◆ SpookStack

‘er of individuals suffering from loss of mem- ory, necessarily is usually confined to an examination of its own criminal records. It follows, therefore, that unless a person been involved in some criminal activities, ap identification cannot be established untess his fingerprints correspond with one of the ap- proximately 149,000 Civil Bervice prints now in the Bureau’s possession. = - Indicative of the scope of the Bureau's work in the establishment of identifications of unknown deceased persons, there Was & rather unusual identification effected in Dec- ember, 1930, when an individual endeavored * to effect a robbery at Huntsville, Ala., and was killed by a shopkeeper's wife. This per- gon was found to be identical with an es- - caped prisoner from the North Carolina s 2 aos, State Penitentiary at Raleigh. : + ¢, Another case is that of the person who committed suicide in an Iowa city in Nov- ember of 1930. When his fingerprint card was searched in the Bureau's files it was found he had been arrested previously in Bouth Dakota, and the Iowa officials were enabled to trace his relatives from the point . - where he had been taken into custody pre- viously. . ; | One instance of misrepresentation which was recently cleared up by the Bureau was that of a person living in North Caroline who attracted wide attention through claiming to ~ be a former prominent member of the La- | Fayette Esquadrille reported killed in France. He was identified by the Bureau through a - fingerprint search as @ deserter from the United States Navy, and was not possessed of a World War record. °-. a These cases which have been described . routine cases with the Bureau. It establi: . numerous similar identifications every MOD... ~” The location of prospective defendants or , _ Copyright, 1933, Se "a nage a nigra rge er RS nin SEER ee EE pre ee ek ee wey missing witnesses in court cases is another :— important service of the Bureau. -‘When the Bureau is informed that a law enforcement agency desires the apprehension of a fugi- — tive and the fingerprints of that individual _. are available, a wanted notice is placed In the fugitive’s record. This insures his iden- © tification when his fingerprints are next re- © celved from any of the 5,881 contributors to the Bureau. Through this medium 350 fugi- tives are identified each month. . --. * ¢¢ “ +f An illustration of the work of the Bureau in identifying witnesses wanted in connection: with a civil case is furnished in a matter arising in September, 1931, when an identifi- - cation effected by the Bureau resulted in locating the insured person in a War Risk” Insurance case, which was before the Vet-. erans’ Bureau. The action undertaken by the Bureau in this matter enabled the Fed-. eral Government to successfully defend a $10,000 suit brought against it under the pre- - sumption that the former soldier was de- . ceased. He had been missing for more than . seven years. . : . These illustrations of what may be called . the civil identification activities of the Bu- . reau of Investigation are indicative of its activities not only in the field of law enforce- ment but in the identification of various persons whose true identity may be clouded in doubt or totallly urknown. wee The Identification Division service fs ren-- dered free to all legally constituted law en- forcement officials and agencies. Criminal identification data on file have been of -ma- terial assistance in increasing the efficiency of the operation of police departments and other law enforcement agencies, including prosecutors and judges, as well as in assist- . _ing many citizens in solving their problems. - a are eat Lot, byfhe United States News -