American Sherlock by Evan E. Filby

Author:Evan E. Filby
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538129197
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2019-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

On the key matter of the knife marks, the court recognized only one good match in the Fasick case. Moreover, May would have had to admit that he had trouble reproducing test cuts that matched well. That, in the court’s view, was insufficient to prove the point. But for the Clark case, the court counted fifty matching features. Also, with his improved method, May could make as many matching cuts as anyone wanted. Thus, the court did not reverse itself on tool marks. They simply ruled the evidence for the first case to be insufficient, but sufficient in the second.

The final decision, State of Washington vs. Clark (1930), became a legal precedent for the later use of tool marks in court. It is perhaps less often understood that the affirmation was not a blanket approval for the admissibility of all such evidence. The expert must be prepared to show that the tool mark evidence is sufficient to prove the point. Luke May left relatively few statements of his personal feelings. But he later wrote that the acceptance of his tool mark breakthrough was “gratifying to the writer.”21

And even before the final ruling, he received a letter from fellow criminologist Edward Heinrich. The note began, “Recently while riding on a train I was reading a copy of the Tacoma News-Tribune.”22 He went on, “My attention was at once attracted to a report of the conviction of Franklyn G. Clark.” The article described, with photos, how May had explained the tool mark evidence to the jury. Heinrich then said he felt “unrestrained admiration” for May’s “exceptionally clear” presentation. “I want to congratulate you on the success of your effort.”

This praise from a fellow criminologist must have also been gratifying for May. Heinrich’s closing implies that the two did occasionally exchange ideas and thoughts about crime detection. He wrote, “Under separate cover I am sending to you a copy of The California Monthly which contains a recent article from my pen.”23

The tool mark precedent would be a factor in a case that played out five years later in the glare of international publicity. But long before that, May’s expertise would be urgently called upon in the aftermath of one of the most horrific crimes of the gangster era.

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