Bertillon, the man who revolutionized forensic science 

2024-02-15T04:10:40.979Z

Highlights: On October 16, 1902, at 157 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, the most important crime in all of police history took place. The assassination of Joseph R., a dentist's servant, will revolutionize, forever, police methods throughout the world. When Alphonse Bertillon goes to the scene of the crime, a detail jumps out at him: very visible fingerprints are present on the window of the door of the furniture in the room. Perhaps he could reproduce these prints, compare them with the one on his files and find the culprit among the repeat offenders? How will this man, described as terribly resentful, resolve this affair? Pierre Bellemare tells this incredible story in this episode of the Europe 1 archives.

On October 16, 1902, at 157 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, the most important crime in all of police history took place. For what ? Quite simply because the assassination of Joseph R., a dentist's servant, will revolutionize, forever, police methods throughout the world. However, nothing was decided in advance! Alphonse Bertillon, the officer of the time, is a sad, cold and sarcastic man. Expelled several times from the best French schools and after some professional failures, it was finally thanks to his father that he obtained the position of auxiliary to the prefecture. At that time, the police had no other way than to identify individuals by name. Alphonse Bertillon then decides to establish an “anthropometric classification”, which he calls “bertillonnage”. A method which allows the measurements of arrested individuals to be recorded. In recent years, however, a new identification system seems to overshadow the “bertillonnage”, that of fingerprints. When Alphonse Bertillon goes to the scene of the crime, a detail jumps out at him: very visible fingerprints are present on the window of the door of the furniture in the room. Perhaps he could reproduce these prints, compare them with the one on his files and find the culprit among the repeat offenders? But achieving this miracle would, for Alphonse Bertillon, recognize the superiority of this method to his own... How will this man, described as terribly resentful, resolve this affair? Pierre Bellemare tells this incredible story in this episode of the podcast “The extraordinary stories of Pierre Bellemare”, from the Europe 1 archives and produced by Europe 1 Studio.