fatal bullet, but that it had been
fred from the friend’s rifle.

In another instance of horse shoot-
ing, there were no suspects, but six
rifles of the same caliber as the fatal
bullet were sent down to Headquar-
ters. One of the rifles was identified
positively as having fired the shot
which injured the horse. It turned
out that this rifle belonged to the son
of the animal’s owner.

In a recent murder case there was
a great deal of difficulty in determin-
ing if the man had been shot or
stabbed to death. Medical examina-
tion tended to the belief that the
man had been shot, but no fatal
bullet could be found on the premises.
The deceased was taken to a hospital
and x-rayed from head to foot in an
endeavour to find if the bullet had
been deflected by a bone into another
part of the body. No bullet was
found. To make sure of the cause of
death, a piece of the deceased’s under-
shirt was sent to Headquarters, con-
taining one of the holes (there had
been several). This hole was un-
doubtedly a point of entry as the
fibres of wool were all forced in-
wards. Another garment of exactly
the same type and taken from the
deceased’s possession was also sent to
Headquarters for tests.

The garment was taken and hung
up at the range and a number of
shots were fired through it with
different kinds of ammunition. A
small section of cloth adjacent to the
hole was then removed from each
test hole and submitted to spectro-
graphic analysis. In each instance the
passage of the bullet had left traces
of metal behind, regardless of the
distance from which the shot was
fired. A section was then cut from
the hole in the garment which the
deceased was wearing at the time of
his death. Tihis was also subjected to
spectrographic analysis, but no trace
of metal could be found. Further
pathological examination supported
this finding, that the deceased had
met death by means of a sharp in-
strument and not by gun shot.

In a recent attempted murder case,
the defendant had shot the victim
With a shotgun, but the shot had
only wounded the victim, who ran
towards his assailant and wrestled
the gun away from him, then
knocked him into insensibility during
the struggle. The victim called the
police, who took both attacker and
attacked to hospital. In his defence
the assailant contended that he had
been attacked by the victim and that
during the struggle the shotgun had
gone off accidentally and wounded
the other. The victim, however, had
told a story of being ambushed and
shot from a distance. Medical testi-

NINETEENTH EDITION

mony indicated that the pellets in
the victims back had covered a fairly
wide area.

Firearms Identification were then
called in to determine the distance at
which the shot was actually fired. A
number of tests were made with the
weapon used employing identical
cartridges. Shot patterns were made
from a distance of one foot up to
fifteen feet. This information after
being checked and rechecked was
graphically illustrated in a chart
setting forth the cone of fire and
divergence of the pattern together
with a scale demonstrating the dis-
tances and relative sizes. The jury
was satisfied that the shot could not
have been fired from a distance of less
than eight or 10 feet and found the
accused guilty. The latter drew a
term of 20 years.

In another case a few years ago,
two empty cartridges were found at
the scene of the murder. These were
sent in to Firearms Identification to
be checked with the suspect’s rifle. It
was determined that one cartridge had
been fired from this weapon, but the
other one had been fired, presumably
some time before from the victim’s
rifle and had been ejected at the same
spot. The suspect was convicted and
sentenced to death.

One of Sub-Inspector Young's
oddest cases from the standpoint of
firearms identification came in the
case of Rex vs. Prince—murder.
Prince, it will be recalled, was sen-
tenced to death and executed for the
double murder of two trappers in
the northern part of the Province in
1944. The accused's rifle was of good
make and kept in wonderful condi-
tion. In fact he had a special scabbard
made for the weapon, and kept it
well oiled and free from rust or dirt.
It was the only thing upon which
this untutored savage lavished his
affection. When the fatal bullets were
banded to Young for identification,
he was surprised to find that one of
the land engravings was a great deal
wider than the others. He had never
run into a case like this before. He
then inspected the rifle and fired test
bullets from it and found the same
peculiarity. It seemed that this was
an error in manufacture which had
either been overlooked, or thought of
too little importance to reject the
rifle barrel.

NOT PARTICULAR

OLD LADY, TO STREET MUSICIAN:
“Do you play by ear?”

MuSICIAN: ‘Yes. ma'am, some-
times ‘ere and sometimes there.

When on Vancouver Island, Make Your
Headquarters at

THE LORNE HOTEL
COMOX, B.C.
F. R. COY, Manager

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BOX 246 ROYSTON, B.C.
Phone Courtenay 269-L-2

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Right or wrong?

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

LET'S STOP AN’
CLEAN THE
WINDSHIELD

YEAH=ITLL
ONLY TAKE
A MINUTE

\F YOU CAN'T
SEE-LET'S

pass
g it

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