In 1854, Roger Tichborne, the heir to a wealthy English baronetcy, was presumed dead after his ship vanished in the Atlantic Ocean. Over a decade later, his grief-stricken mother placed international advertisements seeking information about her son. In response, a butcher living in Wagga Wagga, Australia, named Thomas Castro came forward, asserting that he was Roger Tichborne and had survived the shipwreck.
Despite Castro being significantly heavier, uneducated, unable to speak French—a language Roger spoke fluently—and completely lacking Roger's distinctive aristocratic manners, Lady Tichborne shockingly accepted him as her son. Upon her death, the rest of the Tichborne family took legal action to stop the imposter from claiming the massive family estate, resulting in two of the longest legal proceedings in British history. The civil and criminal trials hinged heavily on early forensic methodologies and physical documentation.
Witnesses pointed out that Roger had possessed distinct tattoos, including an anchor, heart, and cross, which the claimant lacked. Medical experts inspected the claimant's body and testified that he lacked Roger's congenital malformations and childhood scars. Handwriting experts analyzed letters written by the claimant and compared them to Roger's genuine correspondence, revealing vastly different writing styles and spelling habits.
Investigators traced the claimant's true identity back to Arthur Orton, a butcher's son from Wapping, London. In 1874, Orton was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor, marking a monumental milestone in the use of forensic science and physical identification in courtrooms.