Robert Jones

Between tides, the water covering a reef was relatively still as a small pistol shrimp crept toward an even smaller shrimp. The pistol shrimp’s two claws had no pincers, but the larger of the two had a “pistol-like” device comprising two portions. A movable part was cocked like a hammer and then released to snap against a stationary part. The fast moving hammer caused a “tear” within a small volume of the surrounding water, causing the water to vaporize into a gas and create a tiny bubble, or cavity, in the water. The pressure of the surrounding water, then being much higher than that of the gas within the cavity, caused an immediate implosion of the cavity. The gas dissipated violently into the surrounding water, creating an acoustic shock wave that stunned the smaller shrimp. This allowed the pistol shrimp to secure what was to become lunch and drag it into a burrow it had made in the sand beneath the reef.

An hour later, the pistol shrimp was resting just outside its burrow and beside its constant, symbiotic partner – often referred to as a “watchman goby.” The shrimp’s antennae were resting upon the goby’s tail and body so that it could detect every movement of the fish. Having far better eyesight than its partner, the goby was the first to notice a large predator heading in their direction. Having no interest in exploring the inside of the predator’s stomach, the goby darted into the burrow it shared with the shrimp. Feeling the goby’s sudden movements, the shrimp assumed it had detected danger and ducked into the burrow with it. Their symbiotic relationship provided the shrimp with a lookout and provided the goby with a burrow in which to hide and to protect its eggs.

Tiny cavities are created in other situations when there are rapid changes in the pressures of small volumes of liquids. This is known as cavitation inception. When cavities are repeatedly imploded, they create impact stresses in contacting surfaces that result in wear of the surfaces. Such wear is known as cavitation. Cavitation processes come in two flavors: inertial (also known as transient) and noninertial. The process involving the pistol shrimp is inertial. Other inertial processes that include rapidly imploding cavities that produce shock waves commonly damage valves and boat propellers. In noninertial cavitation processes, a cavity is oscillated in size and/or shape, typically by an ultrasonic sound, when used in a cleaning bath. Cavitation may thus be understood to produce both beneficial and detrimental results.

While the pistol shrimp was enjoying its lunch and resting outside its burrow, a thief named Bernie was busy stealing a legally registered, unfired pistol during a B&E and grinding off its serial number. Following a tip to the police, Bernie was arrested under suspicion of having committed the B&E. The gun was found in his possession, and it became an important piece of evidence that linked him to the B&E. Without the serial number, however, how could investigators be certain the gun was the one stolen during the B&E … and what did that have to do with the pistol shrimp?

A common denominator between the pistol shrimp and the pistol serial number is cavitation. A pistol shrimp can use cavitation to get a meal, and a forensic examiner can often use cavitation to get a serial number from a pistol from which the number has been removed. Serial numbers (and/or letters) are typically pressure stamped into the metal of firearms. This not only displaces metal to form numbers, it displaces metal located below and beside the impressed numbers, rearranging its structure. To reveal the numbers, the area of the firearm that contained them is immersed in a fluid that is ultrasonically vibrated. The vibration causes cavitations that wear away the displaced metal faster than the nondisplaced metal, leaving in its place a cavitation-etched likeness of the original serial number. This procedure is known as the ultrasonic cavitation method.

Another restoration procedure is known as the chemical and electrochemical etching method. A forensic examiner using the method coats an area that previously bore a serial number with an etching solution. The solution etches the displaced metal faster than the nondisplaced metal surrounding it, revealing the original serial number. As indicated by the name of the procedure, the process can be accelerated by directing an electric current through the metal as well as by applying a chemical etching solution.

Yet another restoration procedure is known as the magnaflux method. This involves magnetizing the metal of a firearm and spraying it with an oil having iron particles suspended within it. Magnetic lines of force associated with a magnetic field created when the firearm was magnetized course through the metal, following contours of the metal. The iron particles in the oil align with the lines of force. The shapes of lines of force passing through displaced metal will follow the contours of the displaced metal, and the iron particle disposition will provide a copy of the original serial number that is visible to an examiner. This method has an advantage of being nondestructive, that is, it finishes with all the evidence it began with.

The serial number restoration method applied depends on the type of material used to make a firearm in question, how a serial number was originally applied and what was done while attempting to obliterate the serial number. In addition to the three methods of serial number determination described, sometimes simpler methods are all that are required. These include optically scanning the area that previously bore a serial number, perhaps after applying chalk to accentuate any remaining portions, and observing the area using various light sources.

Oh yes, Bernie will not be grinding any serial numbers for some time.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

The snapping sound created by a pistol shrimp has a duration of less than a millisecond; but it compares in loudness (reportedly 218 decibels, which is twice as loud as a chain saw positioned a yard away) to sounds made by sperm and beluga whales. This makes the shrimp one of the loudest animals in the sea. The pressure of a sound wave emitted by a pistol shrimp is reportedly powerful enough to kill small fish and break glass, and the noise made by groups of pistol shrimp is loud enough to interfere with sonar and undersea communications.

When a cavity implodes as described in the foregoing, the pressure within it can reach several hundred atmospheres; and the temperature within it can reach several thousand degrees Fahrenheit,

It is unlawful to remove or change the serial number of a firearm.

As indicated in the foregoing, firearm serial numbers are not all restricted to actual numbers. Some also include letters.

The serial numbers of firearms made by one manufacturer are all different, but the numbers used by one manufacturer are sometimes the same as those used by another.

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.

What a woman living in Salem, Oregon thought would be just an ordinary day in the early summer of 1961 turned out to be anything but ordinary.  Her first clue was delivered by her dog when it returned home from its usual morning inspection of neighborhood shrubs and fire hydrants with a paper bag containing a human foot.  Her telephone call to the police brought detectives to investigate.  Her second clue came while the detectives were still at her house, and her dog brought home a human hand.  A subsequent area search revealed several more body parts.   The parts were determined to be that of a woman having recently been reported missing by her husband.  A witness had seen her leaving a bar with a man who was soon identified as Richard Laurence Marquette. A search of his home revealed more body parts in his refrigerator.

The Oregon governor requested help from the FBI in locating Marquette.  Marquette’s name was added to the FBI’s famous Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list (hereinafter referred to as the Top Ten list).  The list already included ten names, and Marquette had the sinister distinction of being the first felon to have his name be the eleventh name on the list. He was recognized by a citizen who had seen his posted photograph in a credit bureau and was arrested in Santa Maria, California the very next day.

The Top Ten list owes its beginning to an article written by a reporter who had requested a list of the names and descriptions of the “toughest guys” that the FBI wanted apprehended.  The subsequent article written by the reporter drew such a public response that, on March 14, 1950, the FBI implemented the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program.  The program has been quite successful.  As of May 1, 2011, 494 persons have been listed; and 464 have been located.  Of the 464, 152 fugitives were located as a direct result of citizen involvement. Thus far, listed criminals have been apprehended in all states except Alaska, Delaware and Maine. Rewards for information can be as much as $100,000 if it leads directly to an arrest of a Top Ten fugitive. The reward offered by the FBI for such information concerning a fugitive named Victor Manuel Gerena might be as high as $1 million. More about Gerena later.

To “qualify” for inclusion in the list, a criminal must have a history of having committed serious crimes and/or represent a present, dangerous public threat in view of current criminal charges. The names of candidates for the list are submitted from all 56 FBI Field Offices. Criminals already having nationwide notoriety from other sources are not included.

In addition to the list being posted in many places, the ABC Radio Network hosts a program named “FBI This Week”; and the Fox Television Network hosts a program named “America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back.” The latter presents recreations of crimes plus photographs and video tapes of criminals. These programs have resulted in the apprehension of a number of profiled fugitives.

The list has included the names of only eight women. Ruth Eisemann-Schier’s name was the first woman’s name added to the list, and that was on December 28, 1968. She and her boyfriend had kidnapped a 20-year-old college student named Barbara Jane Mackle from a wealthy family, buried her in a box and demanded a ransom. The family paid $500,000, and the young student was safely unearthed. Life sustaining means had been provided by the kidnappers, but spending 83 hours in the box must have been a terrifying experience.

Eisemann-Schier was apprehended on March 6, 1969, served four years of a seven-year sentence and was finally deported to Honduras, her country of origin. The kidnapping was described in a book, “83 Hours ‘Til Dawn,” written by Mackle, and was the subject of two television movies, “The Longest Night” (1972) and “83 Hours ‘Til Dawn” (1990).

The name that has been on the Top Ten list for the longest period is that of previously mentioned Victor Manuel Gerena. His name has been on the list since May 14, 1984, some 27 years. Ironically, Gerena had been a security guard. In 1983, he robbed a security company of some $7 million. He reportedly forced two employees to accompany him at gunpoint during his getaway. He then reportedly bound them and injected them with an unknown substance to render them helpless. As mentioned previously, a reward as high as $1 million is being offered for information that leads directly to his arrest.

The name that was on the list for the shortest period from the time it was added until its holder was apprehended was that of Billie Austin Bryant. His name was on the list from 5:00 pm on January 8, 1963 until 7:00 pm on January 8, 1963, a total of two hours. After having robbed six banks and escaping from jail, Bryant unbelievably robbed a bank where he had been a previous customer. Two tellers recognized and promptly identified him. When three agents went to talk to his wife at her apartment, Bryant answered their knock, shot and killed two of them, and escaped by climbing down a tree growing near a bedroom window. A manhunt quickly followed the issue of a warrant for his arrest, and his name was added to the Top Ten list. A man in a nearby apartment building, who had learned about the shootings, became suspicious when he heard noises in an attic above his apartment. He reported them, and Bryant was promptly arrested. He is now serving two consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole.

Several well-known names have appeared on the Top Ten list. James Earl Ray’s name was one of six that appeared on it twice. Readers no doubt remember Ray as having been found guilty of shooting and killing Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 as King stood on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Ray was an early school dropout and had served in the U.S. Army in Germany. His first conviction was for a burglary in California in 1949, for which he was jailed for three months. He served two years for an armed robbery in Illinois in 1952, served time in the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas for stealing and forging postal money orders in 1955, and was sentenced in 1959 to 20 years in prison for armed robbery in Missouri. In 1967, he escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary by hiding in a truck carrying bread baked in the prison. He roamed through a number of states and also spent time in Canada and Mexico.

Ray held a strong racial bias against African Americans, was a supporter of George Wallace and his segregationist platform, and spent time working in the Wallace campaign headquarters in Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, he had a plastic surgery procedure performed on his nose. Two weeks later, he headed east to Atlanta, Georgia, where he checked into a rooming house. Ray then drove to Birmingham, Alabama, where, on March 30, 1968, he bought a rifle, a telescopic sight and 20 cartridges. He then returned to Atlanta, where, from a local newspaper, he learned of King’s planned visit to Memphis. On April 2, Ray headed for Memphis. Two days later, King was shot to death.

Ray’s name was added to the Top Ten list on April 20, 1968; and he was apprehended in London, England on June 8, 1968. During his trial, Ray admitted to having killed King and was sentenced to serve 99 years in prison. On June 10, 1977, with five fellow inmates, Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee. On June 11, his name was again added to the Top Ten list; and he was recaptured two days later. On November 9, 1979, Ray escaped again from the Brushy Mountain State Prison; but he was recaptured the same day—this time without the aid of the Top Ten list. After a number of additional escapades and questions about whether or not he had actually killed King, Ray died from a liver problem at 70 in 1998.

William “Willie” Sutton (born William Francis Sutton) is another name readers might find familiar. The public followed his exploits for decades. Because he often dressed and posed as a postman, messenger, maintenance man and policeman while “doing business,” he was also known as “Willie the Actor ” and “Slick Willie.” He is often remembered for having replied, when asked why he robbed banks, “because that’s where the money is.” Sutton made a career of committing an estimated 100 bank robberies and reportedly netted some $2 million. He was also a pretty fair hand at breaking out of prisons. He broke out of three.

Sutton was arrested for murder when he was 21 but was acquitted. He was arrested and jailed for safecracking and was released in 1927. In 1930, he robbed his first bank. In 1930, he found himself sitting in the maximum-security prison known as Sing Sing. In 1932, he found himself on a makeshift ladder, climbing over a wall and escaping from Sing Sing. After a few years of robbing banks and stores, he was caught and given a new place to sit in Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary. His five escape attempts from there strongly indicate that he didn’t approve of the the accommodations. He was eventually moved in 1945 to Holmesburg Prison, also in Philadelphia.

In 1945, Sutton joined eleven other inmates in escaping through a long tunnel that had taken some 18 months to dig and reinforce. He was caught within minutes just two blocks from the penitentiary. Not being one to give up easily, in 1947, Sutton and a few other convicts stole some guard uniforms and left the prison in search of surroundings that were more to their liking. Apparently, not all the escapees were satisfied with their new surroundings. Eight days later, one returned, rang the “doorbell,” said he was hungry, and asked to be let back in. Less than a week after Sutton escaped, room was found on the Top Ten list for his name. He was the eleventh person to have his name added. He was again collected in 1952 and sent to Attica Prison in New York.

Sutton denied having answered a question about why he robbed banks with the much-quoted statement that he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.” In his co-authored autobiography, he said he robbed banks “because I enjoyed it. I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. I enjoyed everything about it so much that one or two weeks later I’d be out looking for the next job. But to me the money was the chips, that’s all.”

Sutton used a pistol and a Thompson submachine gun in his robberies but never killed anyone. He is reported to have said that “ You can’t rob a bank on charm and personality.” When asked if the guns he used were loaded during his robberies, he said that he never carried a loaded gun because somebody might get hurt. Whether the weapons carried by Sutton and his accomplices were loaded or not, they were never fired during a robbery. In fact, Sutton’s victims usually reported that he had been very pleasant and polite.

Being in ill health, Sutton was paroled and released on Christmas Eve, 1969. He later campaigned for prison reform and recommended antirobbery techniques to bankers. He also made a television commercial for a bank, promoting its new credit card that carried a picture ID on it. During the commercial, he briefly described the card and its advantages. Holding up a card bearing his picture, he then said, “Now, when I say I’m Willie Sutton, people believe me.” He died in 1980.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

Topping the list of top ten fugitive apprehensions per state were California, with 59, and New York, with 40. Tied for third place were Florida and Illinois, each with 32.

The name, “Sing Sing,” derived from the name of the Sinck Sinck Indian tribe from whom the land where the prison was built had been purchased in 1685. It is located at Ossining on the Hudson River about 35 miles north of Manhattan—hence the description of an incarcerated criminal as having been “sent up the river.” Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners.

A mob hit man who befriended Sutton in prison and later became a government witness stated that Willie Sutton made Jesse James and John Dillinger look like amateurs.

Willie Sutton’s longest stint of honest employment was only 18 months. He spent a total of 35 years behind bars.

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.

When many persons hear the words “police dog,” they picture a German Shepherd. Actually, there are a number of breeds used in police work. The different breeds are chosen and trained according to their natural capabilities. As one might assume, the greatest number of different breeds are trained and used as public order enforcement dogs. These dogs earn their living by intimidating suspects so that they do not resist arrest or run and chasing, catching and holding suspects that do run. Surprisingly, to some, and probably of embarrassment to many, the list of order enforcement dogs includes poodles. Inmates caught by poodles would probably not want the name of the breed that caught them to become known by other prisoners.

Sniffer dogs (also known as detection dogs) are those that use their keen senses of smell to find persons and such things as blood, illicit substances, flammable liquids, explosives, weapons and even bumblebee nests, invasive quagga mussels and bed bugs. Sniffer dogs come in two flavors: a passive-alert canine, which is trained to sit or bark when it discovers something, and an aggressive-alert canine, which displays an alert by scratching. For obvious reasons, one would not want to use an aggressive-alert canine to find explosives.

Reportedly, dogs can identify scents between 1,000 and 10,000 times better than humans can. And they have the equipment to do it. Humans and dogs have scroll-shaped nasal membranes (turbinates) that contain scent-detecting cells. If unrolled, human turbinates would measure about one square inch. A dog’s would be almost as large as an 8-by-8-inch sheet of paper. Research has determined that the percentage of a dog’s brain involved in analyzing scents is some 40 times that of a human. Humans have about 5 million scent receptors. German shepherds and beagles have about 225 million, and bloodhounds have about 300 million.

Of course, no one dog can be trained as a one-nose-fits-all sniffer dog. Many dogs, however, have been trained to differentiate between as many as eight different scents; and attempts to hide one scent with another rarely succeeds. An example of a dog’s ability to differentiate scents occurred when a woman attempted to smuggle drugs hidden in a balloon placed within her bra into an Australian prison. The balloon had been smeared with substances including coffee, pepper and Vicks Vaporub to mask the scent of the drugs, but a dog still managed to alert its handler to the drug’s presence. An example of sniffer-dog sensitivity is a reported instance where a dog found a drop of blood on a wall. The wall had been scrubbed until the blood was but speck-sized in an effort to remove it. As the popular, canine, cartoon dog, Snoopy, once said, “The eye can be deceived, but the nose knows.”

Illicit substance detection dogs are often stationed with their handlers in transit stations, such as airline, railroad and bus terminals, through which large numbers of persons pass. Dogs can detect drugs or explosives carried by passengers in their clothing or baggage without always having to be very close to them. It would take a human quite some time to check every passing person.

Tracking dogs are trained to follow a specific person’s path. An example would be a lost person or an escaping criminal. Tracking tasks fall into one of two types: wilderness searches and urban searches. Wilderness searches are the easiest from the standpoint of the tracking dog. There are fewer if any other human scents to confuse them, and natural surfaces tend to retain scents longer than do scents located on urban surfaces. Urban searches are more difficult. Scents don’t last as long on artificial surfaces, and the scents there include those left by many humans and even other dogs. Not only are the scents of many humans and other dogs to be found in an urban setting, many humans and dogs are also themselves present, and most of them are in motion. Urban noises coming from many sources can also be a distraction.

Tracking and trailing dogs are sometimes thought to be one and the same. Although they are used for the same purpose, they are a bit different. Tracking dogs work with their noses close to the ground, and trailing dogs track with their noses sometimes near the ground and sometimes with their noses raised while “air scenting.” Humans continuously emit microscopic particles bearing a person’s scent, and the particles can drift for considerable distances. Air scenting can be a life-saving talent because it enables a trailing dog to alert its handler if a suspect circles back to ambush the handler.

In addition to knowing a place to begin tracking, a tracking dog needs a scent sample bearing the scent of the person being tracked. Pillow cases and pajamas are good examples, but they must be uncontaminated by a family or search member. They should be picked up with pincers and placed in a Ziploc or a plain brown bag so that the scent will be only that of the person being tracked. Note that some waste bags are treated to alter odors and therefore should not be used for this purpose.

As their name indicates, disaster dogs are used to find persons and bodies in and under rubble usually created when buildings are destroyed by storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, explosions or fire. The earthquake in Haiti brought persons from all over the world to provide aide. From Manchester, England came a firefighter named Mike Dewar and his Labrador retriever, Echo. Readers might have seen pictures of a two-year-old girl named Mia Charlet, found by Echo, being pulled to safety from beneath what was left of a school. Within ten days, Echo performed 45 searches of collapsed buildings. The exertion in extreme heat resulted in Echo finally having to be treated for heat exhaustion.

Twenty-five percent of fires in Santa Clara County, California are reportedly of arson origin. One neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan suffered 17 arsons within one 4-day period. Finding the origin of such fires can lead to discovering the presence of an accelerant, for example, a flammable liquid such as gasoline, which strongly indicates that a fire was started intentionally. Visual clues, such as a V-shaped, charred portion of a wall can indicate that a fire started near the bottom point of the V. Arson investigation dogs (also known as operational accelerant detection dogs) trained to detect a number of flammable liquids have proved to be extremely adept at locating even miniscule amounts of an accelerant. One Labrador Retriever was reportedly able to detect a substance having a concentration of only one part per trillion and could detect a half drop of a flammable liquid in the charred remains of a burned structure.

Although it is not always necessary to have a body to prosecute a murder suspect, sometimes a body is needed just to prove that a crime took place. Decomposing bodies and body parts emit specific gasses, and cadaver dogs have been trained to find the sources of scents associated with the gasses. Such dogs are used to discover the locations of human bodies that have been decomposing at a temporary resting site, in a permanent gravesite or under rubble of a collapsed structure. Cadaver dogs that are air-scenting dogs can even trail a decomposing body that was carried to its burial site.

Some cadaver dogs are used as water search dogs to find bodies in or under water. Emitted decomposition gasses rise from a body through water and can be detected by a dog moving along a bank or riding in a boat. Since water and wind constantly carry scents away from their source, a diver usually accompanies the dog and its handler to check the area as soon as the dog alerts.

Although some police dogs are cross-trained to perform more than one function, those functions must not be ones that might result in an unwanted result. It was bad enough when a border patrol officer’s drug-sniffer dog, which had slipped his leash and run down a line of cars searching for drugs, returned – as would a trained retriever – to the officer with a package of marijuana taken from a then-indeterminable location. An even worse situation–one not too many handlers would enjoy–would be one where an officer ended up being chased by his or her confused dog that had fetched and returned with a bomb in its jaws.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

According to an ABC newscast, a combat K-9 in body armor and trained to sniff out explosive booby-traps accompanied the Navy seal team during their raid on bin Laden’s place of residence.

Police dogs are commonly treated legally in much the same manner as are police officers. Accordingly, anyone who interferes with, injures or kills a police dog might be faced with a severe penalty.

Avalanche dogs have been used for some time to find persons buried under as much as 15 feet of snow.

Parasitic wasps can be trained in a half hour to detect a cadaver. Unfortunately, they live only a few days.

Police dogs are sometimes seen to be wearing a muzzle. Reportedly, this is not to keep the dog from biting but to maintain the dog’s focus and/or to prevent the dog from barking.

There have been some fascist countries wherein police dogs were actually trained to maim or kill.

A girl in Western New York State solicited contributions to provide a local police dog with a bullet-proof vest. Within a few weeks, enough money poured in to buy every police dog in three counties a vest.

Beagles are used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to detect various banned fruits and vegetables and prevent their entry to the country. They have become affectionately known as the Beagle Brigade.

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.

How many times have we watched an actor portraying a detective touch some suspected white powder with the tip of his finger, touch the finger tip to his tongue and say something like, “Yep, it’s cocaine alright”? Is s/he checking the substance’s flavor? Since cocaine is reportedly cut using such agents as cornstarch, baking soda, flour and sugar, its flavor would vary considerably.

Being an anesthetic, cocaine causes noticeable numbness when applied to a tongue. (No, I didn’t learn that from personal experience.) Apparently, there are persons who test for cocaine by employing a tongue numbing process. Since a poisonous substance is sometimes used to cut cocaine, however, placing an unknown substance on one’s tongue is certainly not recommended. An experienced forensic pathology worker stated that he had never—ever­––seen anyone test a substance for cocaine by putting a sample to his or her tongue.

There are much safer, chemical means for identifying cocaine and other drugs. Drugs are chemicals, and they change colors when exposed to certain other chemicals. Such color tests cannot always identify specific drugs, but they provide a way to categorize a substance as being a member of a particular class of drugs.

For example, a color spot test known as the cobalt thiocyanate , or Scott, test includes dissolving cobalt(II) thiocyanate in a mixture of distilled water and glycerin. The resulting solution turns blue when in the presence of powdered cocaine. Adding an acid such as concentrated hydrochloric acid results in a combined solution that turns pink when in the presence of cocaine. When a solvent such as chloroform is added and the combined solution is vortexed (spun) and then left to settle into layers, the chloroform layer will appear blue in the presence of cocaine. The test also indicates the presence of diphenhydramine and lidocaine.

Field kits are available that test for unseen cocaine left, for example, on a surface. These include wiping the suspected surface with a specially prepared paper and spraying the paper with a prepared liquid. The presence of cocaine is indicated by a blue area left on the paper. A similar test reveals the presence of marajuana by leaving a red area on a specially prepared paper.

Of course, substances brought to a well-furnished forensic laboratory can be analyzed by non-portable devices using chromatography and mass spectrometry that are capable of accurately determining elements present and their respective amounts. Comparing this information with the chemical makeup of various drugs reveals what drug or drugs are present in the substance.

As mentioned in the foregoing, one can zero in on the likely presence of cocaine in a suspected substance by using a cobalt thiocyanate color spot test. The likely presence of other drugs can also be determined by using other color tests. The following is a brief list of chemical spot tests and chemicals involved in inducing color changes when testing substances containing drugs that writers might wish to include in their plots. As with the described test for cocaine, they can be used only to identify drugs as being members of a class of drugs that react in a common manner.

A Dillie-Koppanyi spot test uses solutions of cobalt acetate in methanol and of isopropylamine in methanol. The presence of barbiturates will result in a color change to lavender-blue.

A Duquenois-Levine spot test uses solutions of vanillin and ethanol, of concentrated hydrochloric acid, and of chloroform. This results in a purple/black color in the presence of marijuana, hashish, hashish oil and cannabinoids.

An Ehrlich, or Van Urk, spot test uses a solution of p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. This results in a purple color in the presence of LSD, a blue-grey color in the presence of psilocin and a red-brown color in the presence of psilocybin. The latter two substances are found in hallucinogenic (psychedelic) mushrooms. Such mushrooms are commonly referred to as “magic” mushrooms.

A Froehde spot test uses a solution of molybdic acid or sodium molybdate in concentrated sulfuric acid. This results in a pink color when in the presence of opioids.

A Mandelin spot test uses a solution of ammonium vanadate in concentrated sulfuric acid. This results in a brick-red color in the presence of ephedrine sulphate and in an orange turning to yellow or green color in the presence of mescaline.

A Marquis color spot test uses a solution of formaldehyde and concentrated sulfuric acid. The solution turns purple when in the presence of heroin, morphine and most opium-based drugs. It turns pink to purple in the presence of most opium derivatives and dark purple to yellow when in the presence of amphetamines and methamphetamines.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

The term “club drugs” is often used to loosely categorize recreationally abused drugs associated with their places of use rather than by their pharmaceutical properties. Typical of such places include discotheques, dance clubs, raves and other places where persons gather to enjoy themselves.

An infamous example of drugs being identified in human bodies involved a doctor, a father of four, practicing family medicine in the U.K. His name was Harold Shipman. His patients reportedly loved him to death––their deaths, not his. In news accounts, he was often referred to as Dr. Death. The lawyer daughter of his last victim suspected him of murdering her mother and convinced authorities to have her body exhumed. Shipman had listed the mother as having died of old age, but lethal levels of diamorphine (heroin) were found in her liver and thigh muscles. Additional bodies were subsequently exhumed and were also found to have lethal drug levels in their bodies. Shipman was arrested in 1998 and was charged with having committed 15 murders. He was found guilty of each murder and was sentenced to 15 life terms in prison. A subsequent investigation of the Shipman case was ordered by the UK Government in February 2000. It collected some 2,500 witness statements. It was estimated that Shipman had likely killed several hundred persons.

This essay might be of special interest to writers of detective and mystery stories. It might also be of general interest to many other readers.

Kindly note that studies researched in my preparation for writing the following essay varied somewhat in their definitions of the terms “signature” and “ritual.” In view of this, the instant essay is somewhat less detailed than I would prefer it to be. {RCJ}

Anyone who has watched detective videos has almost certainly heard the term “modus operandi,” often referred to simply as “MO” Briefly, MO refers to functional components that are actually required for someone to successfully commit a particular crime. Examples include the location, e.g., in a victim’s living quarters or in a lover’s lane; the time, e.g., daylight or dark; the method for gaining entry, e.g., prying open a door or window or tricking a victim into allowing entry; and the tools used for gaining entry and attacking a victim, e.g., a pry bar, a glass cutter and suction cup, a rope, tape, a ligature, a gag, a knife and a gun. Common examples of MOs. in murder cases include shooting, stabbing, clubbing. strangling, drowning and poisoning.

Since unidentified subjects, commonly referred to as “unsubs,” tend to use successful, similar methods when committing similar crimes, an MO is often used to link crimes. If the methods prove to be too risky or unsuccessful, however, unsubs are likely to change them. Thus MOs evolve with unsubs’ experiences. Unsurprisingly, unsubs’ MOs for their first crime usually differ considerably from those of subsequent crimes.

Victims’ actions can also sometimes force unsubs to alter their MO during a particular crime. For these reasons, using an MO to link crimes or to narrow a search population is not absolutely reliable. Unfortunately, as has sometimes happened with criminal profiling, it can lead to the very exclusion of a guilty unsub from a search population.

Often confused by the general public with modus operandi, the term “signature” generally refers to functional components that are specifically NOT required for someone to successfully commit a particular crime. Aspects of signatures, also referred to as “calling cards,” are symbolic and strongly related to unsubs’ fantasies, and the actions they promote attempt to satisfy specific psychological needs. Signature aspects also differ from MOs in that, although there might be fine tweaks made to the aspects, the core themes of signatures remain intact. Examples of signatures include verbal abuse, humiliation and excessive force. If a murder is involved, signatures can also include various forms of mutilation and extreme, sexually oriented bodily insult. Unplanned complications, of course, might cause an unsub to forego leaving a signature; and decomposition might prevent an analyst from recognizing a signature.

A problem sometimes faced by crime scene investigators is referred to as “staging.” This refers to a fatality scene having been “rearranged” to direct an investigation away from the truth. There is usually one of two reasons for staging. The first reason is a desire to direct an investigation away from the most logical suspect. Experience indicates that it is often the offender who does the redirecting. The offender is usually found to have had a relationship with the victim and typically acts extremely distraught or is overly cooperative with investigators.

The second reason is a desire to redirect an investigation to protect a victim’s family or the victim himself or herself. This is often the case when there has been a rape-murder or some manner of autoerotically caused fatality. In the case of the latter, family members have even tried to make the death appear to be a suicide (complete with a suicide note) or even a homicide. It is obvious that it is not easy for an investigator to determine whether or not a fatality scene is as it was immediately following the fatality. Fortunately, experienced investigators are familiar with the many “tells” that crime scenes reveal to knowledgeable eyes.

EXTRA FACTS:

An interesting, hypothetical example of the differences between an MO and a signature was published by two learned members of the FBI. In a first example, a bank robber made tellers undress during a robbery. In a second example, a robber also made tellers undress but also made them pose in provocative positions while he took pictures of them. The robber in the first example was credited with having developed a very clever MO. The robber had more time for a getaway since the tellers would dress before calling the police. Being embarrassed while nude, they avoided eye contact with the robber and thus could give the police only vague descriptions of him. The robber in the second example went beyond that to gratify psychosexual needs. His actions constituted a signature.

A serial rapist named Ronnie Shelton had signatures of verbal abuse and sexual assault and committed some 50 rapes. He was convicted of 28 and received a prison sentence of more than 1,000 years.

This essay could be of special interest to writers of stories that involve crimes where specific times and places are important factors. It could also be of general and historic interest to many other readers, even those who are not particularly interested in forensics..

******

As many young men did and do, William Armstrong attended a camp meeting apparently attended by some to drink and have a good time. Late one night, he got involved in a fight with a man named James Metzger. Reports vary considerably about who did what and when, but Metzger died two days later. Armstrong was subsequently charged with murder, for which he was tried. A lawyer friend of his father and family volunteered to defend him. Years before, when the lawyer had been down on his luck, the Armstrong family had treated him like a member. He would often spend time with them and reportedly even rocked William Armstrong in his cradle. In return for such kindness, he refused to charge for his legal services.

During the trial, a particularly tough obstacle for the lawyer to overcome was the testimony of a person named Charles Allen, who said that he had witnessed the fight and had seen Armstrong strike Metzger with an object. It was late and dark, but the witness said that, although he was some 150 feet from the fight, he could see clearly what had happened by the light of the Moon overhead. In what must have been an early application of what more recently came to be known as forensic astronomy, the lawyer employed a rarely used tactic known as “judicial notice” to prove that Allen could not have seen what he claimed to have seen from a distance of 150 feet.

Judicial notice is a rule in the law of evidence permitting a fact to be introduced as evidence if that fact is so well known that it cannot be refuted. What was introduced was an almanac that showed that, on the night of the fight, the Moon could not have provided sufficient light for anyone to see clearly what happened from 150 feet away. The lawyer concluded with an impassioned speech that included a heart-rending description of how the defendant’s family had always been so kind to him. The jury promptly returned a verdict of not guilty after but one ballot.

The foregoing narrative is only one example of how astronomy can be helpful in legal situations. Another example involved a location that had been determined from two pictures taken of it at different but known times. This was accomplished using spherical astronomy by comparing the changed positions of shadows during the time lapsed between the pictures and considering the height of the object casting the shadows and the length of the shadows. The location of a picture that included the Moon was also determined from the position of the Moon and the time the picture had been taken.

The owner of a solar house in Iowa sought legal action to prevent a potential neighbor from building a house next door because it would cast a shadow on his house. Upon a request by the defendant, the director of a planetarium set its “sun” in the location at which the real Sun would cast the longest shadow of the year (on December 21) and proved, by reference to maps and architectural drawings of the proposed house, that it would not cast a shadow upon the solar house at any time.

By the way, William Armstrong subsequently joined the armed forces. Before the end of his enlistment, William’s widowed mother requested the lawyer to try to get him back home. Once again, the lawyer came to William’s aid and arranged for his discharge from the army. It wasn’t as difficult as defending him in court had been years before. By this time, the lawyer had risen to a somewhat higher position of influence. The position gave him considerable say in army affairs. The date was 1863. His office was now in Washington D.C. His name was Abraham Lincoln.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

The meaning of the word “forensic” has been broadened by common use to generally include any detailed analysis of past events.

Camera location techniques have also been applied to find the locations from which a number of masterpieces were painted.

Ansel Adams sometimes could not recall just when he took some of his beautiful pictures. With the aid of forensic astronomy, it was determined when he took his famous picture of the Moon as it rose above Yosemite Valley’s Half Dome. It was taken on December 28, 1960 at 4:14 p.m.

This essay could be of special interest to writers of stories that involve international surveillance and that are set during WWII and the closely following Cold War. It could also be of general and historic interest to many other readers.

******

The male humpback whale stopped its ocean descent at a depth of about 1,000 meters at its mating and calving grounds off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. As it cruised leisurely along at that depth, it began emitting haunting, melodic sounds that are commonly referred to as whale “songs.” Such songs are believed to be a form of communication, especially with female whales, and can be heard for thousands of miles. How can this be?

Most readers probably recall that sound energy travels in a medium such as air or water by alternately compressing and expanding the medium surrounding whatever is causing the sound. Let’s examine its travels in water. Sound energy simply jiggles water molecules back and forth at a frequency equaling that of the originating source, and only the sound energy, and not the molecules themselves, travel outwardly from the source. One can visualize sound energy as waves in a pond traveling outwardly from a point where one plunks in a stone. Keep in mind, however, that sound waves travel in all directions, vertically as well as laterally and in every direction in between. The speed at which the sound waves travel in water depends on factors such as temperature and pressure. The speed is also affected by salinity but to a lesser extent. Sound energy travels faster in warmer water and in water under greater pressure.

The temperature of water decreases as its depth increases, decreasing the speed of sound energy through it. Below a certain depth, however, the temperature reaches a minimum and remains fairly constant thereafter, forming a layer of water through which sound energy travels more slowly than it does in the warmer layer above it. Unlike temperature, water pressure increases linearly all the way to the bottom. The ever-increasing pressure ultimately increases the speed of the sound energy. The decreasing temperature and increasing pressure thus effectively create upper, middle and lower layers of water with sound energy traveling faster within the upper and lower layers than within the middle layer, where the speed of sound energy travel is at a minimum. The middle layer is known as a sound channel.

Before the image of the sound channel slips from your mind, add to it a source of sound within the middle channel. Imagine waves of sound energy radiating from it in all directions like a series of spherical balloons, each expanding within an earlier expanding balloon, each representing a sound wave. Focus your imagination on an image of one expanding wave, and picture it as it moves along the sound channel. Wave portions expanding above the channel, moving faster than wave portions still expanding within the channel, will be bent downwardly by the slower moving wave portion within the channel. Wave portions expanding below the channel, also moving faster than wave portions still within the channel will likewise be bent upwardly. A sketch off this would resemble a side-by-side line of figure skaters holding hands where skaters near each end of the line are skating faster than those skating along a central axis of motion. The ends of the line would bend inwardly toward the central axis. A similar effect (known as refraction) causes sound waves to be contained within a sound channel. Most of the sound energy that would be radiating in all directions away from the sound source is thus directed radially within only a pancake-like layer of water. As a result, little sound energy is dissipated by traveling outside the sound channel; and sounds within the sound channel can travel surprisingly long distances.

Sound channels themselves are relatively quiet, carrying only sounds generated within the sound channel. Sound channels can be used to transmit and receive such sounds as communication signals and to detect sounds made by submarines cruising within or passing through the sound channels. The sound channels are also known as sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) channels. Surveillance is provided by hundreds of microphones placed strategically in sound channels around the world. These transmit signals to an analysis center where computers analyze them to determine their source and location. The arrangement is known as the SOund SUrveillance System (SOSUS).

Geophysicist Maurice Ewing was a co-discoverer of deep sound channels. During WWII, he designed small metal spheres known as SOFAR bombs that would be imploded by water pressure when it sank to the depth of a sound channel. Air crews downed at sea could drop a sphere into the water. At the prescribed depth, it would implode, emitting as much sound energy as that of a very large firecracker. This would send a loud bang along the sound channel that would be received by strategically placed SOFAR microphones and transmitted to an analysis center, which would determine the location of its source so that a rescue mission could be mounted.

During the Cold War and the nuclear arms race following WWII, there was a grave concern that the Soviet Union would develop a nuclear bomb. There was a need for means to detect a nuclear explosion. Dr. Ewing once again stepped to the fore by figuring that there might also be a sound channel in the upper atmosphere that would conduct sound energy as did those under water. In fact, there was such a sound channel; and he hatched an idea behind what became highly secret Project Mogul. He reasoned that the rising, tumultuous gas cloud produced by an exploding nuclear weapon would contain sound energy that could be detected by acoustic sensors stationed within an atmospheric sound channel. Once again, Dr. Ewing was correct.

The sensors were essentially microphones resiliently and centrally secured within small disks, which were referred to as disk microphones. Since the microphones were carried aloft, they were also known as “flying disks.” The disks were maintained within a sound channel at first by a number of combined weather balloons and then by individual, huge, high-altitude balloons. Disks and radar reflectors were carried by the balloons to receive sound energy and to assist in tracking the balloons, respectively. Pressure sensors were used to monitor the balloons’ altitude, which was maintained by releasing ballast.

Project Mogul, to be of benefit, naturally had to be kept secret from not only the Soviet Union but from American citizens also. Unfortunately, on July 7, 1947, a high-altitude balloon drifted in an unplanned direction and crashed near the Roswell Air Force Base in New Mexico. It was recovered by the Army but not before a small number of local citizens found the crash site and its attending debris. The Army released a statement that it had recovered flying disks. The following day, headlines in the Roswell Daily Record reported “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region” (RAAF being an acronym for Roswell Army Air Force). Not wanting the Soviet Union to discover the actual role of the crashed balloon and its flying disks and radar reflectors, the government issued a subsequent press release stating that what had crashed was simply a weather balloon.

As time passed, the system of Project Mogul was replaced by more effective and more controllable systems such as seismic detectors and air-sampling devices. Unfortunately, theories began to appear that intermingled “mysterious” properties of (then )newly developed material found at the balloon crash site, bodies found later at a differently located aircraft crash site (of which there were many in the mountains near Roswell), wild rumors and the like that led to articles, books, movies, a TV series, and even the construction of an International UFO Museum and Research Canter in downtown Roswell. Tourists still descend upon Roswell. On the whole, UFOs and space aliens have done a lot, economically, for Roswell. As stated by an Army colonel, “In New Mexico, flying saucerism has become a minor industry.”

Since the number of absolutes is limited in our probability-defined world (according to quantum theory and given the size of the unexplored Universe), it can always be said that there is some probability that almost anything is possible. That might include a possibility that we have been visited by unworldly beings. Mathematically put, however, although I believe there is certainly life, and likely intelligent life, elsewhere in the Universe, I think the probability that we have recently been visited by intelligent beings from another planet would likely be represented by a number preceded by a zero, a decimal point and many, many, many additional zeros.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

Some of the projects referred to in the foregoing were once highly classified but have since been declassified.

A sound channel is also known as a SOFAR (SOund Fixing And Ranging) channel or a DSC (Deep Sound Channel).

The depths of sound channels vary with geographic location.

An important feature of SOFAR bombs is that, if an enemy found a sphere and opened it, s/he would find nothing inside to even hint at its function.

The mysterious properties mentioned in the foregoing were likely those of newly developed polyethylene plastic.

In the fall of 1991, two German tourists were hiking in the Ötztal Alps. Just inside the Italian border with Austria, they found a human body lying face down, frozen below its trunk in glacier ice. Since other corpses had recently been found in the area, the body was initially believed to have met its end relatively recently. Examination, however, revealed that the body was a natural mummy of a man who had lived some 5,300 years ago. Items in his possession delighted scientists with the peek they gave them into Early-Bronze-Age Europeans. A fair amount of publicity attended the discovery and its aftermath, and you might have seen his nickname (Ötzi the Iceman) mentioned in newspapers and magazines.

The reason Ötzi has been mentioned here is to demonstrate that tattooing is not a relatively recent art. Carbon tattoos made using injected soot were found in the form of short, parallel lines along Ötzi’s lower spine. A cross-shaped mark was found behind his right knee, and additional marks were found around his wrists and ankles. A theory has been advanced that the marks might be the results of an early form of acupressure or acupuncture. If that is true, it would place the use of such treatments some 2,000 years prior to their first known use in China, Egypt and other countries. Whether Ötzi’s marks are tattoos or not, though, there is evidence that tattoos predate them. Instruments apparently used for tattooing dating back as far as 10,000 to 38,000 BC have been found in Europe, and stone figures found with them bear apparent representations of tattooing.

In the recent past, tattooing was commonly thought to be used mostly by sailors, prisoners and members of motorcycle and street gangs. Modern times, however, find tattooing to be increasing in widespread social acceptance and popularity, especially among young persons. In fact, a 2006 study reported that more than a third of all Americans between 18 and 29 years of age have at least one tattoo.

Most of us probably don’t think of tattoos in terms of forensics, but the examination of tattoos (which are physiological biometric characteristics) has found increasing application in the field of forensics. Tattoos can play an important role in an investigation when fingerprints (which are primary biometric characteristics) are not available or are corrupted. An example would be where a severely burned body has no usable fingerprints. Tattoos are embedded deeply enough in skin that they can often survive severe burns. Many victims of the 9/11 attack were identified using tattoos.

Tattoos also often provide useful information about their owners in addition to their identities. This might include their religion, their fraternity, their past military affiliations, their girlfriend’s name, etc. With respect to religion, for example, it is likely that a fish or crucifix symbol would be worn by a Christian, a rosary by a Catholic, a hexagon by a believer in the occult, and a “666″ by a satanist or some members of the Aryon Brotherhood. Other tattoos can indicate wearers’ sexual orientations and even their mental states.

Tattoos are often used to assist in the identification of criminals and their victims, some of whom might also be criminals. Tattoos have been used by some criminals, for example, to indicate their gang affiliation, their gang’s territory, their previous convictions, their jail time served – even the fact that they have killed someone while in prison.

As one can imagine, a search of thousands of accumulated tattoos on file to find a match could be a slow, if not impossible, task. Even though many previous tattoo databases were computerized, both their descriptions and search functions were text based; and their descriptions, provided by humans, suffered from inconsistencies. To solve this problem, a software program, TattooID, was developed at Michigan State University. It operates in a manner similar to that of computerized fingerprint matching. Both identify distinctive image features (keypoints) where, for example, color changes or where there are boundaries between different portions of an image. The program then compares the identified keypoints to those of images stored in law enforcement databases and identifies those that most closely match. The computerized process eliminates problems generated by a text-base search due to inconsistencies introduced by human-generated descriptions.

According to an internet article, Steven Gordon, the CEO of TattooID, personally presented President Obama with a “customized, temporary safety tattoo.” It appeared to be about the size of a credit card, and it bore the following words:

My name is: B.O.
If I’m lost, please call:
The White House

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

Among Ötzi’s possessions was a copper axe. As mentioned in the leading paragraph, his body is believed to be 5,300 years old. Prior to the discovery of Ötzi’s body, however, archaeologists believed that copper had not been discovered for another thousand years. They had to revise the date just a bit.

If any of you readers visit Bolzano, Italy, you can view the body and its possessions in Ötzi’s present home in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

The TattooID program can also be used to track graffiti and compare gang symbols. The FBI is also reportedly enlarging its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) to include databases for not only tattoos, but also for mug shots, scars, iris scans and other biometric characteristics. The new system is known as Next Generation Identification.

Eight standard, major classes into which tattoos have been categorized to facilitate searching are human, animal, plant, flag, object, abstract, symbol and other.

The development by Michigan State University of the TattooID program was financed by the FBI. Seed funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation Center for Identification Technology Research.

Foreword

A previous essay described a technique, which is described in some detail in my archived, December 19, 2007 essay titled “Lasting Impressions.” for detecting latent fingerprints on a molecular-sized level. The following describes a technique for doing the same on an atom-sized level. Fingerprints revealed have greater definition and quality than those obtained using prior techniques and can recover fingerprints formed of minimal amounts of trace matter. Such information might provide some novel details useful to writers of novels.

It was a dark, but not stormy, night in 1982 when the bartender in a Florida bar announced “last call” to the bar’s remaining customers. As usual, Richard Rogers, 31, who was attending a college reunion in Florida,was still nursing a drink. He had been chatting with another customer, Matthew Pierro, a 25-year-old businessman. They finished their drinks and left the bar together. Richard was to be seen again in similar bars, but Matthew was never to be seen again–never seen alive, that is. Only his mutilated body, which bore ligature marks on its neck, stab wounds and even a bite mark, was to be found. It had been deposited in a rest area and was enclosed within layers of plastic bags. No fingerprints of any forensic value could be obtained from the bags.

In 1991, the body of an investment banker, Peter Anderson, 54, was found, wrapped in bags, in a trash barrel at a rest area on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. No fingerprints of any forensic value could be obtained from the bags.

In 1992, the body of a computer sales representative, Thomas Mulcahy, 57, was found in rest areas at two separate locations in New Jersey. It had apparently been carefully dismembered into seven parts and wrapped in plastic bags from which no fingerprints of forensic value could be obtained.

In 1993, the body of a reputed gay prostitute, Anthony Marrero, 44, was found at the end of a dirt road in New Jersey. It too had apparently been carefully dismembered into seven parts and wrapped in plastic bags from which no fingerprints of forensic value could be obtained.

Later in 1993, the body of typesetter Michael Sakara, 55, was found at two locations along a highway in New York. Again, it too had apparently been carefully dismembered into seven parts and wrapped in plastic bags from which no fingerprints of forensic value could be obtained.

During the period in which the murders occurred, two fingerprinting techniques were most commonly used. The first involved dusting with a fine powder, which would adhere to, and make visible and liftable, a fingerprint. This technique is often portrayed by characters in the popular CSI and NCIS television programs. The second technique involved exposing suspected surfaces to cyanoacrylate (Superglue) fumes, which is the technique referred to in the forward of this essay. Unfortunately, neither of these techniques were able to reveal forensically useful fingerprints; and the investigation went cold.

Nearly a decade later, a “cold file” law enforcement team renewed the investigation. In 2000, plastic bags that wrapped the bodies were sent to the RCMP Forensic Identification Support Section in Canada. It had a vacuum metal deposition (VMD) chamber that had been developed in England and was being used in several other countries.. The Canadian VMD chamber was the first of its kind in North America.

Vacuum metal deposition is commonly used in the fabrication of semiconductors and to coat reflective and antireflective surfaces. For example, your camera lens was probably coated using VMD. For such applications, surfaces to be coated must be absolutely clean. The coating process is extremely sensitive to any kind of surface contamination. Fortunately, for the forensic community, fingerprints are contaminants to which the coating process is sensitive; and the VMD process has been applied to fingerprint detection with great success.

A typical VMD technique includes placing a surface of interest within a chamber and facing two evaporation dishes located below it. One dish contains a small amount of gold, and the other contains a larger amount of zinc. Pressure within the chamber is reduced to less than a millionth of an atmosphere, and the gold is vaporized. The evaporated gold is believed to be absorbed by fingerprint residue. The zinc is then vaporized. Since zinc generally condenses only onto a metal, under normal circumstances, it adheres only to the gold-coated background surface around and within grooves between ridges of any fingerprint ridges that are present. The technique has been used to detect even monolayers of lipid material (fats, waxes, monoglycerides, etc.) left by someone up to 20 years before. It can reveal fingerprints exposed to rain and even those having been immersed in water for prolonged periods. The resolution is fine enough to reveal details of pores and ridge shapes, and the revealed fingerprints can be immediately photographed for analysis and permanent storage.

VMD techniques work on most flat, smooth surfaces, but it is financially impractical to use it where other, cheaper techniques, can be applied. It is thus mostly used to detect fingerprints on polyethylene (the most widely used plastic) and paper, where it is reportedly the most sensitive technique. Some other metals have also been used in the process with varying degrees of success.

Using the VMD technique, latent fingerprints were obtained from a number of the bags in which Anderson, Mulcahy and Marrero had been wrapped. They matched fingerprints obtained in connection with an investigation of an earlier killing by Rogers. He had been arrested and tried in 1973 for manslaughter in the killing of his roommate, Frederick Spencer. He had struck Spencer in the head with a hammer, smothered him with a plastic bag and dumped his body in a wooded area after the roommate allegedly attacked him. He was acquitted after claiming self-defense.

In view of the matching fingerprints and additional evidence, Rogers was arrested in 2001 and charged with the murder of Mulcahy and Marrero. Because all but one of Rogers’ victims had been last seen in bars near closing time , he became known as the “last-call killer;” and his lethal handyworks were referred to as the “last-call murders.” Rogers was convicted of murdering Mulcahy and Marrero. He was sentenced in 2005 to the maximum 30 years imprisonment for each murder and was also awarded a pair of 2.5 year sentences for hindering his apprehension by dismembering the two victims and disposing of them in the manner he chose. The sentences were to run consecutively, making a total of 65 years. He was 55 years old at the time, so he should never be seen free anywhere again, neither before nor after a “last call.”

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

For those who never listened to the “Yukon King” radio program as a kid, RCMP refers to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Tests performed by the RCMP determined that the VMD technique developed 100 percent more fingerprints than did humidity-controlled Superglue.

Reportedly, fingerprints less than two days old have been developed on cloth and banknotes using VMD.

A previous essay (FORENSICS 101: FORENSIC PING PONG, October 19, 2009) described a problem related to the use of DNA analysis to link persons to crime scenes. The problem stemmed from the discovery of a method for fabricating DNA. If one had the DNA profile of a person, s/he could construct DNA to match it without having any tissue at all from that person. One could then plant the DNA at a crime scene to incriminate an innocent person. During a trial, a question about the authenticity of DNA evidence found at a crime scene could be used to create, in the minds of a jury, a “reasonable doubt” required to bring a not-guilty verdict.

Fortunately, a method was subsequently developed to expose fabricated DNA. Unfortunately, a way around that was ultimately discovered. Although DNA evidence still serves as an important slice in pies of mutually supporting evidence used in the identification of individuals, the fact that DNA can be fabricated knocked DNA off its perch of supposed infallibility.

Fortunately, the search for dependable methods of identifying visitors to a crime scene have continued. To gear up in preparation for a few words about means that might provide independent confirmation of the authenticity of DNA and fingerprint analyses, let us familiarize ourselves a bit with what are usually our friends but are sometimes our enemies, namely, bacteria.

Before microscopes were invented, researchers suspected there might be tiny, unseen organisms that played a roll in causing some of the symptoms they observed in ailing persons. After microscopes were invented, and as they were improved, ghostly images began to appear. As microscopes were further improved, the ghostly images became larger and more sharply focused … and they appeared to creep eerily about as if they were alive.

Researchers soon learned that we share the world with many very tiny creatures, some of which share space upon or within our very bodies. Among these creatures are bacteria, which are believed to be the most common and ancient organisms on our planet. They make up the majority of our planet’s biomass and have been around for several billion years–longer than any other known organism.

Many in our germ-conscious society regard bacteria as objects that should certainly be avoided and, if possible, destroyed outright. Except for one in one hundred bacteria, that would be a disastrous\mistake. Nearly half our atmospheric oxygen is produced by bacteria, and that would likely be missed. There would be no helpful bacteria to destroy harmful organisms that establish residence within our bodies and to help us with our digestion, to produce vitamins, to make vaccines, to treat sewage, to break down spilled oil and to make sourdough bread.

All the foregoing listed uses, and many more, make use of bacteria; and that requires an unimaginable number of the little critters. It’s a good thing, then, that they reproduce rather rapidly. One can put a single bacterium, which can reproduce by simply growing and splitting (binary fission), into a proper environment and end up with some two million bacteria within seven hours. By the way, readers never need feel lonely. There are reportedly many more (one estimate was ten times more) bacterial cells in our bodies than there are human cells.

A bacteria cell does not, as do human cells, contain a membrane-bound nucleus, mitochondria or chloroplasts; but it does contain helical DNA. Unlike the neat-appearing, linear, human DNA we are used to seeing in drawings, though, bacterial DNA forms a tangle of loops; and it is the bacterial DNA that is of primary interest here.

Excluding oceanic bacteria, bacteria typically average between 3 and 5 micrometers (μm) in diameter–much too small to see with the naked eye. Hundreds of thousands can fit within the area of a sentence-ending period, but they have the capability of forming comparatively large colonies. Interestingly, the DNA of a colony at one location on our bodies, somewhat like different human societies, detectably differs from the DNA of a colony at another location.

The foregoing information should have given us a quick peek into a portion of the world of bacteria and prepared us for the following information.

Since we all leave deposits of our bacteria on objects that we touch, computer keyboards and mice become a natural depository. No matter how many bacteria one leaves, there will be a sufficient amount to leave on the next object touched. The average human has about 20 square feet of skin. Reportedly, the average number of bacteria on the surface of one square inch of skin is 50 million. There might be as many as 500 million per square inch on oily facial skin.

So, where does the forensic aspect of all this enter the picture? An analysis of the DNA of bacteria from a number of persons’ fingers and palms that were deposited on computer keyboards and mice much more closely matched the DNA of the computer users than the DNA of nonusers. Some 4,700 different species of bacteria were found on 102 hands of 51 participants in a study, but only five of the species were common to all 51 participants. If the apparent promise of bacterial analysis is fully realized, it could be used to confirm the authenticity of human DNA and fingerprint evidence.

ADDITIONAL FACTS:

Disinfected skin surfaces are recolonized by bacteria residing in deeper locations such as hair follicles, urogenital openings and the gut, and hand washing has no significant effect on the diversity of bacteria residing on individual hands.

Some bacteria have protective structures around their DNA and other parts. These are believed to be able to survive in a dormant state for perhaps hundreds of years.

It has been estimated that there are five nonillion (5 followed by 30 zeros) on our planet.
Bacteria have been found on the bottoms of the deepest oceans, on the tops of mountains, in frozen Antarctic rocks, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste and the living bodies of plants and animals.

During a study of the smallest forms of life in the ocean off the shores of Chile and Peru, huge mats formed of bacteria were discovered at mid-depths. The largest extended more than 50,000 square miles. Some of the individual bacteria were large enough to see with the unaided eye.

The overuse of antibiotics has prompted some bad bacteria to evolve into a form that is increasingly resistant to such drugs. Tuberculosis (TB) is a strong example. More than 8 million new cases of TB now occur each year worldwide, and it kills some two million persons during that period. In the United States alone, between 8 and 15 million persons are presently infected; and 22,000 new cases of TB occur each year.