A brief history of handwriting examination

Introduction

Forensic document examination has been around for many decades, especially when people and courts have faced the problems of authenticating seals,handwriting, hand- printing and overall questioned document problems. It was not until the later part of the 18th century that scientific examination of questioned documents began to take serious roots.

Historical Data

Since the beginning of civilization, forgers have been hard at work deceiving people by imitating the writings of others. When an Egyptian pharoah first fashioned a seal to identify the royal house, a forger would melt, alter and reseal.1

The earliest handwriting examination cases reported goes back to the third century A.D.

In imperial Rome, where it was common practice to fraudulently prepare official documents. Rome personages such as Titus and Anthony made large profits in pre-

paring forgeries of all types of documents related to property rights. It is said that Titus, was "the most skillful forger of his time."2

From all historical accounts, it was mandated under Roman Law that procedures for detection of forgery be implemented. During the sixth century, the Roman Emperor Justinian dictated guidelines for the use of handwriting comparisons in Roman courts.

Here, the presiding judge through his discretionary powers appointed individuals in the community with special skill in writing to perform an examination of questioned writing and give testimony to it"s autenticity. It must be pointed out that no scientific methods were employed because the comparisons of the writings were on "likeness" or similarity of the writing itself.3

As the years passed, European countries accepted and practiced the Justinian rule on handwriting comparisons.4

In Spain, public servants were appointed by Alfonso X the Sage as "Omes Sabidores," to detect forged documents by using formal scientific deduction.5

In France, experts were designated by royal decree as "Master Writers."6

With the invention of photography, a few photographers in the 1890's fancied them- selves as document examiners because photographs could be enlarged, a novelty in those days, that gave them the opportunity of visually studying minute details on handwriting, handprinting that composed extended writings and signatures.7

In a famous public document case, a frenchman by the name of Alphonse Bertillon, who was the inventor of anthropometry and a fancy photographer gave damaging testimony again an army officer by the name of Dreyfus by pinpointing him as the person who pre- an incriminating document. It wasn"t until years later while Dreyfus was in jail that Bertillon"s mistaken opinion was challenged by well known and established forensic document examiners in England and the United States. With new evidence introduced, Dreyfus was finally exonerated of the charges of treason.8

The Scientific Era of Document Examination

During the 1890's, handwriting identification in the United States began to take root when scientific methods and techniques were introduced. (The forensic document examiner now applies in his daily work the use of microscopy, chemistry, laboratory instrumentation and digital photography). Many spurious documents have been exposed through the years with this forensic and practical science).9

In 1910, pioneer Albert Sherman Osborn published his first edition of "Questioned Documents." Before Obsorn, books on the identification of handwriting were in print.

(Authors such as Hagen, Frazer, Ames and others), but when the publication "Questioned Documents" was first published with it"s revised edition in 1929, it became the cornerstone of questioned document examination in the United States with the help of John Wigmore, author of "Legal Evidence." Although writing instruments, inks, paper, typewriting including techniques and procedures have changed greatly due to scientific advancements, some of the principles and techniques is still practiced by forensic document examiners today.

First Crime Laboratory in Puerto Rico

Forensic document examination in Puerto Rico before 1948 was non existent. It was the Commonwealth Police Department that created the first crime laboratory located at Stop 3, in Old San Juan and later moved to Barbosa Avenue in Hato Rey. Years later the laboratory was moved again, and this time to the Department of Police headquarters on Roosevelt Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.10

From personal interviews, Dr. Arnaldo Palmer, a police department physician was one of the first crime laboratory directors, who supervised the already established Photo-graphy, Chemistry, Fingerprints and Questioned Document sections. Most of the laboratory personnel were civilians.?For more than 28 years, Rafael Viñas Negrón headed the document section until his retirement in the 60's. Others that followed in Viñas shoes was Eugenio Roman, Saul Rivera and Edgardo Flores Crespo.11

Also in the 60's, the document section of the police department began to expand when the crime laboratory recruited new personnel headed now by Angel Figueroa Vivas who later became an attorney to head the newly formed Special Investigations Bureau of the Commonwealth Department of Justice.

It"s fair to mention that amoung the personnel at the crime laboratory who was versed in criminalistics including document examination was Dr. Israel Castellanos, a Cuban exile, who was a medical doctor by profession and an avid crime fighter in the Sherlock Homes tradition. (Dr. Castellanos was one of the three founders of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in the United States.

During the 20's and 30's, document examiners from the mainland visited Puerto Rico to do document work and testify in local and the Federal District Court of San Juan.

(In Osborn"s book, "Questioned Documents", he intervened in a disputed ballot case involving check marks as reported in the case of Ryan vs. Strate, 10 O.C. Reports, New Style, 497; 87 N.E. 1141 (1908). Also, it is noteworthy to mention that in 1989, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a similar case in Granados Navedo vs. Rodriguez Estrada, CA-89-54 involved 15 mayoralty ballots were in dispute).

In this case as well as others, I has the privilege of examining the questioned cross marks and it revealed that they were possibly made by the same person. To strengthen the opinion, John McCarty, a recognized document examiner from Florida, was called into the case and John also concluded that the ballots could have been made by one person, but we couldn"t identify the person who made the check marks.

Besides Osborn, I want to mention Dr. Rafael Ruénes Fernández from Miami, who was a Cuban refugee and one of the founders of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, who travelled to Puerto Rico to do questioned document examinations. Dr. Ruénes who I befriended, wrote many technical papers in the field of questioned documents including a book titled, "Examen de Documentos Dubitados:

Peritaje Caligráfico or Examination of Questioned Documents and Handwriting Expert," a 1951 publication and dedicated to his teacher Albert S. Osborn. It was Ruénes who introduced the scientific principles of document examination in the courts of Puerto Rico in Spanish and the different opinions when the evidence did not meet the criterias of a positive identification of authorship in a questioned document case.13

The Second Forensic Crime Laboratory in Puerto Rico

In 1978, the Commonwealth Department of Justice Special Investigations Bureau (SIB), was created by Public Law 38, establishing the second forensic laboratory on the island. It was the responsibility of Juan Julio Roman, a Forensic Scientist, as its first Forensic Director to set up shop with state of the art scientific instrument and personnel. Nearly one million dollars of public funds was spent in laboratory instruments along.14

Looking back over the years gone by, the small and effective crime laboratory consisted of the following sections: Chemistry, Firearms, Polygraph, Photography, Fingerprints, Questioned Documents, Research and Communications. The forensic personnel was madeup of Juan Julio Roman, Director, Edwin Medina, Asst. Director, Pedro Nelson Acosta, Photographer and Fingerprint technician, Orlando Plá Ortiz, Polygrapher, Ruben Meléndez, Chemist, Guillermo López, Chemist, Rafael Viñas Torres, Questioned Document Examiner, Anibal González, Firearms Examiner, Orlando Díaz Chemist and Nemías Vélez, Assistant Photographer and Communication technician.

In 1982, This author replaced Rafael Viñas Torres, son of Rafael Viñas Negrón, who opted to go into private practice with his father who retired as document examiner of the Commonweath Department of Police. No sooner that I was assigned to the document section, I was sent to the F.B.I and Secret Service Schools in Quantico,Virginia, Glenco, Georgia to receive instructions in the questioned document field.

In 1983, for "hands on experience", I trained for a short period of time at the San Bruno Crime Laboratory of the Postal Inspection Service and at the Fraud Detail Section of the San Francisco Police, California U.S.A.

Many of the instructors at the F.B.I. and Secret Service Schools were Dale Moreau, Irby Todd, John Haggett and Ronald Dick. At the San Bruno Lab, Susan Morton and George Lewis. At the Fraud Detail Section, my friend Lloyd Cunningham. Later, I corresponded frequently with Rafael Ruénes Fernández of the Miami Dale Police as my advisor.

In the 80"s, the document section was increasingly experiencing all kinds of document examinations that included alterations, obliteration, machine copies, rubber stamps, as well as handwriting, handprinting and numbers in questionable documents.

High Profile Document Cases in Puerto Rico

Some high profile case brought to the attention of the public was State v. Ivan Ortiz Torres, Superior Ct., criminal case no. 685-3168, where a state legislator was the among the first house members to be indicted and convicted of falsification of checks.

Other important profile cases involved an individual who tried to extort a large amount of money from the president of one of the island"s mayor newspaper "El Nuevo Día," who was the son of a former governor of Puerto Rico. (State vs. Carlos Burgos et als,

Superior Ct., criminal case no. 683-44-441). The other case involved the State Lottery

Agency where a check in the amount of half million dollars was prepared fraudulently and cashed at a local bank.15

Laboratory Scientific Instruments

Much of the work in questioned document examination was conducted with modern scientific instruments such as the estereomicroscope, the electrostatic indentation

Apparatus (ESDA), an instrument that detects latent writings, marks and impressions of fingerprints and palm prints in paper, Infrarred and Ultraviolet Video Imaging System, typewriter measure plates, photographic equipment and chemical reagents.16

Merger of Two Forensic Laboratories and Institute of Legal Medicine

In 1984, Attorney Hector Rivera Cruz, Former Secretary of Justice, created a law to merge the two state forensic laboratories and the Institute of Legal Medicine into one agency. (The idea was founded when the Secretary of Justice visited the Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, Texas headed by Dr. Irving Stone, Director, and how the Institute Operated. (Dr. Stone was the expert witness in the murders of two young men by the the Commonwealth Department of Police in the Cerro Maravilla Case).17

In 1985, the state legislature approved Public Law 13, creating the Puerto Rico Institute Of Forensic Sciences. To head the direction of the forensic institute, the Secretary of Justice named Dr. Pío Rechani López, a chemistry professor of the University of Puerto Rico as Executive Director. Under his supervision, personnel of the three government agencies (Police, SIB and the Institute of Legal Medicine merged as one, forming the Puerto Rico Institute of Forensic Sciences). Today, the questioned document section of the Puerto Rico Institute of Forensic Sciences and its personnel are certified by the Laboratory Accreditation Board of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

Conclusion

For more than a century, questioned document examination in Europe, United States, Latin America and Puerto Rico has come a long way from those earlier days, when examiners did not have the best of training and equipment. In the words of Ordway Hilton, "future document examiners must always keep in mind that, we cannot stand still, there is much progress and history still to be made".18

Bibliographic

1.Times, "Hilter"s Forged Diaries," May 16, 1983, p.36.

2. Baker, Newton, "Law of Disputed and Forged Documents, "The Michie Company, 1955, pp.1-11.

3. Ibid.

4. Ruenes, Rafael F., "Examen de Documentos Dubitados Peritaje Caligrafico", 1951, pp.611-625.

5. Moenssens, Andre & Inbau, "Scientific Evidence in Criminal Cases," The Foundation Press, 2nd Ed., 1978, pp.463-464.

6. Ibid.

7. Hilton, Ordway, "History of Questioned Document Examination in the United States," paper presented at the Society of Forensic Questioned Document

Examiners, March 22, 1977.

8. Personal interview with Edwin Medina, Forensic Scientist at the Puerto Rico Institute of Forensic Sciences, July 14, 1991.

9. Ibid.

10. Personal interview with Juan Julio Román, Forensic Scientist at the Puerto Rico Institute of Forensic Sciences, August 13, 1991.

11. Ibid.

12. Osborn, Albert S., "Questioned Documents," Paterson Smith, 2nd Ed. 9th printing, 1978, p. 320.

13. Personal interview by phone with Dr. Rafael Fernández Ruénes, Miami, Florida, June 18, 1984.

14. Public Law 38, approved July 21, 1978, creating the Special Investigation Bureau of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

15. Public Law 13, approved July 24, 1985, creating the P.R. Institute of Forensic Sciences.

16. Ibid

17. Ibid

18. Hilton, Ordway, "History of Questioned Document Examination in the United States," paper presented at the Society of Forensic Questioned Document

Examiners, March 22, 1977.

Author:

Evaristo Alvarez Ghigliotti

*Conference professor, University of Turabo. BS, John Jay College of Criminal

Justice, New York 1968. MA, Interamerican University, San Juan,P.R., 1979.

LL.B LaSalle Extension University Law School, Chicago, III., 1968. Author of

"Forensic Investigation of Documents: It"s Historical, Technical and Legal Aspects",

4th Ed., 2012. Principal editor of the publication "El Examinador Forense de P.R.".