Unabomber Reading Summarize the article and tell me your thoughts on Ted Kaczynski. Describe how he was caught by the FBI. Needs to be ½ page for full credit.

Handwriting Analysis

Characteristics Handwriting experts generally look at 8 characteristics of a person’s writing. They try and compare a sample of the suspect’s writing to a known original.

Characteristics for Comparisons 1.Line quality 1.Line quality – Do the letters flow or are they written with intent strokes? 2.Spacing of words and letters 2.Spacing of words and letters – an average ratio of height and width of letters 3.Connecting strokes 3.Connecting strokes – Are capital letters and lower case letters connected? 4.Unusual letter formations 5.Pen pressure 6.Slant 6.Slant – Left, right, slight or pronounced 7.Baseline habits 7.Baseline habits – Do the letters stay even on the baseline? 8.Placement of diacritics 8.Placement of diacritics – How are the t’s crossed and the I’s dotted?

Forensic Document Examiner basic measuring tools o metric rulers, calipers for fine measurements and various glass alignment plates which allow comparison and measurement of angles, height, width and spacing of handwriting and typewriting.

Magnification Often investigators will use copy machine to magnify particular letters and subgroups This allows a transparency overlay for individual features Can be tricky because scale must be maintained

A type of microscope that is particularly useful in document examination is the comparison microscope. Two documents can be viewed side-by-side and the images can be positioned so that they appear to overlay each other.

The computer is a tool in doing examinations and presenting evidence. For example, scanning in documents and cautious use of image processing software offers the potential to differentiate between inks and reveal obscured writing.

For the first image, a photograph of the original document (the original was on file in the courthouse and could not be removed from that location) was scanned in and cropped to the area in question. In the second image the contrast and brightness have been adjusted to give a clearer view of the area. In the third through sixth images the heavy inking that was used to obscure the original writing is gradually "removed" to reveal the "2". In this case, the ink or inks all appeared black and could not be separated with filtering, but the "2" could be seen under a microscope.

On first glance the forgery is quite a good copy. Original Forgery

Line quality Are the lines smooth or shaky? Original Forgery

Spacing - words and letters Is the spacing size consistent?

Ratio - height, width, size Original Forgery Are the letters consistent in shape & size?

Pen lifts and separation Are the pen lifts consistent? Original Forgery

Connecting strokes Compare how letters are linked. Original Forgery

Beginning and ending strokes Are the strokes straight, curled, long? Original Forgery

Unusual letter formation Unusual letters - letters written backwards, tails OriginalForgery

Shading or pen pressure Differences in shading = differences in pen pressure Original Forgery

Slant Is the slant or angle of the letters consistent? Original Forgery

Baseline habits Does the writing go below the line? There is a tendency for the top author (original) to write above the line while the forgery tends to be on the line. Original Forgery

Flourishes and embellishments Any fancy letters? Original Forgery

Diacritic placement - cross i, dot t Is the line on the “t” in proportion? Are the “i’s” dotted left or right? Original Forgery The i dot and t cross tend to the right of the letter. The i dot is varied. The t cross is even. The form of the letter t is wider at the base.

Class Practice Activity Each student in your group should quickly write the following and place it in a pile. “Forensic handwriting analysis is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Anyone could see.” and sign your name. Then write “I think I get it, this is stupid” and sign it “Mr. Stokes” and shuffle these face down Select from the second group and compare to the samples to see who forged Mr. Stokes ’s name