The Unsolved Murder of Lewis Schilling Part 4: Photographing the Dead Man's Eyes

Kalamazoo Gazette Mar 26, 1893

"The remains of the victim of Tuesday’s tragedy have been photographed, in accordance with the request of several who thought that possibly the camera would reveal in the eyes of the dead man a likeness of the murderer. Those who believe that such a thing would be possible are fearful of the results as they say that the quick process of photography used was not the proper way to secure an impression deep in the victim’s eye. They argue that it should have been done slowly the same as negatives of the stars are taken and then, possibly an impression upon the retina would have been secured."

The process described above is called Optography and emerged as a scientific pursuit with the invention of the camera in the 1840s. The idea being that the eye acted as a camera and retained an image of the last thing viewed by the deceased. This practice has been thoroughly discredited, but at the time was so widely regarded as a legitimate technique that some criminals went so far as to destroy the eyes of their victims so as not to be caught.

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