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John Augustus Larson

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Crime Fighter

The Resume

    (December 11, 1892-October 1, 1965)
    Born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada
    Police officer in Berkeley, California
    Improved on the work of William Marston to create the modern polygraph (1921)
    Marston's machine had measured changes in blood pressure; Larson added measurements of pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity

Why he might be annoying:

    He preferred calling his invention a 'cardio-pneumopsychogram'; not too surprisingly, the public and press went with 'lie detector.'
    He married Margaret Taylor, the first person he interrogated with a polygraph.
    In his own tests on juvenile delinquents, he found the polygraph gave inconclusive results 40% of the time.
    He came to regret inventing the polygraph, feeling it was being abused by some police departments and used incorrectly and most others.
    Shortly before his death, he called the polygraph ' a Frankenstein's monster, which I have spent over forty years in combating.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the first police officer in the US with an academic doctorate.
    He originally studied biology and became interested in forensic science while working on a masters thesis about fingerprints.
    His first polygraph is part of the collection of the Smithsonian.
    One of his goals in inventing the polygraph was to end the practice of cops beating confessions out of suspects.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying