Doud, Donald

Hilton, Ordway

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Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 46 | Issue 3 Article 131955Document Examiner Aids the Arson Investigation,TheDonald DoudOrdway HiltonFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationDonald Doud, Ordway Hilton, Document Examiner Aids the Arson Investigation, The, 46 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 404(1955-1956)THE DOCUMENT EXAMINER AIDS THE ARSON INVESTIGATIONDONALD DOUD AND ORDWAY HILTONDonald Doud is an Examiner of Questioned Documents with offices in Milwaukee,Wisconsin, and Chicago. He has previously contributed to this Journal and has lec-tured on questioned document problems on such programs as the Seminar for ArsonInvestigators at Purdue University and the Short Course for Prosecuting Attorneysat Northwestern University Law School. Mr. Doud is a member of the AmericanSociety of Questioned Document Examiners and of the American Academy of Foren-sic Sciences.Ordway Hilton is an Examiner of Questioned Documents in New York City and hasserved for a number of years as Police Science Editor of this Journal. He has publisheda number of articles in this and other professional journals; has served as a lecturer onquestioned document problems at Northwestern University Law School, the SouthernPolice Institute, University of Louisville, and other university programs; is Secretaryof the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners; and is Chairman of theQuestioned Document Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.-MANAGING EDIrOR.Many people think of the arsonist as a pyromaniac who, moving stealthily throughthe night, applies his torch for the thrill of seeing a building in flames. True, somearson fires are of such origin, but much more often the motivation is monetary gainand personal hatred. These acts are committed by the so-called "normal person."He may even own the business or the building or be a trusted employee.Regardless of the motive for setting an arson fire the act is seldom observed by eyewitnesses. Physical evidence at the fire scene and also in any way related to the firemust be carefully analysed and evaluated. The origin and cause of the fire can bediscovered, and what is often much more important the motive may become apparent.If there is no act of arson, the natural cause, such as defective wiring, careless smok-ing, and the like, is to be ascertained, and innocent people freed from suspicion.Documents are a significant source of evidence in cases of suspected arson-eitheras direct accessories to the crime or as secondary evidence in showing personal motivesfor the fire setting. Documents may also serve to vindicate the innocent when the fireis of natural origin and to provide information for management, insurance com-panies, or banks as to the assets or business affairs of those who suffer fire losses. Itis in this sphere that the questioned document examiner with his specialized trainingand scientific instruments is of inestimable aid to the arson investigator.Accounting or inventory records are frequently altered and falsified to increaseinsurance liability; letters or hotel and building registers in the suspect's handwritingmay help to break down his alibi; the fire itself and methods used to extinguish itleads to another class of problems including the decipherment of burnt and water-soaked documents. This paper will deal with some of these typical applications ofquestioned document examination to the problems of arson investigation.AIDs ix (;ENERAI. IN°VESTIGATIONIn the course of an investigation of a suspicious fire, a professional arsonist wasbelieved to have registered under an alias at a Miami Beach Hotel. The hotel recordsshowed a phone call from his room to the owner of the property which a day or soDOCUMENT EXAMINER AIDS ARSON INVESTIGATORlater was burnt. Investigators submitted the hotel registration card for technicalexamination together with various writings of this suspect-handwritten recordsmade while serving time in a state penitentiary under an arson conviction. A study ofthese writings established that this individual had been registered on the date inquestion in the particular hotel room.This case is not an isolated one. An arson investigation, like so many other phasesof criminal investigation, often turns up handwriting, the source of which is unknownor in question, or the authenticity of which may be challenged. In such instancesthe document examiner can compare this questioned writing with that of varioussuspects to determine who wrote it. Handlettering is identified in a similar manner.It is not uncommon in criminal cases for a person to falsely deny his signature, or onthe other hand, for the signature to be forged. With these problems it is only neces-sary for the investigator to gather a sufficient quantity of handwriting or signaturesby the suspects and to submit these for examination and comparison with the ques-tioned writings. The facts thus developed are definite and extremely convincing andhave the advantage of not only serving during the investigation, but of forming adramatic presentation in the courtroom.With the extensive use of the typewriter today, typewritten documents are certainto be encountered in some arson investigations. It may be very important to knowwhether a paper was prepared in the office or home of a suspected arsonist or at someother place of business. Comparison with known typewriting from machines whichbelong to the suspect or which are found at other locations can establish the sourceof the questioned typewriting.DETECTIOx OF FRAUDInsurance frauds are the motive for some arson fires. In these cases the claimsare often badly padded, and altered bills, receipts, or inventories are brought forwardto substantiate these exaggerated losses. The altered documents may be typewritten,as in one case in which several bills were produced, containing significant additions.Here entries involving a substantial portion of the bill had been typewritten at adifferent time than the name and address and the balance of the items. These substi-tutions were disclosed by a study of the alignment of the various lines of typewriting.The added line was not parallel to the others. Likewise, with handwritten documentsslight differences in pen or ink can disclose additions and substitutions. By these andother criteria many interlineations are disclosed.The occasional claimant prepares an entire inventory especially to substantiateclaims. These records are usually of a type that normally would be kept over a longperiod of time with various entries being made periodically. It is very difficult toduplicate the quality of such a document, and, furthermore, most arsonists do notknow that this kind of fraud can be detected. Microscopic and other study of thedocument may reveal the true facts which gives an alert investigator a great ad-vantage over his suspect.VATER SOAKED DOCUMExTSDocuments involved in fires frequently are more seriously damaged by the waterand chemicals used to extinguish the fire than by actual burning, and they present achallenging problem to the document examiner.1955]DONALD DOUD AND ORDWAY HILTONIt is difficult to generalize regarding the possibility of successful decipherment andrestoration, since so much depends upon the extent of damage and on the writingmaterial originally used. For example, pencil written and typewritten documents,in which a record or permanent typewriting ink was used, are not apt to suffer veryseriously from water damage. This is also true of better grades of ball point pen inks.Only when the paper itself is destroyed or badly deteriorated will such documentsbecome illegible.At the other extreme are the washable inks made of synthetic dyes. They includesome blacks, reds, and blues and most purples, greens, and browns. Since the wash-able inks contain no mineral salts, such as iron, they are easily and almost completelyremoved from the paper after only a brief submersion.Permanent inks and especially blue-black ink, which contains iron-tannates or-gallates in addition to coloring matter, when fully oxidized resist water damage.Here we are, however, at the fire scene. Records had been kept, but they are asoaked mess of almost illegible papers. Can they be deciphered? Well, yes and no.Success cannot be assured, but many times the legibility can be improved and uponoccasion the writing can actually be restored.Methods vary, depending upon which class of ink had been used. A rule of thumbmight be that the easier the ink comes off the paper the harder it is to put it back.That is, washable ink is harder to decipher than permanent inks. Generally, it is notactually put back except for the chemical restoration of iron base inks (blue-black).But photographs, ultraviolet examination, and very careful study under controlledlighting may lead to decipherment. This is tedious work but far from hopeless.BURNT DOCUMENTSIt is not difficult to see why the decipherment of charred documents often playsan important role in arson investigations. Burnt business records may indicatemotives for the crime, diaries or correspondence may reveal clues as to possiblesuspects, and the arsonist himself is prone to leave tell-tale clues behind leading to hisapprehension. Witness, for example, the story of the debt-ridden Detroit executivewho carefully planned an "accidental" fire in his small manufacturing plant in orderto collect on insurance. Unfortunately for him, he touched off the fire by lighting anintimate bit of correspondence from his latest femme fatale. Destruction of theproperty was not as complete as planned, and, when the focal point of the fire wasdiscovered by arson investigators, there lay the incriminating letter. The decipher-ment of this "hot document" sent our executive to prison and his wife to Reno.Surprisingly enough, charred documents are often more easily deciphered thanbadly watersoaked documents, especially where synthetic dye inks are concerned.Details of the various decipherment methods in common use today are found in anearlier article titled, "Charred Documents, Their Handling and Decipherment."'Generally speaking, however, two principal methods of decipherment are availableto the document examiner: (1) visual-those procedures which are carried on throughvisual observations and recording of the examination results-and (2) photographic' DONALD Do), Charred Documents, Their Handling and Decipherment, this Journal, vol. 43,no. 6, pp. 812-26 (March-April, 1953).[Vol. 46DOCUMENT FXAMINER AIDS ARSON INVESTIGATOR-those methods such as infrared photography and contact photography whichresult in a photographic reproduction of the decipherment.In a Chetec, Wisconsin, case John F. Tyrrell of Milwaukee was able to decipherover 85 % of the contents of a burnt strong box using both visual and photographicmethods-an almost unbelievable feat in view of the twisted, blackened state of thebonds, certificates, and other valuables in the box.2 Most of the remaining documentswere so badly broken as to preclude successful decipherment.No rule of thumb is applicable to all charred document problems nor do all typesof writing or paper respond the same way to treatment. In the writers' experiencecertain dense inks such as irongall, typewriting, and printing inks remain mostvisible after burning, while others tend to oxidize more completely. Heavy rag-contentpaper generally hold together and resist warping more than wood pulp papers. News-papers frequently burn to the thinness and fraility of tissue paper.The arson investigator bears great responsibility in cases involving charred papersince he is often called upon to remove the evidence from the scene of the fire. Certaincommon sense precautions, however, will prevent undue breakage of the fragmentsand enable the investigator to transport them safely to the document examiner'slaboratory.The most desirable and safe procedure is to transport intact the charred documentsand container in which they are enclosed. When this is not possible, the documentscan be removed carefully from the container by means of a thin sheet of metal slippedunderneath and gently lifted and withdrawn. Bundles of documents should first betaken from the top of the pile. In cases of single documents found near the scene ofthe fire, or elsewhere, a thin piece of paper can be slipped underneath the fragment,and both immediately placed in a closed container. Burnt documents are almostcompletely dehydrated and take very little motion of air to break apart. In trans-porting for any distance, cotton wool or other protective material should be packedlightly around the fragments. A wise motto to follow in all cases involving burntdocuments is: "Observe Carefully-Preserve Carefully."CONCLUSIONWith modern life so dependent upon written records it is little wonder that thedocument examiner is a decided aid to the arson investigator. Persons who commitarson for their own personal gains are not above manipulating documents if they feelthat it will be to their interest. Every investigator knows that the criminal makesmistakes, and some of these in the case of arson may be the mistake of leaving behindsome document which links him to the crime scene. Even the attempt to destroypapers by assuring that they are near the center of the fire or where they will sufferthe most from water damage may not be successful if the remains are carefully pre-served and subjected to expert study. The successful arson investigation is closed byaccumulating and interrelating bits of circumstantial and physical evidence. Docu-ments properly interpreted can assist in reaching this successful conclusion.2 JoHN F. TYRRsL, The Decipherment of Charred Documents, this Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, pp.236-42 (July-August, 1939).19551

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