CRIMINAL MIND > FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

Beverly Hills Cop

Of Course He's Guilty

Darren Levine faced a dilemma in 2002 as he contemplated arresting a suspect in a nearly five decades old double homicide and rape: did he have enough evidence? The case had to be pretty much rock solid, considering that evidence from fifty years hence was going to be scrutinized by any half decent lawyer representing the suspect. They knew the suspect now lived in South Carolina and had been married for thirty years. He had grandchildren. He owned a business at one time. He seemed like an upstanding citizen in the community he now lived. A check of his name and SS number proved he hadn't been in any trouble throughout the past forty-seven years.

Levine got together with Paul and they decided that they would need to put together a PowerPoint presentation for Levine's boss to basically "sell" the idea that they had the right guy, Paul recalled. "We needed to do this so that the head deputy DA would file the case and a judge could issue a warrant for the suspect."

Thus, the support staff in Levine's office that had put together court exhibits and PowerPoint presentations for trials over the years went to work on putting together the facts of the case and forming into a cohesive narrative everyone could clearly understand.

Paul turned over all of his documentation and handwriting findings.

"When we all sat down and looked at the PowerPoint for the first time, it was like, Oh, my, God. It was so clear we had our guy. Of course he did it!"

In the scope of the investigation in 1957, that split up thumb print was meaningless. There was no database to search for a match. And even if they had a database, two latent prints would have meant nothing—unless, that is, they could be fused together to make one usable print.

For the next several weeks, an exhaustive investigation ensued under influential political pressure; cops worked day and night. The clothing used to tie up the victims was ultimately recovered, and the victims assisted in compiling a composite drawing of the suspect.

One of a set of composite sketches created in 1957.

But none of it helped—at least not right away.

After comparing the victims' fingerprints to the latent print Howard Speaks lifted off the steering wheel of the vehicle, investigators were hopeful after eliminating everyone who was in the car that night. At least they had an unknown print that was likely from the suspect. It wasn't much, but it could help in the end. (With that one partial fingerprint, however, investigators would spend the next two years comparing it to the thousands of fingerprints on file.)

Because there was a U.S. army base nearby and the victims said that the suspect had a noticeable Southern accent, investigators believed he may have been in the army, stationed in the region, but originally from the South. Thus, a total sweep of every military man fitting a description was unleashed.

But it amounted to nothing.