This OPAC will be unavailable for a few hours beginning 6PM on Saturday, April 20, 2024 for planned upgrades. The OPAC should be back up to regular operation Sunday, April 21, 2024.
Physical Description:325 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm print
Publisher:New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, [2020]
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Prologue: Tales from the archive: pistols, jawbones, and love poetry -- A bloody mess: the case of Allene Lamson's bath, part I -- Genius: the case of Oscar Heinrich's demons -- Heathen: the case of the Baker's handwriting, part I -- Pioneer: the case of the Baker's handwriting, part II -- Damnation: the case of the star's fingerprints, part I -- Indignation: the case of the star's fingerprints, part II -- Double 13: the case of the great train heist -- Bad chemistry: the case of the calculating chemist -- Bits and pieces: the case of Bessie Ferguson's ear -- Triggered: the case of Marty Colwell's gun -- Damned: the case of Allene Lamson's Bath, part II.
Summary, etc.:
Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with beakers, microscopes, and hundreds upon hundreds of books sat Edward Oscar Heinrich, America's first forensic scientists. Working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. Dawson captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon-- as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them. -- adapted from jacket