WILL AND WILLIAM WEST CASE

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
 On May 1 in the year 1903, a man named Will West was convicted and arrived at the
Leavenworth Prison System. Just as the other prisoners, he had undergone standard admission
process such as photographs, physical descriptions, and anthropometric measurements. Upon
completing the process, the fact that the record keeper mistook him for another person who had
been registered led to the discovery of a serious anthropometric error.

Initially, prison clerk attempted to identify both men using Bertillon system. This was the
typical procedure for documenting and identifying criminals at the time. Will and William West's
measures, on the other hand, were identical. It was discovered that William West, a different
prisoner who was already detained at Leavenworth, had the same name, resemblance, and
measurements as Will and a more accurate method of identification was deemed necessary.
McLaughry, the Leavenworth warden claims, “This is the death of Bertillonage.”

The authorities in Leavenworth became aware of fingerprint identification long after Will
West's arrival. It was widely believed that William West's legend signaled the demise of
anthropometry. The 'West Brothers Case' exposed the Bertillon method's inadequacies, and it
wasn't long before US officials moved to fingerprinting. The usage of fingerprinting in identifying
and categorizing people increased. Given its infallibility and lack of comparability with other
criteria at the time, fingerprinting started to be employed and spread among law enforcement
agencies across the nation. After 1903, fingerprints were the main form of identification in many
jail systems. Fingerprinting increasingly gained over as the major identification technology around
the world in the 1920s.

Criminology was significantly influenced by the Bertillon system, generally known as

Bertillonage. This was the so-called anthropometry system, developed by an employee of the Paris
police prefecture named Alphonse Bertillon. He first introduced the anatomical feature-based
identification of people. Eleven distinct bodily measurements, including height, length, and
circumference of the head, width of the cheekbones, length of various fingers, length of the
forearms, etc., were measured using these tools. . Even a Paris newspaper proclaimed Bertillonage
to be the greatest and most brilliant criminology innovation of the nineteenth century.

Ironically, the Bertillon system's initial enthusiasm also highlighted one of its flaws. The
number of Bertillon cards in each category rapidly increased as law enforcement organizations
built up ever-larger libraries of these cards. The Bertillon system's intricacy, which gave it access
to such precise and accurate data, also proved to be a hindrance because it was difficult to recreate
accurately. The system's intricacy made training an ongoing source of concern. Bertillonage had
another drawback that finally led to its eventual abandonment as an identifying tool, even though
the issues with categorization and quality control might be resolved. Multiple instances of
mistaken identity demonstrated that, to the best of the system's ability, some physical traits were
shared and looked to be identical in all cases.

A few Bertillon system components are still utilized in the criminal police identification
procedure today, such as combination of profile and frontal pictures (mug shots) when
photographing offenders. The Bertillon system was in operation until 1903, when fingerprint
records superseded it.

The Bertillon system’s dominance started to wane in the face of a new identifying method
at the time: fingerprint identification. The use of fingerprints to verify identity began in the 16th
century. Sir Francis Galton invented the detail features for fingerprint identification in 1892. He
was the first to scientifically investigate them and so set the groundwork for their application in
criminal cases. He also developed the first practical fingerprint categorization method, which E.
R. Henry for use in police departments and other bureaucratic situations. . Ever since the dispersion
of these minutiae together with the related ridge structure, has been thought to be unique towards
each fingerprints and has been employed in police department individual identity records. Systems
for reading fingerprints are used in a variety of biometric applications, including physical
accessibility control, border protection, watch lists, background checks, and personal Identification
systems.

Due to its permanence and distinctiveness, fingerprint identification has become one of the
most crucial tools in criminal investigations. Due to these, forensic experts have employed
fingerprints as an identification tool in criminal investigations.

On recent, a closer review of the two men's Bertillon records revealed differences that
should have informed authorities that they were unique individuals. This featured a foot length
discrepancy of seven millimeters, which was more than the Bertillon system could match. The two
males did, in fact, resemble one other. Their Bertillon measurements yielded essentially identical
formulas, well within the range that may be attributable to individual differences in measuring
technique.
 The West case thus confirmed the accuracy and usefulness of fingerprint identification
while simultaneously discrediting three frequently used forms of personal identification, including
name, photograph, and anthropometric measurement. Occasionally, it can be challenging to tell
apart images of persons from the same ethnic group, even when there may be evident distinctions.
The Bertillon system was intrinsically flawed since it was predicated on the entirely unproven
notion that an individual could be individually recognized by identical Bertillon measures, and
because the method for obtaining those measurements may vary depending on who took it. This
error made fingerprint identification more reliable and reinforced its status as the established
standard for personal identification.

Each of the person's fingerprint is distinct. Even identical twins with the same DNA have
unique fingerprints. The Will West and William West case changed the face of forensics. Law
enforcement officers realized that is a very reliable method of identifying persons. Today,
fingerprinting is still and is beneficial for keeping criminal histories and identifying records.
Galton was most interested in fingerprints as a tool for assessing heredity and racial heritage,
however, it made a step forward in Dactyloscopy by specifying and prosecuting a killer primarily
on the fingerprints. As a result of this following advancement, DNA analysis and dental X-rays
allow for the accurate identification of persons. Fingerprinting has been employed to both identify
and solve offenders. It is still a highly valuable instrument in police enforcement.