Disputed Handwriting

Disputed Handwriting

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Disputed Handwriting, by Jerome B. Lavay
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Title: Disputed Handwriting
Author: Jerome B. Lavay
Release Date: November 10, 2004 [eBook #14003]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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DISPUTED HANDWRITING
An Exhaustive, Valuable, and Comprehensive Work upon One of the Most Important Subjects of To-day. With Illustrations and Expositions for the Detection and Study of Forgery by Handwriting of All Kinds
by
JEROME B. LAVAY
The first work of the kind ever published in the United States. For the Protection of America's Banks and Business Houses.
1909

"Handwriting is a gesture of the mind"

TO THE AMERICAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION
THAT POWERFUL AGENCY WHICH HAS ELEVATED THE STANDARD OF BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES AND AN INSTITUTION THAT FOLLOWS ALL WRONGDOERS AGAINST MEMBERS OF THE FRATERNITY RELENTLESSLY AND SUCCESSFULLY THIS WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HOW TO STUDY FORGED AND DISPUTED SIGNATURES
All Titles Depend Upon the Genuineness of Signatures--Comparing Genuine with Disputed Signatures--A Word about Fac-simile Signatures--Process of Evolving a Signature--Evidence of Experience in Handling or Mishandling a Pen--Signature Most Difficult to Read--Simulation of Signature by Expert Penman--Hard to Imitate an Untrained Hand--A Well-Known Banker Presents Some Valuable Points--Perfectly Imitated Writings and Signatures--Bunglingly Executed Forgeries--The Application of Chemical Tests--Rules of Courts on Disputed Signatures--Forgers Giving Appearance of Age to Paper and Ink--Proving the Falsity of Testimony--Determining the Genuineness or Falsity by Anatomy or Skeleton--Making a Magnified Copy of a Signature--Effectiveness of the Photograph Process--Deception the Eye Will Not Detect--When Pen Strokes Cross Each Other--Experimenting With Crossed Lines--Signatures Written With Different Inks--Deciding Order of Sequence in Writing--An Important and Interesting Subject for Bankers--Determining the Genuineness of a Written Document--Ingenuity of Rogues Constantly Takes New Forms--A Systematic Analysis Will Detect Disputed Signatures
CHAPTER II
FORGERY BY TRACING
Forgeries Perpetrated by the Aid of Tracing a Common and Dangerous Method--Using Transparent Tracing Paper--How the Movements are Directed--Formal, Broken and Nervous Lines--Retouched Lines and Shades--Tracing Usually Presents a Close Resemblance to the Genuine--Traced Forgeries Not Exact Duplicates of Their Originals--The Danger of an Exact Duplication--Forgers Usually Unable to Exactly Reproduce Tracing--Using Pencil or Carbon-Guided Lines--Retouching Revealed under the Microscope--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Making a Practice and Study of Signatures--Forgeries and Tracings Made by Skillful Imitators Most Difficult of Detection--Free-Hand Forgery and Tracing--A Few Important Matters to Observe in Detecting Forgery by Tracing--Photographs a Great Aid in Detecting Tracing--How to Compare Imitated and Traced Writing--Furrows Traced by Pen Nibs--Tracing Made by an Untrained Hand--Tracing with Pen and Ink Over a Transparency--Internal Evidence of Forgery by Tracing--Forgeries Made by Skillful Imitators--How to Determine Evidences of Forgery by Tracing--Remains of Tracings--Examining Paper in Transmitted Light--Freely Written Tracings--A Dangerous Method of Forgery
CHAPTER III
HOW FORGERS REPRODUCE SIGNATURES
Characteristics Appearing in Forged Signatures--Conclusions Reached by Careful Examinations--Signatures Written with Little Effort to Imitate--What a Clever Forger Can Do--Most Common Forgeries of Signatures--Reproducing a Signature over a Plate of Glass--A Window Frame Scheme for Reproducing Signatures--How the Paper is Held and the Ink Applied--How a Genuine Signature is Placed and Used--A Forger's Process of Tracing a Signature--How to Detect Earmarks of Fraud in a Reproduced Signature--Prominent Features of Signatures Reproduced--Method Resorted to by Novices in Forging Signatures--Conditions Appearing in All Traced Signatures--Reproduction of Signatures Adopted by Expert Forgers--Making a Lead-Pencil Copy of a Signature--Erasing Pencil Signatures Always Discoverable by the Aid of a Microscope--Appearances and Conditions in Traced Signatures--How to Tell a Traced Signature--All the Details Employed to Reproduce a Signature Given--Features in Which Forgers are Careless--Handling of the Pen Often Leads to Detection--A Noted Characteristic of Reproduced Signatures--Want of Proportion in Writing Names Should Be Studied--Rules to Be Followed in Examining Signatures--System Employed by Experts in Studying Proof of Reproduced Signatures--Bankers and Business Men Should Avoid Careless Signatures
CHAPTER IV
ERASURES, ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS
What Erasure Means--The English Law--What a Fraudulent Alteration Means--Altered or Erased Parts Considered--Memoranda of Alterations Should Always Accompany Paper Changed--How Added Words Should be Treated--How to Erase Words and Lines Without Creating Suspicion--Writing Over an Erasure--How to Determine Whether or Not Erasures or Alterations Have Been Made--Additions and Interlineations--What to Apply to the Suspected Document--The Alcohol Test Absolute--How to Tell which of Crossing Ink Lines Were Made First--Ink and Pencil Alterations and Erasures--Treating Paper to Determine Erasures, Alterations and Additions--Appearance of Paper Treated as Directed--Paper That Does Not Reveal Tampering--How Removal of Characters From a Paper is Affected--Easy Means of Detecting Erasures--Washing with Chemical Reagents--Restoration of Original Marks--What Erasure on Paper Exhibits--Erasure in Parchments--Identifying Typewritten Matter--Immaterial Alterations--Altering Words