Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-04
DETECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY.
The Use to Which Sunlight Was Put in
Some Famous Cases.

I "
criminal cases in which disputed hand
writing, forgeries, counterfeit n oney, etc.
are features. The business is almost end
less in it's ramifcations, and the result
now achieved are the outcome OF years O
experiment, and the Photographic exper
becomes in the end an expert in handwrit
ing. Most of the famous cases in which
! forgery was concerned have occupied Mr.
Carvalhos attention, and his gallery o
records is an interesting illustration o
what perseverance and ingenuity, aided by
photography, can do toward solving appa
rently hopeless mysteries. To reporte
of the EUening Post who visited his studio
he said:
awe can do a great many things t,
bring the truth TO light by the aid of pho
Biography. There is scarcely a case nova
days In which it is not brought into play
if disputed handwriting is concerned. o
course the most famous case OF the kind o
late years was the Morey letter case there
is a photograph of the Morey letter W
there in corner. 1t yet remains a mys
tery, but we are certain Garfield did no
write it. first found by photography thai
the envelope bad been tempered with b.
the following process CutJing the envel
ope open so as to get single thickness Of
paper, 1 put it between two sheets of plate
glass and placed it where the sun passed
through it, the camera being placed on the
shady side. Although no half. erased writ
ing could be detected on the envelope with
the naked eye or a glass, the difference il
the thickness of the paper where erasures
had been made showed plainly as the light
came through more clearly, and the half
erased words which gave rise to so muck
discussion were discovered.
" Below the Morey letter is photo
graph of the signature of Alonzo G. Yates.
Yates, you may remember, was rich
Philadelphia clothier, who late in life
married cook in the Aston House, and
died. leaving a million or so to the wife.
The daughters by first wife disputed the
the signature to the will. was employed
By John D. Townsend to show the genu
ineness of the signature. We got thirty
or forty genuine signatures of Yates ad.
mitted by both sides, and showed that 6
man never writes his name the same way
twice. Then took the signature of the
will and another admitted by both side;
and enlarged them both until each wa'
nine feet four inches long, The peculisrl
ties Of the 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
case.
"There is portrait of Theophilu'
Youngs. He married clairvoyant many
years ago in Boston and disappeared. His
widow pretended to recognize his body il
one that waI found in the bay soon after
and he was given up az dead Some years
after his father died, and the widow put IL
claim for a share of the property. The
contestants, by whom was employed, con
tended that oungs was alive, and Eventually
produced him in Court. The alleged widow
refused TO recognize him, and l was called
upon to prove him to be the man. The
widow produced photograph. which she
said was one of the genuine Youngs, hel
husband. A good many years had passed,
and although the likeness was strong one
there was enough difference in the appear.
ance of Youngs and the photograph tC
make a jury hesitate. put Youngs in the
same position in which he was taken in the
picture, the genuineness of which was ad-
mitted, and made photograph of the
same size. Then the likeness became more
apparent, but exact measurement showed
the two faces to measure the same in al
respects. For instance, the distance De-
tween the mouth and the eye, which is
seldom the came in two persons, was ex-
actly equal. Then one picture was made
transparent and super-imposed over the
ether, and the two faces matched perfectly,
The jury decided that the claimant was
not an imp0stor.
g In the case of Hall, the head clerk OF
the Newark Treasurers Office, everything
depended upon showing that he had
changed figure into figure 3. He ran
away to Canada, and was brought back on
a charge of forgery. His counsel claimed
that the figure had not been changed, and
that if the mark of an eraser was found and
the figure had been changed, it was
caused by the accidental slip of an ink
eraser used in the margin. l made photo.
graphs of the page, and by means of stere-
opticon threw picture of that particular
picture upon screen ten feet high. Upon
that scale several interesting things came
out. It was seen very plainly that the
figure had been altered from to 3, but
the erasure had been made with different
material from the erasure In the margin.
We tried rubber ink ERASER, and the re-
suit was the same as seen in the margin.
Then we tried steel penknife, and the re-
suit enlarged thousand times was the
same as seen over the figure 8. This dis
posed of the accident theory, and Hall
was convicted.
Is was employed in the Cadet Whitta-
ker case, and worked for weeks at the IA.
nous letter of warning few words
scrubbed on piece of paper, which Whit
taker was suspected of writing. All the
cadets were called upon to give specimens
of their handwriting, and the writing of
No. p was declared by the experts to be
that of the note OF warning. 1 believed
that it was not, and taking the specimens
of No. 27's writing upon which he was sus-
pected, | duplicated the mote of warning,
cutting the same letters out of 27's speci-
man and placing them together as nearly
as possible in the order of the famous note.
It was a work of tremendous labor, but
when done it showed the innocence of
No. p. 1t was suspected that the
scrap of paper upon which the
note of warning was written was torn
from letter-sheet which Whitaker sent
to his mother, but that theory was dis
posed OF upon enlarging the two edges to
the size at which fine cambria needle
looks like a crowbar. Then it was seen
that the two edges had never been to-
gether. The verdict in the Whitaker
case was finally reversed upon the ground
that the Court had come to decision from
the examination of Autographs of the
note of warning, which l proved, by
comparison with photograph, were incor-
rect. Whitaker, by the way, is teaching
school now in the northern part of this
State. He made speeches for Cleveland in
his neighborhood last autumn.
There is another branch of my busi-
ness which is far less known than the de-
lection of peculiarities in important docu.
ments. l am often called upon to de-
termine the value of diamonds. The bust
ness began in this way: A we'll known
and expert diamond merchant on Broad
way near Bond street was one day last
year offered large and exceptionally fine
diamond by stranger, who wanted IS, 000
for it. The expert of course put it to ali
the tests known in the business, examined
it under glass, weighed it, and studied
it under all conditions it was 80 fine a
stone and the price asked was so large that
no test was neglected. The stone was
superb, and the expert finally offered
s., 900, which sum was accepted, and the
stranger disappeared. The next day
another diamond expert was invited
to come in and look at the bargain,