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Bertillion Method
early way to track criminalsby
Delbert Trew | |
I
take great pleasure in learning a new word, a little-known fact or hearing a story
I have not heard before. In the book "Texas Gulag" by Gary Brown, the history
of Texas prisons, jails and
even the early-day chain gangs is presented from the years 1875 to 1925. The book
outlined in detail how criminals were identified as they processed through the
old systems.
Long before court-appointed attorneys, investigative reporters
and court-type TV shows, prisoners could air the grievances of incarceration in
only one manner. They could write their memoirs in secret and sneak it out of
the prison for friends or relatives to publish. |
"Texas
Gulag" is based on some of these memoirs, plus the recorded history and records
of the early prison systems.
No doubt early
Texas prisons, as well as prisons all over the world down through time, were
brutal and dangerous. The thinking at the time was, if you are convicted of a
crime, you have no rights. Treatment of prisoners will always be argued depending
on whether you are a prisoner or a victim of a crime. The old saying of "an eye
for an eye" seemed to rule much of the thinking. |
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Interestingly,
long before fingerprinting, pupil photographing and DNA, prisons used the Bertillion
Method to identify prisoners. Research shows in 1883 in Europe, a police clerical
officer was recognized for developing the first scientific method of criminal
identification used by police.
The method included stripping convicts
naked, listing all body scars, tattoos, birthmarks, height and weight while standing
on a measuring stand made for the purpose. Age, coloring, hair color, eye color,
nationality, occupation, habits and medical condition were also listed by hand
on the prison records as well as details of how they committed their particular
crime.
This effort became known as the Bertillion Method and the officer
in charge at each prison became known as the Bertillion Officer. From 1883 to
about 1903, when fingerprinting was refined, the Bertillion Method reigned supreme
in criminal identification. Alphonse Bertillion, who developed the method,
became the first policeman in Europe to solve a murder by use of fingerprints
and went on to become an authority on police forensics.
By the 1920s, fingerprinting
and photography were added to the Bertillion Method to track convicts through
the system. Bertillion Officers processed virtually every incoming jail prisoner
and prison inmate in almost every certified prison. Another interesting duty of
the Bertillion Officer was to prepare and print the thousands of "Wanted" posters
shown in Post Offices and distributed to law officers around the world. The old
joke of "I saw your picture in the Post Office today" was coined by posters created
and printed by Bertillion Officers.
Today, the old Bertillion Officer is
being replaced by a medical-scientific practitioner. He oversees fingerprinting,
photography, takes blood samples for DNA and the latest innovation, photographing
the blood vessels on eye retinas. Identification today has reached new levels
with the use of technology and digital equipment. Once upon a time, they used
the Bertillion Method.
© Delbert Trew
"It's All Trew" October 7, 2008 Column
E-mail:
trewblue@centramedia.net.
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