The Forensic Teacher Magazine

44 Pages·2012·4.05 MB·English

The Forensic Teacher
Magazine
Issue 20
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Fall 2012
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wSerwiouws A.btohute Sfcioenrcee Sninscei c18t6e2acher.com The Forensic Teacher • Fall 2012
The
Volume 7, Number 20, Fall 2012
Forensic The Forensic Teacher Magazine is
published quarterly, and is owned
by Wide Open Minds Educational
Services, LLC. Our mailing address is
P.O. Box 5263, Wilmington, DE 19808.
Please see inside for more information.
Teacher Magazine
Articles
6 Interview
By Mark Feil, Ed.D.
Robert K. Wittman founded the FBI’s Art Crime
Team, and has chased and caught thieves,
scammers, and crooked dealers, and recovered
priceless treasures. He worked undercover all
over the world and even helped expose The
Antique Roadshow for fraud. He has advice
for teachers who want to make their subjects
memorable.
12 Fingernail Identification!
By Herbert Leon MacDonell, Sc.D. h.c.
Fingernails are as individual as fingerprints. Who knew?
This lab will let your students explore the phenomenon.
14 Using The Web to Learn
Forensics
By Ricky Pelazzo.
Have you ever wanted to study forensics from the big
boys? Here’s your chance to do it for free.
16 Insect Lab
By Anthony Bertino and Patricia Nolan Bertino
A really well done entomology lab. Ready to go. Just add
bugs.
22 A Very, Very, Hairy Lab
By David Collins, Ph.D.
A great lab about hair, from soup to nuts.
Features
2 Editorial
4 Mini-Mystery
5 Hot Web Sites
32 A Day In The Life Of...
37 Bloomin’ Easy
38 Morgue Guy
38 What’s Going On?
39 Just For Fun
40 Stoopid Crooks
“I’m not stoopid, just misunderstood.”
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www.theforensicteacher.com www.theforensicteacher.com The Forensic Teacher • Fall 2012
Editorial The
Forensic
Teacher Magazine
Editor-in-Chief
Mark R. Feil, Ed.D.
We Need You
Assistant Editor
Tammy Feil, Ed.D.
Book Editor
Enrico Pelazzo
A little over seven years ago we started this magazine because we were
unaware of any resource that helped new forensic teachers get up and running.
Science Editor
We’ve tried to address common issues and problems, and provide free, ready to use T. Ann Kosloski
resources ready-to-use in the classroom. For seven years we’ve been happy to help.
But just as we’ve tried to be there for you we’ve come to a point where we now, Copy Editor
Tammy Feil
more than ever, need you to be there for us.
Most of articles and labs come from teachers who are actually teaching
Contributing Editor
forensics. For the rest we’ve been fortunate to find textbook publishers generous Jeanette Hencken
enough to allow us to reprint some of their materials. But we need more.
If you have a lab or lesson you’ve developed please send us an email about it. Layout/Graphic Design
Mark Feil
We pay for the pieces we use, and it’s a great way to let people know how you keep
your students engaged. After seven years there’s not much we haven’t covered, but
Circulation
that’s okay–after a year or two we’re open to revisiting a topic, especially if you Don Penglioni
handle the subject differently than the author whose piece we published before.
Your activity, lesson, or lab must be one you developed yourself, but that’s
generally the only rule. If you have photos it’s icing on the cake! Just tell us why
you developed the activity/lesson/lab, include instructions so other teachers can
duplicate your success, and try to keep it in the first person when you’re writing. Editorial Advisory Board
When we published on paper we were restricted to 32 pages, including covers. Lt. John R. Evans
With the advent of going digital we’re easily able to double that. And Issue 16 about Section Chief of the Delaware State
fire and explosions, ran 110 pages. We’re committed to bringing you resources you Police Homicide Unit
Head, DSP Crime Lab and Forensic
can use in your classroom, but first we have to hear from teachers and professionals.
Services Unit
If you’re not sure how to write up a lesson, drop us a line and we’ll work with you
Jeanette Hencken
to make it the best it can be. We’re at [email protected].
Forensic Science Teacher
Webster Grove High School, Webster
Can you help?
Groves, MO
Richard Saferstein, Ph.D.
.
Chief Forensic Scientist of the New
Jersey State Police Laboratory (Ret.)
Consultant and textbook author
Dr. Mark Feil Cheri Stephens
Forensic Science Teacher
Washington High School,
Washington, MO
Adjuct faculty at St. Louis U.
Volume 7, Number 20, Fall 2012
The Forensic Teacher Magazine is published quarterly and is owned by Wide Open Minds Hugh E. Berryman, PhD, D-ABFA
Educational Services, LLC. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 5263, Wilmington, DE 19808.
Forensic Anthropologist
Letters to the editors are welcome and should be sent to [email protected].
Submissions are welcome and guidelines are available, as is a rate sheet for advertisers at Director, Forensic Institute for Research
our website www.theforensicteacher.com. If you sign up for a subscription you will receive and Education
an email when it is ready for download provided your spam filter doesn’t screen it out; sign
Middle Tennessee State University
up at our website. Back issues are available singularly on our website, or all on CD priced as
per the website. The Forensic Teacher is copyrighted 2012 Wide Open Minds Educational
Services, LLC, all rights reserved. All opinions expressed by contributors represent their own Ted Yeshion, Ph.D.
views, and not necessarily the views of the staff or editorial board. Associate Professor of Forensic Science
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Forensic Teacher, P.O.
Box 5263, Wilmington, DE 19808.
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Congrats!
Criminals Use 3D Printers to Google Maps Help Crooks Can Cops Lie to Grand Juries?
Create Illegal Objects Case Homes
In January 2012 the US Supreme
Court will hear oral arguments on a case
Printers that use ink or toner are Samuel Watson of Chicago con- to determine whether or not a govern-
commonplace to everyone with a com- fessed to police after he was arrested for ment employee is immune from prosecu-
puter. However, 3D printers are able to breaking into as many as eight homes that tion after lying to a grand jury about an
take a three dimensional sketch of an he’d used Google Maps to find properties innocent person.
object with measurement and carve the to burglarize. He used the satellite view In 2003 a group of doctors wanted
object out of a variety of materials, from where one can see 360 degrees around to open a surgery practice in Albany,
foam to plastic to metal. Criminals have the home to decide if their owners were GA. The venture was strongly opposed
used these machines to print everything likely to own enough valuables to make by Pheobe Putney, a local hospital with
from keys to automatic weapon ammo his crimes lucrative. Police believe about vast financial and political connections.
clips to ATM scammers that steal cus- $100,000 of goods were taken over a six Charles Rehberg, the doctors’ business
tomers’ bank card information. Some month period. manager, did some digging and discov-
technology watchdogs are calling for ered the nonprofit hospital’s CEO made
legislation to regulate the devices, but over $700,000 a year, it had bank ac-
the law has been slow to move on the John Wayne Gacy’s Victims counts in the Cayman islands, and it
issue, as often happens with rapidly ad- Exhumed. charged poor patients more than patients
vancing technology. with insurance. Further, it was very ag-
gressive in pursuing those patients in
When one of the strangest serial kill-
court to collect on debts.
iPhone Doubles as 350x ers in American history was arrested in The trouble started when Rehberg
1978, investigators found the remains of
Microscope and one of the doctors started sending
33 young men buried in the crawlspace
faxes to local business and community
beneath Gacy’s home. All but eight of
leaders with information about Putney’s
Researchers at UC Davis placed a 1 the victims were identified. However, financial practices. The hospital filed a
mm ball lens on an iPhone camera with a police saved teeth and jawbones from the lawsuit against the faxers and, when the
rubber sheet. The shape of the additional unknown victims in case better scientific faxes didn’t stop, Rehberg and the doctor
lens makes 350x microscopy possible, method of identification were developed. found themselves indicted for telephone
though a small amount of photo retouch- Fast forward 30 years. When cold case harassment, aggravated assault, and bur-
ing is necessary to achieve optimum re- detectives wanted to build a DNA profile glary. The evidence for the indictments
sults. The team speculates applications from the remains, they found the teeth was provided by a private investigator
might include situations where money had been buried in four different cem- who worked for the DA, a man named
and materials for traditional photo-mi- eteries by lab managers who had given James Paulk.
croscopes are hard to come by such as up hope. In October 2011 officials dug However, it later came out there was
in underdeveloped areas or with under- up the teeth, plus bones from two vic- no assault or burglary. Paulk claimed
funded investigators. To view images tims whose dental DNA was insufficient he was told what to say to the grand
taken with a modified iPhone go to http:// to generate a DNA profile. An entire jury by Ken Hodges, the DA. After the
www.pcworld.com/article/241621/re- generation has passed since the victims indictment was dropped Hodges man-
searchers_turn_iphone_into_350x_mi- were characterized as drug addicts or aged to secure two more, both of which
croscope_on_the_cheap.html. gay men, and detectives hope the stigma were thrown out. Eventually, the hos-
of either label has lessened to the point
pital dropped its lawsuit, but one legal
where family members might be willing
issue remained: a suit brought by Reh-
to come forward.
berg against the DA’s office and Paulk
for abuse of power. Unfortunately for
Rehberg, the court threw it out. It was
appealed to the federal bench in Atlanta
and thrown out again. Now it stands be-
fore the US Supreme Court.
The court ruled 25 years ago that
prosecutors and police are immune from
damages for actions, regardless of if the
The article in the Summer 2011 issue, “Evidence Evidence Everywhere,” found
actions are illegal or not, if such actions
on pages 22–28, is generously based on a lab activity entitled “Can This Evidence
trial-related. However, investigators en-
Be Individualized?” from Kendall Hunt Publishing Company’s Forensic Science
joy no such protection if their actions
for High School, by Barbara Ball-Deslich and John Funkhouser. We regret that this
are illegal and investigation-related. The
information was not provided with the original article. For more information about
Supreme Court must now decide if what
this textbook please see their ad elsewhere in this issue.
Paulk did was investigative or trial relat-
ed. Obviously, each side claims the other
is wrong. Does testimony before a grand
jury count as trial-related or not?
Forensic News (continued on p. 23)
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Mini-Mystery
A Bad Day for Bernidi
During a midday visit to the city of Royston, Thomas P. “Like I told the officer-big, burly guy, clean-shaven, dark
Stanwick, the amateur logician, noticed several police cars hair.”
at the entrance of Bernidi’s, a small downtown jewelry store. “Don’t you have your display glass wired to an alarm?”
Toying with the tip of his mustache in thoughtful curiosity, he inquired Stanwick.
approached and eased his way through a knot of onlookers. “Never got around to it. It’s insured, anyway.”
His friend Inspector Matt Walker was inside, and he signaled “Well, thank you, Mr. Bernidi,” said Walker, closing his
to the policeman at the door to let Stanwick in. notebook. “We’ll check around and let you know when we
“Hello, Tom,” exclaimed Walker in mild surprise. “What make an arrest.”
brings you here?” “I think you can make an arrest right now,” said
“I was just passing by,” replied Stanwick quietly.
Stanwick. He glanced around the
cool, dark interior of the narrow
room. “What happened?” Why is Stanwick so sure?
“I was just about to ask Mr.
Turn to page 34 for the solution.
Bernidi to repeat his story to me.” The
two turned to the small, white-haired
owner, who was leaning against one
of the two display counters that ran
the length of both sides of the room.
His face was streaked with dust, and
he looked exhausted.
“I had just stepped into the back,” he said, “when I hear
the bell on the front door ring. I come out, and there’s this
guy, very well dressed, looking around and coming toward
me and the register. ‘Can I help you?’ I say, and he smiles and
pulls a gun halfway out of his jacket pocket. A little piece, but
I can see it’s real. Then he puts it back, but keeps his hand in
there. There’s nobody else around, so what can I do?
“Anyway, he makes me open the register, but I just
made a deposit, so there’s only a few bucks. He doesn’t get
mad, but takes a piece of clothesline out of another pocket,
ties my hands behind my back, and makes me lie down on
my stomach behind the side counter here, with my face to the
wall.
“It was tight; you can see there’s not much room back
there. Then I hear him opening the wood panels–these here,
the lower half of the counter–but he finds nothing. I only keep
supplies down there. Then he steps across to the opposite
counter, pulls out a little burlap sack, smashes the glass,
scoops some rings into the sack, and runs out. I get up, see the
broken glass, and yell for a cop.” Stan Smith is the author of three books of Stanwick mini-
mysteries that have been published in nine languages and
“What did the man look like?” asked Walker. sold over 120,000 copies. Learn more at www.stanwick-mini-
mysteries.com.
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Congrats!
Hot Sites
http://news.discovery.com/forensic-science/
A great website with lots of new information.
To Mark Kozubowski of Lindsborg KS.
He was randomly selected from those
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/
who took the time to offer feedback
on our website. He’s won a snazzy timestopics/subjects/f/forensic_science/index.html
webcam.
More forensic news, this time from the New York Times.
We’ll have more raffles in the coming
months. Keep an eye on our website
http://www.forensicmag.com/news
for more information. To be entered all
you have to do is click on the raffle link A free quality forensic publication.
on our homepage and let us know how
we’re doing, how can we improve, and
what you’d like to see more of. Before
each issue we’ll select one name at
http://forensicnews.blogspot.com/
random.
A forensic blog with a lot to think about.
http://www.forensicsinthenews.com/
Just what the title says. Keep up to date.
http://articles.cnn.com/keyword/forensic-science
It’s from CNN. You know it’s going to be entertaining.
http://www.coldcasecenter.com/news.htm
This site won’t win any awards for being great to look at, but
there’s a lot of information here.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/32682-
discovery-news-forensic-entomologist-video.htm
A good place for watching a ton of forensic videos.
http://fac.utk.edu/news.html
The best place place to hear news from and about the
original body farm.
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The Art of the Theft
Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, and for years its only member, has had a career that
makes The Thomas Crown Affair look tame. Born into a family of antique dealers, Wittman went undercover armed
only with his wits to catch art thieves, scammers, and black-market dealers all over the globe and recover stolen loot.
He was responsible for the return of golden armor from an ancient Peruvian warrior king, the Rodin sculpture that
inspired the Impressionist movement, the headdress Geronimo wore at his final powwow, and a rare Civil War battle
flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African American regiments.
Wittman traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell, Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso, and many others, and
often worked undercover at the whim of foreign governments. Here in America he recovered an original copy of the
Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. We found him at his Pennsylvania
office, not far from our own facility. We wanted to find out how he wound up in this branch of the FBI, and what his
teachers did to make learning fun for him.
By Mark R. Feil, Ed.D.
Forensic Teacher: When you joined the FBI, did you have operators is that you can only work one case at a time. But
any inkling you were going to be tracking down art thieves? because of the fact there weren’t a whole lot of people who
were doing these types of cases, I was usually undercover
Robert Wittman: No. When I joined the FBI back in 1988 somewhere in the world, but only two or three cases at a time.
at the height of Miami Vice TV show, and I thought I’d be So, I’d have to keep it all straight. It was pretty hectic; it was
breaking down doors and going after drug dealers. In all very interesting.
honesty, when I came to Philadelphia in 1988 I was actually
working organized crime. So, I really was involved with FT: You were in property, but what was it that made you
breaking down doors for drug dealers in Philadelphia. After realize you wanted to keep doing art crimes?
1990 I started working property crime and art crime cases
almost exclusively. RW: I thought it was important. To me, going after a stolen
car or money from a bank robbery is important as well, but I
FT: This was voluntary? just don’t see how that has an effect on the future. And I think
when someone robs a museum or steals art from a home, I
RW: The first couple of cases I was assigned I was on a think it affects the future if these pieces are gone and just
property crime squad. And then we were able to smoke them, disappear, and they may not come back. And on top of that,
and as a result the Bureau found out I had a background in it these pieces of art that we have, that we’ve kept over the
because my parents were in the antiques business, actually in centuries are pieces of human genius. I think it’s important for
the Asian antiques business. all of us as a culture to protect these pieces.
FT: Okay. FT: I read your book, Priceless, and it sounds exciting
working undercover.
RW: But I didn’t have much background in fine art, so the
Bureau sent me to the Barnes Foundation where I got a good RW: It’s exciting in that it’s a job. The use of the undercover
basic background in fine art. And once the government sends technique is like any other. It’s something that you use to chop
you to school, the government takes advantage of that. together evidence. Basically, it’s a complicated technique
that is used after everything else has been tried. So, if there’s
FT: And, at one time, you were basically it for art crimes for no other way to do a case, that’s when you go undercover. I
the FBI. was doing hard cases. I wasn’t an undercover agent. What
happened was, that was the only way I could solve those
RW: For undercover roles I was the guy doing most, if not cases, by using the undercover technique. But if I didn’t have
all, of the undercover work from 1997 to about 2000 until my to I wouldn’t do that, I would just do an investigation with
retirement. interviews, police reports, hard evidence like fingerprints and
that type of thing, and that was the preferred way of working
FT: That must have been exciting, but frustrating to know you a case. But if you have to go undercover that’s what you have
were the only one doing that. to do.
RW: It was hectic. One of the rules for the FBI for undercover FT: I feel the same way you do about art, and I wonder, how
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