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National Geographic : 1961 Jun
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National Geographic, June, 1961 "Give these people a single hair or a speck of blood," said Charlie, "and they can tell you whether it came from a human being or an animal. And if it came from an animal, they can tell you what kind of animal." Charlie stopped at a cabinet and opened a drawer packed with glass slides arranged alphabetically. He rummaged among the W's and handed me a slide. It held a filament of hair and was labeled "Wallaby." "Here's another one," he said. "Wombat. They're all here, from aardvark to zebu." The laboratory often assists other Gov ernment agencies in answering difficult ques tions, even in noncriminal cases. Recently, the Archivist of the United States submitted five documents relating to the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 and asked the FBI to determine whether signatures appearing on them had been written in human blood. Na tional Archives forwarded the inquiry at the request of a historian who sought to prove that the rebel leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, re quired such testaments of his followers. Despite the age of the documents, labora tory experts proved the presence of blood in two signatures. Additional tests showed that the blood was of human origin. In one laboratory room I noticed a rack hung with panels of brightly colored metal. This was the National Automotive Paint File, containing samples of finishes used on all American cars and some foreign makes. Laboratory Solves Maryland Tragedy Sometimes investigators send in a fleck of paint no bigger than the head of a pin. Perhaps it has been found on a hit-and-run victim. Such minute evidence, analyzed with the aid of complex instruments, can tell ex perts that the car involved was, say, a 1958 tropic-blue Plymouth, thus narrowing the search and leading eventually to an arrest or the clearing of a suspect. Police of Montgomery County, Maryland, came to the laboratory for help in a partic ularly shocking hit-and-run case. A young mother had been pushing her 11-month-old son in a stroller along a quiet street in Bethes da, a suburb of Washington. Householders heard a splintering crash and rushed outside - to see a car speeding away and the mother and child lying dead. The police brought to the laboratory twist ed pieces of the stroller and a bumper they had removed from a suspected automobile. Laboratory experts found that the stroller bore three coats of paint. Adhering to the bumper was a three-layered chip of paint about the size of a fingernail. Not only did the paint chip match the stroller's finish in chemical composition; it fitted exactly into its original position on the stroller. After a jury heard laboratory ex aminers testify to these findings, it answered the defendant's not-guilty plea with a verdict of guilty. The driver went to prison. FBI Proves Woman Innocent In many cases the laboratory's techniques and complex instruments help clear persons who have been wrongly accused of crimes. "We get far more satisfaction out of prov ing innocence than we do out of establishing guilt," said Donald J. Parsons, Assistant to the Director of the FBI. He told of a Virginia woman who was ac cused of murdering her husband. Police found the man dead in his bedroom, shot through the heart. In the adjoining room of ficers found an automatic pistol with a car tridge case jammed in the chamber. The man had shot himself accidentally, the wife said. Police maintained, however, that this was not possible under the circum stances. She was thereupon arrested and charged with murder. Two days later investigators noticed a bright indentation in a hot-air grille in the floor between bedroom and dining room. Could the mark have been made by the gun? Grille, pistol, bullet, and cartridge case were sent to the FBI. Laboratory experts matched the fatal bul let to the gun barrel. The mark on the grille proved similar to that produced when the metal was struck with the pistol's rear sight and knurled hammer. Paint on the weapon matched that on the grille. The victim, it appeared, had thrown the gun against the grille, causing it to fire. Result: The shooting was ruled accidental, the woman innocent. FBI Keeps Watch Over the Nation From Its Washington Headquarters In this columned building on Pennsylvania Avenue, specialists analyze evidence to trap violators of Federal laws. Orders go out to thousands of agents in 55 field offices. A popular tourist attraction, the Bureau draws some 400,000 visitors each year. KODACHROMEBY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICPHOTOGRAPHERROBERTF. SISSON © N.G.S . 870
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