Forensic Science Project Part III: Handwriting Analysis

  Research a famous forgery case and explain how forensic handwriting analysis was used to expose the forgery.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/p/hughes.htm

Clifford Irvington Case

Forgery is the process of making counterfeit notes and forgery can have serious consequences to go with it such as a prison term of between two to ten yrs. In this particular forgery case, Clifford Irving who is an American author forged letters of Howard Hughes to get a publishing contract for his life story. Howard Hughes during that time was not in the outside world no one had saw Howard Hughes for more than a decade. Many people thought Howard Hughes was dead. Some authors wrote about Howard Hughes life. Clifford Irving and author friend Richard “Dick” Suskind met again while going on a trip to Ibiza. They struck a conversation about Howard Hughes. Then while they both talked they thought of a crazy idea. The idea was that he would persuade the publisher McGraw-Hill that the legendary Howard Hughes told him to write autobiography about himself. The book is based on interviews with Howard Hughes. Then Howard Hughes had to take up for himself once the book was published. Clifford Irving did an interview with Mike Wallace and he said that Howard Hughes was sick and was unable to defend himself against the book. So after the interview Clifford Irving wanted to make the book look valid so he forged letters and legal documents that looked like Howard Hughes writing. Later on Howard Hughes heard about the book from his manager or associates. He made a lawsuit against the publishers company pertaining to Clifford Irving. Clifford Irving was revealed of doing this crime by handwriting analysis made by the U.S Postal Service. The handwriting analysis identified that the letters Clifford Irving forged had a certain style that lay in a form of certain letters having strokes. During the trial, Clifford Irving confessed to his forgery and was convicted of fraud. He spent 17 months in a Pennsylvania prison.

This case specifically shoes how handwriting characteristics can make a fool out of people that think they can get away with crime. Clifford Irving was so stupid thinking he could get away. If he wanted money that bad he could of just wrote his own book not about a famous person just to make a quick buck. It is important that people know that if you do a crime you going to do the time. It was just easier writing his own book try to promote it. Then get a lot of money for it instead of sitting in jail. Handwriting analysis would probably convict him too but I guess handwriting so perfect to Howard Hughes handwriting. The handwriting analysts saw particular strokes in his handwriting maybe they resembled the same as his but the good thing is he confessed it before the case turned ugly.

Irving, Clifford. "Clifford Irving's Hoax." Tru Tv Not Reality.Actuality. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal mind/forensics//literary/2.html>.

This website gets the credibility of the idea of the research about the forgery case including Clifford Irving.

Citation for pictures

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal mind/forensics//literary/2.html

This website gets the credibility for the visual image of Clifford hoax and Howard Hughes

 links

http://www.whyfame.com/celebrities/other/clifford_irving_60654.php