Bernard Spilsbury was an English pathologist who came into prominence as a direct result of his appearance for the Prosecution in the Crippen case.
Several books have been written about him, including The Father of Forensics: How Sir Bernard Spilsbury invented Modern CSI by Colin Evans (2006), see list below.
Spilsbury was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a BA in natural science in 1899; M.B., B.Ch. in 1905 and an MA in 1908. He also studied at St Mary’s Hospital in London from 1899, where he specialised in the emerging science of forensic pathology.
In the Crippen case, he testified about the human remains that had been discovered in the cellar of 39 Hilldrop Crescent and concluded that a scar on a small piece of skin pointed to Mrs. Crippen being the likely victim. (Cora Crippen had had an operation some ten years previously and witnesses had testified that she did have a scar on the lower part of her abdomen.)
Dr Hubert Maitland Turnbull, director of the Pathological Institute at the]]London Hospital and an expert witness for the Defence, challenged Spilsbury’s opinion and declared that, based on his own experience, the skin had actually come from the upper part of a thigh and, instead of being a scar, it was simply a fold.
The Court accepted Spilsbury’s view and thenceforth he became a recognised authority on the science of forensics and he was knighted in 1923.
Curiously, Spilsbury died on 17th December 1947 and Chief Inspector Dew (1863-1947) had died the previous day.
Bibliography
- Browne, D.G. and Tullett, E.V. – Bernard Spilsbury: His Life and Cases (George G. Harrap,1951)
- Evans, C. – The Father of Forensics: The Groundbreaking Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury and The Beginnings of Modern CSI (Berkley Books, 2006)
- Randall, L. – The Famous Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury (Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1936).
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