Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/554

 Detection of Crime by Photography. state of affairs. The word " Mai " had been altered to "April " by a little clever manipu lation of the pen, and the fraud was not evi dent to the eye, to the microscope, or to the ordinary photographic process. But the color-sensitive film tells us that the ink with which the original word " Mai " was written was of a different black hue from that em ployed by the forger when he wrote over it and partly formed out of it the word "April." The consequence is that one word is much fainter than the other, each stroke of alteration being plainly discernible, and detecting the forgery. Another case is presented where a bill already paid, let us say, in favor of one Schmidt, is again pre sented with the signature Fabian. Here, again, the photographic evidence shows in the most conclusive manner that the first word is still readable under the altered con ditions. In this case, when the accused was told that by scientific treatment the first name had been thus revealed, he confessed to the fraud, and was duly punished. Alterations in figures have naturally come under Jeserich's observation; figures be ing, as a rule, far more easy to tamper with than words, — especially where careless writers of checks leave blank spaces in front of numerals, to tempt the skill of those whose ways are crooked. Dr. Jeserich shows a document which is drawn appa rently for a sum of money represented by the figures 20,200. The amount was dis puted by the payer, and hence the document was submitted to the photographic test. As a result, it was found that the original figures had been 1,200, and that the payee had al tered the first figure to o, and had placed a 2 in front of it. The result to him was four years' penal servitude; and it is satisfactory to note that after sentence had been passed upon him, he confessed that the photograph had revealed the truth. Two cases in which fabrication of docu ments was rendered evident by the camera are of a somewhat amusing nature, although one might think it difficult to find matter for

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mirth out of these mendacious doings. Two citizens of Berlin had been summoned for non payment of taxes, and had quite forgotten the day upon which the summonses were returnable, — thus rendering themselves lia ble to increased expenses. It was a compar atively easy matter, and one which did riot lie very heavily on their consciences, to alter the 24 which denoted the day of the month into 26. But that terrible photographic plate found them out; and the small fine which they hoped to evade was superseded in favor of imprisonment for the grave offence of falsifying an official document. In another case, a receipt for debts contracted up to 1 88 1 was altered to 1884, by the simple ad dition of two strokes in an ink which was of a different photographic value from the ink which had been used by the author of the document. Many cases like these, relating to falsifica tions of wills, postal orders, permits, and other documents, have come under the offi cial notice of Dr. Jeserich. One of these is especially noteworthy, because the accused was made to give evidence against himself in a novel manner. He was a cattle-dealer, and had altered a permit for passing animals across the Austrian frontier at a time when the prevalence of disease necessitated a cer tain period for quarantine. The photographic evidence showed that a 3 had been added to the original figures, and it was necessary to ascertain whether the prisoner had inserted this numeral. To do this, he was made to write several 3's, and these were photo graphed on a film of gelatine. This trans parent film was now placed over the im pounded document, and it was found that any of the images of the newly written fig ures would very nicely fit over the disputed 3 on the paper. Such a test as this, it is obvious, is far more conclusive and satis factory in every way than the somewhat doubtful testimony of experts in hand writing, — the actual value of whose evi dence was so clearly set forth during the celebrated Parnell inquiry.