Thanks to these two guys, the criminal investigation industry in the world today is a bit… a little easier to breathe.
One of the most used elements in criminal investigations today is fingerprints.
Basically, each person has a unique fingerprint, so fingerprints are one of the important pieces of evidence to determine the presence of a person at a certain time, and sometimes even evidence. accusation.
However, fingerprints are not always used. For centuries, the criminal investigation industry relied entirely on this tool. But at the beginning of the 20th century, everything suddenly changed because of an extremely rare story between the two guys in the picture below.
Looks like 1, but actually 2 different people.
In fact, since 1880, science has known about the difference between each person’s fingerprints through the research of Henry Faulds. However, it was never taken into account as an important factor, not even when Britain adopted it in 1901.
Everything changed in 1903, when an American prison met a pair of prisoners “twin brothers” … different fathers and grandfathers.
Specifically, in 1903, a guy named Will West was arrested and sent to Leavenworth Prison. At that time, American prisons did not use fingerprints, but used a more common identification process, the Bertillion system (founded by the French anthropologist Alphonse Bertillion).
Inmates when entering prison will be photographed and checked using the Bertillion system, and of course Will West is no exception. However, during the examination, they discovered that Will West had identical parameters to another inmate serving a life sentence for murder.
The names of the two people are also almost identical.
Their looks are similar, and even the names are almost identical: Will West and William West.
Unable to distinguish the two to save in the file, the experts ended up having to take fingerprint samples to compare and take that as a basis.
Fingerprints.
Since then, it has been recognized that using the Bertillion system alone is not enough, but more accurate and reliable identification factors are needed. After 1903, many American prisons began to apply fingerprinting, and this method also spread around the world.