The Science of Questioned Documents: A Masterful Forgery

After being released from jail, Konrad Kujau hung up a satirical, handwritten letter from Adolf Hitler. In it, Hitler authorized Kujau to write his memoirs as a series of diaries. The letter, just like the 61 “lost” diaries Kujau claimed to possess, was a masterfully created forgery by Kujau.

When the diaries first came to light in 1978, some of the subject matter ran contrary to Nazi ideals and handwriting experts and historians openly doubted their validity. However, the few experts permitted to view the texts all came to the same conclusion—the handwriting matched other writings of Hitler’s. The analysts who validated the work had not been wrong in their conclusion. As they all stated, the samples were written by the same person, their mistake came from the assumption that the exemplars were written
by Hitler.

There are two types of documents used in handwriting analysis, exemplars and questioned documents. The exemplar can be collected from previous writings known to be authentic or written by a person identified as a suspect in an ongoing investigation. In the latter instance, the suspect transcribes dictated text using writing materials similar to that of the questioned document.

Analysts examine questioned documents, in this case the diaries, and compare them to exemplar documents to determine their authenticity. Typically, the more samples that an expert can have, the better the analysis will be. Kujau was able to skew the analysis because he manufactured and circulated fake paintings and Nazi memorabilia for years before creating the first of the diaries, thus providing a plethora of available “exemplar” samples that were also forged.

What the Experts Look For

At the start of a document comparison, the analyst identifies the form, arrangement, content, and line quality of both documents. Form refers to the proportion, slant, angles, lines, connections, and curves of each individual letter while arrangement refers to the spacing, alignment, formatting, and punctuation of the document as a whole. The content of a document will give clues that hint at the writer’s level of education and intelligence from his use of spelling, phrasing, punctuation, and grammar. Finally, line quality refers to clues gleaned about the writer’s physical style of writing based on the amount of pressure and type of writing instrument used.

Beyond comparing the letters and spacing, the paper and ink used can give criminologists even more clues. Examining electromagnetic wavelengths and filters, a UV/IR spectral comparison will reveal different inks, hidden erasures, and hesitation marks.  Radiocarbon dating, x-ray analysis, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), and laser ablation test the elemental composition of the ink and paper.

With a library of recorded results, TLC is a cost-effective and simple method to determine what type of ink the questioned document was created with.  However, TLC, unlike the other three methods, damages a small portion of the questioned document.  Therefore, x-ray or laser analysis is used to determine a broader chemical breakdown and reveal additions or deletions to the original written text.

Only days before Kujau’s forged Hitler diaries would be published in 1983, independent testing by West Germany’s Federal Archives revealed that the paper, ink, and glue of the diaries contained additives that were only manufactured after World War II.  The diaries were revealed, without question, as forgeries and when re-evaluated against authentic historical documents, the differences were obvious.

Types of Forgery

Most commonly, handwriting analysis in the courtroom involves document and signature forgeries. When reproducing someone else’s handwriting, forgers use one of three methods: tracing, freehand copying, or mechanical placement.

Tracing is the most amateurish method. While anyone can use carbon copy paper or a light box, the lines typically do not exhibit the smooth flow of an original text or signature. Professional analyzers notice hesitation marks and unnatural pen lifts. Tracing is also easy to detect if there are multiple identical instances of the same signature or if the original signature is available. While handwriting is unique to an individual, the form of the letters is never identical, as would be seen with a tracing.

Freehand copying, which was Kujau’s method, is harder to detect because it is practiced and smoother. A talented calligrapher may have practiced the forgery until he can adapt the handwriting into lengthy documents instead of just a signature. However, small traits in the arrangement and content are still present for an expert to identify.

Beyond Forgery

In cases involving ransom notes or threatening letters, handwriting analysis is typically behind-the-scenes work. When the case moves to court, the handwriting expert’s analysis is rarely considered as viable, stand-alone evidence. Despite what you see on television or read in crime novels, getting the court system to recognize handwriting experts has been difficult for several reasons.

Firstly, unlike many forensics frontiers, handwriting analysis does not have a standardized educational degree from many colleges or universities. Ink and paper evaluation can be studied and taught as a science; but the skill of keen eyes and knowing what to look for often follows tutelage under previous experts. Organizations, such as the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners (ABFDE), formed in order to certify and vouch for an expert when he or she is called to testify.

Secondly, severe stress often masks typical handwriting habits in these types of questioned documents. Notes written by someone in an extreme emotional condition will have different slants, spacing, and pressure than samples collected from the same person at any other time. Similarly, in a letter that is knowingly sent to police, the writer often attempts to mask their letter formation. This may involve changing to printing instead of using cursive, or writing the letter with their non-dominant hand.

Lastly, and most significantly, handwriting analysis has some overlapping themes with graphology. Graphology claims to determine personality traits based on a person’s handwriting sample. For example, when examining the writings of both Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer, graphologists saw the same little break following a lower case “d”. Many people with this handwriting trait are known to be able to rationalize any sort of action. While this may be helpful for psychologists, it does not make everyone with this trait a serial killer, and it is certainly not conclusive evidence to issue an arrest warrant.

The confusion comes because both handwriting analysts and graphologists examine documents and make assumptions based on the misspellings, grammatical choices, and word usage they contain. In the famous Unabomber case, a newly emerging type of analysis called forensic linguistics became the key to attaining a search warrant for suspect Ted Kaczynski.

The New Frontier of Linguistics

Over two decades, a mail bomber, known only as the Unabomber, killed three people and injured 29 with exploding packages. As the investigation progressed, family members of Ted Kaczynski recognized similarities between his writings and the Unabomber’s Manifesto. When the FBI collected samples of Ted’s writing their experts came to the same conclusion.

Many of the samples included unusual sentence structures such as “you can’t eat your cake and have it, too,” a convoluted version of the commonly used saying “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Ultimately, a judge agreed with the analysis and issued a search warrant for Kaczynski’s cabin where agents discovered bomb-making materials.

Originally published Spring 2007.

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