Shot Through the Heart, and You're to Blame; You Give Ballistics A Good Name

Alexandre Lacassagne, who lived from 1844 to 1921, was an incredibly talented and intelligent man and was considered the founder of the forensic science that is so well known today. He dedicated his whole life to this field of study and was always being called in to help solve crimes being committed because of his massive amount of knowledge. He started out as a surgeon for the army and had taken quite an interest to tattoos while he was in Africa. Lacassagne was also capable of performing autopsies and no one was as thorough as he was. To add to his astonishing achievements, he was the head of the legal medicine department at the University of Lyon, as well as the professor of forensic medicine, as well was one of the top experts in legal medicine around. Lacassagne assisted in solving some of the most horrific and infamous crimes in England. He had also written many textbooks and was very famous criminologist of his time. He was not only the first to analyze bloodstain patterns from an attacked victim; he also took a closer look to a fired bullet and linked it back to a gun that was used in a murder. Needless to say, this is the man who started it all.

[Alexandre Lacassagne (image found on google.com)]

The striations, grooves, and unique markings on a fired bullet were not even considered until Lacassagne pointed them out after finding a bullet in a victim that he was performing an autopsy on. After the bullet was removed from the body and cleaned, Lacassagne carefully examined it. He counted the grooves on the bullet, which was seven, and then he started to look at different types of guns. After closely looking at the inside of the barrels of the guns and noticing the number of number of grooves that each gun produced, he found the type of gun that matched based off of the seven grooves found. They then found the owner of the gun that produced the seven grooves on the fired bullet and later convicted. Although Lacassagne’s observations were simple at the time and rather vague, it got people in the forensics field thinking. This newfound discovery was ground breaking and a pivotal point in forensic science and how far it has come since this astonishing observation by Alexandre Lacassagne.

[Pistol (image found on google.com)]

Without the extraordinary work of Alexandre Lacassagne, forensic science might not be where it is today. Over the years, more and more guns are being made and manufactured, so as a result, ballistic fingerprinting has become much more complex and complicated. On top of this, criminals are known for stealing guns and never registering them in their own name. This makes it relatively easy for them to get away with the crimes they commit unless they are caught on camera or have several witnesses there at the scene.

[Left and Right twists on bullet (image found on google.com)]

Focusing on the analysis of the bullet, there are many things to be taken into consideration. Some of the characteristics would be the striations, the grooves, the landings, the number of grooves, firing pin marks, the type of bullet, and which direction the striations are facing (right, left, straight). Ballistic analysts are trained and skilled on this and can usually identify what kind of bullet it is just by looking at it. Depending on the condition of the fired bullet, identification is sometimes made much more difficult. Once the bullet is analyzed, analysts then try to figure out what type of gun that it could have been fired from. This is usually narrowed down to a small list. Unfortunately, due to criminals not registering the guns in their name, they cannot simply look up the people who own a certain type of gun in a database. This is usually were investigations and cases come to a bit of a stand still until further information is provided. However, they never let this stop them from finding the suspect.

Alexandre Lacassagne's Cadaver Adventure: gizmodo.com/5662454/murder-in-19th-century-france-and-the-birth-of-forensic-science

For more about Lacassagne: www.biomedsearch.com/article/ability-to-doubt-forensic-pioneer/150862799.html


References:

Gizmodo. Website. Accessed 6/19/14. gizmodo.com/5662454/murder-in-19th-century-france-and-the-birth-of-forensic-science

Bio Med Search. Website. Accessed 6/19/14. www.biomedsearch.com/article/ability-to-doubt-forensic-pioneer/150862799.html

Birkbeck. University of London. Accessed on 6/19/14. www.bbk.ac.uk/deviance/biographies/lacassagne.htm