Legend has it that an Irish immigrant about to be hanged slapped his grimy hand on his cell wall and said the print would last forever to disgrace the Pennsylvania county that put an innocent man to death.
Today, 117 years later, a hand print can be seen in cell No. 17 at the Carbon County Jail in Jim Thorpe, Pa., where locals say the mark - a longtime tourist attraction - keeps reappearing despite coats of plaster and paint.Now, two forensic scientists hired by the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" have set out to determine whether it could have been left by the condemned man, Alexander Campbell, who was executed for being an accessory to murder.
Hagerstown police chemist Jeff Kercheval and James E. Starrs, a professor at George Washington University, examined the print Monday in a sweltering cell. They removed paint samples and took photos, including infrared and ultraviolet images.
"Will we be able to conclusively prove or disprove it? Probably not," Kercheval said. "Legends die hard."