A NEW LOOK AT CRIMINALS AMD WHAT MAKES THEM. THE AUTHOR IS SWINDLED; THE TRAIN ROBBER WHO REPEATED; THE HOLD-UP MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD—A HOTEL REGISTRATION CARD WARNING—THE CHANGE IN A WOMAN MURDERESS—THE "NICE" MAN WHO KILLED.

You have heard the term "criminal type". You may even have used it, and thought you knew what you were talking about. Actually crimes in the general sense are not committed by "types" but by people who pass among their neighbors as good fellows, or swell girls, but who have some weakness. Then at an opportune time the weakness and the temptation chance to coincide and they commit a crime that under other conditions they might never have thought of committing.

Although research in what is now grapho analysis started in 1910, it was not until fifteen years later that I had a really striking example of such a coincidence. In 1924 a detective magazine was being published in Chi­cago. They called on the writers' professional journals for manuscripts, and the thought occurred to me that what I had been doing in the way of research might fit into that particular book. The editor agreed. I wrote the manuscript, and because neither of us expected any terrific response, I offered to analyze the handwriting of any reader who submitted a specimen.

Inside of a week after the magazine hit the news stands the mail carrier was carrying huge bundles into the editor's office. The article which had been intended for a single appearance had sparked a department. The pay­ment for that first article is not important except in relation to something that happened shortly after.

My new department had run for possibly two or three months when an automobile struck me and I was in the hospital unable to write a column, or do any analyses. Let me say here that in all my years of contributing to all sorts of magazines, and getting all sorts of checks, editors have been uniformly honest, courteous and considerate. A circumstance over which neither the editor nor myself had any control, had occurred, and the editor was in a jam. Any other editor would have published a box, but not this editor. He continued the department that was cooked up out of books on graphology. He put a new name at the top, and when I wrote him I was back in circulation he ignored the letter.

A long time after when I was in Chicago I stopped by his office, and found a badly flustered editor. When I remarked that he had a new writer who was handling the department differently than I had planned, he grinned a sickly grin, "Yes, you know I found a Paul Bunker out at the University of Chicago and he's doing the column. Sorry you could not continue, but I had to have copy and he gets the mail all right."

His assistants looked at one and the other as much as to say that it was the first they had heard of a Paul Bunker, but there was no use in starting any argument. The editor had found someone who would give him a hand­writing analysis department, made up of analyses, and nothing else. The analyses might have fitted almost anyone, but as far as I was concerned the incident was closed.

• SIGNS OF EGOTISM AND VANITY

After the demand for grapho analysis instruction had become so strong that I had established a school, my advertising manager went into Chicago, and paid the publisher of the detective magazine a visit. Then the story of the department came out. It is this story that makes this page of hand­writing (plate 100) so important. It is taken from an autographed copy of a novel the editor of the magazine had written and which I had merely put into my book shelves without opening.

It seems that when the editor of the detective book found himself without a contributor he made up his own column. He made up the analy­ses out of words, padded in a few opening paragraphs, and got away with it. That was seemingly easy, so he kept on writing the column and selling it to his own magazine, and incidentally raised the pay for the copy to $75 a month. Over the years he had collected something like $9,000 for his department which he sold to his own magazine.

When I learned the true story I dug the autographed copy out of my library, and found this autograph. If I had given it any heed earlier the story might have been much different, for this handwriting reveals just why the man pulled the trick that no self-respecting editor would have dared to do.

Earlier you learned that very tall "d's" and "t's" show vanity. You will notice that the "d" in the signature is very tall. Also that the capital letters are all out of proportion to the small letters. These exaggerated capitals show egotism. Finally, as you examine the handwriting you will find initial hooks that show a desire for possession in the final stroke of the capital "B", in the "c" in "compliments", in the way the two small "s's" are made in "best wishes". Each of these beginning hooks represents a desire for possession. You have already learned how to find intentional deceit. Put the deceit, the vanity, the desire for possession, and egotism together and you have the ingredients of a swindler.

Yet to his associates he was probably a nice enough chap. He was not a "criminal type", yet he had an opportunity to swindle, and did it. Years later when I was editor of MODERN PSYCHOLOGIST I asked him to contribute an article telling just how the first magazine article on grapho analysis was ever published. He submitted it, but I did not use it. Instead, it merely went into the files, and though he asked repeatedly for his money he was not paid. However, the manuscript stuck to the story he had told me; that he had found a Paul Bunker who had developed the department. Up to his dying day he never learned that the treasurer of the publishing company had provided a complete record of how he had sold the manu­scripts to the magazine which he edited, representing to the treasurer's office that he was still paying me, although I was not living in Chicago at the time.

Plate 101. Can you tell from this handwriting that the man was a notorious train robber? There are clear indications of dishonesty here.

Plate 101 was written by another man who certainly had plenty on the ball mentally. He might have succeeded in any one of several fields, but instead he made a record as a train robber. He would be caught, con­victed and sentenced, then he turned on his personality and began using his natural intelligence. He won sympathy. He saw the "error of his ways", and if given a parole promised he would certainly become a good citizen. He won friends. He would get his parole, and then commit another hold up. He was a "criminal type", lacking intelligence. He shows in his writing exactly why he was a repeater. He was not deceitful, so when he was selling his good intentions to his sponsors he was merely using his natural warmth of personality and may have believed that if he were freed, he would go straight. But with his freedom he resented people, things, and wanted to strike back at society.

• "DESIRE FOR POSSESSION" HOOKS

Roy Gardner did pot plan a crime as much as he plunged into it. He would plunge, and get caught, make good resolutions, and after serving time would win a release and repeat because he was ruled by his feelings, not master of them. Part of the reason was a desire for possession. Others had, and he wanted. In this short note there are three clearly defined acquisitive hooks, one at the start of the Capital "S", one in the "c" in the body of "Sincerely", and another starts the "y".

Plate 102. The crimes of the man who wrote this could haae been avoided if someone had analyzed his handwriting in time. It is all spelled out in this piece of writing.

A professional analyst would find others in the body of some of the words, but three as clearly defined as these, are sufficient to show a strong desire for possession. Roy Gardner wanted to possess and he struck back at society in order to gain his desire. If he had not had such strong resent­ment, his desire for possession was not strong enough to turn him into a train robber, but the two traits fitted hand in glove to lead him to a life of crime.

A very high percentage of crimes is committed by young and old alike simply because they lack character enough to fight against temptation. Plate 102 is the writing of a man who was married. He had a wife and children, and they were in debt. The writing shows that he lacked the earning ability to bring in a comfortable income. You have already learned enough about grapho analysis to examine this page of writing and know that he may have been frank, but he lacked the ability to learn a great deal.

When faced with an urgent need for money he tried to hold up a dry cleaning shop. The young woman on the cash register resisted. He was not impulsive, but he was frustrated. He had tried to commit a crime. He had failed, so he beat the girl unmercifully and escaped. The girl did not die. He was not a murderer, but just as he had not had the courage and intelligence to face life and its financial problems he lacked the courage to face the results of his criminal attempt—so he committed suicide.

The writing in plate 102 gives a very important warning of the danger of freeing the writer. You do not need to be an expert grapho analyst to check the way in which the "t's" are crossed. Each t-bar is slanted at a sharp angle down from left to right. You have already learned that such a slant made by a strong bar indicates a writer who dominates and when the bar is made like an arrow, it shows domineering. These t-bars vary. Some of them are dominant, others domineering. Both such bars are indi­cative of a writer who demands, who expects others to comply with his wishes.

Plates 103 and 104. Guilty of an atrocious sex-murder. Thomas Cochrans signa­ture shows his true nature. Note particularly the mud­dy handwriting that warns of abnormal sex appetite.

Turn such a man loose without education, and his days will be very rough. Society will not meet his demands. He will not have all of the things he wants, and there will be only one way for him to get them. The criminal way.

This writer grew up on a cotton farm. As a lad he had nothing. His family lived on a hand-to-mouth basis. Poor food, few clothes, and when there was cotton to plant, chop, or pick, the family spent long back-breaking hours in the field. The boy did without things that other boys had. He developed a corroding desire to have, not through reaching or to possess, but through demanding. As a result he was on a criminal road almost before he would have been out of high school.

Sociologists may say he never had a chance. Possibly they are right, but at least you will recognize why he found his way to the penitentiary. Society, the conditions that denied him education, decent food and clothing, and because his family could not earn them from a cotton patch, explain the whys. Not that he was a "criminal type", because under normal con­ditions there is nothing here to show that he would not have been a "normal" boy.

This young man, Thomas Cochran, is quite presentable in the full page photograph. You might even have invited him into your home, especially if you had a daughter of high school age that you hoped might be a motion picture find. At least others who knew nothing about grapho analysis did just that when he went into one of the major hotels in South Florida, where he introduced himself as a motion picture scout. Mothers courted him, they encouraged their daughters to have dates with him, without knowing that Gochran had given warnings of his true nature in the signature on his hotel registration card. You will find it in plate 104, and have the expla­nation. First, the handwriting is backhand, which shows self-interest. Second, the last half of the name "Thomas" is not a blot made by accident, but a blot made because of the sex appetites of the writer.

Gochran was convicted of murdering one of his dates that had rejected his advances. His handwriting gave the warning. Muddy handwriting is always sex appetites, sex appetites out of normal proportion to the writer's personality. It is a warning that holds good every time.

Your next specimen in this chapter, plate 105, is the writing of one of the most notable women murderers in the last century. Winnie Ruth Judd lived in Arizona. She had two women friends, who later were accused of being lesbians. Newspaper reporters made much of the whisper that Winnie Ruth had become one of a triangle, and when things got hot, she killed the two women.

After killing them she packed them in a truck, shipped them to the west coast, and an express company employee investigated, discovered the bodies, and tracing the source of the trunk was just about as simple as taking candy away from a baby. Winnie Ruth was accused, arrested, tried and convicted. That is all history, and her writing is included here so that you can examine it. Check it and you will find that the years she spent in prison helped her build a new character. There is one other point you can learn from this specimen. Winnie Ruth had a rather amazing record for escapes. After gaining her freedom she had never made an effort to hide. She merely wanted out of prison.

Plate 105. Notice these initial strokes—straight and inflexible, indicating resentment. Winnie Ruth Judd, notable woman murderer.

You have the explanation in the initial strokes in these 10 lines of writing. In "should", "written", "and", "subscription", and "so" the first stroke is straight, inflexible. Such initial strokes reveal resentment. Winnie Ruth went along for weeks and months; became bored, resentful. She wanted out of prison and immediately started figuring out how to make her escape. She was not planning to run away. All she wanted was out.

When you find such repeated resentment strokes you may know that the writer is suffering an urgent desire to get away. It may be to get away for a short time from pressing demands of business or professional life. It may be that life has become an impossible bore. The writer may not resent anyone near to him or her. The writer merely resents conditions.

You will find such instances coming up in your own field of acquaintance. I know of one that broke up a happy home because one member was so imposed upon that he became beaten down, trod upon by those who demanded his services. A member of the family knew grapho analysis and felt that she was being resented, and rejected. Home life went from bad to worse, and finally went on the rocks, not because there was any natural lack of understanding, but because the one member was so imposed upon by friends and clients that she developed a constant alertness against im­position. Breaking up the home did not change matters; the home was gone, but it did drive the professional member of the team to take drastic steps to shed the imposition. Then the writing changed. The resentment strokes disappeared—but too late.

Plate 106. There is evi­dence of sex desire shown in this handwriting of H. Judd Gray, murderer.

If you have someone whose writing shows these straight strokes, start­ing at the base line of the writing, and slanted up straight to the start of the body of the letter, do not look for something to find fault about in them. Help the resentful person who is imposed upon to free himself from the imposition. You can do it, and the strokes will disappear.

H. Judd Gray killed his sweetheart's husband. Judd Gray had a good job, he was respected, but he became enamoured of another man's wife. They became so much in love that reason or right had no part in the picture of their lives. She whispered to him. He listened. His handwriting, however, does not reveal a man who would plan a crime. The only evidence in his writing, is shown by the sex desire in this signature. It is not exceed­ingly strong. Judd Gray was not a sex maniac in any sense of the word. He merely became involved in an affair similar to affairs carried on by countless other married men with married women. Certainly Gray was "sexy" but only mildly so. He would not have gone out to rape and kill merely for the love of sexual satisfaction, yet he did not hesitate to hammer a man to death.

The husband was an obstruction to Judd Gray's desire, but Judd was not grasping. If he had been, the woman with whom he was having the affair would not get enough money from her husband's death to make cash or jewels a natural or strong temptation. Judd Gray committed murder because he yielded to just one temptation, and he gave up his life because he impulsively did something that he had no natural inclination to do.

Yet in all of these specimens there is a key to the weakness that led to the crime. The Cochran signature showed his over-sexed nature. Gregory Sullivan's writing showed his lack of ability to earn money, to handle wisely what he did earn, and the probability that he would go into debt over his head. It shows that he would yield to temptation because he lacked the character to not do so. Judd Gray's signature shows great independence, but it also shows dignity in his independence, yet he killed a man.

EXAMINATION FOR CHAPTER 9

You will not have any specific questions on this chapter because each point has been so completely illustrated and explained that you cannot miss any of the principles explained.

You can spend several evenings studying these specimens, not only for their value as covered in this chapter, but because they illustrate other character traits and strokes which you have already studied.

One thing has been driven home to me by resident and home students. They read a lesson, or a book, get half clear ideas and then start trying to use principles that they have not studied sufficiently to understand. This is one reason that so many of the illustrations in this book are large. Each gives you an illustration not only of a principle, but of many principles and you cannot have a better plan than to jot down various traits as you recog­nize them during your study of each individual plate. When you do this, you will be amazed at how much you discover about the individual.

If, on the other hand, these principles were divided up into sections, with one for example, showing "Laziness" and another, "Ambition" you would miss completely the application of the principle to life.

In the first place, no man has a right to set down a list of traits and say "these are the traits that portray an ambitious man." Those traits in themselves may be valuable, but the same writer may have other traits that completely or almost completely nullify the valuable ones. The human character is not made like a sausage, the same ingredients in each one. It is the influence of one trait on another that determines the final value. This is called evaluation, which is as vitally important to your use of grapho analy­sis as air is to your lungs. Therefore, do not merely examine a handwriting and say. "This writer is a dreamer" because even a dreamer who concen­trates has an excellent chance in making his dreams come true.

In the same way, you cannot say "This writer is a criminal type", because as in the case of Roy Gardner, he may have some of the finest mental qualities, but one little quirk can turn all of his good points sour. Then he is a criminal, not because of a majority of "criminal" tendencies, but because of one or two traits that ruined the value of the good ones.

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