Category: Forensic science
The Motley Few, Act I
**Contains major plot spoilers for The Affair at the Victory Ball.**

A Singular Dedication
This dedication by Agatha Christie in her collection of short stories The Mysterious Mr. Quin is wholly unique because it marks the only time Christie dedicated one of her works to one of her fictional characters. It is apposite, however, as Harley Quin was probably her favorite among her creations. In her Autobiography, Christie states,
Actually my output seems to have been rather good in the years 1929 to 1932: besides full-length books I had published two collections of short stories. One consisted of Mr. Quin stories. These are my favourite. I wrote one, not very often, at intervals of perhaps three or four months, sometimes longer still. Magazines appeared to like them, and I liked them myself, but I refused all offers to do a series for any periodical. I didn’t want to do a series of Mr. Quin: I only wanted to do one when I felt like it. He was a kind of carry-over for me from my early poems in the Harlequin and Columbine series.
Unlike Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Harley Quin is not a detective. Rather he is an ephemeral being, arriving at the scene of mysterious circumstances (often involving romantic entanglements) to guide Mr. Sattherthwaite (who could be considered the detective in stories involving Mr. Quin) to the truth about the situations. Although he wears a typical dark suit, it is often described that the light hits him in certain ways to produce effects of a colorful motley or black domino mask. Christie continues,

Mr. Quin was a figure who just entered into a story--a catalyst, no more--his mere presence affected human beings. There would be some little fact, some apparently irrelevant phrase, to point him out for what he was: a man shown in harlequin-coloured light that fell on him through a glass window; a sudden appearance or disappearance. Always he stood for the same things: he was a friend of lovers, and connected with death. Little Mr. Satterthwaite, who was, as you might say, Mr. Quin’s emissary, also became a favourite character of mine.
The Mysterious Mr. Quin was published in 1930, shortly after the death of Christie’s brother Monty from a stroke possibly related to wounds suffered in World War I.
The character of Harley Quin only appeared in 14 stories, assembled into one collection (The Mysterious Mr. Quin) and as part of other collections (The Harlequin Tea Set and Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories). Apart from a silent movie in 1928, there has never been a cinematic or television adaptation of the works, and Harley Quin remains one of Christie’s lesser known characters.
Christie and the Harlequinade
As mentioned in What’s in a Dame?, Christie participated in amateur theatricals in her youth, and a common performance piece at the time was the Harlequinade. Derived from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, the Harlequinade as a pantomime, play, or ballet tells the story of Harlequin (from the Italian “Arlecchino”), a servile rogue with a predilection to aid lovers with the help of magic and invisibility. He romantically pursues Columbine, an intelligent and compassionate servant. His rival for her affections is Pierrot, who downplays his disappointment when spurned by playing tricks and pranks. The character of Pierrette was a female counterpart to and love interest of Pierrot. Punchinello and Pulcinella may also be servants but more often seem to be the masters in a situation, imposing figures with long noses and broad bellies. The Harlequinade would tell a variety of stories with this cast of characters, often involving some scheme to separate Harlequin and Columbine, and Harlequin would use a magical stick called a “slapstick” to resolve the silly situations – this is the origin of the term slapstick humor.

Pierrot was traditionally played by an actor without a mask and wearing white make-up, which is thought to be the origin of white clown make-up. Harlequin was traditionally masked with a dark brown or black mask, suggesting African influences on the character but more likely related to systemic racism within theatre and society in relation to the character of a servant. Punchinello appears to be the origin of the character Punch from Punch and Judy puppet shows.
Inspired by these theatrical scenes, young Agatha composed a great deal of poetry in her childhood. Some of the poems she wrote around age 17 were published in The Road of Dreams in 1924, including verses about Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, and Pierrette; the young Christie even set her Harlequin poems to music. “Harlequin’s Song” describes the character with,
I pass
Where’er I’ve a mind,
With a laugh as I dance,
And a leap so high,
With a lightning glance,
And a crash and a flash
In the summer sky!
I come in the wind,
And I go with a sigh…
And nobody ever sees Harlequin,
“Happy go lucky” Harlequin,
Go by…
[…]
I must play my part…
For never a soul has Harlequin,
Happy go lucky Harlequin,
Only a broken heart…

Christie’s grandmother also owned a set of Dresden figurines from the Italian comedy, which are still part of the family’s collection. Drawing inspiration from her love of this set of characters, particularly Harlequin, Christie included them (and a similar set of figurines) in her first short story to feature Hercule Poirot, The Affair at the Victory Ball. The story was published in Sketch in 1923 and tells the story of the murder of Lord Cronshaw at the Victory Ball, which was followed closely by the death of the actress Coco Courtenay by cocaine overdose.
A Victorious Affair
Lord Cronshaw, 25 years of age, was rumored to be engaged to Ms. Courtenay. The pair attended the Victory Ball, dressed as Harlequin and Columbine, in the company of Punchinello (Lord Eustace Beltane, uncle to Cronshow who would inherit his title), Pulcinella (Mrs. Mallaby, an American widow), Pierrot (Chris Davidson, an acting friend of Coco’s), and Pierrette (Mrs. Davidson, Chris’s wife), in costumes inspired by Lord Beltane’s figure collection. The mood was tense between Cronshaw and Courtenay, who requested Chris Davidson escort her home following dinner. After accompanying the tearful actress home, Davidson returned to his flat in Chelsea.

At the Ball, Lord Cronshaw was scarcely seen by the party for the rest of the evening until 1:30 a.m., when he was spotted by a Captain Digby. He asked Lord Cronshaw to rejoin the group, but he had not done so after several minutes. A small search party was formed with Digby, Mrs. Davidson, and Mrs. Mallaby, who discovered Cronshaw stabbed to death in the supper room. On his body was a small enamel box half filled with cocaine and with the name “Coco” inscribed in diamonds. Also discovered tightly clenched in the Lord’s fist was a small green pompon, with ragged threads as though it had been pulled forcefully from its source. The next morning, the body of Coco Courtenay was found in her bed, her death due to an accidental or intentional overdose of cocaine.
These facts of the case are related to Hercule Poirot by Chief Inspector Japp, whose highest talent, according to Captain Hastings, “lay in the gentle art of seeking favours under the guise of conferring them!” Poirot visits Lord Beltane to view the original sculptures and the Davidson home to view the Pierrette costume, which had green pompons. At the conclusion of this investigation, Poirot arranges for a Harlequinade of his own, hiring actors to portray each of the members of the Cronshaw party. Through this elaborate reconstruction, Poirot reveals that Chris Davidson had killed Harlequin and worn a duplicate costume to pose as Lord Cronshaw at 1:30 a.m., several hours after the original Harlequin had been murdered.
Central to the dispute between Davidson and Cronshaw was the use of cocaine by Ms. Courtenay. Lord Cronshaw strongly disapproved of the use of the drug and had demanded Coco’s supply earlier in the evening; therefore, Coco’s enamel box was found on his body. Davidson, who supplied cocaine to Coco, murdered Cronshaw to prevent his exposure as a drug trafficker. While escorting Coco home, he was able to provide her with more cocaine, likely encouraging her to take a larger dose out of spite for Cronshaw’s objections. The tragic result was the death of the young actress, as well.
By viewing the figurines, Poirot was able to ascertain that the elaborate rump and ruffle of the Punchinello costume would have prevented Lord Beltane from changing into the Harlequin costume without assistance. The two women were eliminated because Cronshaw was stabbed with a dull table knife, which would have required considerable strength. And upon visiting the Davidson’s house, Poirot noted that the green pompon missing from the Pierrette costume was cut with scissors rather than being torn off, as the pompon in the fist of Cronshaw was; therefore, the pompon was from Pierrot’s costume. These facts pointed directly to Chris Davidson as the perpetrator, who stabbed Cronshaw shortly following dinner and before returning Coco Courtenay home. Presumably, Davidson had a second Harlequin costume made before the Victory Ball expressly for the commission of his crime, but this is not detailed in the story.

True Crime Inspiration
This story was very obviously inspired by the death of Billie Carleton (whose given name was Florence Leonora Stewart), a young actress who died from a cocaine overdose after attending a Victory Ball at the Royal Albert Hall in 1918. Carleton was close friends with Reginald DeVeulle, a dressmaker who reportedly hosted opium parties at his house. DeVeulle, dressed as Harlequin, attended the Victory Ball in the company of his wife Pauline (costume unknown). While at the Ball, DeVeulle allegedly provided a supply of cocaine in a small silver or gold (reports vary) box to the actor Lionel Belcher to pass to Carleton.

After the festivities at the Ball, Belcher and two other actresses, Olive Richardson and Irene Castle, returned to Carleton’s apartment to continue their revelry. It is not known what exactly transpired, but Carleton retired to bed early in the morning, and the others returned to their respective homes. Later in the morning, Carleton’s maid noticed she had stopped snoring; the maid was unable to wake her, and she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Carleton’s death was ruled to be the result of cocaine overdose. The police and public focused on her decadent lifestyle, as she was known to attend opium parties and her reputation had cost her at least one role. Looking to blame a “foreign” influence on her behavior and death, Carleton’s friend and costumer Reggie de Veulle, who allegedly supplied her with cocaine, was ruled to be culpable for her death at the coroner’s inquisition but then acquitted on a formal charge of manslaughter; however, he was charged with supplying cocaine to Carleton. A husband-and-wife duo, Lo Ping Yu and Ada Lo Ping, also received several months of jail time for their roles in supplying opium to the dead actress, among others.

Christie was no doubt inspired by this sensational story from a Victory Ball in 1918. However, her story added the murder of Lord Cronshaw in the guise of Harlequin. Cronshaw adamantly opposed drug taking and was murdered for his beliefs, so this appears to be a way for Christie to reclaim one of her favorite characters as a noble martyr after being used as a costume by a perceived villain such as de Veulle.
Christie even borrowed the name “Cronshaw” from a previous criminal lawsuit that involved Reggie de Veulle, where one of the victims was named William Cronshaw.
Cocaine possession was illegal in Britain following the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which was passed in 1916.
Cocaine use is featured in several other Christie novels, including Peril at End House, Hickory Dickory Death, and the Labours of Hercules. Christie seems to have some sympathy for addicts, but her knowledge of the drug’s effects was more often used to typify the questionable morality of some of her characters.
Physiological Effects of Cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid. It exerts physiological effects by binding proteins within the body, most notably the serotonin transporter, dopamine transporter, and norepinephrine transporter. These three transporters are involved in the transmission of the respective neurotransmitters from neuron to neuron in the central nervous system. When cocaine binds, the reuptake of the neurotransmitters is reduced or eliminated, causing prolonged stimulation of the downstream neurons.

Inhibition of the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin is the primary function of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are popular antidepressant medications.
Additionally, cocaine binds to voltage-gated ion channels in the heart, which can result in cardiotoxicity. These channels are present on cellular membranes and control the amount of electrolytes present within cells versus between cells. Electrical changes in the cellular membranes control whether the channels are open or closed. Therefore, an interruption in the function of these channels can lead to deadly electrolyte imbalances.
Electrolytes are ionic (or positively or negatively charged) forms of mineral elements, for example, sodium (+1), potassium (+1), and calcium (+2).
Research has shown that the interaction of cocaine with dopamine receptors is the primary mechanism that drives addiction. In animals genetically manipulated such that their dopamine receptors do not bind cocaine, addictive behaviors do not manifest when the animals are provided and/or deprived of cocaine. However, the interaction between cocaine and the serotonin receptor may cause convulsions, so the displacement of serotonin does play a role in cocaine toxicity. Lastly, the inhibition of norepinephrine signalling by cocaine can lead to rapid increases in blood pressure.
Cocaine also interacts with cholinergic receptors and prevents reduction in heart rate. This interaction would cause an increase in heart rate (similar to atropine as described in Tuesday Night Fever). Coupled with the effect on voltage-gated channels and the increase in blood pressure from norepinephrine inhibition, damage to the heart is a central component of cocaine toxicity. Because the neurotransmitter receptors have a higher affinity for cocaine (in other words, cocaine can bind strongly at lower concentrations), the central nervous system is affected first; for example, the user begins to have seizures. With higher doses or concentrations of cocaine, the voltage-gated ion channels are then affected, and the cardiotoxic effects of cocaine are seen. The interference of cocaine with voltage-gated sodium, potassium, and calcium channels will cause cardiac arrhythmias, which are abnormal changes in heart rate. These arrhythmias can cause sudden cardiac death in cocaine users, even without any pre-exisiting cardiac conditions.
Christie does not provide specific details of Coco Courtenay’s death (nor other characters who perish from cocaine), but it is plausible that the victims suffered sudden cardiac death or a severe seizure. At Reggie de Veulle’s trial, a doctor testified that Billie Carleton had cocaine present in her nostrils and died as a result of an increase in blood pressure and the formation of blood clots in her heart due to the cocaine, which starved her body of oxygen and led to death. Interestingly, the doctor who attended Carleton the morning of her death stated he administered strychnine (and brandy) in an attempt to resuscitate the actress. She was 22 years old at the time of her death.

Rigor Mortis
Another intriguing scientific principle that features in The Affair at the Victory Ball is rigor mortis, the stiffening of muscles following death. Because Chris Davidson donned a harlequin costume and impersonated Lord Cronshaw within 10 minutes of his cohorts finding the body, a doctor testified that the stiffening of Cronshaw’s body was abnormal. However, because Cronshaw had been killed several hours prior, this was actually the natural process of rigor mortis. In addition to suggesting the time of death, it also led to the discovery of the important clue of the green pompon, which was clenched in Cronshaw’s fist.

Immediately following death, all muscles in the body are fully relaxed. Within the first hour, some of the smaller muscle groups (such as the jaw and eyelids) begin to stiffen, followed by larger muscle groups. The timing of onset and development of rigor mortis can vary considerably due to factors such as the ambient temperature, and rigor mortis develops more quickly in higher temperatures.
In a living body, the functional unit of skeletal muscles, myofibrils, comprise the myofilaments actin and myosin. To contract, they are acted upon by adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is an enzymatic cofactor that is involved in intracellular energy transfer. In the presence of ATP, actin and myosin form the compound actomyosin, which physically shortens during muscle contraction. Shortly after death, the production of ATP ceases, and the crossbridges formed between actin and myosin no longer break down. This results in the muscle stiffening and shortness that is characteristic of rigor mortis.
An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes chemical reactions by reducing the energy required, and they are not consumed by the reaction. An enzymatic cofactor is a molecule that binds to a specific region of an enzyme and is required for the normal function of the enzyme.

Rigor mortis may take 6 to 18 hours to fully take effect but can occur more quickly in higher temperatures. If the individual who dies was engaged in vigorous exercise, such as a struggle, before death, the onset may even be more rapid; this was likely the case with Lord Cronshaw as he attempted to fight off Chris Davidson.
The discovery of the green pompon clasped tightly in Cronshaw’s fist may be less scientifically plausible. A theory of “cadaveric spasm” posits that rigor mortis can instantly appear following death based on the appearance of dead bodies during World War I and World War II. However, there remains no credible biological explanation for such a phenomenon, and it is more likely that rigor mortis set in with the typical delay during the wars, but the bodies had continued to be affected by explosions on the battlefield until it fully set in.

Consequently, it is highly unlikely that Lord Cronshaw’s fist remained tightly clasped around the pompon from the time just before his death until his discovery. Because all muscles relax after death, he would have dropped the pompon, but as long as it remained just beneath the palm of his hand, he would have re-grasped it when rigor mortis took effect. This is possible but somewhat unrealistic given the short period of time between his death and the discovery of his body. Nevertheless, the inclusion of this plot point illustrates Christie’s basic understanding of rigor mortis.
The next blog post will further explore the characters of Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite and describe medical conditions whose names are derived from the character of Harlequin.
Night Train to Perdition, Act III
See Night Train to Perdition, Act I, for a summary of Murder on the Orient Express, and Night Train to Perdition, Act II, for a summary of related true-crime cases, including the kidnap and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. The post you are reading details the forensic science responsible for the capture and conviction of one of the kidnappers, in particular the wood evidence provided by the ladder used in the kidnapping.
The Wooden Witness
As noted in Act II, two key pieces of evidence were discovered immediately following the crime at the Lindbergh estate: a handwritten ransom note and a custom ladder. In their preliminary examination of the three-sectional ladder, the investigators postulated that the user was neither too tall nor too short and was left handed. The left handedness of the user was based on the pattern of saw blade cuts in the wood as well as the placement of the ladder to the right of the nursery window, which would allow the user to navigate entry into the nursery from his left side. The runners used in the ladders appeared to resemble wood crates that were used to protect bathtubs during transit, and police reported that the ladder was similar to those used with pipe organs.
Silver nitrate interacts with salt deposits found in human sweat and shed with fingerprints, which can then be visualized with ultraviolet light.
In the middle of 1932 and still at a loss for any leads, the investigators turned to the federal government for assistance. They sent the ladder, a chisel that was also found at the Lindbergh estate, and a soil sample to the Department of Justice. Drawing on the expertise within various federal departments, the DOJ sent samples from the ladder to the US Forest Service, of which 7 samples were sent to the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, a joint research venture with the Forest Service. Upon receipt, FPL Director Carlisle P. Winslow told Arthur Koehler, considered the nation’s top wood identification expert, to disregard all other projects and immediately identify the source of the wood in the Lindbergh kidnapping ladder. To do so, Koehler would apply his specialty in xylotomy, which is the art of preparing sections of wood for microscopic examination.
The Wood Expert
Arthur Koehler had established himself as a skilled xylotomist and had been serving as an expert witness in criminal trials following his promotion to the Head of Wood Technology at the FPL. He had recently testified in the murder trial of John Magnuson regarding the source of wood used by the criminal to encase a bomb, which led to a conviction. Koehler had even offered his assistance to Lindbergh after the kidnapping with a personal letter:
I read further in the newspaper about that homemade ladder left behind by the fellow who had done the crime and I grew excited. You see, that ladder, because it was made of wood, seemed just like a daring challenge.
Within a few days after that I wrote a letter to the Lindbergh baby’s father, saying I thought it might be possible to trace that ladder’s members until the wood matched up with other wood so as to compromise the man involved. Of course, I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but I have specialized in the study of wood. Just as a doctor who devotes himself to stomachs or tonsils or human vertebrae narrows down his interests to a sharp focus on the single field of his pet passion, so I, a forester, have done with wood.
He did not receive a response from Lindbergh.
Less than one week after receiving samples from the kidnapping ladder, Koehler had identified the various sources as Douglas fir, paper birch, Ponderosa pine, and Southern pine through comparisons with the FPL’s library of wood specimens. After submitting his report to the Department of Justice, Koehler wanted to continue helping with the investigation, his goal to make the ladder a “wooden witness.”
The Wooden Autopsy
In early 1933, the New Jersey State Police would take Koehler up on his offer. Koehler was given full access to the ladder, which he dismantled to perform an “autopsy.” Each rung and rail was numbered, measured, and calipered. Koehler identified the source for each piece and closely examined the components for marks made during the assembly of the ladder. As relatively few sources of wood were used to construct the ladder, Koehler concluded “that the maker had a limited amount of material to choose from.”
Among all the pieces of the kidnapping ladder, Rail 16 seemed to offer the greatest potential for confirmatory evidence to match to a criminal. Rail 16 was North Carolina pine (the same as Rails 12 and 13), but it was more knotty and had not been machine planed. Rather, it had been hand-planed on both edges, leading Koehler to believe that the rail was worked down from a wider piece of wood:

Why he planed both edges of rail 16 is a mystery unless it was rough edged to begin with. The edges were not always at right angles to the face, and scratches made by the plane wobbled back and forth along the edge…the scratches left by a hand plane on both edges of this rail were exactly the same as those on one side of each of the [cleats], proving conclusively that they were made by the same plane, and presumably at approximately the same time, probably when the ladder was made.
Furthermore, Rail 16 had four nail holes that had been made by square-cut or 8-penny iron nails, which had been phased out of production by the end of the 1800s in favor of cheaper wire nails made from soft steel. In the 1930s, square-cut nails were still used in home construction, and the regular spacing of the nail holes in Rail 16 suggested they may have come from a building.
Keen to pursue multiple avenues of investigation, Koehler also fully characterized the marks from the machine planer used on Rails 12 and 13. He sent letters to the known manufacturers of wood planers to inquire as to which mills they may have sold the characteristic planers, and then solicited the mills for samples for examination. From April to September 1933, Koehler sent a total of 1596 requests and received 23 samples. Despite the small number of samples, he was able to identify Rails 12 and 13 as having been planed in a mill in South Carolina by examining the planer knife marks microscopically and measuring the marks to 1/100th of an inch. Ultimately, Koehler was unable to trace the kidnapper(s) based on Rails 12 and 13 because the Bronx lumber yard from which it was likely sold was a cash-only business.
Meanwhile...
At the same time that Koehler was examining the wood of the kidnapping ladder, the police were actively tracing the ransom money. The $50,000 that was paid on behalf of the Lindbergh family by the go-between John Condon primarily comprised $20 and $10 gold certificates. Elmer Irey, an IRS accountant, proposed this mechanism to allow for easier tracing of the ransom money as the gold certificates were being phased out of circulation. The remaining ransom money was $5 bills with red seals and red serial numbers. All of the ransom money was printed in 1928, and a list of the serial numbers was sent to banks across the country.

Bills from the lot of ransom money would occasionally surface over the year and a half following its payment in 1932, most often in New York City. On 17 Sep 1933, a man paid for 98 cents of gasoline with a $10 gold certificate at a gas station in Manhattan. The station manager questioned the legitimacy of the bill and wrote down the man’s license plate number in its margin, in case the bank refused to deposit it. The manager questioned the customer about the bill, who was reported to reply, “I have a hundred more just like it.”
The license plate number was traced to Bruno Richard Hauptmann, an unemployed carpenter who was pulled over for a search shortly after leaving his house in the Bronx. When detectives found money in his wallet with serial numbers matching the ransom money, he was arrested.
The Wooden Key
Upon hearing of Hauptmann’s arrest, Koehler suggested that investigators take note of any lumber in his house that may have been used for Rail 16 as well as for any woodworking tools. In their first search of the house, investigators found a total of $13,750 of the ransom money and an automatic revolver concealed in wooden 2×4’s in the garage; they also found a large wooden plane with a nicked blade that could have been used in the construction of the ladder.
At the time of Hauptmann’s arrest, a news article reported that he once worked odd jobs at the National Lumber and Millworker Corp in the Bronx, where Koehler had traced Rails 12 and 13.

During a second search of Hauptmann’s attic, the investigators noted that the flooring comprised 27 pieces of 1×6 North Carolina pine. The final board on the south side was not the same length as the others, and they were able to discern that a piece approximately 8 feet long had been removed, leaving traces of saw marks and saw dust. A sample of the remaining board and the nails that had been used to connect the board to the joist were provided to Koehler for comparison.
Koehler observed nicks in the largest knife of the plane recovered from Hauptmann’s house that produced marks exactly matching those on Rail 16 and the pine rungs of the ladder. He concluded, “There is no question but [that] the rungs and rail were planed with that plane.”
The nails removed from the boards in Hauptmann’s attic fit into the holes in Rail 16 precisely, which lead Koehler to conclude “the board probably was removed from some of Hauptmann’s previous work either for others or for himself.” Koehler testified before the grand jury at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, New Jersey, to these points. Along with testimony pertaining to the ransom note, ransom money, and various eyewitnesses, the grand jury found enough evidence to indict Hauptmann for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.
Meanwhile, Koehler continued his examination of Rail 16 in comparison to the wood removed from Hauptmann’s attic. He and the investigators took Rail 16 to Hauptmann’s attic, where it fit snugly into the place of the missing board. Koehler reflected that “Such a result could not happen as a mere coincidence.” Koehler had calculated the probability of all 4 nail holes matching the joists in Hauptmann’s attic perfectly as 1/1016, and he dismissed the possibility that this was mere circumstantial evidence.
1/1016, or 1 in 10 quadrillion, is the probability of 2 people randomly picking the same word out of 110 billion average-sized books.
Finally, he compared the grain, which is the appearance of the natural rings of a tree when it has been cut lengthwise to form a board:
It is a pattern that is always varied and yet the pattern of the grain in the ladder rail and floor board matched as perfectly as if the interrupted curving lines they plotted years ago had been etched within the tree just to be a trap for anyone who dared so to misuse wood as to form it into a kidnap ladder.

Every tree within itself has written all its history. The growth in spring shows white and pithy, but in the summer the slower growth becomes, in most trees, darker tissue. This is repeated year by year, and that is why these rings seem double and confuse those who try to say a tree is such and such an age. Count the band of white and black as one year’s growth. The board end of the piece of flooring that had been robbed to make a ladder showed its rings quite clear, and so did the ladder rail. A gap of one and three-eighth inches had been trimmed off, yet the rings matched.
The Wooden Evidence
At Hauptmann’s murder trial, Koehler testified his findings regarding Rail 16, but he was challenged by one of the defense lawyers, who stated, “We say that there is no such animal known among men as an expert on wood. That is not a science that has been recognized by the courts; that is not in a class with handwriting experts, with fingerprint experts or with ballistic experts. That has been reduced to a science and is known and recognized by the courts.” The judge allowed the defense council to cross-examine Koehler to ascertain the extent of his credentials. At the end of Koehler’s lengthy exposition regarding his publications in the field of wood science, the judge confirmed he was indeed a wood expert.
Koehler provided the court with complete details regarding his examination of the kidnap ladder, in particular Rail 16’s nail holes and grain. His xylotomical examination of the wood source and grain was essential to tying Hauptmann to the ladder used in the Lindbergh kidnapping. Following the testimony, Koehler was lauded as “the only real detective (in the case)” by the Reading, Pennsylvania Times, and The New York Post wrote,
The Hauptmann trial may go down in legal history less as the most sensational case of its time than as the case which brought legal recognition to the wood expert on par with handwriting, fingerprint and ballistic experts.
After 42 days of testimony from Koehler and others involved in the Lindbergh case, the jurors retired to deliberate on the verdict of Hauptmann. Less than 12 hours later, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty. The judge passed down a death sentence to the convicted murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. Koehler’s testimony stood up to several appeals by Hauptmann, and on 03 Apr 1936, his death sentence was carried out by electric chair. Hauptmann never confessed to the crime and never indicated if other kidnappers were involved.
Koehler continued working as a wood identification expert but never in so sensational a trial as the Lindbergh case. He died in his home on 16 Jul 1967 at the age of 82. Although wood evidence continues to be valuable to forensic science, it has never again been at the forefront of a crime as in the Lindbergh kidnapping.