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asked, that he was with her on the night of the murder.
    However, the defense counsels, H. G. Rooth, Curtis Bennett, and Harold Morris, were able to give plausible alternative explanations for events that cast doubt on the prosecution’s witnesses. They clearly felt they had done a good job, since they were then confident enough to have Alfred Stratton take the stand. He testified that at about 2:30 AM on March 27, he was awoken by his brother tapping on the window. When he opened it, Albert asked if he could lend him some money for a night’s lodging. He replied that he would check if he had some and then went inside to do so. When he came back, Albert was gone. He went out and found his brother some distance away, on Regent Street. It was there that several witnesses had seen them. Alfred told his brother that he had no money but offered to let him stay for the night. Albert agreed and slept on the floor, and the brothers stayed together until nine in the morning, after which Albert left. Alfred went on to explain that the £4 the police had recovered he had won boxing. He had, he said, buried it three weeks prior to the murders for safekeeping and had been intending to give it to Annie Cromarty.
    Before calling Inspector Collins to give his evidence about the thumbprint, Muir called William Gittings, who worked in the jail where the Stratton brothers had been confined while awaiting trial. Gittings explained that during a conversation with him, Albert Stratton had said, “I reckon he [Alfred] will get strung up and I shall get about ten years…. He has led me into this.” Muir hoped to impress the jury into thinking that this statement could be counted as a confession. He then called Inspector Collins to the stand.
    Muir’s plan was to first establish Collins’s credentials as an expert in the field of fingerprinting and then get him to explain, in layman’s terms, how fingerprinting worked as a means of identification. Collins was then asked to talk specifically about the fingerprint involved in the case. He showed the jury the cash box that was recovered from the scene and the fingerprint that he was able to obtain from it. He then went on to show how it matched Alfred Stratton’s right thumb, pointing out that the print had as many as twelve points of agreement. At the request of a member of the jury, Collins also demonstrated the difference in prints caused by various levels of pressure.
    After Collins had given his evidence, the defense called Dr. John Garson to the stand. They were hoping to discredit Collins’s testimony by establishing Garson’s credentials as one of Collins’s mentors, thus giving the jury the impression that he was more experienced in the study of fingerprinting. As expected, Garson testified that he could say with certainty that the print taken from the cash box and Alfred Stratton’s prints did not match.
    However, it was easy for Muir to establish that Garson was not an expert in fingerprinting but in anthropometry, its rival formof identification. Garson had, in fact, spoken out against fingerprinting to the Belper Committee. Muir then dropped a bombshell during his cross-examination of Garson. He called into evidence two letters written by Garson, one to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the other to the lawyer for the defense. Each said that Garson would be willing to testify for either side in the trial, depending on who would pay him more. In an instant this rendered his evidence completely worthless. Annoyed by this revelation, the judge commented that Garson was an “absolutely untrustworthy witness.” Having had Dr. Garson’s credibility as a witness shattered in this way, the defense decided not to call Faulds to the stand, fearing that Muir would find some way to discredit him as well. After each side had given their summations, it took the jury just over two hours of deliberation to find the Stratton brothers