Stratton brothers trial began - May 5, 1905

On this day in 1905, the Stratton brothers' trial began in England. It was the first recorded murder trial in England to use fingerprints as evidence.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day in History Class, a podcast that serves up a
fresh slice of history every day. Today is May five.

(00:24):
The day was May five, nineteen o five, the Stratton
brothers trial for the murder of Thomas Farrow began. The
Stratton's case marked the first time anyone was convicted for
murder in Britain based on fingerprint evidence. The study of
fingerprints and their use in identification picked up considerably in
nineteenth century Europe. That said, the history of fingerprinting is

(00:48):
inextricably linked with colonialism and racism. In eighteen fifty eight,
William James Herschel, an english Man, became an officer in
the Indian Civil Service. He was posted to present day
john Kie Poor in India. That year, he had a
local man placed his handprint on a contract in lieu
of a signature. Herschel's goal was to keep the man

(01:09):
from being able to deny his signature at a later time.
Herschel continued to require handprints from locals on contracts, eventually
realizing that he only needed prints from the index and
middle finger. He was convinced that fingerprints were unique and permanent,
and believed they could be used to prove someone's identity.
Other Europeans also focused on the potential for fingerprints use

(01:31):
and identifying suspects and solving crimes. Building on others work,
eugenicist and polly math Sir Francis Galton identified patterns and
fingerprints and published a classification system for them. The use
of fingerprints and forensics didn't really take off until the
turn of the twentieth century. Asi's Old Hawk in him

(01:51):
Chandra Bows are credited with creating the Henry classification system
for fingerprinting. By nineteen o one, Scotland Yard also known
as the London Metropolitan Police, established a new fingerprint bureau.
The next year, the first recorded trial in England that
relied on fingerprint evidence took place. In the trial, Harry

(02:12):
Jackson was sentenced to several years in prison for a
burglary in London after his fingerprint was presented as evidence
in court. Just two years later, the first murder trial
in England in which fingerprints were used as evidence began.
Thomas Farrow was found dead after a robbery and his
wife Anne died a few days later. An empty cash

(02:35):
box was found in the apartment, as well as two
black masks. A fingerprint was found in the cash box
and Inspector Charles Collins from Scotland Yards Fingerprinting Bureau examined it,
but the print didn't match the pharaoh's, the officers or
anybody in the bureau's file. But witnesses reported seeing two
men in the area on the morning of the crime,

(02:56):
and police tracked down and arrested Albert and Alfred's drag in.
Their prints were taken and Alfred's right thumb print matched
the print on the cash box. The brother's child began
on May five five. The fingerprint was the strongest evidence
linking them to the crime scene, and using fingerprints as
evidence was still a relatively new technique, but Collins explained

(03:18):
the classification of fingerprints to the jury and how he
had never found two prints that had more than three
characteristics in common. In this case, Alfred's print and the
cash box print had multiple similarities. The Stratton brothers were
found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging.
Fingerprint evidence has been used in criminal investigations in cases

(03:41):
ever since, though techniques and technology in the field have
changed significantly. I'm Eve Jeff Cote and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
And if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, you
can send them to us at this day at i
heeart media dot com. You can also follow us on

(04:01):
social media at t D I h C podcast. Thanks
again for listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow.
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