Forensic Science Questioned Documents Part 1

Questioned Documents Any object that contains handwritten or typewritten/printed markings whose source or authenticity is questionable. (is it FAKE?)

Questioned Documents Duties of a document examiner: *examination of handwriting * use of microscopy, photography, chromatography (separating colors of ink)

Graphology…it says a lot about you

Types of Forgery Simulated forgery—one made by copying a genuine signature Traced forgery—one made by tracing a genuine signature Blind forgery—made without a model of the signature

Handwriting Analysis What your writing says about you Handwriting Sample of President George Bush According to Sheila Lowe in her book, Handwriting of the Famous and Infamous, President Bush’s handwriting is “fast and highly simplified in fairly well-organized writing field”. Is this a forensic document examiner or a graphologist??

What do you see?

Famous Forgers and Forgeries Major George Byron (Lord Byron forgeries) Thomas Chatterton (Literary forgeries) John Payne Collier (Printed forgeries) Dorman David (Texas Declaration of Independence) Mark Hofmann (Mormon, Freemason forgeries) William Henry Ireland (Shakespeare forgeries) Clifford Irving (Howard Hughes forgery) Konrad Kujau (Hitler Diaries) James Macpherson (Ossian manuscript) George Psalmanasar (Literary forgery) Alexander Howland Smith (Historical documents)

Palmer Method Zaner-Blosser Method

Handwriting Comparisons Unconscious handwriting of two different individuals can never be identical.

Characteristics for Comparisons Line quality – Do the letters flow or are they written with intent strokes? Spacing of words and letters – an average Ratio of height and width of letters Connecting strokes – Are capital letters and lower case letters connected? Unusual letter formations Pen pressure Slant – Left, right, slight or pronounced Baseline habits – Do the letters stay even on the baseline? Placement of diacritics – How are the t’s crossed and the I’s dotted?

Handwriting Comparisons Margins, spacing, crowding, insertions, and alignment are personal habits. Spelling, punctuation, phraseology, and grammar individualize each writer. A final conclusion of comparison between two documents must be based on a sufficient number of common characteristics.

Jack the Ripper

Galileo

Signature Comparison

Writing Alignment

Collection of Handwriting Exemplars In gathering known writing samples for comparison, or exemplars: Known writing should resembled the questioned document Should contain some of the words and combinations of letters present Give the range of natural variations Should be fairly recent, usually within 2-3 years