Block 9: Background & History of Firearms Identification

Who was Robert Churchill’s rival?

Sir Major Gerald Burrard

What was Burrard’s most notable publication?

Identification of Firearms and Forensic Ballistics

Who was the first to theorize that every firearm will impart individual characteristics on bullets and cartridge cases?

Professor Victor Balthazard

What was the name of Robert Churchill’s comparison microscope?

Microscope Mark II

What UK case involved the first use of comparison microscopy on firearms evidence?

Murder of PC Gutteridge

Who investigated the firearms evidence related to the murder of PC Gutteridge?

Robert Churchill

Who were the four founding members of the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics?

C.E. Waite

Calvin H. Goddard

John H. Fisher

Phillip O. Gravelle

Who invented the helixometer?

John H. Fisher

Who is the US “Father of Forensic Ballistics”?

Calvin H. Goddard

What was the term Calvin Goddard coined that he would later come to regret?

Forensic Ballistics

Who was the primary firearms examiner in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre case?

Calvin H. Goddard

What forensic teaching laboratory did Calvin H. Goddard help establish?

State Crime Detection Laboratory at Northwestern University

Who developed the first comparison microscope and in what year?

Phillip O. Gravelle

Calvin H. Goddard

1925

What notable publication did the father/son duo of Charles and Jack Gunther write?

The Identification of Firearms

What did the Gunthers stress the importance of in The Identification of Firearms?

Scientific methodology in firearms analysis

What are Julian Hatcher’s two most notable publications?

Firearms Investigation, Identification, and Evidence

Hatcher’s Notebook

What is the Hatcher scale?

Mathematical formula designed to measure the relative stopping power of handgun ammunition based on bullet momentum, cross sectional area, and bullet shape characteristics

What are J. Howard Mathews’ two most notable publications?

Firearms Identification vol. 1

Firearms Identification vol. 2

What two pieces of firearms analysis equipment did J. Howard Mathews and Lee Henke invent?

Comparison Camera

Rifling meter

Who is the “Father of Questioned Document Examination”?

Albert S. Osborn

What is Albert S. Osborn’s most notable publication?

Questioned Documents

What landmark case did Albert S. Osborn use a comparison microscope in to examine ransom notes?

Kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh

What did Alexander von Inostranzeff develop with the help of H. Frantzen?

Comparison chamber

What famous landmark case did Charles Waite analyze firearms evidence for?

Stielow Homicide

What is the purpose of the comparison microscope?

To allow the observer to view two separate specimens simultaneously at the same magnification

Who invented the stereo microscope and in what year?

Horatio Greenough 1892

What was the helixometer developed for?

To inspect the interior of a barrel and measure the pitch of its rifling

Who invented the striagraph and in what year?

John E. Davis

1958

Who invented the filar micrometer?

William Gascoigne

What is a filar micrometer?

Device attached to a telescope/microscope that performs curved and angular measurements

What landmark case was one of the earliest formal evaluations of cartridge cases used in trial in US history?

The Affray at Brownsville (1906)

Who falsely testified that recovered bullets had been fired from the gun belonging to Charles Stielow?

Albert Hamilton

Who exonerated Charles Stielow?

C.E. Waite

What year did the Stielow homicide take place?

1915

What year did the Sacco-Vanzetti case take place?

1920

What landmark case helped establish forensic firearms identification as credible scientific evidence to be used in American courts?

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

What year did the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre take place?

1929

What year did the murder of PC Gutteridge take place?

1927

What are two commissions that were formed to analyze firearms evidence from the JFK assasination?

Warren Commission

House Select Committee on Assassinations

What type of rifle was determined to have been used in the assassination of JFK?

Italian Carcano rifle

What year did the assassination of JFK take place?

1963

Define toolmark identification.

A discipline of forensic science which has as its primary concern to determine if a toolmark was produced by a particular tool

Define firearms identification.

A discipline of forensic science which has as its primary concern to determine if a bullet, cartridge case, or other ammunition component was fired by a particular firearm

Define ballistics.

The science of projectiles in motion

What are the three types of ballistics?

Interior

Exterior

Terminal

Which branch of ballistics is concerned with all aspects of combustion phenomena occurring within a firearm?

Interior

Which branch of ballistics studies the motion of a projectile from the moment it leaves the barrel to the time it impacts the target?

Exterior

Which branch of ballistics is concerned with the effects of projectile impact at the target?

Terminal

What case marked the first time that a state supreme court recognized firearms identification evidence and being valid and admissible and in what year?

Hadley v. Arizona 1923

Who examined the firearms evidence in Hadley v. Arizona?

AJ Eddy

What is known as the general acceptance test?

The Frye Opinion

What is the general acceptance test?

Legal test used to determine whether scientific expert testimony is sufficiently reliable to be admitted into evidence

Under Frye, a scientific method, technique, or principle is generally admissible only if _____.

It has achieved acceptance within the relevant scientific community

What is DRUGFIRE?

Early form of NIBIN

In what year was DRUGFIRE introduced?

1989

What year was IBIS introduced?

1995

What year was NIBIN created?

1997