Handwriting analysis

images of Patsys' handwriting samples / ransom note / John's handwriting samples

"I, I mean I don’t, I’m not a handwriting person. I’ve given handwriting after handwriting, after handwriting. You know, maybe it’s a female that wrote the note. I mean, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know how to analyze handwriting, but I’m sure they’re doing the best they now how to do. But, I don’t know what else to do, you know. I write like I write."

- Patsy, 1997 police interview

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Analysts Consulted by Police
Ubowski

Speckin

Alford

Analysts Hired by the Ramsey Defense Team
Howard Rile

Lloyd Cunningham

Alex Hunter said: "the handwriting people that we have retained in this case and that have been retained by the Ramseys, it is a very low probability, according to these experts. ... They don't exclude her, but it's very low."

The "1-5 Scale"
The two experts retained by the Ramsey defense team used

This scale was not used by any experts other than those two analysts who worked for the Ramseys.

The 2003 "Carnes ruling" erroneously stated that six experts had reached a "consensus". In fact, with the exception of the two analysts paid by the Ramseys, the analysts were consulted separately and authored their reports separately. Only the Ramseys' hired analysts assigned a probability to their analysis. Rile was the only analyst who used the phrase "probably not".

Other Analysts
Gideon Epstein

Cina Wong

Forensic linguistics analyst James Fitzgerald

Forensic linguistics analyst Donald Foster

Criticisms of Handwriting Analysis
Alex Hunter said that, should the case go to trial, he would be in favor of providing a trial jury with a note from the Ramseys' paid handwriting analysts sharing their conclusions, then allowing jurors to use their "common sense" to evaluate the handwriting.