How We Investigate (Text Version)
How We Investigate (Text Version)
The Story of a Strange Flashlight
Follow a case from start to finish as it makes its way through various units of the FBI Laboratory. Every time you see the phrase, “How did they do that?” click on the link to read the details of how that unit processed the evidence. Just like in a real case, not all Laboratory units are represented in this scenario. To learn about other FBI Laboratory units, visit the main Laboratory Services webpage on the FBI website.
The Crime
A security guard making his hourly rounds at the Smith Federal Building in Washington, D.C., noticed light coming from the building’s back door. He looked inside and saw a wooden box with a note taped to the outside: “Do not coming any closer. This box WILL EXPLODE.” Near the box, the guard noticed a large black flashlight. Realizing the potential danger of the situation, he carefully retraced his steps and called for assistance.
Initial Response
The Metropolitan Police Bomb Squad responded to the scene. After examining the area, they concluded that the box and the flashlight were to be treated as potential explosive devices. They shot a water cannon at the two items, effectively rendering them safe. The Bomb Squad contacted the Evidence Response Team (ERT) of the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) after disabling the wooden box and flashlight. The ERT collected, classified, and packaged the pieces, while WFO assigned a Case Agent to lead the investigation.
The Investigation
The box and the flashlight were sent to the FBI Laboratory’s Explosives Unit; two examiners were assigned. One examiner determined that the box contained an explosive; the other examiner determined that the flashlight had been modified into an explosives device. How did they do that?
The Case Agent soon learned that the flashlight and the wooden box were not the only important clues. In the bushes near the door, investigators found a backpack with papers inside. Ultimately, the investigation and eyewitness accounts led the Agent to a suspect. The Agent requested and executed a search warrant for standard samples of the suspect’s blood, handwriting, hair, and paint from his motorcycle.
Laboratory Results
While combing the grounds for additional clues, a tiny piece of metal was discovered inside the door. The metal was immediately found inside the door of the building with a screwdriver that was later found at the suspect’s residence. How did they do that?
The DNA Unit analyzed blood found on the screwdriver. It matched the DNA taken from the suspect. How did they do that?
Witnesses interviewed the night the bomb was found told the Agent that they saw a man riding his motorcycle away from the building. Paint chips were recovered next to the door where the suspect leaned his motorcycle. The Chemistry Unit’s Paints and Polymers Subunit (PPSU) compared these paint chips with those taken from a part of the motorcycle that was submitted as evidence to the lab. How did they do that?
Fingerprints and palm prints were found on the recovered motorcycle and on the screwdriver. The Latent Print Operations Unit compared the prints and determined that they matched the suspect’s fingerprints. How did they do that?
Investigating a Spy
FBI agents have been investigating and catching spies for nearly a century. A spy is a person who keeps secret watch on another person or thing to get information. With the lessons learned during these years, Agents are trained to recognize the many tricks that spies use: fake names, secret messages, special hiding places. We have taken pieces of stories already on our website and combined them into this page called, “The FBI Investigates ... A Spy.”
Spy Tricks
Fake Names
Spies sometimes use fake names. These fake names might be code names, so that nobody will know their real name. Other times real names are used, but not by the right people. For example, in 1949, a spy from the Soviet Union used a name that had been forgotten in the United States. The real family, from Idaho, had left the U.S. and moved close to Russia. Over time people in the United States forgot about this family and who they were. In 1949, the Soviets decided to use the family name for one of their spies in the United States!
Fake Jobs
Sometimes spies pretend to be law abiding workers—these people, however, hold a certain job to help them steal information. In the 1970s, the FBI investigated a case that involved a spy who pretended to be both a student and a businessman in order to get secrets from the military. At first, he said he was a student studying about a United States fighter jet and wanted information for a big report. Later, he said he wanted to open a business and invited an American, who had access to secrets, to join. In the Duquesne spy ring, a case that involved over 30 people during World War II, spies took advantage of their jobs to get information. One person opened a restaurant and used his position to get information from his customers. Another person worked on an airline so that he could report allied ships that were crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Others in the ring worked as delivery people so that they could deliver secret messages alongside normal messages.
Hiding Places
Many times a spy will put secret information in a package and leave it so other people can pick it up. A package may be very big, wrapped in a plastic bag, or very small and hidden where you would never think to look!
In one case, a fake brick was made to hide rolls of film containing secrets. In the 1950s, a spy for the Soviet Union used a hole in cement steps in a park in New York City to drop messages. In the hole, the spy placed a bolt that was hollowed out. Inside the bolt was a typed message about a meeting time and place.
Also in the 1950s, fake cuff-links and coins were used to hide secret messages. In one case, a secret message was hidden in a fake United States 5-cent nickel. Other things found to contain hidden messages include hollow pencils, screws, batteries, and a shaving brush. Some of these items would be magnetized so they would stay on metal!
Secret Meeting Times and Places
When spies want to set up meetings, or want to pass information to their connections, like updates or packages, they sometimes use secret methods. This may include hidden meanings in everyday things like newspapers, dates, clothing, or conversation. Sometimes meeting times can be hidden in reading materials. In one case, an advertisement for a car was run in a city newspaper during a specific week which looked like this: “Dodge Diplomat, 1971, needs engine work, $1000.” If the spy saw this ad he knew that his overseas contacts wanted to talk with him.
In another case, a suspected spy used tricks in a mailing address. If the word “Chicago” was used in a return address this meant that information would be exchanged the next Monday.
In another example, a more complicated system was used. A suspected spy who had been working in the FBI told his foreign contacts that he would add 6 and that they should subtract 6 from the meeting month and day given. For example, an advertisement placed by one person listed the date “7/12/1987,” but the other person knew that the date was actually 1/6/1987. Tricky, but the FBI figured it out!
How do spies recognize the people they are supposed to meet? Once a spy and his or her contacts know where to meet, they need to be able to recognize each other.
Sometimes spies know who to give information to because of clothing. In the “Hollow Nickel” case, the spy wore a blue and red striped shirt and smoked a pipe so that his Soviet connections would recognize him.
Another time a “walk and talk” was important. In the 1970s, two spies met each other using a tricky walk, a saying, and something special to share to recognize each other. At a theater entrance, one person was supposed to walk up the right side of the entrance from 7:00 p.m. to 7:07 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 7:35 p.m. The contacts then knew that this was the person to meet. To be sure, one person asked, “Are you interested in buying an antique 1930 Ford” and the other person was supposed to respond, “Yes, I am. After all I was born in 1930.” To be extra careful, both people gave each other a half of a dollar bill that belonged together.
Secret Signals
Spies sometimes use secret signals. The FBI has investigated cases where different colored thumbtacks, chalk, and tape were used to send messages. In a recent case, a suspected spy wanted to communicate with the people he was spying for, in this case the Russians. The spy told the Russians he left them a package by leaving a while piece of tape on a sign in a park. When the package was picked up, the tape would be removed.
The same suspected spy also used thumbtacks. A white thumbtack would be placed on the north side of a pole at the height of 3 1/2 feet when a package was ready to be picked up. However, a yellow thumbtack meant there was trouble!
Technology
If it is difficult to take papers or other information from an office, spies sometimes use special gadgets. Small copy machines have been used to copy secret papers. In one case a small camera was used that could take 70 pictures!
Spy Words
Counterintelligence: United States investigators and researchers protect important information from spies by gathering counterintelligence. Counterintelligence is when U.S. experts gather information about people or groups suspected of spying.
Agent-In-Place: An agent-in-place is a person who stays in his or her regular job but is actually in that job to get secret information and spy.
An Illegal: A person is called an illegal if he or she is pretending to be a U.S. citizen, but actually is from another country using a false identity in order to spy or help other spies.
Double Agent: A person that works for a foreign intelligence organization, and at the same time works for a United States intelligence organization, and gives information from one to the other, is called a double agent.
Dead Drop: A dead drop is a place that is used to hide packages, messages, or payments.
Signal Site: When spies or intelligence officers want to communicate with each other they can use a signal site where they will place marks that mean something only to their contacts.
Accommodation Address: People involved in getting the information from spies, or the actual spies, can use a mailing address, or accommodation address, where mail can be sent to secret contacts.
Secret: Information is considered secret if its release or theft can result in serious damage to national security.
Top Secret: Information is top secret if its release or theft can result in really serious damage to national security.
Extra! Extra!
On a normal Monday evening in 1953, a delivery boy for the “Brooklyn Eagle” knocked on the door of one of his customers in an apartment building in Brooklyn, New York. He was collecting money for his newspapers. A lady answered the door, disappeared for a moment, and then returned with her purse.
“Sorry, Jimmy,” she said. “I don’t have any change. Can you break this dollar bill for me?”
The newspaper boy counted the coins in his pocket but did not have enough for change. “I’ll ask the people across the hall,” he said. Two ladies across the hall were able to combine coins from their pocketbooks for change.
After he collected for the newspaper, Jimmy left the apartment house jingling several coins in his left hand. One of the coins seemed to have a strange sound. The newspaper boy rested this coin, a nickel, on the middle of his finger. It felt lighter than an ordinary nickel.
He dropped the nickel on the floor and it fell apart! Inside was a tiny photograph—a photo of what looked like a bunch of numbers.
Jimmy’s nickel became a key piece of evidence in uncovering a spy ring from the Soviet Union in the 1950s!
The message found in the nickel was ten columns of typed numbers, five digits in each number and 21 numbers in most columns.