Albert Stratton was born in 1882; his brother Alfred was born in 1884. By June 1905, both brothers were dead, having unwittingly ushered in a new era of scientific crime investigation.

They were the first British murderers convicted and hanged based on fingerprint evidence.

At 8:30 A.M. on March 27, 1905, William Jones arrived for work at Chapman’s Oil and Colour Shop in the London neighborhood of Deptford. He was greeted by a chilling sight.

There on the floor was the brutalized body of Jones’ employer, Thomas Farrow. He was dead, having been severely beaten. Annie Farrow, Thomas Farrow’s wife, was near-death, having also been severely beaten, and would soon succumb to her injuries. There was no sign of forced entry, indicating that the assailants were either customers or known to their victims.

Jones immediately summoned the police. Chief Inspector Frederick Fox, as well as Melville Macnaghten, then Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard and head of the Criminal Investigation Department, took over the case. Macnaghten, an advocate for the fledgling science of fingerprinting, noticed a smudge on an empty cash box.

Macnaghten decided this might be just the case on which to test out the new technique. He carefully wrapped the box and sent it to the new Fingerprinting Bureau at Scotland Yard.

Detective Inspector Charles Collins, head of the bureau and the foremost fingerprinting expert of the time, believed the smudge was a print of a right thumb. Later analysis confirmed this to be the case. Now the police had only to match to print to a person, and then they’d have their suspect.

The print was quickly eliminated as belonging to Jones, the Farrows, or anyone else with regular access to the shop. Fortunately, multiple witnesses saw two men loitering near the building around the time of the crime. Two people saw them leave the building at around 7:30 A.M., an hour before Jones arrived. One of the loiterers was positively identified as Alfred Stratton.

How the Stratton Brothers Became the First British Killers Busted by a Fingerprint

A thumbprint on a cashbox led police to the murderers—and changed the course of criminal history.