The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-12-15

DETECTIVE PHOTOS.
Expert Wtr's With tn, Camors In
FamouJ Casaa.
The Marcy Letter..Tho Case or Cadet
Whtttalker. Other Cases. How
the Work Is D0nc.

ktuVutT, NOW III w GSt SSI'tts fit&S
made specially of tue ,lelicat, use of ph"-
Biography, which is brought into play morn
and more in connection with criminal casss
In which disputed handwriting, forgeries,
counterfeit money, etc, are features Tho
business is almost endless in its qualifications,
and the result, aow achieved are the olitcans
Of years of experiment. and the photographic
expert becomes IN tile end an expert in hand
writing. Most of tie famous cases ia whrh
forgery was concerned have occupied his at
tentiou, and ms gallery of records ~ an int,'r-
estng illustration of what perseverance ani
ingenuity, aided 10y photography can do to-
toward solving apparently hopeless rnys-
terles. To a reporter who visited his studio
he said:
I'VE can 10 great many things to bring
the truth Ia light 10y the aid of photography.
There is scarcely ease nowadays in which it
Is not brought into play il disputed hand
writing Is concerned. or course the most
famous case Of the kind of late years was tII
MOrey letter case; there Is photograph OF
the Mofey letter up there in the corner it
yet remains mystery, but we are certain
that Garfield did not write it. | first found
by photography that the envelope had tSnn
tampered with by the following process;
Cutting the envelope open 80 10 get "a
single thickness OF paper, put IL betwcen
two sheets of plate glass and placed IL whefo
the sun passed through it, the camera being
placed on the shady sillc. Although no half.
erased writing could be detected on the enve-
lopc with the naked eye or glass, the diff
ference in the thickness Of the paper where
crasures had been made showed plainly as th,
light came through more clearly, and thu
half erased words which gave rise to ~ InucI,
discussion were discovered.
Below the Morey letter Is photograph of
the signature Of Alonzo &. Yates Yates.
YOU may remember was rich Philadelphia
clothicr, who late in life married cook in
the Astor house. AMI died, leaving 81 i,0n,Wn
or 50 to the wife. The daughters by n first
wife disputed the signature to tho will. j
was employed by John ID. Townsend to show
the gcnnineness of the signatures. We got
thirty or forty genuine signatures of Mates
admitted hy both sides, ami showed that u
man never writes his nanic the same way
twice. Then took the signature of the viii
aud another admitted by both sides and EN-
largcd tEem both until each was nine feet
four inches long The peculiarities of tho
writing became so apparent when shown
upon that enormous SCALE, the signatures were
so evidently by the same person, that the
contestants gave up the ease.
"Therc is a portrait OF Theophilus Youngs
He MARI led eirvoyant many yearS ago i,i
Boston and disappeared His widow pre-
tended Ia recognize his body in one that was
found in the bay soon after, and he was givs,
up dead Some years after his father died
AMI tho widow rut I'm claim for n SHARE Of
the property. The contestants 10y whom l
was employed contended that Youngs was
yet alive, aud eventually produced him ia
rla all ~,
nize him, and was called upon t. prove
him to he the man. The widow produced /.
photograph, which she said was Que Of th,
genuine Young's, her husband. A good many
years had passed, aud, although the likeness
was n strong one, there was enough diireEr
ence in the appearance of Yotin.ss ami the
photograph To make a jury hesitate ! put
Youngs in the same position in which hs
was taken IN the picture, the genliincness Of
which was admitted, and made photograph
of the Same size. Then the likeness became
more apparent, hut exact measurements
showed the two faces to measure the same in
all respects. For instance the distance be-
tween the mouth and the eye, which Is sell
dom the same in two persons, was exactly
equal. Then one picture was made trans
parent and superimposel over the other. ati,t
the two faces matched perfectly. The jury
decided that the claimant was net au iui,
IN the case of Hall, the head clerk or Tho
Newark treasrrcr's Office, everything depesni
cd upon showing that he had changed Tx.
ure five into figure three. He ran away g.,
Canada, and was brought hack upona Charge
Of forgery. His counsel claimed that the fig-
ure had not been changed, and that il the
mark Of an eraser was found and that tho
figure five had been changed, it was causssl
by the accidental slip OF an ink eraser iisc,l
In tho margin. / mado photographs
of the page. and hy means Of
stereopticon threw n picture OF that par.
ticular figure upon a screen ten feet high.
Upon that scale several Interesting things
came out II was seen very plainly that tho
figure had been altered from five to three,
lut the crasurc had been made with dificr.
ent material from tho crasure in the margin.
We tried rul)hcr in; erasure, AMI the result
was the same as seen in the margin. Them
We tried a steel penknife, and the result en-
larged thousand times was the same as
seen over tho figure three. THIS disposed Ut
the accident theory, and Hall was con-
vioted.
IL was employed in the Cadet Whitaker
case aud worked for weeks at tho famous
letter of warming n few words scribbiod upOt,
a piece Of paper which Whitaker was sus-
pected Of writing. All the cadets were called
upon to give specimens OF their handwriting.
and the writing or No. q was ,ieclrrei by
the experts to be that Of the note uf warning
ielieved that it was not AMI taking the
specimen of No. 2Ts writing upon which ho
was suspected, ! duplicated the note Of
! warming, cutting the same letters ont of No.
27's specimen, ana placing them together as
nearly as possible in the order Of the famous
note 1t was work of tremendous labor,
but when done il showed the nnocense OF
No q, 1t was suspected that tho scrap of
paper upon whicl, tl,e note VI
warning was written was torn from
n letter sheet which Whitaker sent to his
mother, but that theory was disposed of Hpon
.nargng the two edges to the size at which
n fine cambria needle looks like q crowbsr.
| Then it was seen that the two edges had
neyer been together. Tho verdict ip tho
! Whitaker case was finally reversed upon thu
ground that he court had come to decision
! fi,n the examination of autographs of the
note Of warning which proved 10y con,-
parison with photograph we're incorrect"
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