Juries are generally allowed to examine enlarged photographs of the writing, and sometimes to see it under the microscope, but even when so doing what they see unexplained cannot be appreciated intelligently and unless taken for granted as meaning something which the experience of the expert who gives the opinion understands, and which they without such an education, could not be expected to understand that which the photographs show and the microscope makes visible is just as likely to be misleading as otherwise.
An expert may testify as to the characteristics of the handwriting in question; as to whether the writing is natural or feigned, or was or was not written at the same time, with the same pen and ink, and by the same person, and as to alterations or erasures therein; and as to the age of the writing and obscurities therein; the result of his examination of the writing under a magnifying gla.s.s; and to prove in some cases the standard of comparison.
In the United States a witness may be asked to write on cross-examination, but not in direct.
Before a paper can be accepted as a standard of comparison it must be proved to be genuine to the satisfaction of the judge. His decision on this question is final if supported by proper evidence. In some states the question of genuineness is for the jury.
A party denying his handwriting may be asked on cross-examination, if his signature to another instrument is genuine. This is the test which may be successfully applied to ascertain if the signature is genuine.
A plaintiff, on one occasion, denied most positively that a receipt produced was in his handwriting. It was thus worded, "Received the Hole of the above." On being asked to write a sentence in which the word "whole" was introduced, he took evident pains to disguise his handwriting, but he adopted the phonetic style of spelling, and also persisted in using the capital _H_.
The practice of thus testing a witness is vindicated by one of the most sagacious of German jurists, Mittermaier, on grounds not only of expediency, but of authority.
Comparison of handwriting, either by jury or witness, is uniformly allowed to prove writings which are not old enough to prove themselves, but are too old to admit of direct proof of their genuineness.
Handwriting, considered under the law of evidence, includes not only the ordinary writing of one able to write, but also writing done in a disguised hand, or in cipher, and a mark made by one able or unable to write.
The principles regulating the proof of handwriting apply equally to civil and criminal cases.
The paper the handwriting of which is sought to be proved by experts must ordinarily be produced in court, but such production will be excused when the paper has been lost or destroyed and when it is a public record, which cannot be brought into court.
Genuineness may be proved in all cases, except where paper is required to be identified by an official seal, and except as controlled by law applicable to attested instruments.
It may be proved by his own admissions; by witnesses who saw the party write; by witnesses who corresponded with the party; by witnesses who had seen papers acknowledged by the party; by witnesses having personal relations with the party.
Comparison of handwriting, technically called _presumptio ex scripto nunv viso_, is where a paper or papers are proved or admitted to be in a party"s handwriting, and a witness entirely unacquainted with the party"s handwriting, or the jury, is allowed to make a comparison by juxtaposition of the writing so proved or admitted, and the writing disputed.
All evidence of handwriting, except where the witness sees the doc.u.ments written, is in its nature comparison. It is the belief which a witness entertains upon comparing the writing in question with an exemplar in his mind derived from some previous writing.
In all the states of the Union the laws are uniform on the proposition that experts may testify as to comparisons made and the results based on such comparisons, except that the paper admitted to be genuine shall not contain matter of a frivolous nature, etc.
In a broad, general way the element of common sense is the basework of an expert"s success in the business. He cannot depend upon anything suggesting intuition. Where two signatures or two specimens of writing are in question and one exhibit is a forgery and the other is genuine, or where both are genuine, yet in question, the expert is in the position of making his proofs and demonstrations convincing to the layman--the hard headed citizen who insists that "you show me."
Frequently this citizen is on a jury where he has had to admit that he is not particularly intelligent before he would be accepted for the place.
As a first proposition to such a man, however, the expert in chirography may put him to the proof that out of a dozen signatures of his own name no two will be alike in general form. Then he may turn to the authentic and forged signatures in almost any case and show to the layman that the first question of forgery arose from the fact that these two signatures at a first glance are identically alike to almost the minutest detail. With all the skill which the forger has put into his crooked work, he keeps to the old principle of copying the authentic signature which he has in hand, and the more nearly he can reproduce this signature in every proportion the more readily the forgery can be proved.
One of the most important facts from which the expert may begin his investigations of possible forgery is that every man using a pen in writing has his "pen scope." This technical term describes the average stretch of paper which a man may cover without lifting the pen from the paper and shifting his hand to continue the line. In even the freest, swinging movements of a pen where the hand follows the pen fingers, there are occasional breaks in the lettering or undue stretch of s.p.a.ce between the words which will indicate a characteristic scope of the pen if the specimens under investigation cover an ordinary paragraph in length.
As applied to the signatures of the ordinary individual, this pen scope will appear in some form in the signature. The writer may lift his pen before he has spelled out a long Christian or surname, he may indicate it in the placing of a middle initial or in the s.p.a.ce which lies between the initial and the last name. In the case of the signature of one"s name, too, it should be one of the easiest and lest-studied group of words which he is called on to put upon paper.
In writing a letter, for example, the pen scope through it may show an average stretch of one inch for the text of the letter, while in the signature the whole length of the signature twice as long, may be covered. But if the writer covers this full stretch of his name in this way the expert may prove by the necessary short pen scope of the copyist that the studied copy is a forgery on its face. For however free of pen stroke the forger may be naturally, his attempts to produce a facsimile of the signature shortens it beyond the scope of the original signer.
If a search be made through a series of undisputedly genuine signatures, it will be found that one characteristic fails in one and another in another. Here is where the handwriting expert makes his service valuable. He studies all these important points, and is not long in arriving at a successful conclusion.
The introduction of the experimental method into all modern investigation has led to the hope that in this difficult subject means will be found to introduce simpler forms of determining regular or irregular handwriting.
As long as the steps by which experts reach their conclusions are so intricate or recondite that only the results may be stated to the jury, just so long will the character of expert testimony suffer in the opinion of the public, and the insulting charge against it be repeated that any side can hire an expert to support its case.
If a single competent expert could be selected by the court to take up questions of this kind and lay his results before it, the present system would be less objectionable than it is. Nevertheless, this solution is probably not the best, because no man is capable of always observing and judging correctly, and the most careful man may be led astray by elements in the problem before him of which he does not suspect the existence. It would seem, therefore, to be fairer and less open to objection if a plan of investigation were followed which can be clearly explained to those who are to decide a case and the resulting data left in their hands to a.s.sist them in their decision.
In such a manner of presentation, if any important data have been omitted, or if the premises do not warrant the conclusion, the errors can be detected without accusing the expert of lack of good faith or ignorance of his subject. The fact that he has testified in hundreds of cases and in every court in the world should not be allowed to influence the jury against a logical conclusion drawn from uncontroverted facts.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW TO DETECT FORGED HANDWRITING
Frequency of Litigation Arising Over Disputed Handwriting--Forged and Fict.i.tious Claims Against the Estates of Deceased People--Forgery Certain to Be Detected When Subjected to Skilled Expert Examination--A Forger"s Tracks Cannot Be Successfully Covered--With Modern Devices Fraudulent, Forged and Simulated Writing Can Be Determined beyond the Possibility of a Mistake--Bank Officials and Disputed Handwriting--How to Test and Determine Genuine and Forged Signatures--Useful Information About Signature Writing--Guard Against An Illegible Signature--Avoid Gyrations, Whirls and Flourishes--Write Plain, Distinct and Legible--The Signature to Adopt--The People Forgers Pa.s.s By--How to Imitate Successfully--How an Expert Detects Forged Handwriting--Examples of Signatures Forgers Desire to Imitate--Examining and Determining a Forgery--Comparisons of Disputed Handwriting--Microscopic Examinations a Great Help in Detecting Forged Handwriting--Comparison of Forged Handwriting.
Few persons outside of the banking and legal fraternity are aware of the frequency with which litigations arise from one or another of the many phases of disputed handwriting; doubtless most frequently from that of signatures to the various forms of commercial obligations or other instruments conveying t.i.tle to property, such as notes, checks, drafts, deeds, wills, etc. To a less extent the disputed portions involve alterations of books of account and other writings, by erasure, addition, interlineation, etc., while sometimes the trouble comes in the form of disguised or simulated writings. A disproportionately large number of these cases arise from forged and fict.i.tious claims against the estates of deceased people. This results, first, from the fact that such claims are more easily established, as there is usually no one by whom they can be directly contradicted; and, secondly, for the reason that administrators are less liable to exercise the highest degree of caution than are persons who pay out their own money.
In all instances where a forgery extends to the manufacturing of any considerable piece of writing, it is certain of being detected and demonstrated when subjected to a skilled expert examination; but where forgery is confined to a single signature, and that perhaps of such a character as to be easily simulated, detection is ofttimes difficult, and expert demonstrations less certain or convincing. Yet instances are rare in which the forger of even a signature does not leave some unconscious traces that will betray him to the ordinary expert, while in most instances forgery will be at once so apparent to an expert as to admit of a demonstration more trustworthy and convincing to court and jury than is the testimony of witnesses to alleged facts, who may be deceived, or even lie. The unconscious tracks of the forger, however, cannot be bribed or made to lie, and they often speak in a language so unmistakable as to utterly defy controversion.
Note ill.u.s.trations of forged handwriting in Appendix at end of this book.
With the present-day knowledge of writing in its various phases, the ident.i.ty of forged, fraudulent or simulated writing can be determined beyond the possibility of a mistake. Every year sees an increase in the number of important civil and criminal cases that turn on questions of disputed handwriting.
There is not a day in the year but what bank officials are at sea over a disputed signature and a knowledge of how to test and determine genuine and forged signatures will prove of inestimable value to the banking and business world.
Forgery is easy. Detection is difficult. As the rewards for the successful forgers are great, thousands upon thousands of forged checks, notes, drafts, wills, deeds, receipts and all kinds of commercial papers are produced in the United States every year. Many are litigated, but many more are never discovered.
Practical and useful information about signature writing and how to safeguard one"s signature against forgery is something that will be welcomed by those who are constantly attaching their names to valuable papers.
Every man should guard against an illegible signature--for example, a series of meaningless pen tracks with outlandish flourishes, such as are a.s.sumed by many people with the feeling that because no one can read them, they cannot be successfully imitated. Experience has demonstrated that the easiest signatures to successfully forge are those that are illegible, either from design or accident. The banker or business man who sends his pen through a series of gyrations, whirls, flourishes and twists and calls it a signature is making it easy for a forger to reproduce his signature, for it is a jumble of letters and ink absolutely illegible and easy of simulation. Every man should learn to write plain, distinct and legible.
The only signature to adopt is one that is perfectly legible, clear and written rapidly with the forearm or muscular movement. One of the best preventatives of forgery is to write the initials of the name--that is, write them in combination--without lifting the pen. It will help if the small letters are all connected with each other and with the capitals. Select a style of capital letters and always use them; study out a plain combination of them; practice writing until it can be written easily and rapidly and stick to it. Don"t confuse your banker by changing the form of a letter or adding flourishes.
Countless repet.i.tions will give a facility in writing it that will lend a grace and charm and will stamp it with your peculiar characteristics in such a way that the forger will pa.s.s you by when looking for an "easy mark." Plain signatures of the character noted above are not the ones usually selected by forgers for simulation.
Forgers are always hunting for the illegible as in it they can best hide their ident.i.ty.
It is said to be an utter impossibility for one person to imitate successfully a page of writing of another. The person attempting the forgery should be able to accomplish the following: First, he must know all the characteristics of his own hand; second, he must be able to kill all the characteristics of his own hand; third, he must know all of the characteristics in the hand he is imitating; fourth, he must be able to a.s.sume characteristics of the other"s hand at will.
These four points are insuperable obstacles, and the forger does not live who has surmounted or can surmount them.
To understand the principles on which an expert in handwriting bases his work, consider for a moment how a person"s style of writing is developed. He begins by copying the forms set for him by a teacher. He approximates more or less closely to these forms. His handwriting is set, formal, and without character. As soon as he leaves off following the copy book, however, his writing begins to take on individual characteristics. These are for the most part unconscious. He thinks of what he is writing, not how. In time these peculiarities, which creep gradually into a man"s writing, become fixed habits. By the time he is, say, twenty-five years old, his writing is settled. After that it may vary, may grow better or worse, but is certain to retain those distinguishing marks which, in the man himself, we call personality.
This personality remains. He cannot disguise it, except in a superficial way, any more than he can change his own character.
It follows that no two persons write exactly the same hands. It is easy to ill.u.s.trate this. Suppose, for example, that among 10,000 persons there is one hunchback, one minus his right leg, one with an eye missing, one bereft of a left arm, one with a broken nose. To find a person with two of these would require, probably, 100,000 people; three of them, 1,000,000; four of them, 100,000,000. One possessing all of them might not be found in the entire 14,000,000,000 people on earth. Precisely the same with different handwritings--the peculiar and distinguishing characteristics of one would no more be present in others than would the personal counterparts of the authors be found in other individuals.
It is more surprising, at first thought, to be told that no person ever signs his name even twice alike. Of course, theoretically, it cannot be said that it is impossible for a person to write his name twice in exactly the same manner. A person casting dice might throw double aces a hundred times consecutively. But who would not act on the practical certainty that the dice were loaded long before the hundredth throw was reached in such a case? The same reasoning applies to the matter of handwriting with added force, because the chance of two signatures being exactly alike is incomparably less than the chance of the supposed throws of the dice.
Probably many persons will not believe that it is impossible for them to write their own name twice alike. For them it will be an interesting experiment to repeat their signatures, say, a hundred times, writing them on various occasions and under different circ.u.mstances, and then to compare the result. It is safe to say that they will hardly find two of these which do not present some differences, even to their eyes, and under the examination of a trained observer aided by the microscope, these divergencies stand out tenfold more plainly.
Many cases of forgery hinge on this point, the forger having copied another person"s signature by tracing one in his possession, but such attempts are always more easy to detect than those in which the forger carefully imitates another"s hand. The latter is the usual procedure.
The forger secures examples of the signature or writing which he desires to imitate. Then he practices on it, trying to reproduce all its striking peculiarities. In this way he sometimes arrives at a resemblance so close as to deceive even his victim. Still there is always present some internal evidence to prove that the writing is not the work of the person to whom it is attributed. Likewise it will reveal the ident.i.ty of the person who actully wrote it, if specimens of his natural hand are to be had for comparison.
It is impossible for a man to carry in his mind and to reproduce on paper all the peculiar characteristics of another man"s writing and at the same time to conceal all his own. At some point there is certain to come a slip when the habit of years a.s.serts itself and gives the testimony which may fix the whole production on the forger beyond the shadow of a doubt.
The little things are the ones that count most in making examination and determining a forgery for the reason that they are no less characteristic than the more prominent peculiarities and are more likely to be overlooked by the person who tries to disguise his hand.