Did/do the police and FBI

[jonnoman]

Really draw a white line around the body of a dead victim?

[Ethel]

No. It would contaminate the scene and is totally unnecessary with the photographic evidence available.

[Buenchico]

There's some evidence to suggest that chalk lines were drawn around corpses by American police in the 1930s. Plenty of websites claim that bank robber John Dillinger was the first person to have his body outlined in this way.

However, even if it really did happen, it may not have been for the purposes of crime investigation. (Dillinger was shot dead by Federal agents, so no murder invesigation was necessary). The press used to have fairly free access to murder scenes. (There are plenty of old press photos of murder victims in the archives). It's possible that the police marked the position of the body solely for the benefit of press photographers who couldn't get pictures before the body was removed. (It's also possible, of course, that some press photographers just marked the outline of where they thought the body might have been, simply to make their crime scene photos more interesting).

Chris

PS: Beware of pavement artists:
http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/carto onists/ksm/lowres/ksmn1012l.jpg