Medill News Service articles - Published: Oct. 25, 2001

Handwriting analysts seek clues in anthrax letters

By Patrick Cooper
Medill News Service

As the investigation continues into anthrax-tainted mail, the language of the discovered letters is threatening, but the handwriting is what the Department of Justice really wants the public to see.

Because before anthrax spilled onto desks in newsrooms and a Senate building, before the mail-openers got antibiotics, and before postal workers died, someone had to write the distinctive, blocky capital letters on the envelopes and enclosed notes.

Now federal authorities want to find that writer, and handwriting experts want to know what made that person tick.

Graphologists, as they are called, study handwriting to determine personality traits. Leaders in the field say the current situation, where writing is an important clue, has certainly caught their attention.

On Tuesday the Justice Department released the letters sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post newspaper as well as the envelope sent to the Post. Officials released the Daschle and Brokaw envelopes last week.

"You can not stop us," the letter to Daschle said in part. "We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid?"

After examining the handwriting on the envelopes and the letters, master graphologist Eileen Page said Wednesday that the letters' writers were likely "analytical or investigative" thinkers, as well as strong but isolated people.

"They have an objective, calculated approach to life and what they do," said Page, 56. "Decisions are more connected to self-assessed needs than to others' needs."

At her office in Scituate, Mass., the handwriting expert and author has been answering questions from many graphologists and media during the last several days.

Page is a member of the International Graphoanalysis Society (IGAS), the largest and oldest handwriting analysts group in the United States, according to IGAS officials.

The organization, which has trained over 65,000 people, uses research to compile and analyze a detailed profile of handwriting strokes in a document.

But despite what one could learn from studying the letters, Page said an analyst still could not tell if the writers were terrorists. Nor could analysts be very specific in any type of identification, including sex. "Everyone's assuming it's [a] male, but in essence you really can't tell," she said.

Page was concerned that the handwriting was "so structured," suggesting that the writing "could be contrived to look this way."

With printed handwriting, the style used on all three letters and envelopes, graphologists examine factors such as size, pressure, slant and spacing.

"With print script, you have to depend on that a lot," Page said. Printed handwriting is harder to analyze than script writing because it lacks what are often tell-tale connections between letters.

With few other known clues in the anthrax cases, the handwriting on the letters and envelopes has become a prime topic of conversation among the general public and especially among graphologists.

Marie Gerage, former president of the Illinois IGAS chapter and 1998 International Graphoanalyst of the Year, has been examining the writing since the envelopes were first released last week.

A Chicago-area consultant and teacher, Gerage, 70, said the writing had clear and important signs that the letters had the same author, including small "O"s and extra-long down strokes on "R"s.

She said she has kept a close eye on the news because her field has been hearing the concerns of a public anxious for answers.

When Gerage went to the cardiologist earlier this week, the doctor couldn't help but ask about the letters, she said.

"It came up there in the office: what did I think?"