American Sherlock: Remembering a Pioneer in Scientific Crime Investigation

In 1910, a family friend asked 17-year-old Luke S. May, the subject of this admiring biography from first-time author Filby, to help find who fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in Salt Lake City. Thanks to May’s keen observation skills, the killer was caught and punished, and so began a lifetime of detective work for May. By the time he was 18, he had his own private detective agency, and in his heyday, in the 1920s and ’30s, May was known as the American Sherlock Holmes, a pioneer of fingerprint analysis and profiling who designed equipment such as a fingerprint camera, a sound recorder, and a microscope he used for handwriting and hair analysis. As a private criminologist, he was sought after by law enforcement agencies across the nation. In 1933, he was appointed chief of detectives of the Seattle Police Department, which he subsequently reorganized and modernized. During World WWII, May was on active duty with the Navy, though much of his work was classified. After the war, his business wound down as police departments and law enforcement agencies had their own labs and forensic specialists on staff. He died in 1965, but his legacy as an early criminologist lives on. Filby writes with enthusiasm and verve. This is an important addition to the history of forensic science. [em](Aug.) [/em]