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Ruloff's Case
11 Abbott's Practice Reports (New Series) 245 (1871)

    [Testimony regarding the Photograph of Dexter and Jarvis, p. 254-259]

  1. To identify Dexter, alias Davenport, a photographer was produced. The photographer testified as follows:

  2. Question.—"These are just as they were taken out and set up against the barn?"

  3. "Yes, sir."

  4. "Are they correct likenesses?"

  5. "They are perfectly correct as the bodies were at the time, except that the colors may not be exactly like they were at that time; but otherwise they are as perfect as a machine will make them."

  6. The Court.—"It makes perfect likenesses?"

  7. "It is considered so, sir."

  8. Cross-examination.—"Were the faces and heads of these dead men badly bruised?"

  9. "They had that appearance, but I did not examine them close."

  10. "Do you think they had the appearance of having been in water some time?"

  11. "Yes, sir."

  12. "Was not the clothing on these persons wet?"

  13. "Yes, sir."

  14. "Did not their faces have a bloated and distorted appearance?"

  15. "I think they were bloated and discolored in places."

  16. "They did not look natural?"

  17. "They looked as natural as could be expected under the circumstances."

  18. "I asked whether they looked natural?"

  19. "I never saw them previous to that time, and I could not tell you."

  20. "Did they have the natural appearance of dead persons?"

  21. "They resembled dead persons very closely, I should judge."

  22. "Didn't they show exposure of several days?"

  23. "I don't think they showed they had been exposed for days."

  24. "Would it not change the countenance of a dead person to lie in water three or four days?"

  25. "I suppose it would cause them to bloat, and any one thus bloated would look unnatural, but still would look like themselves."

  26. "You can tell who a man is who is bloated, for all that?"

  27. "I think they were put upon some boards by the undertakers."

  28. The Court.—"Was it the same day they were taken from the river?"

  29. "Yes, sir."

  30. "How long after they were taken from the water?"

  31. "I took them about nine or ten o'clock; I think they were taken out some time near six o'clock in the morning-I heard so; I did not know that."

  32. "Where had they been lying from the time they were taken from the water till you commenced taking the photographs?"

  33. "I was down, I think, about seven o'clock, and they were at the building at Mr. Traver's; I did not get a chance to see them at all; I don't know how much they had bloated; I undertook to look in but couldn't do it."

  34. "Were they stiff?"

  35. "I do not know how stiff they were: they raised them up."

  36. "Why didn't you put them in a sitting position?"

  37. "I thought it was quite sufficient to take them."

  38. "Are the faces of these two persons lying at this angle as natural as they would be if they were sitting or standing?"

  39. "If they were alive and sitting in the proper position you would get a better likeness of them, sir."

  40. "You would get a better likeness if they were perpendicular?"

  41. "The angle at which they were lying is not as favorable.

  42. "It is not as favorable for you to take quite as natural a picture?"

  43. "No, sir."

  44. The Court.—"How were these taken?"

  45. "They were arranged on boards from the ground at first, and they proposed to set them up, and they tried it; but I noticed they slipped off, and they could not do it."

  46. "Do you think they sat at an angle of about forty-five degrees?"

  47. "I don't know, sir."

  48. "Is that your impression?"

  49. "Yes, sir."

  50. "Was it a sun-shiny day?"

  51. "Yes, sir."

  52. "How far was your camera from the bodies?"

  53. "As near as I can judge, I should think it was within eight or nine feet."

  54. "With a daguerrean camera can you take a photograph in the open air, with the light entirely around it, as well as in a room?"

  55. "I think not."

  56. "In your room you usually have the sunlight peculiarly arranged by which the light is brought to bear upon a human face?"

  57. "Yes, sir; we arrange the light to produce lights and shadows."

  58. "The more the light is concentrated upon the face, the better the photograph?"

  59. "I think not, sir."

  60. "Don't you usually have the person photographed sit back in the shade?"

  61. "This is not essential, since we can shade the lens; we usually have a cloth thrown over the lens, this simply to give us a better light to look through the lens."

  62. "If you were to take the photograph of two persons, and should take one in the room, and the other one in the open air, would you consider one as naturally taken as the other?"

  63. "I should not consider it so, sir."

  64. "You also say you would take a more natural picture if the figure was erect?"

  65. "Yes, sir; if the figure was erect."

  66. "When the person lies at an angle, don't you take the face at an angle?"

  67. "Yes, sir; naturally."

  68. The Court.—That is very obvious.

  69. "Why didn't you turn these bodies upon their sides and take them in a natural position?"

  70. "I didn't think of it; if I had done so the features would have been more prominent."

  71. "Would you get a more correct picture in that way?"

  72. "The features would have been more prominent."

  73. "Would they not have been more correctly taken?"

  74. "If the features were more prominent it would make them more natural."

  75. "The expression would be more natural. While there was no expression to this at all?"

  76. "The faces were swollen?"

  77. "They had that appearance."

  78. "Were the faces discolored?"

  79. "Yes, sir."

  80. "What was the color?"

  81. "Black and blue; there were bruises on their faces."

  82. "Where there were no bruises was it discolored?"

  83. "I couldn't say it was."

  84. "Was it the natural color?"

  85. "It was the natural color under the circumstances."

  86. "Wasn't the whole face, aside from the bruises, discolored by the action of the water, and light and heat?"

  87. "Certainly it was; they were dead."

  88. "Had they been personal friends would you have been able to recognize them as readily as if they had not been lying in the water at the time?"

  89. "If they had been personal friends, I think I should; of course, they would not have looked as natural to me when I first laid my eye on them, but I think I should have known them."

  90. "The discoloration is not reproduced on the plate?"

  91. "No sir; we do not draw colors at all; we take light and shade, that is all we do."

  92. Direct examination resumed: "They were taken at the west side of the barn, they were at the north side of the livery stable, that is, the west side of the building?"

  93. "Yes sir."

  94. Cross-examination: "Do you say these pictures are as natural, and could be as readily recognized as if standing, or sitting perfectly erect, or standing in this way?"

  95. "Yes, sir; to me, I think, in this posture and under these circumstances; and I recognize them just as quick, I think."

  96. "They would be just as natural?"

  97. "Probably if I was acquainted with any of the circumstances, I should recognize them."

  98. The Court.—" Was it a correct likeness, for persons in the position they occupied?"

  99. "Yes sir."

  100. "If they were sitting up, they would be horizontal to the instrument?"

  101. "Yes sir."

  102. "If at an angle, they would present the same appearance to the naked eye in that position?"

  103. "Certainly they would."

  104. Exceptions were duly taken to the rulings objected to.