CRIMINAL MIND > FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

Beverly Hills Cop

Sherlock Holmes

By the time the two officers who had stopped to chat with Curtis and Phillips returned some time after they were gunned down, after hearing Curtis's plea for help, the suspect was gone. Approximately four blocks (.21 miles) from the traffic stop/shooting, however, the suspect abandoned the stolen vehicle and fled the scene on foot, running into the California darkness, escaping through Manhattan Beach, scaling fences and crossing yards.

Hundreds of police officers from El Segundo and neighboring communities began scouring the area about fifteen minutes later as a crime scene unit was called in.

Hours after that, the stolen '49 Ford was recovered up the road from the shooting—but there was no sign of the suspect. As news of the rape, robbery and murders spread the following morning, the community was devastated. People congregated in the streets, demanding answers. The newspapers marked the case the largest manhunt in law enforcement history. Thousands of cops and sheriffs were called in from all over California.

Howard Speaks was the first to arrive that morning. He was a crime scene photographer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He took several photographs of the rear of the car. He noticed bullet holes in the trunk and two in the rear (shattered) windshield. This was important, because law enforcement knew for sure that the car had been hit by the perpetrator's weapon. Perhaps they could find a bullet.

The stolen car, abandoned, with bullet holes in the rear

It was amazing to all of the police officers investigating the case that Officer Phillips was able to shoot the suspect while in the process of dying from the bullet wounds he himself had sustained. Phillips, though, was considered one of the department's top marksmen. In the process of falling to his death after being shot, he was able to, incredibly, get off six rounds at the fleeing suspect's vehicle.

Had he hit the suspect, too?

The question became: Did the killer leave any evidence behind—something that could, in fact, lead investigators in the right direction? As it were, the suspect had vanished. Today, samples of DNA can point the way to a killer. But back in 1957, the only forensic tool law enforcement had at its disposal was a simple fingerprinting kit, something out of child's Sherlock Holmes toy set.

Armed with his fingerprinting kit, Speaks searched the car from bumper to bumper on that following morning, trying to find anything that might lead them to a suspect. They were desperate. Public pressure was already mounting. Community members were expressing how terrified they were at the thought that a rapist and cop killer was at large. Had the suspect left any fingerprints behind?

Howard Speaks, as he began to dust the car, was hopeful.

Right away, after checking the steering wheel, Speaks found the ridges of a fingerprint. Two latent lifts, in fact, of a left thumb.

The first problem—and there would be manyin the coming months and years —was that the thumb print was split in half. They were sure it was of the same thumb, but they'd have to find a way to stitch the print together after lifting it and turn out one practical print to work from. The second problem was, in the computerless world of 1957, what were they going to do with the print if they were able to fuse it together? If the suspect had been arrested before and his prints were on file, it would take thousands of police man hours to, one by one, match up the known print with the scores of prints on file.

It would take years.