Fingernail Scrapings and Trace Evidence Science

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I meant to say I believed in the science of the nail scrapings standing up to today’s standards, not that I believed in the evidence. The science would recommend or demand it be fresh contamination no more that 24 hours under the nails of a living person according to the modern studies. So “re-contamination” on the third day is in order. That’s all I was interested in - the science.

Michael, I believe, came up with the idea that made your’s workable - jumping into bed etc. I’ll offer that maybe Ali tried to push the intestines back into her body. And then wiped his clothes.

To me nothing trumps a locked door. It’s obviously easier to unseal and seal an envelope than it is to unlock and lock a door without the key when you need a key. Or sneak in and out during a pee break or some other Locked Room Mystery scenario. And you don’t actually have to plant the evidence at the scene.

[Howard Brown]

I meant to say I believed in the science of the nail scrapings standing up to today’s standards, not that I believed in the evidence.

What does that mean ?


If the science of the nail scrapings....I'm assuming you mean what Flint and Formad looked for.....stood up to today's standards...which is what I interpret you to mean...that the tests & findings from what the two medical men undertook did stand up to today's standards....is that correct ?.....you don't accept what they found ?

If not, I'm going to hazard a guess that you believe the material was planted.


Michael, I believe, came up with the idea that made your’s workable - jumping into bed etc. I’ll offer that maybe Ali tried to push the intestines back into her body. And then wiped his clothes.

Then this means, according to the scenario you posted above, that he was in her room. Do you see the contradiction in what you said ?

It explains how he got leukemic cells under his nails and presents that age old problem of how did he lock the door on his way out.

Mike knows where the original idea about what made the idea workable. It came from neither one of us.

It was actually from a story which surfaced in 1902 ( Known to Flint and others, as well) which appeared in a Buffalo newspaper where an actor named William Thompson was interviewed while in that city. He was friends with Emile Sultan, one of the interpreters and a cigar store owner in Manhattan, who shared the details of a conversation with Ali in which Ali confessed to having been in the room but that he didn't murder her. IF this information had been made available to the defense, I'd wager heavy that the attorneys wouldn't have brought it up since, if true, it put him in the room and with the dirtbag's track record and character.....he'd have been given the chair.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Are Thomas and Sultane and/or the newspapers really supporting or coming up with the burglary theory? Is that even being introduced, even after the key turned up?

Wasn’t it, or wouldn’t it, just be Ali saying this sometime during his time in prison?

[Howard Brown]

The story is in here

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Williams and the papers are saying he stopped short of a full confession. To me, that doesn’t mean they are coming up with an alternative scenario to explain the
nail scrapings, etc.

[Howard Brown]

You mean Thompson, not Williams, and the story was merely added into the Buffalo paper because Thompson, one of the foremost thespians of the late 19th century in America, was appearing in Buffalo at the time of Ali's release and he was recalling what Sultan had told him years earlier. Dr. Flint, in one of his medical articles, also mentions that this story of Ali being in the room as being pretty well known in some circles. My guess is that Flint and Thompson believed in Ali being culpable of the murder and that others who heard the story that Flint alludes to also felt that way.

It wasn't an attempt to explain the nail evidence from a position that Ali was innocent....rather it was simply a story Sultan was told ( Ali being in the room and NOT confessing to having murdered her) by Ali while he was one of his interpreters.

In short, the story wasn't an attempt in the slightest to explain the nail evidence from the position that Ali was merely in the room, period. Those who heard it undoubtedly believed Ali was guilty and that the story he told in the minds of those who heard it.....while absolutely plausible....was just a way of getting himself off the hook for the murder.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Well, it’s interesting that they wouldn’t believe the “confession” with an open door and a 4 hour window in their estimate.

But we can continue this in the other site.

[Howard Brown]

Well, it’s interesting that they wouldn’t believe the “confession” with an open door and a 4 hour window in their estimate.


When Sultan told this story and if what Flint heard was also from Sultan's remarks he shared with Thompson, Ali was still in prison.
I'm only guessing that Thompson more than likely believed in his guilt, while Flint was part of the prosecution team that put him where he was....so it's easier to assume
the latter believed in his guilt regardless of the admission to Sultan.