Leonarde Keeler: In Search of Deception

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ a young adventurer’s illness leads him to the police department and ultimately the development of the polygraph.

American inventor Leonarde Keeler testing his improved polygraph on Arthur Koehler, a former witness for the prosecution at the 1935 trial of Richard Hauptmann. Public Domain

Charles Keeler, a famous California poet, had high hopes for his son, Leonarde (1903–1949). In his 1904 poem, titled “A Song of Leonarde,” he envisioned a rather peaceful, joyful and carefree existence.

Sunshine boy of the world of play, Laughing out in the wind away, Singing free as a song-bird wild,— O that is the way of my elfin child!

Love in the heart thro’ the day-bright hours, Joy on the lips like the smiling flowers, Peace on the face when the night is starred And sleep steals over my Leonarde.

Leonarde, though, had other plans. He envisioned a life of crime; instead of committing crimes, he hoped to solve them.

Leonarde Keeler, named after Leonardo da Vinci, was born in Berkeley to artistic parents, but he and his two sisters moved to the East Coast when he was 4, after his mother died. He did, however, move back to California. Young Keeler proved an inquisitive and adventurous boy. He loved climbing mountains with friends, especially hiking through the High Sierras. He proved extremely meticulous in planning the hiking trips, and this meticulousness was later demonstrated in his life’s work.

Influential Introductions

August Vollmer, "father of modern law enforcement." Public Domain

During his high school days, however, Keeler suffered a serious illness. Not physically able to meet the demands of such extreme activities, his father introduced him to the inner workings of the local Berkeley Police Department. Here, Keeler met two of the most influential people in his life.

August Vollmer had been the police chief since the early 1900s (he was actually the city’s first), and his unconventional methods soon became standardized across the nation, including the use of bicycles and vehicles for police to arrive on scene faster.

Keeler also met Dr. John Larson, who had created a device he called the “cardio-pneumo-psychograph.” It was based on an invention by psychologist William Moulton Marston. Marston’s contraption monitored a person’s blood pressure while someone was speaking, helping to indicate when a person was lying. Larson’s upgraded version monitored blood pressure and breathing.

According to the Cal Alumni Association, “With Vollmer’s blessing, Larson used the machine to test every kind of deviance and criminality. Between 1920 and 1923, he strapped 861 subjects to the apparatus, finding over 200 guilty as charged, and absolving more than 300.”

Larson preferred the invention to be used for medical purposes. Keeler firmly believed in its ability to help with criminal justice, and he set about improving the device.

Creating the Polygraph

Keeler attended the University of California, Berkeley, but spent so much time working on the device that he neglected his schoolwork. When Vollmer left Berkeley in 1923, he moved to Los Angeles to head its police department. Keeler followed him and brought along his contraption with its many wires and tubes that monitored blood pressure, respiration, and pulse rates. He called it “the polygraph.”

Vollmer, a reformist police chief, hoped that the polygraph would replace the traditional and brutal method of the club and hose to obtain confessions.

While in Los Angeles, Keeler enrolled at UCLA. Vollmer soon left Los Angeles for Chicago, the crime capital. Keeler, however, remained in California and attended Stanford University, majoring in psychology. The development of the polygraph continued to dominate so much of his time that he had to return at a later date to complete his degree.

While at Stanford, Keeler tested his polygraph on students. During this time in 1925, two important events took place in his life: He filed for a patent, and he met fellow student Katherine Applegate. He and Applegate later married.

The Polygraph’s Commercial Use

In 1929, Keeler joined Vollmer and Larson in Chicago, and first used his device on 500 prisoners at Joliet State Prison, all who claimed they were innocent. After completing the endeavor, two were proven innocent.

In February that same year, one of the city’s most violent crimes took place: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The mafia-related multiple homicide resulted in the creation of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (SCDL) at the Northwestern University School of Law. Keeler was asked to join and became an assistant professor of law in legal psychology. He found himself a very busy man, conducting lectures and using his polygraph throughout Illinois as well as Minnesota. The polygraph was becoming ever more famous and had obtained a new name: the “lie-detector.”

Keeler’s device was the first polygraph to be sold commercially. Businesses, banks, and corporations began contacting Keeler to test it on their employees. In 1931, a bank executive hired Keeler to conduct polygraphs on 54 employees. The objective was to see where $1,600 (about $34,000 today) had gone. By the end of the test, 12 employees were fired (of the 12, all had exhibited “guilty reactions” and nine confessed). Theft was costing businesses. The polygraph—or the “lie-detector”—was helping identify the culprits.

In 1934, Keeler published a paper for the SCDL entitled “Debunking the ‘Lie-Detector.’” He opened with a very clear statement: “To begin with, there is no such thing as a ‘lie-detector.’” But the name nonetheless stuck.

A Legacy Against Lies

Demonstrating the administration of the polygraph, the polygrapher making notes on the readouts, circa 1970s. Public Domain

Keeler’s polygraph had changed the way investigators and business owners got to the truth (or at least believed they did). Keeler, among many others, continued to assert that the polygraph was not foolproof. Despite its usefulness and its positive perception in the court of public opinion, polygraph results aren’t allowed as evidence in the court of law.

Nonetheless, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan expanded the use of the polygraph to screen future employees of the federal government. It remains a rather common practice in government, especially within the intelligence community. In 1988, however, Congress passed a law banning the use of the polygraph testing by employees in the private sector.

Sadly, Keeler died rather young due to a stroke. Perhaps, to some extent, his death can be attributed to his wife, who had long practiced infidelity. For a man who devoted his life to uncovering deception, it was an event that he never got over. According to historian and author of the book “The Lie Detectors,” Ken Alder, Keeler’s stroke was “exacerbated by alcohol, cigarettes, and mistrust.”

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