TRINIDAD MUNICIPAL COLLEGE

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

FORENSIC 4 (QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION)

MODULE 1

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF QUESTIONED DOCUMENT
EXAMINATION

Overview

This module presents the historical development of questioned document examination.

It is necessary for future document examiner to familiar themselves to the various trends and
Development in questioned document examination. To better understand, it is divided into:
Lesson 1.1. History of documents
Lesson 1.2. Personalities in questioned documents examination
Lesson 1.3. World’s cases on disputed document
Lesson 1.4. The importance of documents
Lesson 1.5.General definition of terms
Lesson 1.6. Legal aspect of documents
Lesson 1.7.Classes of questioned documents
LESSON 1.1
HISTORY OF DOCUMENTS

From the very earliest time, man has put down marks on different materials to make
forms of writing were simple pictures on the walls of caves. Man soon found he could not
express all of his thoughts by means of pictures so systems of writing were developed. Early
writings were on stones and metal. Later skins of animals were used. Paper was first invented
by the Chinese more than 2,000 years ago but it was not common in other countries for a long
time. With the making of paper, writing became more common to many people. Criminalistics
were quick to learn that it was profitable to make false documents. Knowledge of the methods
of making false document is therefore necessary to the police investigator. The examination of
questioned document falls into broad classes.

LESSON 1.2

PERSONALITIES IN QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS EXAMINATION

1. Albert Sherman Osborn – He was considered as a Father of Scientific Examination of

Questioned Document. The first American prominent in the field of forgery detection, and
author of the seminal “Questioned Documents” (1910, reprinted many times), an exhaustive
work indispensable even today. By his efforts, courts began to accept the presentation of
forged documents as scientific evidence. He founded the American Society of Questioned
Document Examiners on 2 September 1942.
2. Albert D. Osborn – He was the third President of the American Society of Questioned
Document Examiners. Mr. Osborn served in the military during World War I. Upon returning
from overseas in 1919, he began attending the meetings that eventually led to the formation of
the ASQDE. In 1942, Mr. Osborn was one of the 15 men who founded the Society. He was the
son of the founding president of the ASQDE, Albert S. Osborn, and was associated with A. S.
Osborn in private practice for many years. A. D. Osborn’s sons, Paul Osborn and Russell Osborn,
both became examiners of questioned documents, as did his grandson John P. Osborn among
Mr. Osborn’s many high profile cases, he was one of eight document examiners who testified
for the prosecution in the case against Bruno Hauptmann in the kidnapping/murder of the
Lindbergh baby. Mr. Osborn was co-author of the book Questioned Document Problems with
his father. He was also the author of many professional papers.
3. B.J. Vreeland Haring and J. Howard Haring – The father and son Haring of New York were
the word famous handwriting experts who testified on Charles A. Lindberg Jr. Kidnapping case.
The defendant to the case was Bruno Richard Hauptmann Flemington, New Jersey in 1935.
Fourteen letters were directed to the famous parents of the kidnapped Lindberg baby was
abducted. The other letters contained follow-up ransom demands and instructions.
4. J. Newton Baker- a Consultative Expert in Disputed document and in 1955 he authored the
book, ”Law of Disputed and Forged Documents”.
5. James V.P. Conway was an Examiner of Questioned Documents of San Francisco, California
Postal Inspector in-charge, San Francisco Identification Laboratory U.S. Postal Inspection Service
and authored “Evidential Documents” which was published.in Springfield, Illinois, USA in 1959.
6. Hans Scheickert (1876-1944) – A Doctor of Law and Director of the identification Bureau of
the Police Department of Berlin until 1928. He was a Criminology Professor at the University of
Berlin in 1920 and a well-known handwriting expert.
7. Dr. Wilson R. Harrison was the Director of the British Government’s Office Home Office
Forensic Science Society of Questioned Document Examiners. He authored the book “Suspect
Document Examiners Their Scientific Examination”, first published in London in 1958. He had
over twenty years experience in the examination of suspect documents for the police forces of
England and Wale and for many government departments.
8. Ordway Hilton was the sixth president of the American Society of Questioned Document
Examiners. Mr. Hilton was born in 1913 and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He majored in
Mathematics at Northwestern University and received a master’s degree in statistics from the
same university in 1937. Mr. Hilton was the first questioned document examiner in the then
new crime laboratory of the Chicago Police Department. In 1944, while still on active duty as an
officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he attended the second meeting of the ASQDE in
the Montclair, New Jersey, home of Albert S. Osborn. In 1946, Mr. Hilton became associated
with Elbridge Stein, the first secretary of the ASQDE, in his private practice in New York City. He
continued the practice alone when Mr. Stein retired in 1951. In 1979, Mr. Hilton moved his
practice to Landrum, South Carolina. A prolific writer of journal articles and professional papers,
Mr. Hilton authored one of the best known texts in the field, “Scientific Examination of
Questioned Documents”, in 1956, and a revised edition of the text in 1982. He also authored
Detecting and Deciphering Erased Pencil Writing. Mr. Hilton was a Diplomat of the American
Board of Forensic Document Examiners. He was instrumental in establishing the Questioned
Documents Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). From 1959 to 1960,
Mr. Hilton served as the tenth president of the AAFS. He is one of the few AAFS Fellows to be
named a Distinguished Fellow and one of only four questioned document examiners to ever
receive this honor. In 1980, he was the first recipient of the AAFS Questioned Documents
Section Award, which would be named in his honor. Ordway Hilton passed away in 1998.
9. Roy A. Huber was the 24th President of the American Society of Questioned Document
Examiners. After joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1940, Roy Huber worked
as a police constable at various detachments in the Province of Saskatchewan. In 1949, he
transferred to the Document Section of the RCMP’s Regina Laboratory to commence a career
that would span more than fifty years. Under the tutelage of senior document examiners Hugh
Radcliffe and Chester Eaves, Mr. Huber completed his training program and moved to the
RCMP’s eastern laboratory in Ottawa. He wrote and presented more than 30 papers including
such titles as Typist Identification, Modern Trends in Counterfeiting, The Production and
Identification of Embossing Seals, and The Quandary of “Qualified” Opinions. In 1999, he
published a book entitled “Handwriting Identification-Facts and Fundamentals”, which has
become an important text in the Training of forensic document examiners. The first ASQDE
conference he attended was the 1955 meeting that was held in Houston. He presented his first
ASQDE paper titled, The Potentialities of the Blink Microscope Principle in Typewriting
Comparisons. Mr. Huber joined the Society as a Provisional Member in 1961 and was elected a
Regular Member in 1964. For over 40 years, he regularly attended ASQDE annual conferences
and missed only two meetings for reasons beyond his control. He served on its Board of
Directors as Secretary and Vice President prior to his election to President. Elected a Life
Member in 2001, he continued to support the Society as a member of its Nominating and
Journal Committees. In 2003, Roy Huber received the Albert S. Osborn Award of Excellence in
recognition of his distinguished career and many contributions he made to both the ASQDE and
the profession as a whole.
10. Charles Chabot (baptized 19 March 1815 15 October 1882) was An English graphologist
who, as part of the firm of Netherclift, Chabot and Matheson, was an early practitioner of
questioned document examination. Chabot was born Battersea, the son of Charles, a
lithographer, and Amy née Pearson, a couple of Hugenot descent. Beginning as a lithographer,
he developed as an expert in handwriting and became sought after as an expert witness in a
variety of famous trials including the Roupell case and the Tichborne Case. In 1871, Chabot
became involved in establishing the identity of Junius and concluded that he was Sir Philip
Francis.
LESSON 1.3
WORLD’S CASES ON DISPUTED DOCUMENT

Colin Evans cited the world’s cases on disputed document are as follows:

 John Magnuson case: Date 1922; Location: Marshfield, Misconsin; Significance: From
just a few scraps of bomb-damaged paper, investigator gleaned enough evidence to
capture the Yule Bomb Killer. In his final address, Magnuson’s attorney, Charles Briere,
fulminated against the “so-called experts” who had examined the scraps of the bomb,
sneering that “half of them were here for their share of the gold bag of the state.” It was
a complaint about expert witness that echoes in courtrooms to the present today.
 Arthur Perry case: Date: 1937; Location: New York City; Significance: So many factors
were combined in this case that it has come to be regarded as an American detection
classic. It is unnerving to consider the possible outcome of this case had Palm not
happened to work late that night. Without the twin interventions of fate and forensic
science, it is entirely conceivable that he may well have taken Perry’s place in the
electric chair.
 Hitler Diaries case: Date: 1981; Location: Hamburg, West Germany; Significance:
History’s greatest publishing fraud was first legitimized and then exposed by scientific
analysis. In all, through outright swindle, royalties, fees, lost advertising, and sundry
other commitments, the Hitler Diaries were estimated to have cost Stern more than
twenty million marks (sixteen million dollars). The cost in careers, reputations, and
personal humiliation was incalculable.
 Graham Backhouse case: Date 1984; Location: Horton, England; Significance: This case
provides an example of the interdependence of forensic discipline that helps to solve so
many cases. Piece by piece, the magnitude of Backhouse’s fiendishness became
apparent. In early March, he had increased the insurance on Margaret’s life from fifty to
a hundred thousand pounds, waited a few weeks while spreading word of a nonexistent
hate campaign, then planted the bomb that so nearly killed her. When that attempt
failed, and to divert suspicion from himself, he had lured Bedale-Taylor to his house with
the intention of killing him. The seriousness of his self inflicted wounds almost fooled
the authorities, but he had underestimated the astonishing scope of modern forensic
detection. On February 18, 1985, Backhouse learned the price he would have to pay for
that arrogance-two term of life imprisonment.
LESSON 1.4

THE IMPORTANCE OF DOCUMENTS

Documents record man’s lire. Officially, his birth certificate signal’s mans’ existence on
Earth. Corollary, thereto, his death certificate writes finish to his stay on earth. However, it is
not uncommon to note documents other than these two indicating man’s birth and death. Long
before a child’s birth, we may find an intimate note between Mr. And Mrs. De la Cruz planning
to name the first born as a “Junior or say “Marikit”. The memo from Mrs. Cruz she had started
conceiving her subsequent pre-natal check up with the doctor; the hospital’s certification of the
delivery of a boy or girl de la Cruz, all these proceeds the issuance of the birth certificate, yet
are poignant examples of the finds or man’s repose. The last will and testament, the obituary,
the tombstone with the inscriptions epitaphs, all those are documents testifying to his death.

Man’s life does not center alone on his birth nor on his death. The intervening period
opens for us more documents, reams of them. Take the doctor’s notes on the mother’s
postnatal visits with the child, the first inoculation, subsequent ones with the reams of papers;
notebooks, books report, cards, excuse slips, followed by an array of diplomas from
kindergarten, primary; elementary, high school, college and perhaps post graduate courses.
While studying, the more serious love notes and not to far behind the better proposing
marriage and finally the inking of the marriage bond via the marriage contract and certificate.
This brings us back to where we started. The conception, pre-natal visits and birth of a new
generation.

Again, life is not all schooling nor marriage. Man must find work to feed his family. Thus,
we find him filling up applications for employment. He is accepted by a company, swears him in
and he receives his appointment papers. At the end of every week or every fifteenth and
thirtieth of the month, man signs the payroll and receives his paycheck or cash as the case
maybe. The longer he stays the more the payrolls and pay checks. He goes up the ladder of
success and the more papers and documents he encounters. His membership in the Lions or
the Jaycees or the Kiwanis or the Knights of Columbus or the Freemasonry must be
accomplished. He must sign this and that communication paper. As he grows older, he comes
across his retirement papers and receives his pension checks. As the shadows of life finally set
upon man, the final document testifying to his demises is the death certificate. These, in a
nutshell amplify the importance of documents in man’s life.

General Definition of Terms

A. Document. Any material containing marks, symbols, or signs either visible, partially
visible that may present or ultimately convey a meaning to someone, maybe in the form
of pencil, ink writing, typewriting, or printing on paper. The term “document” applies to
writings; to words printed, lithographed, or photographed; to maps or plans; to seals,
plates, or even stones on which inscriptions are cut or engraved. In its plural form,
“documents” may mean; deeds, agreements, title, letters, receipts, and other written
instruments used to prove a fact.

 Latin word “documentum”, means “lesson, or example (in Medieval Latin

“instruction, or official paper”), OR
 French word “docere”, means’ to teach.

According to Microsoft Encarta Reference Library (as a noun):

1. formal piece of writing
2. object containing information
3. computer file
As a verb, Microsoft Encarta gives the following definition:
1. record information in or on media
2. support a claim with evidence

B. Questioned. Any material which some issue has been raised or which is under scrutiny.

C. Questioned document. One in which the facts appearing therein may not be true, and are
contested either in whole or part with respect to its authenticity, identity, or origin. It may be a
deed, contract, will, election ballots, marriage contract, check, visas, application form, check
writer, certificates, etc.
D. Disputed document. A term suggesting that there is an argument or controversy over the
document, and strictly speaking this is true meaning. In this text, as well as through prior usage,
however, “disputed document” and “questioned document” are used interchangeably to signify
a document that is under special scrutiny.

E. Standard (Standard Document)-Are condensed and compact set of authentic specimens

which, if adequate and proper, should contain a cross section of the material from a known
source.
“Standard” in questioned documents investigation, we mean those things whose origins
are known and can be proven and which can be legally used as examples to compare with other
matters in question. Usually a standard consist of the known handwriting of a person such case,
“standard” has the same meaning as is understood by the word “specimen” of handwriting.

F. Exemplar. A term used by some document examiners and attorneys to characterize known
material. Standard is the older term.

G. Holographic Document. Any document completely written and signed by, one person; also
known as a holograph. In a number of jurisdictions a holographic will can be probated without
anyone having witnessed its execution.

H. Reference Collection. Material compiled and organized by the document examiner to assist
him in answering special questions. Reference collections of typewriting, check writing
specimens, inks, pens, pencils, and papers are frequently maintained.

LESSON 1.5
LEGAL ASPECT OF DOCUMENTS
A.LEGAL BASIS OF DOCUMENTS:
1. In the case of People vs. Moreno, CA, 338 O.G. 119: any written document by which a right is
established or an obligation is extinguished.
2. In the case of People vs. Nillosquin, CA, 48 O.G. 4453: every deed or instrument executed by
person by which some disposition or agreement is proved, evidenced or setforth.
3. In relation to Criminal Jurisprudence under the Best Evidence rule: any physical embodiment
of information or ideas; e.g. a letter, a contract, a receipt, a book of account, a blur print, or an
X-ray plate (Black’s Law Dictionary).

B.KINDS OF DOCUMENT:
1. Public Document – notarized by a notary public or competent public official with solemnities
required by law. (Cacnio vs. Baens, 5 Phil. 742)
2. Official Document – issued by the government or its agents or its officers having the
authority to do so and the offices, which in accordance with their creation, they are authorized
to issue and be issued in the performance of their duties.
3. Private Document-executed by a private person without the intervention of a notary public
or of any person legally authorized, by which documents, some disposition or agreement is
proved, evidenced or set forth (US vs Orera, 11 Phil. 596).
4. Commercial Document-executed in accordance with the Code of Commerce or any
Mercantile Law, containing disposition of commercial rights or obligations.
5. Electronic Document (E-Document) – exist only in electronic form such as data stored on a
computer, network, back-up, archive or other storage media. Examples of documents subjects
to e-discovery are e-mails, instant message, e-calendars, audio files, data on handheld devices,
animation, metadata, graphics, photographs, spreadsheets, websites, drawings and other types
of digital data. (Governed by RA 8792).

WRITINGS WHICH DO NOT CONSTITUTE DOCUMENTS - based on some Supreme Court

Rulings.
1. A draft of a Municipal payroll which is not yet approved by the proper authority (People
vs. Camacho, 44 Phil. 484).
2. Mere blank forms of official documents, the spaces of which are not filled up (People vs.
Santiago, CA, 48 O.G. 4558).
3. Pamphlets or books which do not evidence any disposition or agreement are not
documents but are mere merchandise (People vs. Agnis, 47 Phil. 945).
LESSON 1.6
CLASSES OF QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS
1. Documents with questioned signatures.
2. Questioned documents alleged to have been containing fraudulent alterations.
3. Questioned or disputed holographic wills.
a. Holographic Will – will entirely written in the handwriting of the testator
b. Notarial Will-signed by the testator acknowledge before a notary public with 3
witnesses.
4. Documents investigated on the question of typewriting.
a. with a view of ascertaining their source
b. with a view of ascertaining their date
c. with a view of determining whether or not they contain fraudulent alterations or
substituted pages.
5. Questioned documents on issues of their age or date.
6. Questioned documents on issues of materials used in their production.
7. Documents or writings investigated because it is alleged that they identify some persons
through handwriting.
a. anonymous and disputed letters, and
b. Superscriptions, registrations and miscellaneous writings.