The Will and William West case: The identical inmates that showed the need for fingerprinting, 1903

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On May 1, 1903, an African-American man named Will West entered the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth. Like any other new prisoner, West was subjected to the standard admission procedure: prison clerks took photographs, a physical description, and eleven anthropometric measurements. Using West’s measurements and description, identification clerks matched him to the record of William […]