American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI / Kate Winkler Dawson.
TITLE:
American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI / Kate Winkler Dawson.
Publication Date:
2020
Publication Information:
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons,
Physical Description:
325 p., [8 p. of plates] : ill.
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:
Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with beakers, microscopes, and hundreds upon hundreds of books sat Edward Oscar Heinrich, America's first forensic scientists. Working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence, 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. Dawson 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.
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780525539551
