Trivia Archives - Crime Museum

Shopping for an Arrest

Susan Frese — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:03:43 +0000

When Fannie Henson of Virginia found a man’s lost wallet she must have thought it was her lucky day. She took one of the man’s credit cards and ran up almost $400 in charges from a gas station and a grocery store combined. Her undoing? Ms. Henson was a smart shopper and she was sure to scan her personal discount card before paying for her groceries with a stranger’s credit card. She was soon linked to the stolen card and was arrested for credit card theft, a felony.

Read about another criminal who made a silly mistake

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You Have a Drinking Problem When…

Susan Frese — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:56:42 +0000

One not so smart criminal got a thirst for some liquor during his hold up of a convenience store. A Colorado Springs man walked into a corner store with a shotgun and demanded all of the money from the register. The clerk complied. As the robber was about to leave he spotted a bottle of scotch and demanded the clerk add it to the bag of money, the clerk refused on the grounds that he did not have proof that the robber was of drinking age. The two argued back and forth until the robber gave in and showed the clerk his license, the clerk, after seeing the robber was of age, gave him the scotch and the robber took off. Needless to say he was apprehended soon after he left the store after the clerk called the police and gave them the name and address he had gotten off of the robber’s license.

Read about another senseless crime here

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What Forensic Hair Examination Tells You

Susan Frese — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:39:34 +0000

Although one strand of hair cannot be positively matched to a person, hair is still a valuable source of evidence. What forensic hair examination tells you is a lot of information. Because hair can be grouped into three different racial groups it can be used to identify if it came from someone of European, Asian, or African ancestry. As such, hair can be used to exclude people of certain racial group as suspects or as having been at a crime scene.

Hair can yield DNA evidence, if hair is pulled out by the root, as in some violent struggles, it will contain root pulp which is a good source of nuclear DNA (nDNA), the type of DNA most often used in forensics. The hair shaft does not contain nDNA, so the 100-150 strands of hair most people lose daily will not contain a root or nDNA, but it does have mitochondrial DNA (mDNA). MDNA, which cannot be used for individualization, can narrow the source of the hair down to a certain family group (mDNA is passed from mother to all offspring).

Hair can also be used to run drug tests, but these tests are only presumptive and have to be confirmed by blood or urine tests. Hair absorbs chemicals, such as marijuana smoke and arsenic, from the environment and once the chemical is in the hair there is no way of telling if it got there from consumption or from exposure from the environment.

Age cannot be determined from hair, generally the only age determination that can be made from hair is if came from an infant or from an elderly person. The sex of the person the hair came from can also not be determined via hair examination unless there is nDNA evidence such as the root.

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Schizophrenia and Personality Disorder

Susan Frese — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:47:17 +0000

Many people get schizophrenia and personality disorder confused, especially since movies and television shows tend to use the terms interchangeably. Schizophrenia is what is considered a “thought disorder,” which means that disturbances in the thought process drive the illness. Symptoms can be expressed in speech, writing, and orally; most schizophrenics hear voices or have other types of hallucinations. The son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz claimed to suffer from schizophrenia and blamed his killing spree on his neighbor’s dog, who he claimed was actually Satan, who instructed him to kill.

Multiple personality disorder, more accurately known as dissociative identity disorder (DID), is a completely different disorder that is much more rare than schizophrenia, in fact many mental health professionals doubts its validity. DID, considered an “identity disorder,” is a mental illness where in one person has two or more distinct personalities. One of the main symptoms of DID is a loss of time or memory where in the person with DID cannot remember significant chunks of time in their lives, this is due to the dominance of a different personality during the missing time. One of the Hillside Strangler serial killers, Kenneth Bianchi, faked having DID in order to use the insanity plea during his trial, he was discovered to be a fake and he plead guilty to 5 charges of murder.

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Ear Noises As Passwords

Susan Frese — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:27:02 +0000

In the future, your ear may become your new password. Although recently reports have started to discredit ear imprints as a valid form of biometric identification there is another aspect of the ear that seems to be unique to individuals. Mammalian, and hence human, ears emit noises in response to certain types of audio stimuli; these emitted noises, called otoacoustic emissions (OAE), may be used to distinguish individuals because they are thought to be unique. So it makes sense that people have thought to make ear noises as passwords.

Although it is thought that each person has a unique OAE in response to auditory stimuli there is not a way of distinguishing these low frequency sounds to the point of use for identification….yet. Once the technology is developed for recording these emissions the OAE can be recorded with a simple device placed next to the entrance of the ear such as telephone handsets or headphones. Some of the potential applications include identity verification for call centers dealing with sensitive transactions such as during phone banking.

OAE’s are already in use by hospitals and physicians to scan for hearing damage as well as defects in newborns and children since OAE’s disappear if damage exists in the inner ear. This is also one of OAE’s potential downfalls. Not only do OAE’s disappear when the inner ear is damaged, but colds, medication, and trimming one’s ear hair may alter a person’s OAE as well.

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Fingerprints Recovered from Guns

Susan Frese — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:41:17 +0000

Fingerprints recovered from guns are found on the ‘spent’ or fired shell casings. When a bullet is fired it is sent through the barrel of the gun at an amazing speed, as part of the firing mechanism the primer in the cartridge ignites at an extreme temperature of 2000 degree Celsius sending hot expanding gas down the barrel of the gun. These extreme conditions have been thought to make retrieval of fingerprints off bullets and cartridge casings exposed to these conditions impossible. With new technology coming out of the University of Leicester, London it is now possible to visualize fingerprints off of spent casings, even if those casings have been washed in hot water and soap.

Fingerprint residue contains natural salt secretions that corrode metals at the points where the salt contacts the metal. This microscopic fingerprint corrosion leaves a permanent mark on metal that cannot be washed away. The heat of the firing of the gun also does not alter these marks.

The new technique that has been established to visualize these types of prints relies on running electrical current over the metal object , such as a bullet casing or a gun, that has been coated with a fine toner like powder. When a charge is run down the metal object the fine conducting powder is attracted to these areas of corrosion revealing a powdered fingerprint.

This technology can also be used in fires to recover prints of metals exposed to very high temperatures.

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Crime & Forensic Trivia Tournament!

Susan Frese — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:26:28 +0000

Test your crime facts and forensic knowledge EVERYDAY on our new trivia tournament.

Play our New Trivia Game Now!

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Most Dangerous States to Live In

Susan Frese — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:48:47 +0000

Living in trying economic times is difficult, to be sure, but living them in an unsafe environment makes it somewhat worse. Do you live in one of the most dangerous states in the U.S.? Click here to find out.

Read about how different states handle the death penalty here

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