Review of this forensically historic case began as a result of pre-death statements by a participant in what was termed one of the nation's ten most famous unsolved murder cases of the 1920s. The purpose of research was to corroborate statements that a man who served over a quarter century in prison was innocent. Intensive research found original state and federal reports, original investigator's notebooks and the discovery and first time ever review of the files of prominent scientist E O Heinrich. This case involved early firearms identification and blood splatter analysis. A PC was used to time line events in which the district attorney and his detective were sentenced to federal prison for violating the National Prohibition Act.
The polygraph-California's gift to the world Jon Arnold, Chicago, Illinois
An overview of the critical role of the polygraph in American criminalistics as seen through the life of Leonarde Keeler, American psychologist, criminologist, inventor, and major be.tt-5 of the p d y g f i z p h , ~ "Lie Dectector" as we k m w it < d a y . A protege of California criminologist August Vollmer, and engrossed student of the subject of deception and its physiological manifestations, Keeler in 1926 marketed the first mass-produced portable polygraph instrument. Housed in a mahogany box, it featured a motorized chart drive, inked styluses, all-mechanical functioning, and a question marker stylus. The instrument was a dramatic improvement over his initial prototype, the "Emotograph" and a major advance over the first apparatus developed in 1921 by another mentor, John Larson. The device included two blood pressure cuffs, and a chest tube for measuring respiration. In 1929 Keeler became an associate of the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago, and then an associate of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory of Chicago directed by Lt Col Calvin Goddard. In 1935 he became de facto director of the laboratory after its absorption by Northwestern University, and in such position became a major force in American criminalistics. His wife, Katherine Applegate Keeler was also a criminalist and document examiner of considerable achievement.