Evening Star Newspaper, July 3, 1931, Page 16

THE EVE MODERN CHEMISTS ARE CRIMIE NEMESIS Powerful Acid Brought Out | Filed Off Numerals on Slayer’s Gun. This is the last of a scries of &ix daily articles describing the w by the Scientific Crime Detec oratory at Northwestern Unive REX COLLIER, Btaft Correspondent of The Star. CHICAGO, July 3.— The chemical department of Northwestern Univer- sity’s Scientific Crime Detection Labo- ratory has a special lock and one ke The key is never out of the poss sion of Dr. Clarence W. Muehlberger, | assistant director of the laboratory and stafl toxicologist. It would not do for { the key to fall into the hands of un- authorized persons. Common poisons are hazardous enough, but Dr. Muchl- berger's hobby is the study of unusual and mysterious poisons, of insidious drugs known only to the experienced chemist and the “scientific” criminal. Dr. Muchlberger, a pleasant be- mustached n in his middle thirties, turned the key in the lock and shoved | open the heavy barred door. As he did | so a large rat scampered across tha floor and disappearcd under a steam | r in the corner “That's my pet,” the chemist \mm a laugh. c're great friends. | ps me in some of my experiments with drugs He motioned toward a small with screened top, under a window. I pecred in and saw a sizable aggrega- | tion of rodents, evidently quite tame. Like Other Laboratories. cral appearance the poison id not differ markedly from | ty chemistry “lab." 'x here were the long work benches Mit- | tered with retorts, test tubes, Bunsen and cther paraphernalia; the | of labeled bottles, the sinks and | cquipment. In addit | was a large electric refrigerator for biologicals Here - Dr. into_play to aid science derer, the robber BY box, | Muchlberger is bringing rocesses devised g the mur- the forger, the coun- ers who do not take int the possibilities of Scien- tion. ~The doctor (he also D. degree) is nothing if tile. . Muehlberger is a native of Chi- 0 he is not a stranger to North- During the World War he was in the chemical warfare service, and now he hold a commission as captain in the Reserves. Since 1923 been State toxicologist of Wis- | in and since 1924 he has held an | sorship at the Univer- After joining North- laboratory he was ulty of that university, Ml\ of Wisc: western's cr added to the fa alzo Tte chemis the de has an important role criminological clinic. lp of his miraculous re- s and catalysts he isolates and entifies the rare poisons of the cun- g murderer, he literally “reads be- n the lines” of a mysterious mes- e, he discloses identification marks d from a gun or automobile and he performs a_ thousand and one other | seemingly impossible feats. Tdentified Gun. | An intercepted letter from one con- spirator to another may appear to be'! ng more than a friendly greeting, | ated with certain chemical: re may become visible a secret mes: gage of grave import. A revolver used in a recent notable murder in Chicago was tossed away m] the sceme, with the manufacturer's mbers carefully filed from the stee! > filed surface was bathed in acid the original numbers < .zhed themselves clearly in relief. The chemist knew that the stamping of nbers on the gun by a die had mahed the steel and changed its phrsical characteristics so as to resist i steel surrounding the number eaten away by acid more rapidly | 1 that which had been compressed | eath the numbers. The gun was traced to its owner, who was arrested and charged with the slaying. Quite recently, J. Edgar Hoover, di- rector of the United States Bureau of Investigation, told me of & case at Fort Sam Houston, Tex. in which scrapings from the fingernails of a dead woman resulted in solution of a puzzling crime. The woman's bocy had been found, brulscd and battered. in omobile which ; ine on the mill- an accident ndA prepared to let it Broke Down Alibi. Since the “ac: t" had occcurred on Poderal territor: Department of | istice was called into the invest m, Some of Hoover's scientifical ained special agents in the San An- nio office of the Bureau of Investiga- | examined the body and grow | Ous. There was an {injury on| 's*head that did not \ecm\ : been received in the crash. The husband, a soldier, was ques- tioned and it was noted he had deep | scratches on his neck and chest. But he produced what appeared to be an iron-clad alibl. Two other soldiers he had been at the fort about The Government detectives were not satisfled. They scraped the debris from underneath the woman’s fingernails ‘They found it to be f human flesh. couraged by this discovery, the witnesses were subjected to an- questioning and they admitted v they had lied at the urgent re- of the woman's husband. nfronted with the fingernail evi- and the collapse of the faked the soldier broke down and con- d he had killed his wife with a vench and then had driven her body to the ravine, jumped from the ca and sent the machine and its grue- some burden into a “cover-up” crash. Chemical, microscopic and ultra- violet ray analytical research is work- ing wonders in modern crime detection. Col. Goddard of the Northwestern Crime Laboratory places special em phasis. on dust analysis. During a re- cent tour of European police laborato- rics he was impr by the dust| s udies conducted by analyst as Edmund Locard of. France. Traced by Pollen. Just as Sherlock Holmes was able to ! read startling stories in dust, dirt and mud, 5o arc the m investigators finding clues of major importance in sand, clay, soot, spores, polien and fine powder of every description. August Vollmer, associated with God- dard in the Chicago laboratory, re- calls an instance in which pollen grains found in dust on the pocket knife of a certain suspect proved he had trav- cled through a certain mountain sec- INSPECT TODAY 2 rooms, kitchen, bath and reception hall, -electrical re- frigeration. Rental, $65 per Month The Argonne 16th and Columbia Rg, N.W. | tached from the body | made |ly in a district 10 miles from the place { laboratory's COL. CALVIN GODDARD With his famcus comparison microscope, murder tion to which the pollen was indig- | enous. He tells of & case in which a smail amount of soil found on an ear de- | of a woman it possible to state definitely that the ear had been buried previous- where the organ was ciscovered. A few days later the remainder of the corpse was located in the area desig- nated. In an article prepared for the crime offictal journel, Vollmer stated: “Studfes of fur - bearing animals show that hairs of all animals differ greatly and may be classified accord- ing to type. Sclence has shown not only how sex and age may be deter- mined from a fragment of halr, but also how we may discover whether the hair came from the face, arm, hand | or leg. Even race and probable color of the eves may be determined in this | manner.” | An idea of the scope of studics con- | templated by the laboratory at North- | stern may be gleaned from the fol- LOW-FARE Fares shown are Round Trip $1.25 BALTIMORE Every Saturday and Sunday £ood only in coaches on all ular trains and sold Saturday good return Sunday night. $10.00 BOSTON, Mass. Providence. R. I.. New Haven, Conn. SATURDAY, July 25 Lv. Washington: cek-End Excurs Sl 50 ‘\F\V YORK x every Satury 6: Tiek &oin; All day, re- CinE il “Sundes $5.00 NEW YORK sl\nuq‘ July 12, 26; Au 2:15 A ; 11:30 PM Mo'mn SICHTSERING TOURS Downtown, 7T5e Nlihiseelng via Steamer, $1.00 $8.00 NEW YORK Including ail expenses. Rall Fare, Break- fast, Lunch. Sishtseeing Drive. SUNDAY. July 26 Washington 3 i.’! 50 PHILADELPHIA 25 CHESTER Lv. TSEEING TO) ‘Kticrsoon, 8150 $6.00 PITTSBURGH SATURDAYS, July 11: Washington Morning, io¢ AII st 8 Lv. 10730 "p.m. s12.00 ToLIDO oo DETEOLEMICH PRBAY Ty 11 11:05 AM. WeeoEnd Fxcursion $550 ATLANTIC CIFY 4 and Sunday, July 1810 Lv. “l‘hln(' 1:25 PM. July |° Heturning SUNDAY. ¥ whick has helped solve many cases. lowing list of subjects scheduled for re- search: Human and animal bones, for differentiation by ultra-violet ray; gastric contents, deaths by hanging, industrial accidents, infanticides, occu- pational deformities and discases, paternity tests, poisons, psychiatry, wounds, explosives, shoe and foct- prints, forgeries, typewriting and script identification, invisible inks, counter- feiting, ammunition and guns, teeth, textiles, seals, solls, jewelry and stains. Inspector John M. Keith, “dean” of the crime detection school conducted for investigators of the Burezu of In- FURNITURE RENTING OFFICE FURNITURE. 616 E StN OUTINGS Eastern Standard Time Week-End All-Expense Tour ATLANTIC CITY $11.00 or $12.50 secording to Hotel selected SATURDAY. Lv. Washington. P.M. Returnine Buaday ‘Evening $4.00 ATLANTIC CITY Week-End Excursions ATLANTIC CITY $8.50 Via nm-.u River Bridge Il-Rail Route $8.00 Via Market Strect Whart Philadeiphia STery Saturdas. sl da, anicht. $16.80 NTAGARA FALLS 16-Day Trivs FRIDAYS and SATURDAYS July 10-1 Washington—] 0 P M. Baturda Mayflower 5-Day Tours HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND $53.71 Covers All Expenses Every Saturday and Sunday Until August 30, except July 4 and . address ra s, Axent ry Sunday. July 5 to Sept. 6. incl DAYS by Rail and Steamer CHICAGO—MACKINAC TSLAND NIAGARA FALLS—BUFFALO All-Expense Rate. £02.00 up Consuit Agents PENNSYLVANI A RAILROAD NEW STANDARD OF SILENCE SO QUIET— YOU CAN SLEEP The Delco Fan—built to avoid noise—lets you taik, think, read and sleep in quiet comfort; gives more breeze per minute; lasts longer; costs less to run. Test it yourself at your dealer’s. Turn it on—stand before it. A powerful breeze bathes you in coolness, and you hear only the fointest whisper of sound! A model har- monizing with any interior awaits your choice. PRODUCT OF ROCHEST DELCO APPLIANCE CORPORATION N. Y. CREEL BROTHERS 1811 14th ST. N.\ S. KANN SONS CO.. FALAIS ROYAL, INC & ¥ 1506 HUTORISON'S, 1814 14th R. G. DUNNE CO., PEOPLES IARDWARE STORES—12 T AND INC. DECATUR 4220 PA. AVE. N.W. 1ith AND G N.W. CONN."AVE. W. 604 H ST. N. 'STORES IN D. C. AND ngur:lmi B v vestigation of the Department of Jus- tice, who visited the laboratory as a guest of Col. Goddard, is a leading ad- vocate of sclentific methods in crime investigations. Scientific evidence, he declares, eventually must supersede “eye-witness” testimony. 'No two witnesses of a crime see the act or note conditions in the same light,” Keith said, in discussing his visit. “Personal testimony seldom is sufficlently accurate to be dependable in a crime investigation, but scientific evidence, not being subject to emo- tional responses or other human char- acteristics, is infallible and indisputable.” ‘That the scientific detective, with his fully equlpped laboratory, has come to stay is the firm belief of the director of America's first university-controlled sclentific crime detection laboratory. “I belleve that scientific police lab- oratories will be functioning in many of our large cities within # decade, Col. Goddard said. “The beat-pounder of the old days will look upon these laboratories with contempt, but hi: type will pass and the sclentific investi- | gator will succeed him.” | (Coprrieht, 11). CULBERTSON FLIES HOME William §. Culbertson, Ambassador to Chile, left Waskington shortly after noon yesterday, en route to St. Louts in | an Army plane piloted by Maj. W. F.| Hale. The Ambassador, who is returning to | his post at Santiago, expects to have lunch tomorrow in Topeka with Vice | President Curtis and Senator Capper of | Kansas, after which he will go to his home at Emporia, Kans. From Em- poria he plans to fly to Santiago. She was bored—s @ new thrill! She gambled with love but found thestakes t00 high. He taught her to live LES NING STAR, WASHINGTO HEREDITY CARRIES ABILITY TO REAGT Power to Develop Passed on, by Plants and Humans, Savant Says. Pecullarities of man probably are in pa: environment and in_part_a matter_of heredity, savs Prof. R.'A. Emerson. The effects of heredity ‘and environment are discussed in the following article, BY R. A. EMERSON, Professor of Plant Breeding, Cornell Uni- | versity. | (Copyright. 1931, by The Associated Press.) ITHACA, N. Y., July 3.—I have a | kind of corn which ordinarily has white ears, but if the husks are removed be- fore the kernels have hardened in ripen- [ ing, the ears become red. If the husks | are stripped off frcm only one side of | the ear, the kernels thus exposed to the light become red and those kept in darkness remain white. The heredity of | the whole ear is the same; and yet the | kernels that ripened in cne environ- ment, sunlight, are red, while those in |to support such answers, | another " environment, " darkness, ~are whit, 1 have another kind cf corn that al- | ways produces red kernels, whether e: posed to the light or not. I have also | a third kind that never has red kernels, even when the developing ear is exposed. Partly Environment. We cannot say that red kernels, as such, are inherited. What actually is inherited is the ability to develop red cclor in the presence of strong light, the ability to react with light to pmduce red and to react with darkness to pro- duce white kernels. I suspect that all peculiarities of plants, animals .and man are in part a matter of environment and in part a matter of heredity. I do not think of these effects of heredity and of en- vironment as being at all antagonistic. Many questions grow out of this con- ception of the interaction of heredity and environment. What about chang- ing one's heredity or, at least, the | heredity of one’s children by changing |one’s_environment? Will tratning our |children in music make our grandchil- | dren natural musicians? Terms “Evidence” Worthless. Some have believed that these ques- tions could be given an affirmative an- swer, but I know of no crucial evidence Most of the so-called evidence that has been pre- sented is worthless. We cannot conduct controlled experiments with humans, and even our domestic animals leave much to be desired in this respect. Plants afford much better material for such tests. Wheat, for instance, is | self-pollinated and, barring rare acci- dental cross-pollination, the seedlings grown from a single wheat plant all have identically the same heredity. Weaker Stocks Continued. In the matter of educating out chil- dren we shall continue to give them ch advantages as we can. If th | inherited_the ability to react good environment and less well to poor have | ceeds would be devoted to charit; well to | prosecution contended no such publi- surroundings, it behooves us to give them as favorable surroundings and as gcod an education as we can. ‘We hear much about softening the fiber of human kind through the in- fluence of a pampering civilization. There is, perhaps, some truth in this idea. Although a soft environment does not change the heredity cf an individ- ual, does not make a weak individual heredity out of a strong one, such an environment does make it possible for weak hereditary strains in the human stock to propogate their kind, whereas, in a more rigorous environment, only the more virile strains of humans could persist., [MAN GETS 180-DAY TERM FOR “CHARITY RACKET” Seller of Ad Space in Guide Book He 8aid Would Be Issued Sen- tenced by McMahon. John J. Biggs, 35 vears old, wos sentenced by Judge John P. McMahon in Police Court yesterday to serve a jail sentence of 180 days for having op- erated & so-called entered a plea of guilty on a charge of obtaining money under false pre- tenses. In soliciting funds from a Washing- ton business house, Biggs pretended to be selling advertising space in the “Building Trade Gulde and Inform: tion Book. He said part of the m'l The cation had been seriously contemplated. “charity racket” here for several months. Biggs had | POLICEMAN LOSES J0OB “Do it yourself,” Pennington is said to have fold h sergeant, W. H. Bailey, when the latt Policeman W. A commanded him to order removal cf motor trucks parked in front of priva: residences in his precinct. Pvt. ~ Pennington stands recor mended by the Police Trial Board fo dismissal because he uttered those threc little words. The board heard tes mony yesterday and submitted its rc port to the District Commissioners fc approval Kookt STARTS MONDAY! She wasn’t a Divorcee but she believed that Strangers could Kiss! A Free Woman with a Free Soul! he wanted lm‘anslr— and then came the inevitable smash-up! Another Glorious Success LIE HOWARD LIONEL BARRYMORE / e Shearer She was born’in"an age of freedom —who could blame her for seeking the sweet fruits of living! Beauti- ful Norma Shearer again proves her genius in this brilliant story of a girl who believed she could do as men do—and get away with it! Clarence BROWN’S with the greatest cast ever assembled for motion pictures JAMES GLEASON CLARK GABLE Production of the Novel by Adela Rogers St. Johns A METRO-GOLDWYNfMAYER Picture Starting Tomorrow LOEW’S COLUMBIA