Fingerprinting replaced body measurements after a mother was convicted by a bloody thumbprint
Fingerprinting became the global standard for identification in the late 19th century after a bloody thumbprint on a door convicted a mother of murdering her own children.
In 1892, Argentine police official Juan Vucetich solved the murder of two young boys by matching a bloody thumbprint found at the scene to their mother, Francisca Rojas. This was the first time fingerprint evidence was used to secure a conviction, and it immediately exposed the flaws in 'Bertillonage,' a rival system that relied on cumbersome body measurements.
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