Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

a detective's bigget clue?
inconsistency in criminals.
the hardest criminals to catch are the consistent ones. those who hide their tracks well such that you sense no anomalies in their behaviour. where their speech and their actions are consistent with each other, and consistent over a relatively long period of time.
it also helps alot when a detective has spies in the criminal's ranks. when you know how the criminals ususally work, hehe, woe is them who think you are ignorant of their methods.
of course, a criminal's biggest nightmare is a detective sensitive to such inconsistencies. and more so if that detective is on his tail and knows more than the criminal thinks he does.
hehe...
if you will, just call me...holmes.