Handwriting authentication

[Martin Weidmann]

In the new thread "Bogus evidence of bogus evidence" Jerry Freeman quotes from what I believe to be an article written by Earl Golz.

In the article he writes;

The FBI said without the original letter it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not," the Justice Department source said.

***"And they' (FBI) said "that Oswald has a childlike handwriting and it's easily forged,” the source said, "so they
just can't tell.”

The FBI declined to directly comment on the [Hunt] letter's authenticity. In 1964, the FBI repeatedly identified
handwriting on documents as Oswald's during the Warren Commission investigation. The agency also determined
in several cases that year that signatures of cranks on guest books around the country were not Oswald's.

There seems to be a massive contradiction here. On the one hand, you have an FBI expert confirming Oswald wrote the Kleins' order form documents, while having nothing more available to him than a photocopy of those documents (with limited text), allegedly taken from a, now lost, microfilm.

On the other hand, you have the FBI saying, about the Hunt letter (which contains far more text) that without the original it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not".

If the latter is indeed a quote from the FBI, then why didn't that apply to the documents examined by their expert for the Warren Commission?

[Walt Cakebread]

In the new thread "Bogus evidence of bogus evidence" Jerry Freeman quotes from what I believe to be an article written by Earl Golz.

In the article he writes;

The FBI said without the original letter it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not," the Justice Department source said.

***"And they' (FBI) said "that Oswald has a childlike handwriting and it's easily forged,” the source said, "so they
just can't tell.”

The FBI declined to directly comment on the [Hunt] letter's authenticity. In 1964, the FBI repeatedly identified
handwriting on documents as Oswald's during the Warren Commission investigation. The agency also determined
in several cases that year that signatures of cranks on guest books around the country were not Oswald's.

There seems to be a massive contradiction here. On the one hand, you have an FBI expert confirming Oswald wrote the Kleins' order form documents, while having nothing more available to him than a photocopy of those documents (with limited text), allegedly taken from a, now lost, microfilm.

On the other hand, you have the FBI saying, about the Hunt letter (which contains far more text) that without the original it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not".

If the latter is indeed a quote from the FBI, then why didn't that apply to the documents examined by their expert for the Warren Commission?

Excellent question Martin,    I believe that we all are capable of identifying the author of some piece of correspondence by seeing the hand writing , providing there is sufficient text.   I seriously doubt that anybody can identify the person who ordered the carcano from Kleins by examining the order blank.      The FBI claimed they could identify that scribbling as that of Lee Oswald.    I believe they are liars..... I also believe that the "Dear Mr Hunt" note was in fact written by Lee Oswald.....

[Tim Nickerson]

In the new thread "Bogus evidence of bogus evidence" Jerry Freeman quotes from what I believe to be an article written by Earl Golz.

In the article he writes;

The FBI said without the original letter it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not," the Justice Department source said.

***"And they' (FBI) said "that Oswald has a childlike handwriting and it's easily forged,” the source said, "so they
just can't tell.”

The FBI declined to directly comment on the [Hunt] letter's authenticity. In 1964, the FBI repeatedly identified
handwriting on documents as Oswald's during the Warren Commission investigation. The agency also determined
in several cases that year that signatures of cranks on guest books around the country were not Oswald's.

There seems to be a massive contradiction here. On the one hand, you have an FBI expert confirming Oswald wrote the Kleins' order form documents, while having nothing more available to him than a photocopy of those documents (with limited text), allegedly taken from a, now lost, microfilm.

On the other hand, you have the FBI saying, about the Hunt letter (which contains far more text) that without the original it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not".

If the latter is indeed a quote from the FBI, then why didn't that apply to the documents examined by their expert for the Warren Commission?

The source said?

The HSCA handwriting identification experts could not positively identify the writing on the Hunt letter as being Oswald's. They pointed out that what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter. Kleins' order form documents were made directly off of microfilm.

[Martin Weidmann]

The source said?

The HSCA handwriting identification experts could not positively identify the writing on the Hunt letter as being Oswald's. They pointed out that what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter. Kleins' order form documents were made directly off of microfilm.

The source said?

Yes, I know... It needs further investigation on my part.

The HSCA handwriting identification experts could not positively identify the writing on the Hunt letter as being Oswald's. They pointed out that what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter. Kleins' order form documents were made directly off of microfilm.

And when it comes to handwriting authentication, what would be the major difference between a facsimile copy and a photo copy taken from a microfilm?

The answer of course is that there is no difference whatsoever. In both cases the handwriting expert only had a copy to work with and as I stated before the FBI's position (about the Hunt letter) was that "without the original it would be almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not".

This is exactly what handwriting experts I have spoken to have been telling me all along and calls into question the alleged "identification" of Oswald's handwriting on the Kleins' documents.

[Walt Cakebread]

The source said?

The HSCA handwriting identification experts could not positively identify the writing on the Hunt letter as being Oswald's. They pointed out that what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter. Kleins' order form documents were made directly off of microfilm.

 what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter.

In his book HL Hunt's personal aide said that Mr Hunt gave the "Dear Mr Hunt" note directly to the FBI.

[Tim Nickerson]

The source said?

Yes, I know... It needs further investigation on my part.

The HSCA handwriting identification experts could not positively identify the writing on the Hunt letter as being Oswald's. They pointed out that what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter. Kleins' order form documents were made directly off of microfilm.

And when it comes to handwriting authentication, what would be the major difference between a facsimile copy and a photo copy taken from a microfilm?

The answer of course is that there is no difference whatsoever. In both cases the handwriting expert only had a copy to work with and as I stated before the FBI's position (about the Hunt letter) was that "without the original it would be almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not".

This is exactly what handwriting experts I have spoken to have been telling me all along and calls into question the alleged "identification" of Oswald's handwriting on the Kleins' documents.

Your question is not germane. If you had given my reply the proper attention you would know that the HSCA experts didn't have a facsimile copy at their disposal. They had a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy.

[Tim Nickerson]

what they had at their disposal was a photograph of an out-of-focus facsimile copy of the letter.

In his book HL Hunt's personal aide said that Mr Hunt gave the "Dear Mr Hunt" note directly to the FBI.

The HSCA got the photo of the out-of-focus facsimile copy from Penn Jones.

[Jerry Freeman]

The HSCA got the photo of the out-of-focus facsimile copy from Penn Jones.

Horse crap...especially when you never seem to cite any source of your horse crap.