Note - contains graphic scenes of an autopsy. Produced by the Texas Department of Public Safety, this film provides a look into the procedures used in a homicide investigation. A cast made up of DPS officers, investigators and employees enact a murder mystery scenario that, through its twists and turns, takes the viewers through the many departments required to solve the case and bring the perpetrator to justice. Included are demonstrations of fingerprint matching, ballistics testing, chemical analysis, toxicology, autopsy, and a polygraph session.

Established by the Texas Legislature on August 10, 1935, the Texas Department of Public Safety was created by the consolidation of the Texas Highway Motor Patrol with the Texas Rangers. Since that time, its duties have grown to include such activities as the state licensing of drivers, vehicle inspection, narcotics enforcement, and the State Civil Defense Office, (now the Division of Emergency Management,) which aids local governments during times of natural disaster or social upheaval. While its duties have evolved over time, the mission of the DPS has remained constant - to provide public safety services to those people in the state of Texas by enforcing laws, administering regulatory programs, managing records, educating the public, and managing emergencies, both directly and through interaction with other agencies.

Travis County Austin

TFC Department of Public Safety DPS TX DPS fingerprint fingerprints fingerprinting dusting gun gunshot wound crime crime scene body corpse photography morgue laboratory autopsy polygraph investigation murder homicide typewriter evidence detective detectives investigator investigators police officers bullet bullet hole blood camera photograph photographs paraffin test body cavity internal organs vital organ

vital organs internal organ liver toxicology ballistics ballistics test microscope chemist chemlab chemical analysis chemistry gun powder spectrophotometer poison poisoning strychnine iodide vapor love triangle Glen H. McLaughlin Joel Tisdale Cecil E. Hill C.O. Crawford Wallace Nelson Bonnie Griebel Jim Shaw C.W. Maupin J.D. Chastain H.J. Strauss Chas. Beardsley Dee. E. Wheeler Jack Mercer Paul Hanson W.L. Muston, Jr. Fred R. Ryme