Evening Star Newspaper, June 30, 1931, Page 11

CLINIC OF CRIME - HAS BIG ARSENAL Goddard’s Collection Con- tains Weapons Used by Notorious Slayers. This is the third of a series of six daily articles describing the work done by the Scientific Crime De- tection Laboratory at Northwestern University. BY REX COLLIER. Staft Correspondent of The Star. CHICAGO, June 30.—Fortunately, I did not have to crash the gate of the uarded Scientific Crime Detection aboratory at Northwestern Univer- sity and thus run the risk of getting u%led "fi in the burglar traps. rough the courtesy of Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, who, as coroner of Chi- cago, had played an important part in the creation of the laboratory, I obtained permission to visit the estab- llshflmem and interview members of the staff. The laboratory is on the fifth floor of what was once a warehouse, hut is now a part of the university’s McKin- lock Campus, hardby the lake shore. ‘The building is unpretentious, inside and out. I was ushered by a secretary into & small room which was Director Cal- vin Goddard's office. Goddard was seated at a small desk, the top of which was piled with papers held down with enlarged models of shells and bul- lets. He was reading a typewritten paper. “Excuse me for a moment, until I finish checking over this report,” he sald, mctioning me to a seat. Chance to Look Around. ‘The report, I learned later, was his finding in a recent murder case. The contents of the report were extremely damaging to & prominent business man in another city. In highly technical detail the paper declared the business man’s revolver had fired a fatal shot into the body of a young woman. The delay geve me an opportunity to look around. On a foot-high bench beside Goddard's desk rested a micro- scope of unusual design. It resembled somewhat an inverted Y. Nearby was a tall metal container filled with cot- ton waste, such as mechanics use. On & wide window ledge was a curious instrument not unlike a miniature lathe. Against the wall were propped three or four ugly-looking rifies of large caliber, There was a cabinet cont: ing many volumes on soclological sub- Jjects, several of them in French and German. The walls of the room were filled with framed pictures of weapons, micro-photographs of bullets and what I took to be rogues' gallery likenesses of criminals. So engrossed was I in my study of objects in the room that Goddard's voice startled me. Handing the paper he had just signed to an assistant who appeared in response to a buzzer, he turned to me and said: “How do you like my art gallery?” “Great,” I replied. “What do those pictures represent?” Meaning of Ballistics. ““They represent definite steps in the progress of forensic ballistics,” he ex- lained. “But first let me define what mean by forensic ballistics. I don't think you’ll find it listed in the dic- tionary. Ballistics, to Army ordnance men, means the study of projectiles in flight. It has come to mean something entirely different among criminologists, however. . “We mean by it the study of bullets that have come to rest, with particular reference to the ‘fingerprints’ left upon them by the barrel of & gun. It ap- plies also to a similar study of ejected shells, with a view to determining mark- ings left on them by the firing pin and breech mechanism. The dictionary says Keep Cooler on the Main Floor THE HECHT. CO. F Street at Seventh Men’s All-Wool Swim Suits | 1.89 ¥ Same Quality Sold These are made of a two-ply yarn in a rib stitch that will not sag or lose their shape. Regular and speed models. Fast drying. Navy Black Royal (Main Ploor, Men's Sport Shop.) criminological investigations. used to wipe out the “Bugs” in Chicago. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, Crime Clinic’s Murder Relics that ‘forensic’ means ‘pertaining to fl'u.‘; courts’—hence the combination ‘foren- sic ballistics' may be interpreted as ‘court room gun identification.’ “The bullets you see pictured in en- larged form are projectiles that have figured in a number of celebrated mur- der cases. The science of forensic bal- listics identified those bullets as having come from certain guns, thereby facili- fating solution of the crimes.” | Goddard turned to the microscope on | ) the little bench and’ continued: “There is the instrument that has made gun identification a science as dependable as fingerprint identification, with certain limitations. That com- | parison microscope, the develogmem of one of my former colleagues, Philip O. Gravelle of South Orange, N. J., has proved that no two objects of any sort are identical. Each gun barrel leaves | individual ‘fingerprints’ on the bullet | passing through it, and eath firing pin |and breech block stamps its own pat- | tern on the shell. | Bullets Linked to Guns. “Some years ago, at the Springfield Armory, I had six gun barrels made, | with the rifiing as nearly alike as it | was humanly and mechanically pos-| | sible to make them. Four of the bar-| rels were made on one machine and| two cn another machine. | “In my absence shots were 4red from each of the barrels and the bullets were secretly marked so that only the | person firing them knew from which gun | each bullet had emerged. Then the | barrels were scrambled, the bullets | were shaken together, and the lot was | given to me for microscopic study. “It required but a short while to | designate accurately the barrel which had fired each bullet, the secret mark- ings later being checked t> leave no Last Year for $2.95 Maroon Sizes 86 to 44 doubt as to the accuracy of the micro- scopic findings.” More recently the writer learned of a similarly conclusive test conducted at the Bureau of Standards, with the co- operation of a leading firearms man- ufacturer. Two revolvers were made by the same wcrkman on the same machine and with the same tools. In- finite care was taken to see that the rifling of the two barrels was “identi- cal.” The rifling tools were examined after each cutting and resharpened frequently to preclude discrepancies from wear. ‘The workman, a veteran expert of the factory, challenged even a micro- | scopist to find any differences in the guns. Tdentified Markings. Dr. Wilmer Souder, Uncle Sam’s au- iherity on forensic ballistics, accepted the challenge. Using a microscope like that in Goddard's laboratory, the Gov- ernment sclentist had no difficulty | whatever in determining that a bullet shot from one of the test guns could F Street at Seventh Light on the feet. .. % cool to the.eye...easy on the purse. and white and tan and white sport shoes. 2-tone tan golf shoes. {2 Sgemda by, Direct Elenators fo the Mewy fi;::”‘l not have been fired from the other, and ‘vice versa. Goddard cpened a desk drawer and removed sevéral pill boxes.. Uncaver- ing one of these, he picked out two :ln lead bullets t‘n&nlemmn 6: the croscope. One of the bullets, of dis- “3egof tha inveried, Y. attaching 16 1o “leg” of vel ' to an_sdjustable thumb-screw m by ‘The other bullet, more torm." ‘was placed beneath e, a A he made painstaking adjustments of e microscope, Wil Sring those 3 microscope bullets together so that the front half of one slug fits snugly the_butt end of the other. Look In the eyepiece mdg:uwulmwhnl s to be one bullet, with a black line around the middl.e Notice that there are tiny longitudinal striations or scratche <leiing il determine what t; It is the mass of came ‘The bullet on the left ‘The one on the right was fired from a suspect’s gun into & :lk‘t. of waste, to preserve the mark- reported that the fatal bullet also had come from the gun in question, and the suspect now is serving a life term for murder.” . Veritable Arsenal. lnm:;s to the window, the director explained the operation of the lathe- like instrument, which he .called his “gun _periscope. A slender electri- cally-lighted tube, fitted with a tiny mnuymfl lens, made it possible to see the whole interior of a gun barrel. “Would you care to see my gun col- lection?” he asked. ‘Without waiting for a reply, he led me down & corridor to & massive door, which he opened with a key. The room was a_ veritable arsenal, and its walls | the were honeycombed with hidden wires jconnected with the burglar alarm sys- tem. Wires running to opposite corners of the room crossed in the center, a foot from the floor: “Step over those wires carefully, or youw'll have the police running down here pell-mell,” he admonished. “I Col. Calvin Goddard with some of the murder relics collected during his|can't afford to take any chances with He 18 holding the submachine gun which ‘Was | these guns. They would be a fine haul Moran gang in the St. Valentine's day massacre | for any gang. I've had the walls wired 80 that a burglar couldn't chisel a hole through without sounding an alarm. Goddard's collection numbers approx- imately 1,000 guns of all calibers, ages and types. The smallest is a miniature pistol that can be concealed in the palm of the hand, and the largest a .50 cal- iber war pistol of foreign design. In an adjoining room there were great stacks of ammunition to fit most of the guns in the collection, and next o that characteristics of weapons. “I have set aside another room for the storage of crimie weapons other than " Goddard ad (Copyright, 1931.) PRt ey TRADE COMMISSION WARNED ON CHANGES Humphrey Criticizes U. 8. Group for Standardization Work on Industrial Practice. Criticism of the Federal Trade Com- | mission for t00 much standardisation - | of trade practice rules was voiced yes- terday by Willlam E. Humphrey, one of its members. Humphrey sald in » statement that many of the rules adopted by various the trade practice cor.ference.” ‘The rules are changed, he said, not because they are 1 or have been abused or have not worked out well, but because it is easfer for the commission to make one rule for all industries than at 18 to study all the rules for each in- “Carried to the extreme,” he sald, “standardization would mean that the conferences would econsist merely in ling to the members of the industry a copy of the anti-trust laws. It would destroy benefits that come to the in- dustry from meetings with the commis- sion. * It would substitute for the guid- ance and the help and intelligence of e _commission a 2-cent stamp. In short, it would mean the complete de- struction of the trade practice confer- ence.” |METALALLURGIST WANTED Applications for U. 8. Job Are Due Before July 24. A Government salary from $5,600 to $6,400 a year attaches to the position of principal metallurgist in the Bureau of Mines of the De merce, nNow open. place will be filled through the Civil Service Com- mission, which will accept applications for the position until July 24. Full information may be obtained at the office of the Civil Service Com- mission, 1724 F street. ! | pure] rtment of Com- | Smif D. C, TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1931. DIESEL STUDY FUND URGED BY ROBINSON New Naval Engineering Head Seeks $3,000,000 for Engine Tests. ,000 from Congress at the next sion for experimentation with Diesel engines. igning Di.znll proj of L marines and certain other naval craft. ‘Would Study Foreign Plans. ‘To rémedy this, it was proposed to ‘hase plans of the latest improve- ments made abroad of Diesel engines in & submarine and a surface ship for experimentation. Obstacles Shown. Some opposition to the a) tion appeared on the ground ‘{p m for expenditure of part of the funds In foreign countries. It was contained in the naval construction bill' which failed of action in both branches of Congress. Blds were opened recently for a light- weight Diesel for experimental pur- , but all were rejected yesterday cause funds for the purpose were not available. SMITH’S SON IN CRASH Ex-New York Governor's Boy Un- injured—@irl Companion Hurt. NEW YORK, June 30 (#).—Arthur Smith, & son of former Gov. Alfred E. Smith, escaped injury last night, when a-car he was driving was struck by a car driven by Ned Mills, 33, a negro. mith's car overturned twice. Francis McCarthy, 24, who was riding with Smith, received contusicns of the and abrasions of the face. Mills was arrested and charged with negligent operation of an automobile resulting in injury, and operating an sutomobile without a license. Shop Quickly—Open a Charge Account SOME SHIRT THE HECHT CO. F Street at Seventh NAtional 5100 $99 Worth ot SHIRTS . . . and that takes in a lot of shirts. 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