Disputed Handwriting Part 14

The style of handwriting, the texture and quality of the paper, and the chemical properties of the inks, are points which are necessary to be considered.

Many checks may be altered to a larger amount by the mere addition of a stroke of the pen here or the erasure of a line, by means of chemicals, in some other place. For instance, take a check of $100, no matter how it may be written, there are five or six different ways in which it may be altered to a much larger amount, and in such a manner as to defy the scrutiny of the most careful bank teller. It may be made into six hundred by merely adding the "S" loop to the "O,"

dotting the first part of the "n" to make of it an "i," and crossing the connecting stroke between the "n" and the "e" to form the "x." To complete the change it will be found necessary to erase with chemicals part of the "e."

A check for one hundred dollars may also be easily altered to eight hundred dollars, especially when sufficient s.p.a.ce has been left between the "one" and the "hundred," as follows: Add to the "O" the top part of an "E," dot part of the "n" to form an "i," connect the remaining part of the "n" with the "e," forming the loop of a "g," and then add "ht." The figure "i" is very easily changed to "8."

Sometimes a small capital is used for an "o." In this case an alteration into "Four" hundred is easily accomplished by simply prefixing a capital "F" and transforming the "e" into an "r," the "n"

being made to serve as a "u."

Another change frequently made is to "Ten" hundred. It is done simply by adding the stem and top part of the "T" to the "O" and changing the first part of the "u" to an "e."

Of course, any of the foregoing changes may be made with equal facility whether the amount be "hundred" or "thousand."

Two hundred, if anything, is a much easier amount to alter than one hundred. It is done in the following manner: Make an "F" by simply crossing the "T;" dot the first part of the "w" to make an "i." and change the "o" into an "e." The figure "2" can be made into a perfect "5" by simply adding the top part of the "5" to it.

Three hundred is not so easily altered; still it may be done by changing the word "hundred" into a "thousand"--an alteration which is by no means rare, and which is quite simple, especially when the word is begun with a small "h." The modus operandi is as follows: Place a capital "T" before the "h"; change the first part of the "u" into an "o," connecting it with the second part, which, with the first part of the "u," will form a "u"; change the second part of the "u" to an "s"; erase the top part of the "d," making of it an "a," and complete the alteration by making an "n" of the "r" and "e." This alteration may appear to be somewhat complicated, but a trial of it according to direction will show how nicely it may be done.

"Four" is another easy amount to alter. It is done by extending the second part of the "u" into a "t," and adding the "y" loop to the "r."

"Five" is changed into "Fifty" and "Fifteen." "Six," "Seven," "Eight,"

and "Nine" are changed into "Sixty," "Seventy," "Eighty," and "Ninety"

by simply affixing the syllable "ty." "Twenty" is another easily changed amount; all that is necessary to make "Seventy" of it is to make an "S" of the "T," and change the first part of the "w" into an "e." To make the alteration perfect, the top part of the "T" must be erased with chemicals.

In regard to the chemicals used to erase ink, much depends upon the ink. For most writing fluids and copying inks which are in daily use, a saturated solution of chloride of lime is the best eraser known, and when properly made is very quick and effective in its work. It may be applied with a gla.s.s pointed pen, to avoid corrosion, or with a clean bit of sponge. It acts as a powerful bleach, and with it the face of a check may be washed as white as before it was written upon. When inks have become dry and hard, sometimes carbolic or acetic acid is used effectively with the chlorine. The application of any alkali or acid to the clean polished surface of a check will, of course, destroy the finish and leave a perceptible stain, but the work of covering up these traces is quite as simple as removing the ink in the first place.

A favorite trick of forgers and check and draft raisers, who operate on an extensive scale, is for one of them to open an office in a city and represent himself as a cattle dealer, lumber merchant, or one looking about for favorable real-estate investments. His first move is to open a bank account, and then work to get on friendly terms with the cas.h.i.+er. He always keeps a good balance--sometimes way up in the thousands--and deports himself in such a manner as to lead to the belief that he is a highly honorable gentleman, and the bank officials are led to the belief that he will eventually become a very profitable customer.

Occasionally he has a note, for a small amount to begin with, always first-cla.s.s two-name paper, and he never objects--usually insists--on paying a trifle more than the regular discount. At first the bank officials closely examine the paper offered, and of course find that the endorsers are men of high standing, and then their confidence in the "cattle king" is unbounded. Gradually the notes increase in amount, from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, and from fifteen hundred to two or three thousand. The notes are promptly paid at maturity. After the confidence of the bank people has been completely gained, the swindler makes a strike for his greatest effort. He comes in the bank in a hurry, presents a sixty-day note, endorsed by first-cla.s.s men, for a larger amount than he has ever before requested, and it generally happens that he gets the money without the slightest difficulty. Then he has a sudden call to attend to important business elsewhere. When the note or notes mature, it is discovered to be a very clever forgery. This has been done time and again, and it is rare that the forger has been apprehended.

The latest mode is for the forger to imitate a private check by the photo-lithographic method, after having obtained a signed check. The signature, after being photographed, is carefully traced over with ink, and the body of the check is filled up for whatever amount is desired. The maker of the check is requested to identify the person who holds it, and as a general thing he does not wait to see the money paid. The moment his back is turned, the layer-down palms the small check and presents the large one. This way of obtaining money is without the a.s.sistance of a middleman.

Private marks on checks are no safeguards at all, although a great many merchants believe they can prevent forgery by making certain dots, or seeming slips of the pen, which are known only to the paying-teller and themselves. This precaution becomes useless when the forger uses the camera. Safe-breakers are often called upon by forgers and asked to secure a sheet of checks out of a check-book. When this is accomplished a few canceled checks are taken at the same time.

These are given to the forger and he fills them up for large amounts, after tracing or copying the signature. The safe burglars receive a percentage on the amount realized. If your safe, vault or desk is broken open where your check-book is kept, carefully count the leaves in your check-book, also your canceled checks. If any are missing notify the banks and begin using a different style of check immediately. The sneak-thief, while plying his trade, often secures unsigned bonds of some corporation which has put the signed bonds in circulation, leaving the rest unsigned until the next meeting of the directors.

Frequently unsigned bonds are left in the bank vault for safe keeping.

These are stolen and sent to the penman or "scratcher." Then a genuine signed bond is purchased, from which the signatures are copied and then forged. The same trick has been played on unsigned bank notes, but on the bank notes almost any name will do, as no person looks at the signature, as long as the note appears genuine.

The ingenuity of a countless army of sharpers is constantly at work in this country, devising plans to obtain funds dishonestly, without work, but, in fact, they often expend more time, skill and labor in carrying out their nefarious schemes, than would serve to earn the sum they finally secure, by honest labor. Every banker must, therefore, be on his guard, and should acquaint himself with the most approved means of detecting and avoiding the most common swindlers. This is just as necessary as it is to lock his books and cash in his safe before going home.

Next to the counterfeiter, the forger is the most dangerous criminal in business life. Transactions involving the largest sums of money are completed on the faith in the genuineness of a signature. Hence every effort should be made to acquire the art of detecting an imitation at a glance. This can only be done by considerable practice. It is a.s.serted that every signature has character about it which can not be perfectly copied, and which can always be detected by an experienced eye. This is problematical, but certainly a skillful bank-teller can hardly be deceived by the forgery of a name of a well-known depositor.

A banker and business man should accustom himself to scrutinize closely the signatures of those with whom he deals. He should cut off their names from the backs of checks and notes, and paste then in alphabetical order in an autograph book devoted to that purpose, and compare any suspicious signature with the genuine one.

In consequence of the numerous frauds committed by forged checks, some of the European bankers have adopted the custom of sending with their letter of advice a photograph of the person in whose favor the credit has been issued, and to stop the payment when the person who presents himself at the bank does not resemble the picture. If this practice were to become universal, the object of preventing frauds could be well attained.

It is probably a fair statement to make that any draft issued can be raised, but it is unquestionably true that some can be much more easily altered than others, and as in the last ten years additional safeguards have been thrown around the bills of exchange of banks, so the forger has become more and more expert and proficient, just about keeping the pace. As the question of armor that can not be pierced and projectiles that will pierce anything are first one and then the other a little ahead, so it is with the bank forger and the banks.

Admirable as some of the work unquestionably is, if anything so disreputable can be called admirable, there is even yet a something about either the work or the operator that should arouse the suspicions of the teller or cas.h.i.+er who is on the alert; and a teller or cas.h.i.+er without suspicion, and who is not on the alert, may be a comparatively good man, but is certainly in the wrong place.

The presenter of a counterfeit bill at the teller's window may have no knowledge of the character of the bill that he is presenting, but he who presents a forged draft, in addition to presenting a bad bill, has a consciousness himself of the fraud that he is attempting, thus giving the teller not only the chance of scrutinizing the bill, but also to judge of the appearance, whether nervous or otherwise, of the man who is laying the trap, and these two facts should inure greatly to the advantage of the teller.

As the news of the many successful depredations is scattered, we see banks trying different methods of protection, many of which at first glance are admirable, but which it will be seen on a little careful study simply require but slight change of method on the part of the professional forger to successfully evade. For instance: Many banks are daily advising their correspondents of the number and amounts of drafts issued, either in the course of the mails or otherwise. This at first sight would seem to be almost absolute protection, but it really may prove a trap to the bank so advised, as may readily be seen. Let us suppose that Mr. Forger steps into a bank in Cleveland, buys a draft for $5; a day or two later, or on the same day, he buys another draft for $5,000. The first draft is successfully altered to $5,000, but would not of course be paid by the correspondent bank for this amount, because of the advice they have of this number is that it was issued for $5; but it was a simpler matter to change the number of the draft to correspond with the $5,000 draft, the number of which the forger has, than it is to make the other alterations necessary to raise it from $5 to $5,000. After making these alterations it goes in for payment, and on reference to the advice sheet it is found that this apparent number was issued for $5,000 and paid accordingly. Then the forgers have simply the problem on hand to avail themselves, either directly through the bank of issue or elsewhere of this genuine $5,000 draft, which is certainly not a hard task for the men who have successfully performed the harder one.

CHAPTER XXII

A FAMOUS FORGERY

The Morey-Garfield Letter--Attempt to Defeat Mr. Garfield for the Presidency--A Clumsy Forgery--Both Letters Reproduced--Evidences of Forgery Pointed Out--The Work of an Illiterate Man--Crude Imitations Apparent--Undoubtedly the Greatest Forgery of the Age--General Garfield's Quick Disclaimer Kills Effect of the Forgery--The Letters Compared and Evidences of Forgery Made Complete.

Very few cases have arisen in this country in which the genuineness of handwriting was the chief contention, and in which such momentous interests were at stake, as in the case of the forged "Morey-Garfield Letter." It was such as to arouse and alarm every citizen of the republic. A few days prior to the presidential election of 1880, in which James A. Garfield was the Republican nominee, there was published in a New York Democratic daily paper, a letter purporting to have been written to a Mr. H.L. Morey, who was alleged to have been connected with an organization of the cheap-labor movement. The letter, if written by Mr. Garfield, committed him in the broadest and fullest manner to the employment of Chinese cheap labor. It was a cheap political trick, a rank forgery, and the purpose of the letter was to arouse the labor vote in close states against Mr. Garfield. It was also a bungling forgery. We present herewith facsimiles of the forged letter and one written by Mr. Garfield branding the Morey letter a fraud.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MOREY-GARFIELD FORGERY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LETTER WRITTEN BY GARFIELD.]

The Morey letter was evidently written by an uneducated man. Here are three instances of wrong spelling that a man of Mr. Garfield's education could not possibly make. The words "ecomony" and "Companys"

in the eighth line and "religeously" in the twelfth line give evidence of a fraudulent and deceitful letter at once.

The misplacing of the dot to the "i" in the signature to the left of the "f" and over the "r" is a mistake quite natural to a hand unaccustomed to making it, but a very improbable and remarkable mistake for one to make in writing his own name. Another noticeable feature in the Morey letter is the conspicuous variations in the sizes and forms of the letters. Notice the three "I's" in the fifth line.

Variations so great in such close connection seldom occur in anything like an educated and practiced hand. The "J" in the signature of the Morey letter has a slope inconsistent with the remainder of the signature and the surrounding writing. It is also too angular at the top and too set and stiff throughout to be the result of a natural sweep of a trained hand.

The Morey letter was written in January, 1880, and made public in October of the same year. If Mr. Garfield wrote the Morey letter in January there was at that time no motive to write it in any other than his ordinary and natural hand. The letter of denial is in his perfectly natural hand; these two letters should therefore be consistent with each other.

The signature of the Morey letter is a clumsy imitation of General Garfield's autograph. Observe the stiff, formal initial line of the "_F_"--its sharp, angular turn at the top, absurd slope and general stiff appearance, while the shade is low down upon the stem, and compare with the free, flowing movement, round turns and consistent slope of the same letter in his genuine autograph. We might extend the comparison, with like result, to all the letters in the signature, and to a mult.i.tude of other instances in the writing of the body of the letter.

Many persons, and some professed experts, have remarked what appeared to them striking and characteristic resemblances between the Morey letter and General Garfield's writing.

It should be borne in mind that if the letter is not in the genuine handwriting of Mr. Garfield it was written by some person whose purpose was to have it appear so to be. That being the case, we should naturally expect to find some, even more, _forms_ than we do, having a resemblance to those used by Mr. Garfield. All these resemblances appear to be either copied or coincidences in the use of forms. There are no coincidences of the unconscious writing habit, which clearly, to our mind, proves the Morey letter, as Mr. Garfield well characterizes it, a very clumsy effort to imitate his writing. Indeed, the effort seems to be little more than an endeavor, on the part of the writer, to disguise his own hand, and copy a few of the general features of Mr. Garfield's writing, adding a tolerable imitation of his autograph.

CHAPTER XXIII

A WARNING TO BANKS AND BUSINESS HOUSES

Information for Those Who Handle Commercial and Legal Doc.u.ments--Peculiarity of Handwriting--Methods Employed in Forgery--Means Employed for Erasing Writing--Care to be Used in Writing--Specimens of Originals and Alterations--Means of Discovering and Demonstrating Forgery--Disputed Signatures--Free Hand or Composite Signatures--Important Facts for the Banking and Business Public--How to Use the Microscope and Photography to Detect Forgery--Applying Chemical Tests--How to Handle Doc.u.ments and Papers to Be Preserved--The Value of Expert Testimony--Using Chemical, Mechanical and Clerical Preventatives.

The following chapter is written by Mr. William C. Shaw, of Chicago, the well-known handwriting expert and expert on forgery, whose services are called in all important forgery and disputed handwriting cases in the country. It is replete with facts and suggestions of the greatest importance, and will be found not only interesting reading, but an instructive article throughout.

The comparative frequency with which checks, drafts, notes, etc., are being raised or altered, as well as deeds, wills, etc., forged and subst.i.tuted, has naturally created a widespread interest in the subject of "disputed handwriting." The importance of practical knowledge in this direction by those who are continually handling commercial papers and legal doc.u.ments is at once apparent, but others engaged in any business pursuit may be saved considerable loss, trouble and annoyance by observing the principles and suggestions explained and ill.u.s.trated in this article.

In approaching the subject of detecting forged or fraudulent handwriting let it be understood as a fundamental principle that there are hardly two persons whose writing is similar enough to deceive a careful observer, unless the one is imitating the other. Hands, like faces, have their peculiar features and expression, and the imitator must not alone copy the original, but at the same time disguise his own writing. Even the most skilled forger cannot entirely hide his individuality and is bound to relapse into his habitual ways of forming and connecting letters, words, etc. The employment of extreme care can be detected by signs of hesitancy, the subst.i.tution of curves for angles, etc., which appear very plainly when the writing is critically examined with a magnifying gla.s.s. When a signature has been forged by means of tracing over the original, the resemblance is often so exact as to deceive even the supposed author. In these cases the microscope is generally effective in detecting the forgery, as well as the methods employed. Perfect ident.i.ty of two genuine signatures is a practical impossibility; if, therefore, two signatures superposed and held against the light completely coincide it is almost certain that one of them is a forgery.

The methods employed in executing forged handwriting are varied and depend largely on the individual skill and inclination of the party attempting it.