Forensic investigations are just as intriguing now as they were then. Clues, evidence, those missing puzzle pieces — Combine them with life-changing (sometimes ending) drama, and it’s easy to see why. We love a good mystery. We also applaud righteous justice. Nothing sweeter. Conversely, there’s not much more bitter than the miscarriage of justice. Criminology Professor Alex Taylor brings a couple cases to light that ended … well, better to let you read it, eh?
Originally published in the Gainesville Times, January 3, 1989.
A transcript and a note about Alex Taylor Tuesday follow the column.
Transcript:
Justice has backfired on the innocent
Have you ever sat reading a news story about the arrest and conviction of some person who supposedly committed murder, rape or robbery, and wondered if they were actually innocent? Could the authorities have made a mistake?
Fortunately, our system of justice often works well, but there are times when . . ..
On the night of Feb. 13, 1950, police in Luray, Va., were called to the home of Robert F. Parks, a former Army captain, who was lying dead in the door of a bedroom. Parks had been shot with the bullet passing through his right arm, piercing his heart, and coming to rest in the tissue of his left side. In the dining room, the police found an automatic hand gun lying against the door leading into the bedroom. Because of the absence of powder burns on the victim, and the direction of the bullet as it entered the body, detectives determined that Parks couldn’t have shot himself.
Determining that a murder had been committed, the officers began to question Mrs. Parks who gave the following statement: “I was in the kitchen when the gun went off and ran immediately to the bedroom where Bob was standing in the doorway. He said, ‘Honey, the gun backfired,’ then fell over dead.”
Given all the physical evidence at the scene, and the fact that the Parks had often engaged in violent arguments, the police arrested Mrs. Parks for murder.
Later, a shrewd detective who sensed something wrong, returned to the home and again went over the crime scene. On a hot-air duct in the doorway between the bedroom and dining room, he found a fresh dent. The brown paint on the grille had been chipped and he remembered a small brown paint chip on the rear of the gun slide.
The detective sent all the evidence: gun, bullet, cartridge case and grille, to the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for a complete analysis. There, lab experiments showed that the gun would discharge if it was dropped on the rear pin of the slide and hammer. The brown paint on the grille and the gun slide proved to be identical, and the dent in the grille fit perfectly with the rear sight of the weapon.
With that information, the lab technicians and detectives turned to the scene where they fit the rear sight and hammer of the gun into the now replaced grille. The gun lined up perfectly with the doorway of the bedroom and the angle of the bullet into Robert Parks arm and chest. They now knew Parks had died when, in a fit of anger, he threw the gun from the bedroom into the dining room causing it to discharge.
Mrs. Parks was released from custody and the case closed.Another favorite story of innocence occurred in the early 1900s when Pat Lyon, a leading Philadelphia blacksmith was arrested and charged with looting a bank: vault . . . one that he had designed and built. He was convicted solely on the theory that only he could have opened the vault. Sent to prison, he was released three months later when the real thief was caught and confessed.
Bringing suit against his accusers, Mr. Lyon was awarded $9,000 in damages, an enormous sum for that time. He immediately commissioned John Neagle, noted portrait artist, to paint an honest blacksmith toiling at his labors.
Today, if you visit Boston’s Museum of Fine Art, look for the painting, Pat Lyon at the Forge, and see how one wrongly accused man wished to be remembered.
Alex Taylor’s column on history and criminology appears in The Times each Tuesday.
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Well folks, “All good things …” as the saying goes. I thought I should scratch a byline that the publication of Alex Taylor’s Crime Stories will be coming to conclusion around the end of November (2021). Why? He discontinued it due to scheduling and ulterior writing pursuits, namely wildlife sports and consulting.
More soon!
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