During a lull in the trial of Dan
iel Bryant, the Cat Man, in Crav
en Superior Court last week, we
got into a conversation with Jack
B. Richardson. He is a fingerprint
expert with the State Bureau of
Investigation.
It was Jack who took the New
Bern burglar’s prints, after his ar
rest here. And, on the stand, he
testified that the marks made by
Bryant’s fingers and thumbs were
^ ^ exactiy the same as those left at
various homes robbed by the in
genius 220-pound Negro.
“Maybe it’s a stupid question,’’
the editor of The Mirror admitted
whiie talking with Richardson,
“but do monkeys have finger-
prints?” The query brought no
laugh. “They certainly do,” he re
plied.
As a matter of fact. Jack told us
that a chimpanzee’s prints are so
much like a human’s that even an
expert can’t tell the difference.
They are about the same size as a
woman’s or a child’s hand, and
have the same type patterns.
All members of the ape family
• possess markings on the tips of
their fingers, but monkeys small
er and larger than the chimps
would never be mistaken for folks
like us. For example, a gorilla’s
prints are quite big and coarse.
You can hope that no prints made
' by a man will Wer be that huge,
w. If some of our readei’s subscribe
to the theory that man sprang
from the monkeys (and ip some in-
stances dida’t spring 4ar enough)
tbiSv^elationAtd^ut. similpIjiBger'
.'^^^^^r l^ipts is additional fuel for argu-
Nobody is going to get The Mir-
' » ■ roif into'a squabble over evolution,
and for the sake of vanity, if ^noth
ing else, we refuse to concede that
i
k:
£
I
r
■fr- '
our family tree was once chock
full of chimpanzees^ orang-a-tangs
'"or baboons.
However, it’s a scientific (or
should we say-zoological) fact that
monkeys really do have hands. All
four of a monkey’s “feet” are actu
ally hands, with grasping fingers
and more or less perfect thumbs.
That’s v/hy they appear to be
so clumsy on the ground. Most of
them walk on the outside edges
of the palms of their hands, with
fingers and thumbs curled in. This
gives them that funny bow-legged
look.
A graduate of the Institute of
'Applied Science, Richardson
agreed with us when we speculated
that a chimpanzee might commit a
crime, and a human being could
get blamed for it.
Jack brought up an interesting
point, however. “We would prob
ably know if the fingerprints left
at the scene were human,” he said,
“by' observing the position^ in which
the hand or hands had been plac
ed,”
V According to Richardson, humans
invariably spread ’ their fingers
apart when touching or grasping
something, while a monkey keeps
his fingers close together. There
could, of covlrse, be exceptions, but
this isn’t likely. And, monkeys be
ing monkeys, their finger tips are
^usually dirty, dirtier even than
the fingers of that small boy of
yours after several hours of play.
This would be a revealing factor too
when the chimp left his prints.
No duplicates have ever been
found among the 140 million fin
gerprints that are on file with the
JBfederal Bureau of Investigation.
Which, of course, bears out the
fltmly established belief that there
are no duplications.
*tPerish the thought, but would
n’t it be disconcerting if the FBI
or somebody else found some fin
gerprints that matched your own
'exactly, and they belonged not to
.a fellow human but a monkey? It
(Continued on Pago 8)
The NEW
I
fit.
«•
C.
1SHBD WBIKLY
IB HBART OF
'ERN NORTH
AROUNA
Her Copy
VOLUME 3
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1961
NUMBER 50
smif^MORE imc6tiTOd:
who is vice-president of the Ifhtel Ricca^y in N(
City, .^admires the Air Force Recruitihg'Service Class J
award which he has just received for his outstanding sup
port to the USAF Recruiting Service,and its mission. Seen
with Ed is MSgt. Lee Rogers, Air Force RecruMer of i:he;
year, and his wife, Vicki. Wallnau has been saluted count
less times by all branches of the service, and his Cadet
Lounge is a Gotham landmark.
New Bernian's Son Builds Car
r
For Famed International Race
“LET ME HAVE IT!”
Chipper Spigner’s pet is impatient.
—Photo by Florence Hanff.
♦ Designing and creating a race
car that can qualify for an inter
national event is easier said that
done.
Many fail, but Henry A. Grady,
in, whose father is a well-known
New Bern attorney, Henry Grady,
Jr., has accomplished this feat with
his co-builder. Gene Beach. To
morrow, down in Florida, their
highly praised vehicle will compete
in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Dubbed the Begra—a name coin-
BescR imd Oradyi-it is
scroduled for driving by John Bent
ley, with Henry in relief. Bentley
won the Index of Performance test
last year, driving as OSCA, and
this will be his eighth year in the
world-famous Twelve Hours. It is
said that no other driver can match
him in experience.
Challenging the Begra will be
Europe’s best. It will run in Sports
Category “C” as a protype Ameri
can racing car, and with its 750 cc
displacement will be vying with
the long-successful OSCAS and
D.B.s.
Described as a 12-hour endur
ance orgy, the Sebring Twelve
Hours is going to demand the max
imum of a vehicle that weighs just
630 pounds. Grady and Beach have
no doubts as to its stamina and ef
ficiency and it might well be that
automotive history will be made to
morrow.
A mechanical engineer who grad
uated from the University of North
Carolina, Henry hails from Clinton.
He manages the Motor Imports
Part Co., of Miami, and has been
enthusiastically and dt^gedly
striving to perfect racing cars for
the past five years. ,
He and Gene were both pilots in
the Korean war. Beach flew single-
engined fighters, while Grady flew
the multi-motored jobk. They be
came good friends, and teamed up
when they returned to civilian life.
Gene lives at Clearwater.
It took them 16 months to trans
form the Begra from a dream into
a reality. Lee Lilley, one of the
winners at LeMans last year, calls
the car “knock-kneed, bow-legged,
pigeon-toed and slew-footed” but
he adds quite emphatically that “it
works.”
Last April, on a tricky 2.7 course
near Cocoa, the Begra registered
its first class win in the 10-lap
event for Triumphs, Porsches,
MGA’s, Alfa Normals and similar
race cars.
Later, it finished third behind
two Porsche 1600 Supers, in a
field of 33 outstanding vehicles.
It was apparent that Grady and
Beach had come up with something
extraordinary, and the Begra oc
casioned plenty of talk in racing
circles when it finished first in
two big meets at Daytona.
The Begra’s lightness, to a con
siderable extent, resulted from its
all-aluminum body. An architect by
trade. Gene pounded out the body
over an old stump in his backyard.
Henry assumed responsibility fbir
fashioning the motor. He worked
alon'e at Miami, while Beach was
doing his laboring at Clearwater.
When the engine and chassis had
been completed by Grady, he tovr-
(Continued on Pago S)
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