Would A "Dark Suit" Show Blood Or Hide It?

Factual Questions
1

I was reading about a cold case in Chicago. The woman was murdered in Chicago’s Marina City’s Theater back in the early 70s.

She was stabbed 9 times. Five in the chest, three in the right arm and once in the groin.

Witnesses said, she was talking to an unidentified man, in his 40s, well dressed in a dark suit.

Now I could never find out what color is a “Dark suit,” but my question revolves around this.

The police say they can’t even be sure the man witness saw her with had anything to do with the murder, as the two were chatting very friendly and 15 minutes later she’s covered in blood, staggering around.

The police in the newspapers and other reports I found said, “No one saw anyone leave. But if the man with the dark suit did stab her the dark suit would be ideal to conceal the blood so no one would see.”

Now my first thought was wouldn’t red blood on a dark suit show more?

What do you think? I guess it is how one defines a “dark suit.” All the newspaper accounts list witnesses as saying “dark suit” without naming a specific color

2

I’m not going to conduct an experiment to prove it, but I would have taken it as a given that a dark suit would conceal blood better than a light-colored suit would. Consider the extreme cases of a white suit vs. a black suit.

Or think of less bloody situations involving red wine or marinara sauce. Assuming otherwise similar fabrics, the foreign matter is going to show up more on light-colored garments.

3

Yeah, they’re not talking about a guy in a well lit room, they’re talking about some guy in the dark on a street. A guy in a dark suit wouldn’t be as obvious as another guy.

4

I think it’s always harder to spot stains of any kind on darker fabric…

You should also take into account that blood isn’t always bright red, and since it’s not thick it won’t stand out as obviously as, say, ketchup on a dark suit would. I think only oxygen-rich blood in the arteries will have brighter blood, and as blood is drying it becomes a darker brown anyway.

5

Blood is not paint. It will soak into a dark fabric leaving muted stains rather than sit on the surface looking cartoonishly bright red.

6

I’m not sure I understand – I would think dark red blood would be less contrasty with a dark fabric than with a light fabric, in general, and thus harder to see against a background of dark fabric. Could you explain what you were thinking about that led you to that first thought?

7

Now that I think about it I guess you’re right.

I think the word conceal because even on a dark suit blood is gonna show. I realize blood isn’t the bright red like in cartoons, but I don’t think a gray or black or dark blue suit is gonna conceal anything. I think that is the word that threw me. Sure blood on white shows up much better than blood on black, but I am thinking neither color would conceal it to the point you could stab someone nine times and walk away.

I would think if you attack someone and stab them with a knife nine times (5 chest, 3 right arm, 1 groin) you’d wind up with a good amount of blood on you too.

So I think the word concealed is what kind of threw me.

8

Depends on what color dark, too. I ended up with a lot of blood in/on dark brown cords and it didn’t show when it dried.

9

:eek:
I’m going to make sure I never anger you.

10

Blood on black fabric will just look like a wet spot unless you’re looking very closely and in bright light.

11

Does it make you feel better that it was my blood?

12

It was the '40s, right? They didn’t have color yet.

This.

13

Correct me if I’m wrong, but regardless of whether it’s coming out of an artery or a vein, won’t *all *blood be oxygenated immediately upon hitting the air? I mean, that’s kind of the point of how our lungs work, and *that *gas exchange is taking place across a membrane. (Or would the problem be the lack of the membrane to mediate the gas exchange?)

14

Yeah, it’s all red on the outside.

15

This really needed a “Need answer fast!” subtitle.