On March 27, 1905, neighbors discover the badly
bludgeoned bodies of Thomas and Ann Farrow in their South London shop. Thomas
was already dead, but Ann was still breathing, but died four days later without
regaining consciousness. The brutal crime was solved using the newly developed
fingerprinting technique. Only three years earlier, the first English court had
admitted fingerprint evidence in a petty theft case. The Farrow case was the
first time that the cutting-edge technology was used in a high-profile murder
case in Britain.
Since the cash box in which the Farrow's stored their
cash receipts was empty, it was clear to Scotland Yard investigators that
robbery was the motive for the crime. One print on the box did not match the
victims or any of the criminal prints that Scotland Yard possessed.
Fortunately, a local milkman reported seeing two young men in the vicinity of
the Farrow house on the day of the murders. They were identified as brothers
Alfred and Albert Stratton, and a week later, authorities caught up with them
and fingerprinted them. Alfred's right thumb was a perfect match for the print
on the Farrow's cash box. The fingerprint evidence became the prosecutions only
solid evidence when the eye witness was no able to positively identify the Stratton’s.
The defense used expert Dr. John Garson to attack the reliability of the
fingerprint evidence, but the prosecution countered with evidence that Garson
had written to both the defense and prosecution on the same day offering his
services to both. The Stratton brothers, obviously not helped by the
discrediting of Garson, were convicted of the murders and hanged on May 23,
1905. Since then, fingerprint evidence has become commonplace in criminal
trials and the lack of it, is often used by defense attorneys.
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