The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-04-13
DEPENDING UPON EXPERTS
The Prosecution Hopes to Convict
Patrick by Their Testimony.

The Alleged Forged Documents said
to Strongly Support the Charge of
Murde--CIaim Advanced by One
OF the Accused Attorneys Counsel.
NEW YORK. April BIN the last anal
ysis the prosecution prospects Of de-
priving Albert 7 Patrick of life. liberty,
and the inheritance of most of the mil
liens left by William Marsh Rice, seem
to be dependent chiefly upon the test
mony of the handwriting experts.
It IS alleged that the Rice viii of June
20, 1885, which makes Patrick re=iduary
Iegatee. is forged. It is also alleged that
Mr.. Rice did not sign several assignments
of property - Patrick which have figured
Conspicuourly in the criminal proceed
inEs and that the signatures purportfug
TO be Mr. Rice's to the $3.50, 900 Jrth of
checks which Patrick presented Tor GER
tifcatiou the day after Mr. Rice died.
are not genuine
There Is another important piece Of dis
puted writing which affects PatricHs in
terests, the signature processing to be
Mt Rice's at the bottom of the typewrit-
ten letter directing the cremation Of the
aged mans body after death
The prosecution contends that in all of
the alleged forged papers is found Pat
t1EDLlLe 10 commit Allt III III
aged millionaire Of which he is accused
The cremation letter is held to be piece
Of evidence manufactured by Patrick,
with an eye to coming trouble.
Robert N Moore. Of counsel for Patrick
says that he viii make the prosecutors
experts admit that the alleged foTgeTies
are genuine signatures If he does, the
bottom viii fail out Of the murder case,
the pending forgery cases in which Pat
rick is accused viii be wiped out and il
the civil courts probate of the 1899 will
be possible.
Since the ruling made by Justice Furs-
man. excluding handwriting experts from
the Kennedy trial three months ago on
the ground that the statutes did not
provide for testimony concerning dis
puted writings. which were not them
selves the matter at issue, by persons IA
miIiar With the genuine writing Of the
person IN question only through the in
spcctiOn of conceded standards submitted
to them for purposes CT comparison. it is
not certain that handwriting experts will
be permitted to testify against Patrick
should he be tried for murder Of course,
II Patrick comes to trial for forgery,
that testimony Of the experts viii be ad-
MISSILE under Justice Flrsman's ruling,
as the alleged forged documents viii be
the subJect-ma.ter of the contest Assist
ant District Attorney Osborne has. how
ever, proceeded in the murder case as
though other judges were not going to
follow the new rulings and has had pre-
pared an elaborate book of photographs
OF AIr- .Rice's conceded and disputed sigma
lures Just as he did IN the AIOlineUX case.
and has an army of expert witnesses
whom ne expects to call.
So far only two Of these witnesses have
appeared in the proceedings and they
have both sworn that, in their opinion,
the disputed signatures were forseries,
Photographic enlargement Of the sigma
lures shows plainly it is declared, that
the disputed writing is wavy and hest
taung, while the conceded writing is
even and decided. remarkably so for a
man OF Mr. Rice's years 1t is also as
serted that in the conceded writing the
shading is always on the down strokes
while in most Of the disputed signatures
where there IS any shading at all il is
on almost any strokes but those made by
the downward movement of pen held
naturally. There is an absence of shading
in the SwensoH check signatures and, en-
larged photosraPhicaIIy, the writing looks
as though II had been done with a paint
brush II is asserted by the experts that
the disputed signatures indicate that the
pen was held sideways, instead of in the
usual position as though the man who
held Il had been trying to see 2 tracing
which he was copying