Early Historical References To Staged Crime Scenes and Purposely Manipulated Evidence

By Dr. Laura Pettler

Original Publication: Spring 2011

References to staged crimes and crime scenes can be traced back to ancient times to the book of Genesis 37:1-35.  Jacob had several children.  He favored Joseph more than the others.  Two of Jacob’s sons were jealous of Joseph because Jacob loved him so much and because Joseph had a robe made of many fine, bright colored fabrics.   “And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?” (Genesis 37:26). The brothers conspired, took Joseph into the woods, held him in a pit, and sold him into slavery. Then from the pit “they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father; and said, this have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no?” (Genesis 37:31-32). Jacob knew it was Joseph’s robe and believed his beloved son was dead. Jacob went into mourning; he could not be comforted by any of his children, including Joseph’s two brothers.  Today, the story of Joseph and his robe is theatrical production called, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; however, Joseph’s story is of significant historical importance to the study of crime scene staging as the first known staged crime scene in history.

Around 100AD, a man had a blind son from a previous marriage, but tried to find happiness again by remarrying.  The man was found dead in his bed one morning, impaled with his blind son’s sword deep in his body.  Bloody handprints covered the walls near the body and the blind son was charged with his father’s murder. Quintilian, a well known orator and Roman lawyer, was hired to defend the blind son.  Quintilian argued to the court that the bloody handprints found on the wall near the body could not have been made by the murderer because the murderer would have been gripping the sword so tightly therefore making it impossible to have gotten blood on his or her hands in the first place. Secondly, Quintilian argued that if the bloody handprints were made after the murder, the blood would have begun to fade as the prints moved along the wall.  Quintilian pointed out that the amount of blood remained the same in all of the bloody prints, and accused the father’s second wife of staging the scene to look like the blind son stabbed his father to death with his sword, then groped down the wall with bloody hands. Unfortunately, no verdict was recorded in this case. (See MacDonell’s Segments of History: The Literature of Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation: Segments 00, published 1992).

According to Forbes (1985), in 1514, Richard Hunne was known to be a good Catholic and of sound character, but was brought before Dr. Horsey, the Chancellor of the Bishop of London to answer to heresy charges. Hunne was remanded to jail in the custody of the bell ringer John Spalding. Hunne was found hanged the next morning and charged with self-murder in addition to 13 other charges after his death.  There was a public hearing on all 18 charges and Hunne was convicted posthumously.  The Coroner acted quickly and retrieved Hunne’s body and clothes before Hunne was burned as the law allowed.  The Coroner held his Inquest over the next two  days by returning to the scene of Hunne’s death, the bell tower and found that Hunne’s hands were bound before he was hanged in his cell.  The others working with the Coroner also discovered that Hunne’s neck was broken before he was hanged as well because two flow patterns of blood streamed in an opposing direction from where Hunne was hanged.  The Coroner determined that The Coroner’s Inquest resulted in Hunne being acquitted of the charge of self-murder. Please see the book by Thomas Rogers Forbes.

In 1911, C. Ainsworth Mitchell, discussed how murderers remove bloodstains from their clothing.  Mitchell illustrated his suggestions with a case from 1841 about a man named Mister who used a solvent to remove bloodstains from his clothing when he was charged with a murder.  Although Mister was successful in removing the blood from his clothing, he was convicted of the crime when the solvent bottle was found in his room.

According to Dr. John Swineburne (1862) the 1859 case of the murder of Mrs. Budge provides another historical reference to crime scene staging.  Mrs. Budge was found in her bed with her throat slashed and a razor blade near her hand.  The Coroner came to Mrs. Budge’s bedroom to investigate her death and wrote, “Her throat was cut completely across  and very deep severing both carotid arteries and only stopped when it reached the vertebrae” (p.94).  The Coroner noted that there was no evidence of bleeding consistent with injuries of this nature in the bed, but he ruled her suicide, put her back together and sewed her back up. Songwriter Caleb Lyon, didn’t agree with the Coroner and wrote a song about Mrs. Budge’s husband, Reverend Budge, and musically accused him of murdering his wife.  Budge filed a lawsuit against Lyon for slander, but all the attention on the matter resulted in Mrs. Budge being exhumed.  The second autopsy resulted in a murder indictment against Rev. Budge.  The jury appeared politically motivated ignoring the lack of bloodstain evidence and acquitted him anyway. Lyon lost the law suit and was ordered to pay $100.00.

Although arsons appeared to be the most commonly staged or simulated crime scenes to Hans Gross (1924), are the most commonly staged or simulated crime scenes, offenders who self-mutilated in attempt to conceal a murder was also a key point of his argument.  According to Juan Vucetuch (1882) woman accused her neighbor of killing her two sons and attacking her in Necochea, Argentina in 1882 (pp. 54, 106).  There were bloody fingerprints in the door jamb and the woman claimed the neighbor slit the throats of both of her sons before brutally attacking her.  Although the neighbor was a highly respected individual in the community, he was arrested and held on suspicion of killing the children and attacking the woman.  The bloodstain evidence revealed that the woman cut her own neck and she didn’t realize that she left bloody fingerprints in the door jamb of her house.  The neighbor was released and the woman was imprisoned.

Dr. Carl Liman (1882) argued “The accused with deny all. He’ll say that he has never seen the knife, or that he could not have used it since there are no blood stains on the knife, or he admits that the stains could be blood stains, but that they came from an animal, etc.” Liman focused on the importance of investigating weapons that might not appear to the naked eye as being involved, but with close examination, are involved.  “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” (MacDonell, 1996, pp. 160-164).

Dr. Eduard R. von Hofman (1887) discussed a book, Taylor’s book, however, this book has not been located to the author’s knowledge to date (pp. 423-428). According to MacDonell (1992) Taylor’s Forensic Science could possibly be the title of the book and it might have been published in 1944, but further information about this book was unable to be located.  Hofman discussed a case in Taylor’s book, where crime scene staging was missed when a suicide victim had a bloody left hand print on the back of his left hand.  Strassman (1895) supported Hofman’s claim in that ”Blood can be spread after the fact, and accidentally by unaware persons, or can be spread on purpose to mislead...A dead person lying on his back had a blood print on his left hand showing a left hand print. It cannot be a print of his own left hand” (pp. 341-342). Further, Hofman wrote, “Bloodspatter will be abel to tell if the victim was transported there...” (pp. 423-428).  Hofman discussed two other cases related to crime scene staging and how crime scene stagers protect themselves by either removing all of their clothing before the murder or clothing themselves with additional clothing before the murder (e.g., Case in Dofour).

According to Brown (1991) the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden were staged by their daughter Lizzie Borden (p. 382).  Brown wanted to exhume the bodies of the victims and use new technology to finally resolve the mystery of these brutal 1893 murders in quiet Fall River.  Brown described tremendous detail of the bloodstains on the wall behind Andrew Borden.  Prosecutors argued in this case that Lizzie Borden planned the murderers of her parents because her father was preparing to write her out of his Will.  Prosecutors further argued in this case that Lizzie Borden’s behavior was inconsistent with having murdered parents and claimed that Lizzie had motive and was predisposed to wanting them dead.

According to Hans Gross (1899) ”If one is suspicious that bloodstains have been removed, one should administer Kleesalz or sulfuric acid and soda, respectively. If the results are positive one had discovered almost as much as if the blood itself had been in evidence.” Gross recognized the crime scene stager and his ability to conceal evidence via cleaning blood from crime scenes. Additionally, according to Dr. John Glaister (1902) “In the first place, caution and carefulness must be exercised throughout the whole inquiry, for, if possible, and an opportunity offers a guilty person will attempt to wash away the evidences of his guilt” (p. 238).  Dr. Glaister recognized the critical nature of approaching a potentially staged crime scene with extra care because critical evidence can be lost early in the investigation.  Further, Gross (1924) echoed Glaister’s suggestions and “argued that offenders' fail to stage the crime scenes properly in most cases, thus making some staging efforts obvious to law enforcement professionals” (Pettler, 2011, p. 51).

The history of crime scene staging, while sparse, is demonstrative that scholars and practitioners have recognized the efforts of crime scene stagers since at least circa. 100AD.

References

Ainsworth, M. C. (1911). Science and the criminal. London: Pitman & Sons, Ltd. pp. 156-157. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Brown, A. (1991). Lizzie Borden: The legend, the truth, the final chapter. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press. p. 382.

Forbes, T. R. (1985). Surgeons at the Bailey - English Forensic Medicine to 1878. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (pp. 75-82). In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Genesis 37, Book of.

Glaister, J. (1902). A text-book of medical jurisprudence: Toxicology and Public Health. Ediinburgh: E&S Livingstone. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Gross, H. (1899). Comments, archive. fur kriminal-anthropologie und krimininalistik. Leipzig: Von F.C. Vogel. p. 264. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic SciencE.

Gross, H. (1924). Criminal Investigation. London, England: Sweet & Maxwell. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of
history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Hofman, E. R. von. (1887). Gerichtlichen medicin. Urban & Schwarzenberh: Wien und Leipzig. pp. 423-428.

Liman, C. (1882). Zweifelhafte blutflecke auf werkzeugen und stoffen, gerochtlichen medicin. Berlin: Hirschwald.

MacDonell, H. L. (1992). The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: Segment 01: 1901-1910. International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts News, 8(1), 3-12.

MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

MacDonell, H. L. (1992). The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: Segment 01: Literature from 1901-1910. International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts News, 884), 5-22.

MacDonell, H. L. (1993). The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: Segment 02: Literature from 1911-1920. International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts News, 9(2), 4-10.

MacDonell, H. L. (1994). The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: Segment 03: Literature from 1921-1930. International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts News, 10(1), 6-14.

MacDonell, H. L. (1996). Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Journal of Forensic Identification, 46(4), 160-164.

MacDonell, H. L. (2005). Bloodstain patterns (2nd ed.). Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Pettler, L. G. (2011). Crime scene behaviors of crime scene stagers (Doctoral dissertation). Proquest. (2251577601).

Soderman, H., & O’Connell, J. (1962). Modern criminal investigation. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, Inc.

Strassman, F. (1895). Blood examinations. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke. pp. 341-342. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Svensson, A. & Wendel, O. (1974). Techniques of crime scene investigation (2nd ed.). New York, NY: American Elsevier.

Swineburne, J. (1862). A review of the Case: The People Against Reverend Henry Budge.  Albany, NY: C. Van Benthuysen. p. 94. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Vucetuch, J. (1882). Dactiloscopia comparada.  Peuser: La Plata. pp. 54, 106. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.

Wald, H. (1858). Gerichtliche medicin. Leipzig: Leopold Voss. In MacDonell, H. L. (1992). Segments of history: The literature of bloodstain pattern interpretation: segment 00: Literature through the 1900s. Corning, NY: Laboratory of Forensic Science.