h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From 37, he was an 'Expert Witness'

From 54, we get burden of proof. Is he claiming to be the only person in the World able to present such evidence??

Between 94 and 97, the only missing step is actually LOADING the gun. Did he say that he found fingerprints on the bullet itself, after it had been removed from the deceased? Or did he say that he could match mangled bullet to gun barrel?

From 107. How do you fire a gun where the mechanism is too rusted to have ben used?? Hit the gun's hammer (hence firing pin)with something solid??

Could be that he matched firing pin to bullet casing.......??



GT

Well this QIs gone on long enough and it's now strayed into the new year so I'm calling it closed.

I'll write up the explanation and sort out the scores.

Nudge, nudge!!!!

Wakey, Wakey Clive!!!

Don't keep us on tenterhooks!!!

C'mon Clive, are you going to call time?


Geggs

Oooh yeah -

Right the idea behind this QI was that Atbert Hamilton was an out-and-out fraud, a lair, con artist charlatan and fake, who managed to be right about one thing - thus initiating indirectly the science of forensic ballistics - while in the case concerned having his claims dismissed.

However this was not the only case in which he served as a so-called "expert witness" and nor was he alone in his activities, there were many such people operating at the time that it became necessary to clamp down on who was and who wasn't able to serve as a professional wittness and that had a lot to do with developing the science involved.

Onto particulars then. (any similarities to The Green Mile are incidental)

The case concerned Charles Stielow, declared to be a simpleton, working as a farm hand, his strength however was legendary and on the 22nd March 1915 both the farm owner and his wife were found shot to death. It was discovered that Stielow owned guns of the same calibre, promised he was be unarrested and released if he just confessed, he admitted to his crimes was duly charged and tried for murder.

On trial for his life, he crossed paths with Albert Hamilton, who assessed the revolver and announced he could see "abnormal scratches" in the barrel. On inspecting the bullets he announced confidently to a stunned courtroom that these bullets could have come from this gun and no other." This bravura performance didn't draw a single question in cross-examination so impressed was the court with Hamilton's analysis.

When David White announced he couldn't himself detect the tell-tale scratch Hamilton announced the bullet was such a snugg fit, the expanding gasses had super-heated the bullet, and the expanding lead had filled it in.

Stielow is convicted and sent to death row, narrowly avoiding execution several times only when questions start being asked after somone else confesses. The state governor intervenes and orders a commission be set up to investigate.

A expert microscope expert testifed he could not detect the scratches, which Hamilton had identified by sight. He detected a manufacurer's flaw (a real one) which would have patterned the bullets in ways that under examinatino they were not - thus it was established that Stiewlow's guns did not fire the bullets but for the same reasons that Hamilton had made up!

The net result was that Stielow was pardoned and released. However the commission was that investigated the case headed by one George Bond, a lawyer, who would choose as his deputy the District General Attorny Charle E Waite.

And Waite is a significant character for it is he is part of a quartet which established the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics in New York City in April 1925 including Calvin Goddard who invented the comparison microscope specifically for examining the markings on bullets and shell cases.

4 years later the new scienctific enterprise was to encounter it's greatest test yet in terms of who-shot-who: The St Valentine's Day Massacre.

QI - Cygnus x 4
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Correct (+3)
------------------------
Geggs (19)
"Foresworn"

Gandalf'sTwin (29)
"They didn't know he was perjuring."

Taff (73)
"Ballistics"

Gandalf's Twin (78)
"Even when he wasn't certain he said a particular gun fired a particular bullet.


QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------

Taff (86)
"A biropen used to have the same dimensions as a 7.62mm round.
Good for faking target practice."



DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
HygienicDispenser (14)
Four Swan...Force One / Fork 'andles - that sort of thing!"

Gandalf's Twin (30)
"Testifying in Capital Cases"

Rod (32)
"He wasn't really a doctor"

Geggs (51)
"Why did they believe him?"

Pebblederook (55)
"Responsible for subsequent developments."

Gandalf'sTwin (66)
"Ahead of the curve in forensic science."

Geggs (112)
"A property claimed to be unique to each gun."

Gandlaf's Twin (116)
"A unique Mark."

Rod (120)
"Claimed to be able to see or interpret things."


Klaxon (-5)
------------------------

HygienicDispenser (3)
"Pioneered Fingerprints"

HygienicDispenser (4)
"Executioner"

Geggs (40)
"Phrenology"

Van Smeiter (49)
"Medium / Psychic"



Elf Bonus (+2)
------------------------
Clive




Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------

Taff +9
Gandalf'sTwin+9
Rod +2
Clive + 2
Pebble +1
Geggs - an heroic 0!
Van -5
HygienicDispenser -9

Heroic indeed. Sometimes breaking even is as good as it gets.


geggs