1800 to 1849

1800-1850: All U.S. Cities were crime-ridden and dangerous

1801: Emperor of Russia was assassinated

1807: First American criminal autobiography written

1812: England – Prime Minister assassinated

1820-1855: U.S. – Industrialization and urbanization led to riots in major cities

1820-1830: Serious poverty in Paris – 200 murders a year in the city

1820: England – Thieves, forgers, and robbers no longer subjected to the death penalty

1825: England – Counterfeiting a major problem

1828: Burke and Hare Case – England – Murder

1832: U.S. – State banks established – forgery became a problem

1838: Abraham Lincoln said that internal violence was America’s major domestic problem

1840-1880: Gambling was a big business in U.S. cities

1841: Mary Cecilia Rogers Case – U.S. – Murder

1849: Major arson case in St. Louis

1808: The Code Napoleon established the role of forensic medicine

1810: Germany – The first attempt to use science to determine forgery

1811: A Belgian physician made studies of rigor mortis

1813: The first professorship of medical jurisprudence established at American College of Physicians & Surgeons, NYC
------- England – first book on Toxicology published

1823: England – fingerprints first classified by J.E. Purkinje

1826: First successful photograph taken

1832: England – Technique to identify arsenic traces developed

1835: French forensic pathologist Devergie published Medecine legale, theorique et pratique

1840: Journal lists 22 forensic pathologists in the world, they are all Europeans

1844: England – Surgeon A.S. Taylor teaches forensic medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London
------ A jail in Brussels begins to photograph criminals’ faces

1849: Webster-Parkman Case – U.S. Forensic Dentistry

1803: Cincinnati established a non-paid night watch

1810: Paris – The Paris Police Department or Surete is born. Vidocq is appointed its chief

1823: The Texas Rangers are established

1828: The Police Gazette is published in England

1829: The beginning of Scotland Yard

1830: The beginning of the first police reform in the U.S.

1833: Philadelphia established its first daytime policing
------ Cold Bath Fields Riot in London

1835: Charles Dickens published Bleak House – he makes popular the concept and term “detective”

1836: U.S. Post Office established Special Agents

1842: First plainclothes detectives at Scotland Yard

1843: Edgar Allen Poe published his story, "Murder in the Rue Morgue"

1844: NYPD became the first preventative police force in the U.S.

1846: Boston created the first U.S. detective bureau

1849: A city marshal was appointed in San Francisco

1808: Napoleon’s Criminal Code abolished the inquisitional system and torture. It helped start public trials

1843: M’Naghten Case – England

1818: Jeremiah Chubb invented the Barrel Key

1833: Vidoq retired from the Surete and became the world’s first private detective

This page was last updated on: Sunday, January 13, 2008