The Criminal and the Crooked Members of the Human Race Have a New and
Dangerous Enemy in the Finger Print Method of Identification.
The last hope of the enemies of society, the habitual criminals, is
gone. The Bertillon system sounded the death knell of the criminal so
far as capture was concerned. The finger print system, as first set
forth by Sir Francis Galton and elaborated by Sir Edward Henry, has
made possible the absolute identification after capture.
One of the first men to see the tremendous possibilities of the
finger print system, as applied to the identification of suspects,
was Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge of Chicago. Through his efforts
and that of others equally interested in the exact identification of
criminals, the Chicago Police Department established the finger print
method of identification in 1905, as a Supplement to the Bertillon
system which was established in 1887.
The Bertillon system catches the suspect. The finger print system
makes sure that he is the criminal. The Bertillon system, while a
splendid thing for catching the thief, still left some loop-holes
which needed strengthening. This was supplied by the finger print
system. Like the man and woman referred to in Longfellow's Hiawatha it
is a case of "useless each without the other." When the two systems
are worked together there is absolutely no possible escape for the
apprehended suspect.
The Chicago Police Bureau of Identification is the second largest in
the world, and contains over 70,000 pictures.
[Illustration: Trunk Measurement, Head Length Measurement, Left Middle
Finger Measurement, Right Ear Measurement. Measurement of the Stretch
and the Left Foot.