Category Archives: Forensics

GUNRUNNING — INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING IN ARMS

AA11International trafficking in small arms and light weapons—gunrunning—is a major world business, both in legal and black markets. It’s estimated nearly two billion firearms have circulated the planet with millions more produced each year. There’s millions of gun-related deaths and no end in sight for reduction. But it’s not the guns, or the people, that kill. It’s something else—something unchecked that drives huge profits in the global gunrunning trade.

First, let’s look at the definition of small arms / light weapons. This comes right from the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

AA18“Small Arms are, broadly speaking, weapons designed for individual use. They include, inter alia, revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles and light machine guns; any man-portable lethal weapon that expels or launches, is designed to expel or launch, or may be readily converted to expel or launch a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of an explosive, excluding antique small arms and light weapons or their replicas. Antique small arms and light weapons and their replicas will be defined in accordance with domestic law. In no case will antique small arms and light weapons include those manufactured after 1899.”

AA23“Light Weapons are, broadly speaking, weapons designed for use by two or three persons serving as a crew, although some may be carried and used by a single person. They include, inter alia, general purpose or universal machine guns, medium machine guns, heavy machine guns, rifle grenades, under-barrel grenade launchers and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles, man portable launchers of anti-tank missile and rocket systems, man portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of a calibre of less than 100 millimetres.”

Notice something left off the list? I’ll get to that. Let’s look at some big-time gunrunners, current and past. 

AA24You’ve probably heard of the Nicolas Cage movie Lord Of War where he portrays a bad-ass based on the real character—Russian arms-trafficker Viktor Bout. From what I’ve seen and heard about the industry, it’s probably not far off the mark.

Take Dale Stoffel. He was a hi-rolling American mercenary / arms dealer who smuggled guns in the Middle East under the shadowy wing of a covert US agency. Predictably, he got whacked in Baghdad back in 2004 but his life was something another movie should be made on.

AA25The current king of private arms dealers is Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi who operates out of Monaco. He got his start supplying weapons to no other than David Stirling, the father of the British SAS, who was doing some stuff in the Middle East. Khashoggi was part of the Iran-Contra gunrunning scandal that nearly took down Ronald Reagan’s presidency, but squeaked out when Colonel Oliver North took the fall. North was a gunrunner if there ever was one.

It’d be unfair to leave out Monzer al-Kassar. The “Prince of Marbella” is a Syrian who worked from Spain and was also part of the Iran-Contra deal. He went on to get caught by a US DEA sting where al-Kassar was selling weapons to the FARC in Colombia. He’s now doing thirty years in an American pen.

AA20Still operating is Russian Leonid Minin who’s currently busy supplying to the mess in the Ukraine. Some of his previous customers were Charles Taylor of Liberia and a guy by the name of Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan who’s now dead.

These shady characters are great stuff for movies, but the real big gunrunners in the global small arms trade are legitimate companies operating under legitimate government regulations.

And their commodity’s not handguns. It’s assault rifles… and something else.

AA26Russia leads the pack with its production and exports of Mikhail Kalashnikov products made famous by the AK47. Close behind is China with the Type 56, a Kalashnikov knock-off. Third is the US with the M16, followed by Heckler & Koch out of Germany with the G3 and the MP5. Belgium is a big producer of FN armaments and, surprisingly, Canada is a major world producer and exporter.

It’s not guns Canada is pumping out, though. It’s worse.

AA7You have to give credit to agencies like the Small Arms Survey who keep track of these guys. This is a credible watchdog—an independent research project funded by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. It puts out an annual report of shocking information and statistics as a resource for governments, policy makers, and activists, as well as researchers on small arms issues.

Here’s what the Small Arms Survey say about themselves.

“The Survey monitors national and international initiatives (governmental and non-governmental), and acts as a forum and clearinghouse for the sharing of information. It also disseminates best practice measures and initiatives dealing with small arms issues.

AA9The Small Arms Survey mandate is to look at all aspects of small arms and armed violence. It provides research and analysis by which to support governments to reduce the incidence of armed violence and illicit trafficking through evidence-based analysis.

The project’s staff includes international experts in security studies, political science, law, international public policy, development studies, economics, conflict resolution, and sociology. The staff works closely with a worldwide network of researchers and partners.

The project’s flagship publication is the Small Arms Survey, an annual review of global small arms issues such as production, stockpiles, brokering, legal and illicit arms transfers, the effects of small arms, and national, bilateral, and multilateral measures to deal with the problems associated with small arms. Published by Cambridge University Press, it is recognized as the principal international source of impartial and reliable information on all aspects of small arms. It is widely used policy-makers, government officials and non-governmental organizations.”

Like I said, this is a credible outfit that publishes an annual report that’s publicly available. And, year after year, they’ve pointed-out a scam in the international assault-rifle business that gunrunners manipulate.

AA27I mentioned the big five assault weapons — the AK47, the Type 56, the M16, the G3 & MP5, and the FN lines. Well, coincidently, there’s also five major types of ammunition these weapons require before they can kill people. 

The 7.62 x 54 Russian
The 7.62 x 51 NATO
The 7.62 x 39 Russian
The 5.56 x 45 NATO
The 5.56 x 39 Russian

AA10What’s going on is these assault rifles get cross-chambered for different calibers of bullets and selectively distributed to hot spots around the world. The ammunition is then brokered on the side.

It’s the old law of supply and demand, folks. Some banana-republic warlord in Sierra Leone buys a batch of AK47’s chambered in 5.56 x 39 and receives cases of 5.56 x 45’s to go with it. Won’t work. So while he’s desperate to get on with the war, in steps a guy like old Minin who sells him the right ammo at grossly inflated prices. And that’s how big money’s made in gunrunning. Short the supply. Supply the demand.

So who’s making the ammunition? The stuff that really kills people?

AA28Let’s look at something the Canadian Press just dug up. It’s also reported by the CBC. These figures are estimates, based on investigative reporting, so I can’t verify their accuracy. However, I believe they’ve found something nasty.

In 2014, the United States imported $995 million worth of small arms—of that $139 million (14%) was in ammunition. The United States exported $606 million—of that $158 million (26%) was in ammo.

In 2014, Canada imported $26 million worth of small arms—of that $2.75 million (11%) was in ammunition. Canada exported $415 million worth of small arms—of that $320 million (77%) was in ammo, including military explosives and detonators.

Notice that ammunition was left off the UN’s list?

It’s not guns that kill people. It’s not people that kill people. It’s bullets that kill people. Guns are useless without bullets.

AA29Canada, always claiming to be the poster-child for domestic gun control, is one of the world’s largest producers of ammunition—yearly exporting twice as many bullets than the United States. And guess who Canada’s biggest customer is? Saudi Arabia. The wealthiest country, in the most heavily armed, most unstable region in the world.

Way to go, Canada. You’re running with the big guns.

FORENSIC BLOODSTAIN PATTERN ANALYSIS

AA43Bloodstain Pattern Analysis is the forensic interpretation of human blood evidence in crime scene investigations. It’s used to recreate actions that caused the bloodshed. Because blood has chemical properties that behave according to specific laws, trained analyists can examine the size, shape, and distribution of bloodstains to draw conclusions of what did—or did not—happen.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA) applies the sciences of anatomy, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics to answer questions like:

  • Where’d the blood come from?
  • Who’d it belong to?
  • How’d it get there?
  • What caused the wound(s)?
  • From what direction was the victim assailed?
  • How were the victim and perpetrator positioned?
  • How many victims and perpetrators were there?
  • What movements were made after the bloodshed?

AA24You’ve seen the CSI shows where investigators, dressed in their ‘bunny suits’, photograph drops, streaks, smears, and pools of blood, then swab for DNA and String the room back to Area of Convergence points. Well, that’s pretty much how it happens, except today most Stringing is done by 3D computerization.

Bloodstain pattern interpretation is nothing new. It’s been around two hundred years and became increasing sophisticated as technology advanced. I’ve been involved in a number of BPA examinations during my time as a cop and coroner. One that really stands out was when Billy Ray Hennessey axe-murdered his ex-girlfriend and her new lover. The room looked like a bomb went off in a red paint factory. I’ll tell you more about it at the end of this article. First, let’s look at how blood behaves.

Blood has three components that are suspended in plasma.

AA25Erythrocytes are your red cells that transfer oxygen through hemoglobin. It’s what gives blood the red color. Leukocytes, your white cells, are your body’s defenders and support your immune system in fighting infection and disease. Platelets are formed in your bone marrow and play a major role in hemostasis, or plugging up breaches in vessels.

Blood composition is about 55% plasma and 45% formed elements, or cells, which remain suspended due to agitation caused by your circulatory system. That’s called viscosity—it’s density or internal friction. Once blood leaves your body’s pressurized containment, it’s subject to the forces of gravity and surface tension which dictates its resting shape. That can be in drops, streaks, or pools.

Crime scene bloodstains take different forms due to factors like velocity and distance of travel, amount of blood flow, angle of impact, and type of surface or target it lands on. There are eight categories of bloodstain patterns:

AA26Single Drop – These stains are typically from a vertical fall and under low velocity, like when your cut your finger and blood drips to the floor. Blood molecules are very cohesive. They attract and bind in a surface tension that makes a sphere. The drop stays in a ball until it strikes an object or a force acts on it. This is called bleed-out.

AA21Impact Spatter – These result from forceful impacts between an object and wet blood, causing the blood to break into little droplets. Greater force produces smaller droplets. The study of impact staining provides huge insight into the relative positions of individuals and objects involved in the crime. There are three sub-categories of impacts:

  1. Low Velocity Impact Spatter (LVIS)

AA4Also called Passive Impact Spatters, these are the largest bloodstain drops with a diameter of 4mm or greater. They travel at a slow speed, no greater than 1.5 m/s. They’re associated with being struck by a large, blunt instrument such as a chair or leaking from an open wound. They’re also formed when a large amount of blood has been transferred to another surface and the excess drips down.

  1. Medium Velocity Impact Spatter (MVIS)

AA1These spatters are associated with an intense beating like from a club, a hammer, a gun butt, or a bag of frozen pork chops. (Yes, I once had a homicide case where a guy’s head was caved-in with a bag of frozen pork chops.) MVIS drops are less than 4mm and get propelled at speeds between 1.5 and 7.5 m/s. The further from the target surface that blood is expelled, the larger the drops will be.

  1. High Velocity Impact Spatter (HVIS)

AA2This stain pattern is caused by gunshots, explosions, or contact with high-speed objects like having your throat cut with an electric carving knife. (Had one of those, too.) They’re evident by masses of tiny droplets less than 2mm in diameter and occur at velocities far in excess of 7.5 m/s. There’s no mistaking this type of bloodstain. The angle of impact is evident by an elongated shape – the longer the stain, the longer the angle from vertical.

AA19Cast-Off Stains – COS are common in scenes such as Billy Ray Hennessey’s axe-murders where straight and curved lines of blood are made on the walls and ceiling by the centrifugal force of back-and-forth swings. They produce tear-shaped or oblong stains with ‘tails’ that point in the direction of travel. By reversing the line of travel, the path can be traced or stringed to its area of convergence.

 

AA18Transfer Bloodstains – These are generally patches and smears of blood deposited secondary to the main, violent event. They say a lot about sequence. It can be when a victim tried to crawl away, the body was dragged, the perpetrator placed a bloody hand on a wall, or when he hid the axe in a closet like Billy Ray did. Tell you more about him soon.

AA20Projected Pattern – This is from arterial damage, such as severed carotids, femorals, radials, and brachials where pressurized blood ejaculates via the still-beating heart. You’ll see groups of big to small splotches, usually in an arc pattern. Very common in stabbings.

Pooling – Usually occurs once the victim is unconscious and passively exsanguinates. That’s the fancy term for bleeding to death. Something telling to a Bloodstain Pattern Analyst is where large pools of blood occur in different locations—no doubt the body’s been moved.

AA28Insect Stains – Not long after death, the bugs show up. They land in the bloodstains and make little tracks all over the place. These are easily confused with HVIS to the untrained eye and known in the industry as Flyspeck.

Expiration Stains – These are incidental bloodstains associated with injuries to the respiratory and abdominal tracts where a gasping victim expels through the mouth or nose. They appear diluted, more brownish in color due to mixture with saliva or mucous, and look like a fine mist.

Examination of a bloody crime scene is a slow and methodical procedure.

AA3The area is still-photographed from wide, medium, and close-up angles as well as videoed. Each stain pattern is marked, catalogued, and a swab taken for serology or DNA typing. The patterns are then Strung to their Point Of Origin, or area of convergence, and a complex application of trigonometry begins to tell a compelling tale of just what went down.

The visual absence of blood can be misleading.

Criminals occasionally clean up a scene or there may be only a small bit of blood emitted. Chemical reactive agents like luminol and phenolphthalein can be applied which visualize latent stains. Light spectrum tools, such as LumiLights, are also used to amplify spots not visible to the naked eye.

AA40Getting back to Billy Ray Hennessey — This guy hid in his ex’s attic with an axe for two and a half days, waiting to catch her screwing a new beau. Sure enough, she brought one home from the bar. At 3:00 am, Billy Ray crept down from the hatch, snuck into the bedroom, and chopped them to pieces. Like I said, the crime scene looked like a bomb exploded in a red paint factory.

It took us three days to catch Billy Ray. He did the right thing and fessed-up, then reenacted the murders on video. It was the coldest thing I’ve seen. Billy Ray described what he did as if he were watching Jason or The Shining, going through repeated motions of chopping, and back-swinging, and chopping some more. He demonstrated with a 2×2 stick as a prop. (We were nervous about giving him a real axe.) He showed how he modified body positions after death, where he hid his axe in the closet, and where he cleaned himself up.

Billy Ray did the right thing again. He pleaded guilty, receiving two life sentences.

AA30During the three days that we hunted for Billy Ray, the Forensic Identification team had sealed the crime scene and independently conducted their Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. Once Billy Ray was done, we (the detective team) compared notes with the forensic team and — unbeknownst to what Billy Ray reenacted — the forensic folks got it bang-on. They’d reconstructed how many blows each victim received, various positions everyone was in, and… who fought back.

I’ve been sold on the science ever since.

*   *   *

Here links to more information on Forensic Bloodstain Pattern Analysis:

A Simplified Guide To Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

The Forensics Library – Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

Principles Of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis – Theory and Practice

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis – Crime Scene Reconstruction

CAN YOU BEAT THE POLYGRAPH?

A1The polygraph, or lie detector, is a forensic investigative tool that’s used as an aid to verify the truthfulness of a person’s statements. Polygraph examinations— properly conducted by trained professionals on competent subjects with a clear issue— are remarkably accurate, but they’re not foolproof. Yes. They’ve been known to be beaten. The question is—can you?

Polygraph examination interpretation is not admissible as evidence in court. They’re not a replacement or shortcut for a proper investigation and a thorough interview of the subject. Statistics show that the majority of people who undergo polygraph examinations are found to be truthful. Perhaps the term Lie Detector should be replaced with Truth Verifier.

A3In my policing career, I’ve been involved in well over a hundred polygraph examinations, including getting hooked up myself for a test drive. (Turns out I’m a terrible liar—not sure how I’m gonna make out with this new career as a fiction writer.) The subjects I’d had polygraphed were a mixture of suspects, witnesses, complainants, and victims. I’d say that sixty percent of the subjects were truthful, thirty percent were lying, and ten percent were inconclusive.

It makes sense, when you think about it, that the majority are truthful because they know it will work to their advantage. I can’t think of the number of times I’ve had subjects refuse to take the test, giving excuses everywhere from “Those things are rigged to frame me” to “I heard you get testicle cancer from it”.

Before giving you some tips on how to pass a polygraph when you’re dead-ass lying, let’s look at what the thing is and how it works.

A2The word polygraph comes from the Greek word polugraphos which means “to sniff-out bullshit”. (Go ahead—call me a liar). Polygraphs have been around since the 1920s and have evolved from clunky paper-reel with ink-pen devices to modern laptops with automated scoring systems. Clinically, the process is known as psychophysiological detection of deception.

The instruments are a combination of medical devices that monitor a subject’s physiological responses to a set of questions designed to put the subject under the stress; the stress associated with deception. The involuntary bodily functions include heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, galvanic skin conduction, and perspiration.

A4Polygraphic theory dictates that a subject will show a spike in some, or all, of these functions when asked a question and forced to knowingly lie. In a criminal investigation, the examination questions are formed between the polygraphist and the subject during an extensive pre-test interview.

There are four categories of questions—all must be answered  “Yes” or “No”. Three categories are control questions and one is issue questions.

Category One is where the subject conclusively knows they’re truthful:

Q — Is your name Garry Rodgers?  “Yes”
Q — Are you a retired police officer?  “Yes”
Q — Did you make the Amazon Top Ten list? “Yes”

Category Two is asking the subject ambiguous questions:

Q — Is there life after death?  “Yes”
Q — Did the chicken come before the egg? “No”
Q — Are you going to make the Top Ten list again?  “Dude, let me tell ya…”

Category Three has the subject intentionally lie:

Q — Were you kidnapped by aliens?  “Yes”
Q — Did you ever ride a camel?  “No”
Q — Are you going to try make the Top Ten list again?  “No”

Category Four deals with the issues:

Q — Did you murder Jimmy Hoffa?  “No”
Q — Do you know who murdered Jimmy Hoffa?  “No”
Q — Did  murdering Jimmy Hoffa help you get on the Top Ten list?  “It’s not how it looks…”

A7Only “Yes” or “No” answers are acceptable during a polygraph examination because the issue has to be clear in the subject’s mind. Black and White. All clarification is worked-out in the pre-test interview. The subject is never surprised by the question, but the question order is completely unknown. This creates an atmosphere of anxiety as the subject waits to hear the questions that really matter.

The biggest concern that I’ve heard from people who are asked to submit to a polygraph is “What happens if I’m nervous?”

A8This is expected. Anyone, police officers included, would experience anxiety when being examined. Part of a polygraphist’s skill is to build a rapport with the subject and put them at relative ease before the questioning starts. One of the reasons in building this rapport is to get the subject to volunteer information that the investigation hasn’t uncovered. I’ve seen subjects give critical facts because the right questions weren’t asked during the investigation and I’ve seen subjects fall apart and confess before being strapped into the chair.

The key to successful polygraph examinations is the skill of the examiner. The polygraph is just a tool—an extension of the examiner’s mind and voice.

A6So — given there’s proven science and skill behind polygraphs — how can you beat one?

Like I said, given a professional examiner, a competent subject, and a clear issue, polygraph results are remarkably accurate. There’s always exceptions and here’s some tips on how to pass the graph.

  • Prepare well in advance.
  • Research and understand the process so you won’t feel oppressed. The examiner will take every advantage of your ignorance.
  • Know the issue(s) and know what the examiner is looking for.
  • Talk to someone who has experienced a test.
  • Approach the test as an extreme job interview. ‘Dress for the job’. Arrive on time. Sober. Rested. Do not reschedule. Make a good first impression.
  • Know that you’re going to be video recorded.
  • Understand the test starts right when you arrive and ends when you leave. It’s not just the time you’re hooked to the machine.
  • Be on guard. There will be trick questions in the pre-test. It’s part of the process.
  • Listen carefully to what the examiner says and respond accordingly. Do not try and monopolize the conversation.
  • The examiner is not your friend, despite how nice she comes across in the pre-test. Her job is to get to the truth. Remember—you’re dealing with a highly trained professional who knows psychology. If her exam shows you’re deceitful, she’ll go for your jugular in the post-test.
  • Recognize the relevant and irrelevant control questions. Focus on what’s relevant and do not offer more information than what’s pertinent to the issue.
  • Play dumb. Don’t try to impress the examiner that you’ve studied up. You’ll only look stupid.
  • Breathe normally. Shortness of breath naturally triggers the other body functions to accelerate and it will increase nervousness.
  • Take lots of time to answer.
  • Think of something mentally stressful when answering a control question—like the time when you were a kid and your dog was hit by the train. That will raise the ‘normal’ graph peaks.
  • Think of something calming when answering issue questions—like getting a new puppy. That will flatten stress peaks.
  • Keep your eyes open during the questions. The examiner will ask you to close them because this significantly alters your sensory awareness and puts you at a disadvantage. This is very important.
  • Bite your tongue during every question except the truthful control ones. This levels the playing field.

So, who’s got away with taking a lie detector?

A10I call her The Mother From Hell. I investigated a bizarre case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy—a rare form of child abuse where a parent causes harm to their child to bring attention to themselves. This woman repeatedly complained that her infant daughter was choking, then was caught by hospital staff with her hands on the girl’s neck. She denied it. We polygraphed her. She blew the needles off the machine and confessed. The Mother From Hell got off in court because they ruled her confession inadmissible due to it being elicited under oppression from the polygraph examination.

A12Gary Ridgway, The Green River Killer from Seattle, strangled over fifty women in the 1980’s. He was on police radar early in the serial killing investigation, ‘passed’ a polygraph, and got warehoused as a suspect. He went on to kill many more before being caught on DNA.

Can you beat the polygraph?

The best advice I can give is don’t take one.