Science and the Criminal

ses-Gorse Hall Murder-Cases of Mistaken Identity-G

he Kansas State College in the following manner.[2] He asked twenty-five students at the college to witnes

pposed to take place in one of

ssed in a grey rain-coat rushed in carrying a salt bag half full of nails in his left ha

Stand back, or I'll shoot." He then ran across the room, fell on his knees, and dropped

d. White, short and stout, dressed in a blue serge coat and cap, and carrying a revolver with its cylinder removed, came

ed jumped up from his chair and excl

ccounts of the twenty-five witnesses disagreed may be show

at, mouth painted red. (4) Carried pistol. (5) Cheeks more than natural redness; club in his

suit. (2) Six-footer. (3) Dark grey

raincoat. (2) Bareheaded. (3) Hardly n

aid "Get out of here." (3) Carried pistol, snapped it several times, and cried "Stop or I'll shoot," a

: "What does all this mean?" (3) Said: "Here." (4) Said: "

impressions received in a rapid succession of events, one of which may focus the attention to

kingly demonstrated at the trial of Benjamin Bates and John

ken into, and plate to the value of four

that two of these men came, one on each side of the bed, and held pistols to her head, and that

his loss, but stated that as he was near-sighted he would not swear t

notwithstanding the good character given to the prisoners by a

nconclusive evidence of identification, and as a re

ary at the house of Penleage, and that the two men who had been convicted had had nothing to do with it. In co

ted in this country, the lives of two honest men would have been sacrificed to the rigour of the laws, yet no party concerned have been the least to blame. The ways of Provid

d Wood and Brown as his assailants. Fortunately for them the prisoners were able to prove an alibi, which showed beyond all doubt that they were far from the spot at the time, and they were accordingly acquitted. Subsequent

ctly alike that a money scrivener who had drawn up bonds by order of one or the other of them hesitated to fix upon either. At last, w

, were tried that year at the Old Bailey on the charge of murdering Sydney Fryer, at the back of Islington workhouse. Miss A

on, and Timmins, who was hanged at Reading, confessed separately

lly convicted through his unfortunate resemblance to another m

identification arose out of the mysterious crim

who had forced his way into the house. A desperate struggle followed, in the course of which Mr. Storrs was repeatedly stabbed with

lace at the Chester Assizes in March, 1910, he was positively identified by the widow of the murdered man, who swore that she rec

ve conclusively that he was somewh

charge, and once more evidence of identification was given by the same witnesses

that at the time of the murder Wilde was dressed in dark clothes, dark cap and muffler, which w

rrs had snatched from the murderer was also identified as having belonged to Wilde, for it was recognised by two

n from the murderer was not identical with that of Wilde, and that the blood up

y distrusting the evidence of identific

hat two innocent men were in succession

ven in trials, and several cases are on record where witnesses have claimed to identify a person by a momentary fl

broken into the house of a farme

roduced a flash, and gave a light by which she could see his face. She swore that she had seen enough by the momentary flash to recognise him again. S

ough as they stated subsequently, not believing

ed by the light of the flash was submitted to a committee of scientific men in Pa

of the person who had fired a gun might be recognised. A man had fired at another at night, and a woman who was near at the time, swore at

dentification at a short distance from the flash of the gun, provided that the night was very dark and that there was no other source of light to interf

at a gentleman while he was driving home in an open trap, and his intended victim, who was shot in the elbow, swore positively that the flash of the gun showed so clearly the features of

rs upon a dark night, upon Hounslow Heath. He swore that the flash of the pistol enabled him to see that one of the assailants, a man named Haines, who had come up to the side of the coach, was riding upon a dark brown horse which had certain peculiarities about its head and shoulders, and that the rider was

entioned in Wills' Circumstantial Evidence. A man was committed for trial a

t she had recognised him by t

such identification, and the conclusion drawn from these was that "all stories

referred to in Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, where the general conclusion is

im in the dark, by the flash produced by a blow upon his eye! The absurdity of the claim is self-evident, for

years, would have been settled in a few days. It is difficult now, recalling the facts, to understand how anyone could have believed in the identity of the butcher, Arthur Orton, with the missing heir to the estates, Roger Tichbo

ryone else had believed to have been drowned when the ship was wrecked. When he came to England to see her he had thought it prudent to feign illness. Lady Tichborn

on, for there was evidence that the lobes of th

rsevere with his claim to the estates, and assisted in aiding