American Sherlock Holmes

Berkeley, California, 1933. In a laboratory filled with flasks, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds and hundreds of books, sits a man destined to become one of the first forensic scientists in the USA and successfully solve more than two thousand... crimes during his career. His name is Edward Oscar Heinrich, and he rightfully deserves the admiring nickname American Sherlock Holmes. Oscar Heinrich worked during the era of Prohibition and the Great Depression. A time when even simple fingerprinting was considered a novelty and raised great doubts in court, while crimes were investigated through the intellect and perseverance of police officers. And only Heinrich's genius provided the police with such seemingly obvious methods in our days as blood spatter analysis, ballistic expertise, and the analysis of hidden fingerprints. Before you is the documentary story of the life, work, and investigations of a man who created much of what modern forensics is based on with his own hands.