Handwriting analysts detect a passionate man on the edge

THE WASHINGTON TIMES via Drudge ^ | October 19, 2001 | Frank J. Murray

[freedom4ever]

Two handwriting analysts independently concluded yesterday that the person who addressed the envelopes containing anthrax to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is dangerously depressed and determined.

"The writer is very tired and at the breaking point emotionally," said graphologist Glenda Ross of Olympia, Wash. "The writer is too violent and unable to listen" but feels he is doing the right thing.

[Ymani Cricket]

They both said the downhill baseline and identical teetering block letters, notably the E's and B's, show that the same person addressed both envelopes

My gosh I hope the FBI isn't using these people for analysis.

Here's the letter that went to Troxler again

[copycat]

Both analysts said they initially thought a child did the writing.

...or a foreigner.

[Ymani Cricket]

The same person did not write those two letters.

[Elenya]

This one looks like the handwriting of a very old man.

[FrdmLvr]

The "4th Grade" on the return address struck me as odd when I first saw this on tv earlier in the week. My impression was that of someone unfamiliar with an American cultural nuance. It would have been proper to have used the name of the school, street address, town, state & zip. A teacher would instruct the letter be addressed in that fashion, not the way it was addressed. Also, a teacher would have had one of her pupils address the envelope. 4th graders do not write like that.

[Straight Vermonter]

I am more optimistic about looking at the letters (especially if they can find those at CBS and ABC) for misspellings and odd word phrasing. If they can find things like these (one letter has penacillin spelled wrong) they can scan the net and e-mails (remember carnivore?) they can have a good idea of who may have written the letters.

[My back yard]

Not too many I know of use that kind of 4 in 4th grade.

[FrdmLvr]

The same person did not write those two letters.

I agree. It looks like two people working together trying to make it appear the same person wrote both. Also, people unused to writing in English would most likely write in block letters.

[JenB]

I'm wondering whether it might be from a right-handed person writing with his left hand. Try it sometime; the writing tends to slant, you have to work hard to make it legible, and it looks very different from your usual style.

[Wm Bach]

is too violent and unable to listen, but feels he is doing the right thing.

Yep, sounds like the impeached rapist, all right.

Are you sure? Hillary is the one who flings ashtrays and runs over policemen.

[aristeides]

That letter to Troxler appears to have been written in the same hand as the other two letters, and I can see it is postmarked St. Petersburg. I can't quite make out the postmark date. It's some date in October, isn't it?

I increasingly suspect that Atta or one of the other hijackers put together these anthrax envelopes before Sept. 11, and that confederates have been mailing them since then. I wonder how they are transmitting them to different locations before posting.

[aristeides]

Both analysts said they initially thought a child did the writing.

I think the writer or writers (I suspect there was only one) was/were trying to imitate a child's handwriting, so as to disarm suspicions. Remember the 4th Grade return address on one of them.

[Hatteras]

They wouldn't trust the guys that analyzed the Foster "Suicide Talking Points" letter. Now, were to believe these handwriting analysts?

[gumbo]

If they can find things like these (one letter has penacillin spelled wrong)

Where did you hear this? So far I've heard only general descriptions of the wording of the message, e.g. that Allah is praised and that the recipient should take medicine. (I think it's spelled penicillin, btw.)

[general_re]

Graphology is bogus bump ;)

[texlok]

>Leftys tend to be rational types, so I'm guessing the guy is probably a chemist of some sort, not married, lives alone.

Was the Unabomber a lefty? Not a joke or anything, just curious.

[smiley]

Yep, there was a time in this decade when you couldn't get the clintons off the stage! I've noticed and have relished in their sudden "disappearances."

[rickmoe]

I dont care... just find the asshole and kill him.

[aristeides]

The wording of the letters was on a thread here yesterday. Afterwards, I saw the wording presented verbatim on last night's NBC nightly news with Tom Brokaw, as Brokaw was interviewing Tom Daschle.

[aristeides]

I can confirm the misspelling of penicillin, by the way. But that too might have been part of the act of imitating a child.