| Author | Message | ||
     Webservant (Member) Moderator Username: Member Post Number: 240 Registered: 03-1997 |
From onin.com: Around 1870, a French anthropologist devised a system to measure and record the dimensions of certain bony parts of the body. These measurements were reduced to a formula which, theoretically, would apply only to one person and would not change during his/her adult life. This Bertillon System, named after its inventor, Alphonse Bertillon, was generally accepted for thirty years. But it never recovered from the events of 1903, when a man named Will West was sentenced to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. It was discovered that there was already a prisoner at the penitentiary at the time, whose Bertillon measurements were nearly the same, and his name was William West. Upon investigation, there were indeed two men who looked exactly alike. Their names were Will and William West respectively. Their Bertillon measurements were close enough to identify them as the same person. However, a fingerprint comparison quickly and correctly identified them as two different people. (Per prison records discovered later, the West men were apparently identical twin brothers and each had a record of correspondence with the same immediate family relatives.) | ||
| Andrew Reitnauer (Areitnau) Member Username: Areitnau Post Number: 4 Registered: 06-2007 |
The West case is true. Will West was measured using the Bertillion methodology and found to have similar biometric measurements as William West, a convict previously measured at Leavenworth prison. (Gray edits above by the Webservant on 24 and 26 Aug 2007... thanks go to Ernie Hamm for helping with input.) | ||
| shell (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 62.253.226.113 |
i'm not familiar with this case however in the uk in 1900 a committe was set up(called the Belper Committee)to evaluate the Bertillon system. Evidence was heard from experts of the time including Edward henry. The outcome being the henry system was adopted instead. | ||
| Naptown Ref (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: cache-mtc-aa09.proxy.aol.com |
Is it true that a case involving twins, Will & William West, from 1903 proved that the Bertillon System was flawed and that fingerprinting was a better form of individual identification? |
