![]() ![]() Investigative Photography Becomes A Regular Part Of Police WorkĪdoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images Alphonse Bertillon's "God's-Eye-View" tripod system. But with photos, the scene could be revisited time and time again, allowing new sets of eyes to pick out new details. Photography fixed these shortcomings.Īfter the scene was cleaned up, any visual evidence was cleaned up with it. Investigators did their best to take notes and detail the scene, but certain aspects went unnoticed or were eventually forgotten. It was certainly not used to capture something as horrifying as dead bodies - particularly bludgeoned ones.Īnd yet, it was rapidly discovered that these photos, as unsettling as they were, were incredibly useful when it came to investigating a crime. Even more importantly, he captured the body of Madame Debeinche sprawled on the floor by the side of her bed, her limbs bent at unnatural angles, the tips of her extremities darkening, showing hours had passed since she'd been killed.Īt the time, the camera was still a relatively novel invention used mostly for posed portraits. The photographer focused on a few key details, like a tilted painting on the wall, disheveled bed linens, and overturned chairs. As investigators descended upon the apartment, one of them picked up a camera and photographed the scene. One of the first famous crime scene photos was taken on May 5, 1903, in the home of a Parisian woman named Madame Debeinche who had been murdered. This is one of the first real crime scene photos ever taken.įorensic photography, or the practice of taking photos at the scene of a crime, has been around for over a century. A chilling photograph of a dead body taken on January 11th, 1932.Metropolitan Museum of Art Madame Debeinche lies dead in her bedroom, 1903. A “John Doe” victim lying in a yard found on July 13th, 1930. A victim who had his throat slashed in his car photographed on March 11th, 1929. A jewlery store heist gone wrong on July 23rd, 1932. Photos taken at the Hollywood Hills home of comedian Lenny Bruce following his overdose on August 3, 1966. Member of the Manson Family arriving for their arraignment in 1970. A photograph of a crude note given to a bank teller in 1961. An LAPD officer administrating a field sobriety test to a woman on July 6th, 1958. A truck carrying a huge load of seized marijuana photographed on October 11th, 1935. A lifeless body lying underneath a bridge over the Los Angeles River in 1955. Some of the more infamous photos that were salvaged by Morton include the aftermath of comedian Lenny Bruce’s overdose in March of 1966 and a shot of members of the Manson Family arriving at their arrangement in 1970. The grim collection includes pictures that chronicle crimes such as mob hits and bank robberies, as well as other curious images such as one of Maila Nurmi dressed as Vampira posing in what appears to be a dingy-looking storage facility (pictured at the top of this post). Morton and his group of film archivists spent hundreds of hours toiling to rescue the photos that had been slated for the trash pile owing to their condition. Cellulose nitrate was used widely in the film industry up until the late 1940s or early 1950s when it was “retired” from use due to the dangers associated with the decomposing film. The photos were in such bad shape that their decay posed a fire threat thanks to the instability of the cellulose nitrate-based film and negatives. In 2014 LA photographer Merrick Morton (who also spent time as an LAPD reserve officer) was hipped to the existence of a massive collection of crime scene photos taken for the LAPD that had been long forgotten. Started in 2009, the photographic archive has digitized photos that were taken as early as the 1920s. Fototeka is a large photo digitation service that works in conjunction with the National Film Archive to enhance historically relevant vintage photographs. It is a part of a huge collection of vintage LAPD crime scene pictures unearthed by photographer Merrick Morton in 2014. An image of Maila Nurmi as Vampira taken in 1955. ![]()
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