This blog looks at the recent history of forensics allowing increasing numbers of silent witnesses to testify in criminal trials. What're silent witnesses? All those essential non-human bits of evidence - like fingerprints, blood, clothing, documents - that don't talk. Readers and writers of traditional Who-Done-It's love old-fashioned evidence. And here and here are former tutorials and a textbook on evidence-gathering. However, this history should be useful to those writing … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial III— fingerprint techniques.
Officer TenDigits* here, Welcome students, mystery writers, and true crime authors. Oh, and any others seeking info about fingerprint techniques. Whatever your reasons to master this arcane subject, be sure to check out the other fingerprint tutorials in this series. Go here and here. Another similar tutorial's coming soon. In today's class, ahem, I won't be talking about any newly-created forensics methods requiring gold and zinc that local police jurisdictions can use. … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial II— How the FBI used fingerprints to catch MLK’s Assassin- the climax..
As noted in my prior blog, we can learn a lot from perhaps the greatest fingerprint sleuthing effort in recent American history. That would be how the FBI used fingerprints to nab MLK's assassin in 1968, two months after the history-changing event. Besides budding criminalists, criminology students, and the general public, crime writers may be interested in how a talented writer utilized his knowledge of fingerprint ID tactics. Thus, much of this blog showcases paragraphs from … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial – How the FBI used fingerprint ID tactics to nab MLK’s Assassin.
As I've done from time to time, I'm starting another tutorial series. This one's for everyone, but specifically for crime writers and students of criminology, crim justice, and forensics. For writers, it's intended to help them incorporate fingerprint ID tactics in their novels. And, as they - and the teachers of students like you - know, it's a good way to introduce a topic is via a story. ID tactics So I'm starting off this series with a story. It's about how the FBI … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial—How True Crime Websleuths Do It – I
This is an introductory tutorial about true crime Websleuths, an online forum that allows all of us to play detective. In prior tutorials, I've tried to help both crime writers and criminal justice students understand how, say, the FBI goes about investigations. This blog shows you the basics of how to participate in true crime Websleuths. Later blogs will get into how the popular site has evolved and some of the hiccups it's experienced. The … [Read more...]
A Dark Triad Test to identify Psychopaths.
As you may know from a previous blog, I've been working on a book about the crimes and havoc committed by some people I knew with the Dark Triad personalities of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Here's a Dark Triad test that's available on line. I can't attest to its reliability or validity (two key aspects of any psych test). However, look at the 36 item questionnaire and let me know what you think. If you go ahead and take it, you do so at you own risk. You might find … [Read more...]
Bullying Celebs Who Abuse Their Social Media Power
I've blogged a bit here and there regarding celebs and their ability to escape justice. So, it's fitting to highlight the way some engage in injustice as a "celebrity bully." But you ask, who needs another blog about a celebrity bully or a celeb who was bullied as a kid? Well, if the bullying's about disinformation, we all need such a blog. The problem of misinformation has been growing exponentially of late. So, nobody's free from it. Disinformation seems everywhere — in our homes, even in … [Read more...]