The Coconino sun., 1919-09-26
CARLSON, NATIONAL HANDWRITING EXPERT,
 SAYS RUFFIN DOCUMENTS ARE FORGED

Milton Carlson, of Los Angeles, the nationally known handwriting expert, was in Flagstaff all day Monday, hav- ing been called as witness in suit over the settlement of the J. E. Ruffin estate.
 The case was tried before Judge J. E. Jones, in the superior court. All of the testimony was taken Monday, the case then being continued until next week for the hearing of the attor- neys' arguments.
 Richard w. Ruffin, brother of the deceased, and administrator of the estate, presented claim against the estate, supported by an alleged bill or sale and a memorandum of past in- debtedness, both bearing the alleged signatures of the deceased.
 The objecting creditors, the Arizona Central Bank and Mrs. Felicia A. Brannen, attacked the instrument as fraudulent, alleging that the sigma lures were not those of deceased.
 Francis D. Crable, attorney for the objecting creditors, believing that the signatures were fraudulent, had for warded numerous instruments bearing J. E. Ruffin's genuine signature, to Mr. Carlson, asking him whether the lat ter were genuine.
 Carlson wired back that the latter was forgery. His subsequent ap- pearance here to go on the witness stand was something of a surprise to the defense.
 Carlson was an interesting witness. He was first questioned as to his quail ifications, and it was brought out that he has devoted over 20 years to this work; that he has testified in about a thousand cases, in none of which he was ever proven wrong; that this was his eighth call into Arizona to give expert testimony; that he has testified in courts-martial before vari- ous governmental departments, in courts of all degrees. He was an ex- pert witness in the celebrated Mo- Namara cases, in the Oakland election frauds, in the Lucky" Baldwin will contest and in the Schmidt and Rap Ian cases, where $385,O00 had been raised by the labor unions for the de- fense.
 He asserted that real handwriting experts have the subject down to a mathematical exactness, but modestly disclaimed infallibility.
 Carlson illustrated his testimony by photographs, enlarged S1 times, of J. E. Ruffin's genuine signatures, and one of the questioned signatures. He pointed out the variations in the said questioned signature from the genu- inc, stroke by stroke, and letter by letter. He also testified to the simi- larity between the questioned sigma ture and that of Richard Ruffin.
 This expert testimony was corrob- orated by M. I. Powers, president of the Citizens Bank, and J. P. Wilson, cashier of the Arizona Central Bank, both of whom believed the questioned signature to be a forgery. Woeber Smith, cashier of the First National Bank, was called as witness, but failed to qualify, asserting that he believed the authenticity of the ques- tioned signature was something that only an expert could decide.
 Miss Carolyn Arnold, of Needles, the nurse who attended deceased, tes- tified that he had signed some instru- ment before he died, but that she did not witness him sign it, nor did she read it.
 Richard w. Ruffin admitted that he had placed the periods in the sigma ture. He thought he might have dated it, but wasn't sure. He denied mak- ing certain corrections in the body of the instrument, which had been made with the same ink, apparently, as the signature. He said his brother had not read the instrument before he