Human cannibalism: a case report

Human cannibal cases are relatively rare in modern civilized societies. We report a single case of familial cannibalism that occurred in Oklahoma in 1977. The investigation posed unique problems in pathology, psychiatry, criminalistics, and serology.     

Sensitivity enhancement of ninhydrin-treated latent fingerprints by enzymes and metal salts

Lyophilized Sigma Type III trypsin has been applied to latent prints two weeks to two months old. This trypsin preparation eliminates the background problems that had been encountered with old prints in a previous study. Zinc chloride treatment of latent prints previously exposed to ninhydrin enhances their detectability upon laser examination. However, it has been reported that the zinc chloride reaction occasionally fails to occur. Accordingly, we have investigated the optimization of this reaction. We find that high humidity and elevated temperature, particularly the former, are needed. Cadmium nitrate, although it produces weaker fluorescence than zinc chloride, may at times be useful. Reaction conditions are much the same as those for zinc chloride.