John Larson created the first continuous polygraph in 1921 at the Berkeley Police Department, revolutionizing criminal investigation and forensic science.
Read Article →How August Vollmer turned the Berkeley Police Department into America's most innovative force, introducing the polygraph and scientific policing methods.
Read Article →Explore the decades-long feud between John Larson and Leonarde Keeler over who truly invented the modern polygraph, from Berkeley PD to Northwestern University.
Read Article →How John Larson and Leonarde Keeler's mentorship at Berkeley PD became the defining rivalry of polygraph history, shaping modern lie detection.
Read Article →How Sir James Mackenzie's 1902 clinical ink polygraph — built to diagnose heart disease — became the technological ancestor of modern lie detection instruments.
Read Article →Discover how Prohibition's law enforcement crisis fueled polygraph development — from Vollmer's Berkeley to Keeler's Chicago crime lab.
Read Article →Explore the disputed origins of the polygraph through the competing contributions of Marston, Larson, and Keeler — and who actually deserves credit.
Read Article →How August Vollmer, Berkeley's pioneering police chief, recruited John Larson and Leonarde Keeler to create the first police polygraph and America's first crime lab.
Read Article →The Wickersham Commission (1929–1931) exposed police brutality nationwide, called for scientific investigation methods, and helped launch the polygraph era in American law enforcement.
Read Article →Discover how the 1920s transformed polygraph testing from university experiments to police investigations, featuring Marston, Larson, Vollmer, and the landmark Frye ruling.
Read Article →Explore the 1930s Keeler era — polygraph commercialization, Northwestern's crime lab, the 1935 Portage trial, and the GSR channel that shaped modern testing.
Read Article →Discover how August Vollmer, John Larson, and Leonarde Keeler created the world's first polygraph program at the Berkeley Police Department in 1921.
Read Article →Explore the landmark dispute between Marston and Larson over who invented the polygraph — from Harvard experiments to the Berkeley breakthrough.
Read Article →Leonarde Keeler (1903-1949) transformed the polygraph from a lab curiosity into a portable forensic tool, filing the first U.S. polygraph patent and founding America's…
Read Article →Discover how August Vollmer, Berkeley's first police chief, pioneered the polygraph, forensic science, and professional policing standards from 1909 to 1932.
Read Article →August Vollmer, Berkeley's first police chief, created the blueprint for modern policing and championed the polygraph as a scientific crime-fighting tool.
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