It's All Trew: Bertillion Method early way to track criminals I take great pleasure in learning a new word, a little-known fact or hearing a story I have not heard before. In the book "Texas Gulag" by Gary Brown, the history of Texas prisons, jails and even the early-day chain gangs is presented from the years 1875 to 1925. The book outlined in detail how criminals were identified as they processed through the old systems. No doubt early Texas prisons, as well as prisons all over the world down through time, were brutal and dangerous. The thinking at the time was, if you are convicted of a crime, you have no rights. Treatment of prisoners will always be argued depending on whether you are a prisoner or a victim of a crime. The old saying of "an eye for an eye" seemed to rule much of the thinking. Interestingly, long before fingerprinting, pupil photographing and DNA, prisons used the Bertillion Method to identify prisoners. Research shows in 1883 in Europe, a police clerical officer was recognized for developing the first scientific method of criminal identification used by police....