Descript |
325 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
Note |
Nonfiction. |
Bibliog. |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [279]-313) and index. |
Summary |
"Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural. Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation. Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them." -- inside flap of jacket -- publisher |
Subject |
Criminologists -- United States -- Biography.
|
|
Forensic sciences -- United States.
|
|
Heinrich, Edward Oscar, 1881-1953.
|
|
Forensic scientists -- United States -- Biography.
|
|
Forensic sciences -- United States -- History.
|
Genre |
Biographies.
|
ISBN/ISSN |
0525539557 (hardcover) |
|
9780525539551 (hardcover) |
|