The first ever mass fingerprinting involved over 45,000 men to solve one crime.

Police fingerprinted over 45,000 men to find the killer of June Anne Devaney, the first time mass fingerprinting had been used to solve a crime?


This case is unique in the fact that it involved the fingerprinting of the entire adult, male population of Blackburn, Lancashire. It was 12.45 on 14 May 1948, nurse Humphreys was doing her rounds of Ward CH3, of Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital. When she reached the cot of four-year-old June Ann Devaney she was horrified to find the child was missing.

Under the cot was a Winchester bottle and on the highly-polished floor were the impressions of stockinged, adult footprints. The police were called and a search was made of the building and grounds. The childs body was discovered about 300 feet away in the grounds, huddled against a wall. She had been raped and it looked as if the killer had beaten her head against the wall.

The bottle found under the bed had some clear fingerprints on it and examination of the footprints showed that they had been made by the socks of an adult. By 15th June 2,017 people had been processed and eliminated from the inquiry. It was at this point that the police decided that the only way they were going to catch this man would be to widen the search. it was decided to fingerprint the whole adult, male population of Blackburn.

Going from house to house and using the electoral register as a guide, the police slowly fingerprinted every male over the age of 16. This included people who had since left the area or had travelled abroad.

It was on 12th August that all the hard work finally paid off. It was fingerprint set number 46,253 and belonged to Peter Griffiths of Birley Street. He was a 22-year-old packer at a flour-mill. He was arrested the following night and soon admitted his guilt. He had once served in the Welsh Guards, was of low intelligence and beleived to be schizophrenic. On the fatal night he had been out drinking and had set out to 'get sobered up'. He made no mention about the rape and killing but said that he picked the girl out of the cot and she had put her arms around his neck.

Peter Griffiths was charged and tried at Lancaster Assizes. It took the jury only 23 minutes to return a verdict of guilty and he was hanged at Walton Gaol on 19th November 1948 by Albert Pierrepoint.





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Picture (Peter Griffiths) credit: murderpidia

An Italian woman once found a live grenade in a sack of potatoes

An Italian woman once found a live grenade in a sack of potatoes.

NAPLES, Italy – A 74-year-old Italian grandmother who bought a sack of potatoes at the her local market found a live grenade among the spuds.

"I found a bomb in the potatoes," Olga Mauriello said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

"I went to the market to buy some potatoes and that's where the bomb was. But this bomb was covered in dirt, and I put it in water and got all dirt off. And then I realised 'It's a bomb'!"

Police said the pine cone-shaped grenade, which had no pin and was still active, was the same type used by U.S. soldiers in Europe in World War Two. Authorities believe the mix-up happened at a farm in France, where the grenade was plucked from the ground along with potatoes.

To the woman's relief, police and explosives experts in the small town of San Giorgio a Cremano, near Naples, recovered the grenade and safely detonated it on Wednesday.


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Pic credit: sponng

Showering too much can have a potentially damaging effect on your skin.

Showering regularly is recommended for good personal hygiene. Showering too much, however, can have a potentially damaging effect on your skin.


The outermost layer of your skin's surface (called the stratum corneum or horny layer) is a barrier made of hardened, dead skin cells. These skin cells offer protection for the underlying layers of living, healthy cells. The horny layer is more than just dead skin cells; it's held together by lipids, which are fatty compounds that actually help maintain moisture in your skin.

Anytime you take a shower -- especially a hot one -- with soap and a scrubbing device like a washcloth or a loofah, you're undermining the integrity of your skin's horny layer. The soap and the hot water dissolve the lipids in the skin and scrubbing only hastens the process. The more showers you take, the more frequently this damage takes place and the less time your skin has to repair itself through natural oil production. What's more, the horny layer of your skin can be sloughed off by scrubbing, exposing the delicate skin cells beneath. The result of showering too frequently is generally dry, irritated and cracked skin.




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Pic credit: wiccked

One minute is the average for holding one's breath but this guy held his for over 21 mins!

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David Merlini.


The stunt: Merlini was lowered into a tank on the Sakhir start line by a small crane, his aim to spend as much time as possible underwater without breathing, remaining entirely visible from beginning to end. The target was to beat his own world record from last year of 20 minutes 39 seconds and to push past 21 minutes.

A who’s who of Formula One stood by in amazement watching the time tick by without any visible sign of Merlini surfacing: Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone, Virgin chief Richard Branson, Toyota team President John Howett, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, drivers Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock were all baffled bystanders to the unbelievable performance.

As the seconds moved past the 20:39 mark the spectators on the track and the fans in the stands started to clap and there was a breathtaking wave of applause when Merlini finally emerged from the tank after 21 minutes and 29 seconds.

“I knew that he would do it,” said Bernie Ecclestone. “When I first heard of it I thought ‘impossible’, but after I met him I was sure that he is for real. What a performance!” An astonished Branson added: “This guy would be perfect for space!”



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The maximum number of times any piece of paper could be folded in half is seven... NOT!

The maximum number of times any piece of paper could be folded in half is seven... NOT!

Britney Gallivan having
made the 11th fold
Pic credit: wikipedia

A popular belief holds that it is impossible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than 7 times, folding in any direction, as the challenge had existed for many years and had never been solved. This belief was debunked by then high school student Britney Gallivan who successfully folded a piece of paper 12 times. More importantly she developed the mathematical and physical explanations for the actual folding limits of incompressible materials when folding in one or two directions. After the mathematics were developed she demonstrated folding in half 12 times both by folding paper in a single direction and by folding gold foil while rotating the folding 90 degrees after each fold.








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There's a law that bans loud commercials.

There's a law that bans loud commercials.

Coming soon to a TV near you: Quieter commercials.

Starting in January, all TV stations must comply with a new law that bans so-called “sweetening” in advertisements. That’s the term for when stations alter the sound of commercials, to make them about 10% louder than the shows they interrupt.

Why do that? Because research shows that “sweetening” really works! In fact, according to psychologist Joseph Cilona, people are hard-wired to pay attention to loud noises - because we associate loud noises with “threats” – and knowing how to respond to them helps us survive! Also, advertisers have found that with the right sweetening, they can grab your attention right after you’ve become emotionally involved in a TV show, and then shift your feelings in a way that makes you more likely to make a purchase.

However, surveys show that 80% of people say loud commercials are annoying. That’s why Congress recently passed a new law requiring ads to play at volumes no louder than the rest of the show they’re used in. That new law goes into effect on January 1st. And all TV stations must comply within the next year.


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Pic credit:  fd

If you have an unusual name, you may find it hard to keep your Facebook account open.

If you have an unusual name, you may find it hard to keep your Facebook account open. Facebook has a reputation for getting rid of people’s accounts if they have a unique name even if the name is real and relates to a person’s culture. So if your name is different or odd, good luck with Facebook.

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Pic credit:  Helga Weber