believe that between 10 and 40 percent of impulsive, violent behavior is linked to lead. The U.S. government began phasing out lead in gasoline in 1975, and it banned lead in paint in 1978. A chilling statistic is the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of children, many under the age of six, in the U.S. who have high levels of lead in their blood.

A sticky question arises about how society and its legal system should treat persons who, by no fault of their own, have been predisposed to violence by their early physical and psychological environments. Banning the use of lead that can get into our environment will be a long-term solution. Meanwhile, citizens must be protected from criminals. Should persons who have already been poisoned and who subsequently commit violent acts be treated the same as criminals who have not been so predisposed?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

1. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, ‘’Lead-based paint is a major source of lead poisoning for children and can also affect adults. In children, lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage and can impair mental functioning. It can retard mental and physical development and reduce attention span. It can also retard fetal development even at extremely low levels of lead. In adults, it can cause irritability, poor muscle coordination, and nerve damage to the sense organs and nerves controlling the body. Lead poisoning may also cause problems with reproduction (such as a decreased sperm count). It may also increase blood pressure. Thus, young children, fetuses, infants, and adults with high blood pressure are the most vulnerable to the effects of lead.’‘ Gross symptoms of lead poisoning also include seizures, palsy, loss of control of the limbs, and impairment of hearing and sight.

The problem of lead poisoning of children was first reported in 1892. More then a century later, it remains a problem; and lead is now known to cause many problems in adults as well. Of forensic interest in this essay, however, are the consequences of lead poisoning of yesterday’s children.

By the mid 1900s, medical authorities acknowledged that the effects of lead poisoning could be permanent. Victims had trouble concentrating and learning, and they exhibited aggressiveness, explosive tempers and violent behavior. Their nervous systems had been seriously impaired, and they lacked an ability to foresee consequences of their behavior.

Studies have shown that tendencies toward violence can be counteracted by good parenting that includes love and nurturing and sometimes by pharmaceutical products such as lithium, Prozac and Zoloft. A treatment for lead poisoning is chelation therapy, which involves drinking a chemical that binds to lead in blood and ushers it from the body in urine.

2. Residents of Over-the-Rhine that are of note include Anna Marie Hahn, who poisoned a series of men for financial gain. She was the first woman to be executed (in 1938) in the state of Ohio.

Nicholas (Nick) Clooney, a journalist, anchorman and television host, also lived in Over-the-Rhine. He was the brother of the late Rosemary Clooney and is the father of George Clooney.
Another resident was Venus Ramey, who was the Miss America of 1944.

Yet another resident was Levi Coffin, a descendant of Tristam Coffin. Tristam was one of nine persons who bought Nantucket from the Indians. By the time Levi moved to the OTR in 1847, he had already helped several thousand escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad. Once there, he helped another 1,300 to safety. He was often referred to as the President of the Underground Railroad.

One of the escaping slaves was a woman who carried her child across treacherous ice on the Ohio River. Readers might recognize her as the model for the Eliza Harris character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. That Eliza was also the Eliza of the phrase ‘’Eliza crossing the ice,’‘ which refers to a narrow escape.

Since 1983, the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, which includes 943 contributing buildings, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Among the buildings are those that comprise the largest collection of Italianate architecture in the United States. The area puts one in mind of the historic areas of Charleston, New Orleans (French Quarter), New York (Greenwich Village) and Savannah. The Over-the-Rhine area is thought to be the largest and most intact urban historic district in the United States.

Unfortunately, by the end of the 1900s, it had become so infamous for its poverty that one magazine referred to it as a “ground zero in inner-city decline.” Fortunately, one positive result was that crime and a decreasing population lowered the cost of property. This stimulated developers to begin buying and renovating many historic buildings. Hundreds of millions of dollars have since been invested, and the crime rate has been steadily declining.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by presenting their readers with a gift of extra detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Although the following describes a sufficient number of gruesome activities to give readers a fairly good idea of what Richard Kuklinski was like, many much more gruesome activities were not included.

Richard’s early years were spent in an unfortunate environment. He was the second of four children. According to Richard, his father was an alcoholic who beat him, often for no apparent reason. His mother was a strict Catholic, and she also beat him, once even breaking a broom handle in the process. He was also beaten by priests and teachers. When Richard was five years old, his father beat his older brother so severely that he died. His mother told hospital personnel that he had fallen down stairs. A short time later, his father left.

Having experienced such an outstanding introduction to life, it is not surprising that Richard did not follow a life path that might have been recommended by the Boy Scout Handbook. In probable response to his beatings, he tortured and killed just about every wild cat and dog in his neighborhood. For a time, he continued to receive beatings and harassments from the leader and members of a small gang. He finally decided that he had received his last beating. With a thick, wooden, closet rod in hand, he caught the gang leader alone and, with all the hatred in him fired by the beatings given him by his parents and all the others, beat him with it. His intention was to teach the leader a lesson, but he couldn’t stop beating and kicking him until he was well beyond dead. Richard drove the body in the trunk of a stolen car to a swampy area in South Jersey. He checked the body for anything that would identify it. From having read stolen crime comics, he knew that a body could be identified by its teeth and fingerprints, so he knocked out all the teeth and chopped off all the finger tips before dumping the body from a small bridge. Richard was 14.

That was when Kuklinski discovered it was “better to give than to receive.” It was apparently a credo that guided him throughout the rest of his life. He had to feel that he was always in control.

As an adult, Kuklinski was a busy man. He was always involved in one deal and/or another. He dealt in stolen cars and expedited the illegal distribution of guns, drugs and pornography.

Kuklinski also began doing jobs for crime families and said he was willing to kill for money. As a test to ensure he could follow an order to kill without questioning it, he was driven to an inner city area where a man was walking his dog. He was told to kill the man. Kuklinski got out of the car. He walked past the man, turned and shot him in the back of his head. The car pulled up. Kuklinski got in. The car pulled away. Kuklinski had passed his test.

Kuklinski was to be a contract killer for more than 30 years. The tools of his trade included his hands, fire, lamp cords, ropes, bats, a lump hammer, ice picks, screw drivers, knives, guns, hand grenades, a crossbow, rats and poison. During a documentary, he said that he usually carried two Derringers in his pockets and another gun attached to his ankle.

Kuklinski didn’t work exclusively for the crime families, but would kill anyone for anyone who would pay his fee. His only exceptions were women and children. At different times, he claimed that, during the next three decades or so, he had killed between 33 and 200 persons. He was an attentive viewer of the CSI television programs and attributed much of his success at avoiding arrest to what he had learned from them. He also had a habit of killing anyone who knew anything that could be used as evidence against him.

Whatever the actual number of persons killed by Kuklinski is, the murders left the police searching for a suspect. He stuffed one of his victims into a 55-gallon steel drum. The body was found, and the police traced its identity. They learned from the victim’s brother that he had been in great fear of Kuklinski. This finally presented the police with a suspect. They tracked Kuklinski for years, but were not able to pin anything on him.

Kuklinski would sometimes “accidentally” spill cyanide onto a person. It would eventually be absorbed through the skin and do its intended job. He also sometimes put it onto a person’s food. Once he put cyanide onto the hamburger of someone he had invited to lunch.

He “field tested” a crossbow by pulling his car over and lowering his window as if to ask a passer by for directions. As the man leaned down, Kuklinski shot him with the crossbow, Its projectile passed through his forehead and into his brain. When asked if that killed the man, he answered, “It sure did.”

Kuklinski partnered for a time with a man named Robert Prongay, who had been a military-trained demolitions expert. Oddly, Prongay drove about in a Mr. Softee truck from which he actually sold Mr. Softee to kids. Prongay knew quite a bit about various kinds of drugs and other chemicals that could be used to terminate a person’s life, and he taught Kuklinski such things as spraying cyanide at a person’s face while walking past him. The victim would inhale the cyanide and die very shortly thereafter. He also discussed freezing a body so that the time of death could not be determined, thus relieving a killer’s alibi concerns.

The partnership with Prongay ended soon after an argument. Prongay had made the huge mistake of threatening Kuklinski’s family. His body was found shot to death in his Mr Softee truck, which was parked in his garage, which happened to be across the street from Kuklinski’s rented garage.

Kuklinski kept the body of one man he had shot in a frigid well for two years before dumping it in upstate New York. The body was found a few days later. It appeared to have been dead for only a day or so. The body was wearing the same clothes that the man had been wearing when, carrying $90,000, he went to have dinner with Kuklinski. An autopsy revealed ice crystals within the body tissue, which indicated that the body had been frozen. Fingerprints identified the body, and Kuklinski was promoted from suspect to chief suspect. It was then that the police began referring to him as the Iceman.

It took an undercover agent a year and a half to establish a relationship with
Kuklinski. During subsequent meetings, he recorded many conversations during a number of which Kuklinski incriminated himself. The two even planned a murder-robbery. When his superior thought Kuklinski might kill the agent, which he was actually planning to do, he was arrested, tried for murder and sentenced to Life in prison.

It didn’t help Kuklinski’s standing with the jury when, as his defense attorney was attempting to discredit a witness who was testifying that Kuklinski had admitted to two murders, Kuklinski pointed his finger as an imaginary gun at the witness.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

1. Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz were known as serial killers. Kuklinski was not; he did not derive psycho-sexual gratification from his murders, and he was not known to have ever killed a woman.

Kuklinski had a brother, Joseph, who had raped and killed a 12-year-old girl and threw her and her dog from the roof of a building. He drew a life sentence at the same prison (Trenton State Prison) Richard Kuklinski would later call home for life. They both died there. Richard had used their history as an example of how such an upbringing as theirs can twist the lives of children.

Kuklinski’s emotional distancing is consistent with those suffering from dissociative identity disorder, but he apparently does not have multiple personalities but, as defined by his moods and behavior, he certainly has two sides–one good and one very bad–. His wife stated that, when in a good mood, he could be loving, generous and protective. When in a bad mood, he could threaten and beat her. If he couldn’t do that, he would even beat up on himself.

When engaged in his “business,” he got his victims to give him whatever he wanted before he killed them. He interpreted perceived insults as threats to his strictly maintained self-image. Control was always the major factor.

Research indicates that one cause of sociopathic behavior such as that exhibited by Kuklinski is abnormalities in the frontal lobe of the brain. Self control, planning and judgment are the responsibility of this area. Another cause has to do with the environment within which Kuklinski and his violent brother were both raised.

During an interview, Kuklinski said that he did have one regret: that he had hurt his family, who supposedly never knew exactly what he did for a living. To neighbors, he was simply a “business man.”

2. Until recently, tests could reveal elevated levels of cyanide within a body for only about two days before it degrades into carbon and nitrogen. Even its infamous bitter almond odor soon departs, leaving only lividity evidence in the form pinkish spots on the skin. The spots indicate oxygen starvation, but carbon monoxide can also produce such spots. Absent any additional evidence, the latter sometimes causes medical examiners to overlook cyanide as a possible cause of death.

A recent study revealed that a biomarker, ACTA, was found to have been significantly increased in liver samples of a person who had been subject to a sublethal dose of cyanide. Hopes are that the biomarker will substantially extend the window within which cyanide poisoning can be detected to weeks or months.

Readers interested in chemistry might care to know that ACTA is 2-aminothiazoline-4-carboxylic acid. Actually, it’s the same for those readers who don’t care to know.

3. A coroner and a medical examiner are not the same. A coroner, especially one in a rural county, might not be required to have any medical qualifications. His or her duties would often be limited to confirming that a body is dead, identifying the body, notifying the next of kin, returning personal belongings to the deceased’s family and signing a death certificate. If an autopsy is required, a nonmedical coroner can request that a medical examiner perform it. Many coroners, however, are physicians trained to examine dead bodies.

Medical examiners (MEs) in most counties are required to have a medical degree, although, in many, it does not have to be in pathology. Their duties typically include examining bodies of persons who have suddenly, unexpectedly and/or violently died to determine the cause and time of death and whether it was a natural death, a suicide or murder, or a death due to unknown causes. They also typically supervise the collection of evidence from a body, identify bodies and skeletal remains, determine any contributory factors associated with the death and sign s death certificate. In some counties, they might be in charge of a crime lab. They also provide expert testimony in court and often explain, in easily understood terms, forensic evidence to the judge and jury.

4. A detailed description of an autopsy can be found in the archives of Storytellers Unplugged. It is titled MORE FORENSIC DETAILS, and was published on August 30, 2007. The description is also among the 30 forensic essays in my e-book titled FORENSICS 101: A FRIENDLY PRIMER FOR WRITERS (which is available from Amazon.com).

5. During the last century or so, handling the dead has had a rather shady history. For example, at one time, coroners in New York City were paid by the body. Reportedly, some were pulled from the Hudson River, issued a John Doe death certificate , and slipped back into the river. This procedure was even repeated a number of times with the same body. For an under-the-table bonus, a corrupt coroner would protect the reputation of a family by declaring a suicide to be a natural death. For a much larger bonus, the coroner would protect the reputation of a killer by declaring a murder to be a natural death. In 1914, the office of medical examiner replaced that of coroner. Unfortunately, coroners and medical examiners are still under pressure by district attorneys and other officials to “assist” in obtaining convictions when evidence may be a bit scant.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by presenting their readers with a gift of extra detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Most readers probably remember Daniel Pearl, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal. He was abducted on January 23, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan. While a captive, Daniel’s picture showing a gun pointed at his head was sent with demands that the United States free all Pakistani terror prisoners, end the US presence in Pakistan and allow a detained shipment of F-16 jet fighters to be delivered to Pakistan. Daniel was ultimately killed on February 1 and beheaded. His body was cut into ten pieces and buried in a shallow grave in the outskirts of Karachi. His remains were found on May 16 and were ultimately returned to the United States for burial.

A senior operative for Al Queda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, grew up in Kuwait, but obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from an American university. Subsequently, he received military training in Pakistan and claimed to have briefly fought the Soviets. According to United States law enforcement, he had a small role in the first World Trade Center bombing in New York City on February 26, 1993. The bombing was intended to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, flattening them both and killing thousands of persons. That did not happen, but the blast did kill six persons and injure more than a thousand.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was believed to be the principal architect of the coordinated September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks using four commandeered passenger jets. Two of the jets were crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City A third jet was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth jet, which was on its way to Washington, D.C., crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after its passengers tried to wrest control from the terrorists. These attacks reportedly caused 2,996 deaths and injured more than 6,000 persons.

Among his terrorist plots, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly described a plan to take control of ten aircraft. Nine were to crash into targets including those of the 9/11 attack, CIA and FBI headquarters, nuclear power plants and the tallest buildings in the states of Washington and California. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself was to land the tenth plane, kill all the adult male passengers and deliver a speech to the media denouncing the United States.

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested by the Pakistanis in Rawalpindi. He was reportedly held in Pakistan for three days and then moved elsewhere by US officials. During a closed military hearing, he confessed to being responsible for the 9/11 attacks and many others. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confessions included the statement that “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan.” Since he confessed to so many terrorist acts, and since he had been the recipient of 183 water boardings, his confessions were considered by many as being inflated if not completely false.

A three-minute, thirty-six-second videotape showing Daniel’s decapitation was released on February 21. 2002. It was titled The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl. The video shows the arms and hands of a masked person severing Daniel’s head. Stills showing his hands were made from the videotape and compared by the FBI and CIA to those of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he had been captured on March 1, 2003. A bulging vein coursing across the back of a hand shown in the videotape was found to match a vein in Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s hand.

Although vein matching is not presently considered to be absolute evidence, it is corroborative with other forensic evidence. Both the FBI and CIA reportedly sometimes use vein matching, formally referred to as vascular technology, to identify suspects. Vascular structures of individuals are believed to be unique. Vein patterns are obtained by recording (typically near infrared) light that penetrates skin and reacts with hemoglobin in blood to reveal a vein pattern. By identifying the vascular structure of a hand or finger of a suspect and recording it digitally, a template can be created that can be compared to a template of a known person.

In addition to being a step forward in forensics, vascular technology, has other useful applications. Critical hospital applications include error reduction and unconscious or uncommunicative patient identification. The chief of hospital operations at one medical center claims that vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints. Vein matching is also being used in the financial field and for such tasks as entry allowance and attendance recording. For hygienic purposes, a version of a vein matching device has been developed that requires no physical contact. An important advantage of vein matching is that it appears it would be extremely difficult to construct a fake representation of a vein pattern. Fingerprints do not have this advantage.

In response to increasing incidences of credit card fraud and of the illegal withdrawing of funds from their customer accounts, Japanese banks have begun to use biometric technology. A form of this is finger vein identification. A customer inserts a finger into a device that reveals the vein structure within the finger. The structure is compared with that of a customer of record to confirm the identity of the finger’s owner.

I can’t help wondering how long it will take for someone to develop a finger vein identification device that will trap the finger of an unauthorized person and summon security.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Finger vein patterns of each finger of each person are different.

It took until May 2002 to completely clear the site of the World Trade Center disaster.

To protect United States journalists around the world, President Obama enacted the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act on May 19, 2010.
This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by presenting their readers with a gift of extra detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Most readers probably remember Daniel Pearl, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal. He was abducted on January 23, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan. While a captive, Daniel’s picture showing a gun pointed at his head was sent with demands that the United States free all Pakistani terror prisoners, end the US presence in Pakistan and allow a detained shipment of F-16 jet fighters to be delivered to Pakistan. Daniel was ultimately killed on February 1 and beheaded. His body was cut into ten pieces and buried in a shallow grave in the outskirts of Karachi. His remains were found on May 16 and were ultimately returned to the United States for burial.

A senior operative for Al Queda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, grew up in Kuwait, but obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from an American university. Subsequently, he received military training in Pakistan and claimed to have briefly fought the Soviets. According to United States law enforcement, he had a small role in the first World Trade Center bombing in New York City on February 26, 1993. The bombing was intended to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, flattening them both and killing thousands of persons. That did not happen, but the blast did kill six persons and injure more than a thousand.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was believed to be the principal architect of the coordinated September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks using four commandeered passenger jets. Two of the jets were crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City A third jet was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth jet, which was on its way to Washington, D.C., crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after its passengers tried to wrest control from the terrorists. These attacks reportedly caused 2,996 deaths and injured more than 6,000 persons.

Among his terrorist plots, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly described a plan to take control of ten aircraft. Nine were to crash into targets including those of the 9/11 attack, CIA and FBI headquarters, nuclear power plants and the tallest buildings in the states of Washington and California. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself was to land the tenth plane, kill all the adult male passengers and deliver a speech to the media denouncing the United States.

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested by the Pakistanis in Rawalpindi. He was reportedly held in Pakistan for three days and then moved elsewhere by US officials. During a closed military hearing, he confessed to being responsible for the 9/11 attacks and many others. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confessions included the statement that “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan.” Since he confessed to so many terrorist acts, and since he had been the recipient of 183 water boardings, his confessions were considered by many as being inflated if not completely false.

A three-minute, thirty-six-second videotape showing Daniel’s decapitation was released on February 21. 2002. It was titled The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl. The video shows the arms and hands of a masked person severing Daniel’s head. Stills showing his hands were made from the videotape and compared by the FBI and CIA to those of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he had been captured on March 1, 2003. A bulging vein coursing across the back of a hand shown in the videotape was found to match a vein in Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s hand.

Although vein matching is not presently considered to be absolute evidence, it is corroborative with other forensic evidence. Both the FBI and CIA reportedly sometimes use vein matching, formally referred to as vascular technology, to identify suspects. Vascular structures of individuals are believed to be unique. Vein patterns are obtained by recording (typically near infrared) light that penetrates skin and reacts with hemoglobin in blood to reveal a vein pattern. By identifying the vascular structure of a hand or finger of a suspect and recording it digitally, a template can be created that can be compared to a template of a known person.

In addition to being a step forward in forensics, vascular technology, has other useful applications. Critical hospital applications include error reduction and unconscious or uncommunicative patient identification. The chief of hospital operations at one medical center claims that vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints. Vein matching is also being used in the financial field and for such tasks as entry allowance and attendance recording. For hygienic purposes, a version of a vein matching device has been developed that requires no physical contact. An important advantage of vein matching is that it appears it would be extremely difficult to construct a fake representation of a vein pattern. Fingerprints do not have this advantage.

In response to increasing incidences of credit card fraud and of the illegal withdrawing of funds from their customer accounts, Japanese banks have begun to use biometric technology. A form of this is finger vein identification. A customer inserts a finger into a device that reveals the vein structure within the finger. The structure is compared with that of a customer of record to confirm the identity of the finger’s owner.

I can’t help wondering how long it will take for someone to develop a finger vein identification device that will trap the finger of an unauthorized person and summon security.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Finger vein patterns of each finger of each person are different.

It took until May 2002 to completely clear the site of the World Trade Center disaster.

To protect United States journalists around the world, President Obama enacted the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act on May 19, 2010.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by presenting their readers with a gift of extra detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Although they might not be obvious, there are logical reasons for things happening. Human behavior is a category wherein reasons for more and more behaviors are being discovered. Violence and impulsiveness are two critical behaviors the causes of which are being intensely studied.

A murder trial the outcome of which hinged partially on reasons for violent acts was that involving David Bradley Waldroup, Jr. According to appellate court records, in October of 2006, he was staying in a trailer home parked on Kimsey Mountain in Tennessee. His wife, Penny, arrived in a van, bringing their children for a weekend visit with Mr. Waldroup. Her friend, Leslie Bradshaw, accompanied them.

Mr. and Mrs. Waldroup had been married for some time, but were separated and seeking a divorce. Mr. Waldroup reportedly suffered from increased emotional sensitivity and an intermittent explosive disorder, and Mrs. Waldroup had asked a neighbor to notify the police if she and Ms. Bradshaw had not returned by 7:30 p.m.

Mr. Waldroup reportedly had been drinking and had been carrying a .22 caliber rifle when he walked out to greet them. After groceries and children’s belongings had been unloaded from the van, Mrs. Waldroup tried to leave. Mr. Waldroup told her they needed to talk. She said that she needed to get to work and that they could talk when she returned to pick up the children. Mr. Waldroup grabbed the van keys and threw them into nearby woods. He began to berate both women and accused Ms. Bradshaw of ruining his marriage to Mrs. Waldroup. He then shot Ms. Bradshaw multiple times, killing her.

Mrs. Waldroup began running up the mountain, but Mr. Waldroup shot her in her back, and she fell. Mr. Waldroup caught up with her and aimed the rifle at her head, but she managed to kick it away. He pulled out a pocket knife and began to cut her. Somehow, she managed to get the knife and throw it away, and they ran back down the mountain. He then picked up a shovel and began hitting her on the head with it. At this point, their dog began to growl at him, and she was able to get loose and run around the trailer. He caught her again, though, and began to strike her on the back of her head with a machete. Grabbing her hair, he dragged her over to the body of Ms. Bradshaw and began kicking and hitting it with the machete.

Mr. Waldroup then forced his wife into the trailer, where the children wrapped her arms, bleeding from multiple knife wounds, in a sheet. Unbelievably, he then decided that he wanted to have sex with her. He told the children to say goodbye to their mother because they would never see her again. She said goodbye to each child and told them that she loved them.

He took her into the bedroom, but decided she was too messy with blood to have sex and wanted her to take a shower. She refused because she didn’t want to make it easy for him to clean up the blood, but did clean up a bit at the sink before he threw her on the bed. It was then that a police car pulled up to the trailer. Mrs. Waldroup was taken to a hospital via an ambulance and a helicopter and survived. Mr. Waldroup was taken to jail. By way of a behavioral genetics study described by the following, he also managed to survive.

Prosecutors were convinced that Mr. Wardroup’s actions were intentional and premeditated, and they charged him with the felony murder of Ms. Bradshaw, which carries a death penalty. Mr. Waldroup was also charged with attempted first-degree murder of his wife.

Genetic research has indicated that, in addition to other issues, a rare mutation in a neurotransmitter metabolizing enzyme (specifically, monoamine oxidase A) links a gene to a syndrome including violence, sexual aggression and impulsivity in humans. This, in combination with a history of early traumatic life events such as child abuse and lack of parental warmth, in high-provocation situations, can significantly increase the vulnerability of males to committing impulsive and violent acts. The gene involved is often referred to as the “warrior gene.”

Mr. Waldroup was tested and found to have the warrior gene. He had also been abused as a child. Mr. Waldroup was initially charged with first degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, and attempted first degree murder. Despite vigorous objections raised by the prosecution, the defense was allowed to present descriptions of research findings about the links between warrior genes, child abuse and violence to the jury. Mr. Waldroup was ultimately found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping and attempted second degree murder. As a result of the reduced charges, rather than the death penalty, he received a 32-year sentence.

The described research has provided some answers, but it has raised a huge question. In view of the fact that most persons having an unfortunate genetic makeup and an abused childhood background that predisposes them to violent behavior do not commit violent acts, how should courts dispense punishments that are fair to those guilty of violent acts and to the general population. If you, the reader, were a judge overseeing a violence case as described, what sentence would you impose?

Additional Facts:

In addition to violence and impulsivity, the warrior gene has been linked to crime, alcoholism and higher amounts of credit card debt.

As is the case for a number of genotypes, statistical frequency of the warrior gene varies with ethnicity.

MRI analysis has shown that brain activities of those with the warrior gene differ from those who do not have it.

There is an even rarer form of the warrior gene that has been linked to extreme aggression and extreme violence in men.

Defenses similar to that of Mr. Waldroup have also been used in Britain and Italy.

It was believed that this was the first reported case in the United States where such evidence had been introduced in the guilt phase rather than in the sentencing phase of a trial.

It is not surprising that a correlation has also been found between the playing of violent video games and behavioral effects on the brains of young children.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by presenting their readers with a gift of some extra detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

By January 7, 1984, Julie Helton had lived for some 25 years. She had lived in Marceline, Missouri and had worked for a publishing company. James Grinder, a woodcutter, allegedly put an end to her life on that date by assaulting, beating and stabbing her, leaving her body to be found several days later near a railroad track in Macon, Missouri.

In 1993, Grinder and another suspect, a former Macon policeman, had court-ordered blood samples taken. At that time however, there was insufficient evidence to support an indictment for murder. Grinder subsequently served a sentence for an unrelated crime, but he was arrested upon his release in 1998 He confessed his involvement in the Helton murder, but offered conflicting versions. He subsequently confessed to having been involved in the murders of three other young women.

Macon County sheriff Robert Dawson had spent more than 10,000 man-hours investigating the Helton murder and was determined to prove or disprove the involvement of Grinder in it. To help ensure success, Dawson turned to Dr. Lawrence Farwell, who had developed a system, referred to by its registered trademark as “brain fingerprinting,” for detecting, amplifying, digitizing, recording, analyzing and displaying electrical activity in portions of a person’s brain. Electrical brain activity in response to specific visual and/or auditory stimuli is sensed by a number of electrodes fastened to a flexible headband placed around a subject’s head. The electrodes are positioned to sense electrical activities of the frontal, central and parietal portions of the subject’s brain. The electrodes are connected through an amplifier to a computer, where electrical signals representing brain activities undergo a data analysis by a mathematical algorithm to determine if suspected information is or is not retained in the brain. Results can be recorded, displayed on a monitor and/or printed. An electrical activity detected when a subject is presented with specific crime-related words, phrases and/or pictures results in the creation of a specific pattern displayed in an EEG (electroencephalograph). The pattern represents what is referred to as a MERMER, that is, a Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted Electroencephalographic Response. (That last bit of information will not be on the next exam.)

The presence of such activity indicates that specific memories have been retained within the brain
portions and are being recalled. For example, someone who has stabbed another person to death and buried his or her body would have memories associated with the stabbing and burial. Electrical activity would be initiated when the stabber is shown a picture, for example, of the murder weapon and when shown words and phrases describing details of the murder, the murder scene, the transportation of the victim, the burial scene, etc. Innocent suspects would not have memories of the crime, and there would be no similar electrical activity when shown such items. The system thus indicates not only when a suspect has memories of a specific crime, but also when s/he does not. The latter advantage could save innocent persons from undergoing unpleasant experiences attending investigations and interrogations and, even worse, undeserved convictions, prison sentences and executions.

Briefly, a typical brain fingerprinting test would include a preliminary investigation to collect information associated with a crime. Such information includes that which a perpetrator would gather while committing the crime in question. Examples would be: the victim was knitting when the suspect broke into her home, the victim was wearing fuzzy pink slippers, there was only one light on, a popular game show was on the victim’s television set, a half-eaten pickle was on a small table next to where the victim was knitting, and the suspect had skinned his knee while breaking in. Such details would be known only by the suspect and perhaps by the police. Ordinary citizens would not likely be aware of any of them and would certainly not be aware of all of them. Of course, relevant information divulged during interrogations and court proceedings must be avoided.

Following an investigation, suitable words, phrases and/or pictures are divided into three stimulus categories: IRRELEVENT, TARGET and PROBE. Irrelevant stimuli, having no relation to the crime, will not elicit a MERMER from a subject. Target stimuli have a relation to the crime and are revealed to the subject prior to the test. They will elicit a comparison-standard MERMER. Probe stimuli to which the subject has not been exposed (unless s/he was, for example, present at or more closely involved in the crime) will not elicit a MERMER. Comparisons of resulting patterns displayed on an electroencephalograph (EEG) will reveal whether or not the subject had details of the crime retained within his or her brain.

Significant details of such an act as a murder are retained in one’s brain for some time. Grinder was tested some 15 years after the murder. Another suspected murderer, Terry Harrington, was tested to confirm or deny his involvement in a murder committed 23 years prior to the test. In 1997, retired Police Captain John Schweer, while working as a night watchman in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was shot to death. A few months later, sixteen-year-old Terry Harrington was arrested. Although Harrington had what was apparently a solid alibi that placed him, at the time of the murder, in Omaha, 20 miles away from the murder scene, he was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Following a string of failed appeals, Harrington contacted Dr. Farwell and was given his brain fingerprinting test.

According to Farwell, it was determined with a 99.99 percent confidence that test information related to the murder was not being retained in Harrington’s brain. Farwell further claimed that, again with a 99.99 percent confidence, information related to his alibi was retained in his brain. Subsequently, the Iowa Supreme Court found that police had failed to provide Harrington’s defense attorney with a total of eight reports that could have cast doubt on testimony linking him to the night watchman’s murder. Additionally, the witness who had put Harrington at the scene of the murder recanted. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed Harrington’s conviction and ordered a new trial. The State of Iowa decided not to try Harrington again, and he was once again, after nearly a quarter of a century, a free man.

Readers should realize that brain fingerprinting does not determine guilt or innocence. It is evidence akin to standard fingerprint and DNA evidence that is submitted to a judge or jury whose duty it is to decide guilt.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

Dr. Farwell has a PhD in biological psychology from the University of Illinois and has done research at Harvard University. In addition to the Brain Fingerprinting system, he has invented a device that enables paralyzed persons to control a computer so that they can communicate and control other devices. Farwell is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, Inc.

Estimates put the number of crime suspects apprehended in the United States at about fourteen million. Estimates of the number of innocent persons serving long-term prison sentences ranges from a few thousand to more than a hundred thousand. Estimates of the fraction of the five thousand or so persons being held on death row that are innocent range between a few and forty percent.

Brain fingerprinting also finds application in additional areas. These include medical diagnostics such as the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, security testing, military intelligence matters, terrorism, fraud and computer-hacking detection and measuring the effectiveness of campaigns and advertising.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra bits of detail. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

In keeping with a Storytellers Unplugged tradition during the Halloween month of October, the following essay includes a few words about hauntings.

Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary was known for many reasons. Unique among the reasons was that it became home to at least one ghost that was not that of a previous inmate. The ghost was that of another that an inmate brought with him.

At the time of its opening in 1829, Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, referred to by some as the Alcatraz of the East, was the largest public building in the United States; and, at a cost of some $800,000, was probably the most expensive. Its design had the unique feature of comprising a series of cellblocks extending outwardly like spokes from a central hub. Walls enclosing the entire structure were 12 feet thick at their bases, were 30 feet high and included castellations at their corners. Inmates were kept in constant isolation in individual cells that were eight feet wide and not much longer. A bit of light filtered down from a small skylight referred to as “the eye of God.”

The penitentiary’s popular design was copied some 300 times in Europe, Latin America and even Japan. When Charles Dickens visited the United States in 1842, there were two specific places he wanted to see. One was Niagara Falls, and the other was the Eastern State Penitentiary.

Eventually replacing extreme physical abuse in the prison, and for a large part of its use as a prison, was solitary confinement that forbade speaking, whistling, singing, humming and even mumbling. This allowed no verbal or even visual contact between prisoners or between prisoners and any visitors. Prisoners even wore hoods or masks when being moved to or from a cell. Meals were taken within the cells, and reading was limited to the Bible. The theory behind such isolation was to destroy the criminals’ stubborn spirits,” force prisoners’ thoughts constantly inwardly and thus make them penitent (hence the term penitentiary). The actual result was reportedly to drive a substantial number of prisoners insane and cause many others to have psychological problems. The penitentiary came to be one of the most feared by criminals.

The standard system of solitary confinement was finally abandoned in 1913. Thereafter, short periods of solitary confinement were used as a punishment for prisoner misbehavior.

A well-known resident who called the Eastern State Penitentiary home for a time was Chicago crime boss, Alphonse Gabriel Capone. Shortly after having reportedly ordered, or at least approved, the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of five rival gang members and two “citizens” in a Chicago garage, he had been arrested in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed, deadly weapon. He was sentenced to serve a year in prison. The Eastern State Penitentiary provided his first jail cell, and he stepped into it in 1929. Being located in what was referred to as Park Avenue, his cell was a bit different than those of other prisoners. A reporter described Capone’s cell by writing , “The whole room was suffused in the glow of a desk lamp, which stood on a polished desk. On the once-grim walls of the penal chamber hung tasteful paintings, and the strains of a waltz were being emitted by a powerful cabinet receiver of handsome design and fine finish.” A picture of the cell also shows carpets, a lounge chair, a secretary and a bed. The cell also differed just a bit from others in that, reportedly, the cell door was not always locked. Capone was reportedly also granted the use of the warden’s telephone so that he could tend to his outside interests.

In spite of his relatively comfy accommodations, Capone’s stay was not very pleasant. One of seven of the persons murdered during the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was James Clark (born Albert Kachellek), brother-in-law of George “Bugs” Moran. Supposedly, Clark’s ghost visited Capone in his cell. Other inmates reported hearing Capone screaming and begging Clark to leave him alone. Later, when Capone was living in Chicago’s Lexington Hotel, the number of ghostly visitations increased. His men often heard him, still begging Clark to leave him alone. He spent his last years at his home on Palm Island in Miami, slowly wasting away with syphilis. The Dade County Medical Examiner attributed his death in 1947 to ‘numerous complications including renal, hepatic, and congestive heart failure due to end-stage syphilitic complications. Capone had insisted that Clark’s ghost would follow him to his grave.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

From his early days in New York, the nickname by which close friends and family referred to Capone was “Snorkey.”

The Chicago garage where the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre took place was leveled in 1967, and some of the bullet-pocked bricks of its rear wall were sold. One of the bricks now resides in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Eastern State Penitentiary served as a prison for 142 years, during which it had been the home of nearly 80,000 men and women. Just as it had been a favorite attraction for many tourists during the 1830s and 1840s, it now serves as a tourist attraction and movie set. Tradition has it that not all the inmates have “left” and those that did not now haunt the prison. The location where most spooky sightings have been reported is in the showers of cell block 12, and they embody a female dressed in white. She is appropriately referred to as the “soap lady.”

Among the noteworthy prisoners of the Eastern State Penitentiary was one named Pep. He had reportedly been given a life sentence in 1924 by the governor of Pennsylvania, Clifford Pinchot, for having murdered his wife’s cat. Pep was imprisoned until he died during the 1930s. He was a black Labrador retriever.

That the Eastern State Penitentiary was a prime example of advanced form, and especially of advanced function, when it was opened in 1829 is dramatically evidenced by each cell having a small exercise yard attached to it and central heating, running water and a toilet in each cell. President Andrew Jackson was still trudging to and from an outhouse on the White House lawn.

December 7, 1971 was the day the Empire of Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. The following day was the day that, in a speech to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt referred to December 7 as “a date which will live in infamy.” He also asked Congress for a declaration of war against the Axis Powers, and it was delivered within an hour of the speech. The United States thus suddenly found itself in World War II.

Although a special limousine was available to transport FDR, now that the U.S. was at war, the Secret Service wanted an armored vehicle to transport him to give his speech to Congress at noon on December 8 and thereafter to prevent Japanese or German agents from assassinating him. Fortunately, just such a vehicle had been sitting for some time in a Treasury Department parking lot. Mechanics spent many hectic hours cleaning and checking all the features of the vehicle, and it was used to transport FDR until 1942. It was a 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan and was about as armored as a car could be. It weighed some 9,000 pounds. It also had the dark distinction of having been confiscated from none other than Alphonse Gabriel Capone. When told of the source of the car, FDR reportedly said, “I hope Mr. Capone won’t mind.”

Capone had his car outfitted with some 3,000 pounds of armor, bulletproof windows, a radio that scanned police frequencies, and flashing lights mounted behind its grill. It had also been painted black and green to emulate a Chicago police car. Pictures of the car can be found by Googling “Al Capone’s car.”

In 1942, the Ford Motor Co. bulletproofed a 1939 Lincoln convertible limousine for the president. To stay within stiff spending limits, the government leased the car for $500 per year. FDR nicknamed it the “Sunshine Special.”

Capone had a high-living lawyer named Edward Joseph O’Hare, known as “Easy Eddie.” In return for his keeping Capone out of jail and other rumored services, Eddie was well paid and given a mansion. He seemed oblivious to the horrific things being done by Capone and his underlings, but he always looked after his son, Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare, providing him with everything he ever needed. He also tried to keep him on the straight and narrow. In an attempt to lighten the dark load that would be borne by his son because of his reputation, or possibly to keep himself out of prison, Eddie decided to testify against Capone and the Capone gang. As a result, in 1932, Capone was sentenced to eleven years in prison for income tax evasion. Easy Edie was murdered in 1939.

During World War II, Butch became a fighter pilot stationed in the South Pacific on the aircraft carrier, USS Lexington. While returning alone from a mission he had to abort due to an insufficient amount of fuel, he observed a squadron of Japanese aircraft about to attack the Lexington. After he had fired all his ammunition at the planes, he dove at them, trying to clip their control surfaces, until they finally turned away from the carrier. Butch destroyed five enemy planes and disabled another. His actions won him the honor of being the Navy’s first ace and its first pilot to be awarded a Medal of Honor. Unfortunately, a year later, Butch was killed during combat.

You might pay Butch another honor by remembering his name the next time you pass through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. It was renamed in his honor in 1949. A substitute for Butch’s Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat aircraft was put on display at the west end of Terminal 2.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra details. It might also be of general interest to many other readers. The two opening, example stories are a bit outside the realm of forensics, but they serve as a preface to the communication technology involved in forensic situations, for example, terrorism, smuggling and assassinations, where secret communications over long distances play an important role.

* * * * * *

Martin’s hand trembled slightly as he removed a radio transmitter hidden beneath a floorboard in his apartment and began to tap out an encoded message. It was early winter of 1943, and he was an English secret agent sent to France to gather critical military information and radio it to a military receiver in England.

Vehicles having rotating, directional antennas on their roofs and being manned by German soldiers were prowling in the general area of Martin’s apartment, searching for radio signals. The antennas on three of the vehicles, each at a different location, had stopped while aimed in the direction from which the strongest radio signal was being received, that is, in the direction of the source of the message being transmitted by Martin. Imaginary lines extending in the direction pointed to by each antenna intersected each other at a point that was very close to the transmitter. Within minutes, the door to Martin’s apartment burst open, and he was faced by three armed men in German military uniforms. It was a long time before he saw his home in England again.

More recently, an American secret agent on a mission similar to Martin’s transmitted an encoded radio signal to a receiver in the United States from a location in an unfriendly country. He, however, used a directional antenna aimed at a location in the sky and his message had been prerecorded before being transmitted. Receivers placed in strategic locations by the unfriendly country to intercept such messages did so. The direction from which the signal had arrived at the receivers might have led to another door being burst open, but the transmitter of the message would not have been found behind it. WHY NOT?

Many of us have seen trails left by meteors (also known as shooting stars and falling stars) as they zip through dense layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, their passage resulting in their being heated to a point of incandescence. Fortunately, most meteors are quite small–comparable to the size of a grain of sand–so we need not wear helmets when we venture outdoors. Many, many more small meteors enter the atmosphere than do large ones; and even fewer are large enough to survive a passage through the atmosphere without burning up. Those that do survive and land upon the Earth’s surface are known as meteorites. Meteorites having a size between that of a sand grain and a boulder are sometimes referred to as meteoroids (meaning meteor-like).

Readers might remember that, in their natural state, atoms have an equal number of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons, making them electrically neutral. The numbers of electrons and protons distinguish atoms of one basic element from atoms of all other elements. Gaining or losing electrons upsets the neutral balance of electric charge, leaving the atom in a state known as an ion. The passage of meteors knocks negative electrons from atoms, transforming them into positively charged ions and, as a result, leaves a trail as long as 12 miles of free electrons and ionized particles in their wake.

A radio signal usually travels in a straight line known as a “line of sight.”  Since the surface of the Earth is curved, the distances across which transmitted signals can be successfully received are limited.   Transmitting and receiving antennas are placed atop tall buildings and towers to extend such distances. Interestingly, meteor trails can also be used to extend the distances radio signals can travel between transmitters and associated receivers. Radio, television and radar signals of certain frequencies can be reflected by the electrically charged trails.  The trails are sometimes higher but are usually detected in the upper atmosphere, between 50 and 75 miles above the Earth’s surface. With reflectors at such heights, signals reflected by meteor trails can reach receivers more than a thousand miles away. 

Meteor trails occur sporadically, and their trails usually last for only a few seconds and rarely for a few minutes. so information is transmitted in short bursts. A message in Morse code, for example, can be recorded, sped up by a factor of about 200, transmitted and decoded after being received. An estimated 1,000,000,000,000 meteors (more than a ton) come to visit our atmosphere every day, thereby providing a significant amount of reflective trail material.

Regarding the second opening, example story, a result of a radio signal being reflected between a transmitter and a receiver is that, since the signal does not follow a direct, predictable path, the location of the transmitter could not have been accurately determined. This is why the transmitter would not have been found behind the aforementioned door.

Where there is satellite coverage, of course, messages can be more dependably relayed to receivers even farther away; but meteor burst communication provides a means of radio communication that can be used where no other means is available.

As a shuttle astronaut recently mentioned, human waste was jettisoned from shuttles to burn up in the atmosphere. As a consequence, that brilliant trail you might once have witnessed may have been the remains of something far less less exotic than a meteor.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The advantages of meteor burst communications also include its inherent interception, detection, antijamming and nuclear survivability characteristics.

Atmospheric meteors move at a bare minimum rate of some 25,000 mph but can exceed 100,000 mph.

Some 50 tons of dust and meteorites are added to the estimated 6.58 sextillion tons of the Earth every year.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through space debris. The showers provide fruitful viewing for several days. The dates of major meteor showers can be easily found on the internet. (See, for example, meteorshowers.com.)

For those interested, broadcasts of live meteor burst audio received at Roswell, NM are made available by Spaceweather.com at the following locations:\

http://spaceweatherradio.com/index.php

or
Space Weather Radio

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories who would like to enrich their stories by providing their readers with a gift of some extra details. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Unfortunately, the tag referred to in the title is often one affixed to the toe of a dead body.

Until one early Sunday morning in July, Marion, 42, had never met Lamar, 16. Marion had just finished her night shift as a Chicago 911 police dispatcher and was driving home. Lamar had allegedly left a party where he had drunk vodka, smoked marijuana and taken ecstasy. He noticed a man paying for parking while leaving the engine of his Range Rover running, and he allegedly hopped into the vehicle and sped away.

According to police, Lamar had been stopped for having run a red light. When the police tried to question him, he suddenly backed the Range Rover, nearly striking two officers and ramming a squad car in the process. He than took off with police in vigorous pursuit. After having led the police chase for about a mile, Lamar ran through a stop sign. It was here that at least the vehicle driven by Lamar met that driven by Marion for the first and last time. The meeting smashed Marion’s vehicle and sent it spinning into a fire hydrant, causing Marion’s eventual death.

Lamar had not finished creating a swath of destruction. He sped off once more and rammed a parked car with such force that it left the car, off the ground, imbedded sideways in a brick wall. He then abandoned the Range Rover and fled on foot, but he was soon apprehended.

Lamar was subsequently charged as an adult with murder and lesser crimes and held under a $1 million bond. He had previously been sentenced as a juvenile to probation for having twice been found in possession of stolen vehicles. Surprisingly, Lamar was an honors student who excelled in two sports at a high-quality school that prepares boys for success in college.

Another sad incident occurred when police tried unsuccessfully to stop the driver of a Dodge Neon for having violated a traffic rule. While fleeing, the driver of the Neon, which turned out to have been car jacked, ran a stop sign and collided with a GMC Sierra pickup truck. Five children were in the truck. Four of them were killed when ejected by the crash, and the fifth died later at a hospital. Their two parents were hospitalized in serious condition. Three adults riding in the Neon were also killed in the collision.

Reportedly, 85 percent of the more than 100,000 high-speed police chases in the U.S. every year involve nonviolent offenders. According to federal statistics, the number of persons killed every year during police chases hovers about 350. About a third of those are innocent bystanders. The numbers reflect only those deaths that are reported. The reporting of such deaths is not mandatory, however; and the actual number is thought to be much higher, perhaps by a factor of three or four. An academic expert in such matters estimates that from 35 to 40 percent of police chases end in crashes.

Many police forces have tried to reduce the number of tragedies by issuing rules governing when to chase and when not to chase. Risking lives by chasing someone who has committed a minor traffic infraction and simply panicked is not worthwhile, but a police officer usually has no way of knowing whether the driver is guilty of a minor traffic infraction or is a viscous serial killer. Reducing the number of fatalities, injuries and costly lawsuits to zero is probably impossible, but there is a recently developed technology that should result in a significant reduction.

John and his partner, Frank, were driving in a northerly direction in their police cruiser and had turned left behind a west-bound Ford Mustang. As they were beginning the turn, John had noticed a startled expression on the face of the Mustang’s driver when he recognized the cruiser. John had seen such an expression many times during his long career as a policeman, and it usually indicated that the driver was up to no good. He trailed the Mustang as Frank called in its license number. The number was reported to be that of a stolen car, and John activated the cruiser’s siren and flashing lights. The Mustang’s driver responded by accelerated away from the cruiser.

John closed the gap between the two cars, but traffic made forcing the Mustang to stop dangerous. Frank manipulated a few controls and John slowed the cruiser, allowing the Mustang to pull away. Thinking the police had abandoned the chase, the Mustang’s driver slowed. A few minutes later, he found himself boxed in by police cruisers. Having no viable alternatives, he surrendered with no further resistance.

The controls that Frank manipulated were those of a StarChase Pursuit Management System, which targeted the Mustang by aiming a laser at it . Mounted on the front of the police cruiser was a launcher that used compressed air to fire a tracking projectile at the Mustang after it had been targeted. The projectile comprised a global position system (GPS), a radio transmitter and a power supply. These components were embedded within a strongly adhesive compound that adhered the projectile to the Mustang.

The GPS transmitted the position coordinates of the Mustang to a dispatcher. The dispatcher was then able to track the Mustang on a digital roadmap such as depicted on television programs such as NCIS and direct other cruisers to a location where they intercepted the Mustang.

Thanks to the tracking technology, the stolen car was recovered; and there were no resulting injuries, fatalities or lawsuits.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Data from a StarChase Pursuit Management System can be downloaded and stored and is reportedly considered admissible evidence in court.

Very basically, GPS is a system that uses a mathematical analysis of the times it takes signals from a number of satellites to reach a GPS receiver to determine distances to the satellites and, from that information, the location and speed of the receiver. The signals include the time a signal is sent and precise orbital information. The accuracy of a position determination is proportional to the number of satellites engaged. Signals from three satellites provide a rough position. Signals from four provides more accuracy and can also be used to determine altitude if, for example, the GPS receiver is located in an aircraft. The system typically uses signals from four or more satellites simultaneously.

There are, of course, many military GPS applications such as precision weapon guidance, downed-pilot locating and patrol tracking. GPS satellites also house a variety of radiation sensors, and they actually represent a major portion of the U.S. Nuclear Detonation Detection System.

GPS time is based upon that of atomic clocks and is reportedly accurate to about 14 nanoseconds (14 billionths of a second). How does that compare with the accuracy of your watch?