Questioned Documents in Law Enforcement Investigations: From the Unabomber to Anthrax

Washington, DC - What connection does an English professor at Vassar have with the Unabom case, the murder investigation of JonBenét Ramsey, the FBI’s Southeast Bomb investigation, and the anthrax investigation.

Donald Foster is a professor of English at Vassar College and a Shakespearean scholar. In his “other life” as an attributional expert, Professor Foster has worked with law enforcement agencies and the media to determine authorship of anonymous or disputed documents, including forgeries, threats, ransom notes, and anonymous tips. He is best known for identifying Joe Klein as the author of the best-selling anonymous novel, Primary Colors, and for identifying Shakespeare as the writer of a previously unattributed funeral poem. More recently, Professor Foster has assisted law enforcement officials in their investigation of anthrax-tainted mail.

In Policing Anonymity, the latest monograph in the Police Foundation’s Ideas in American Policing series, Professor Foster discusses the problems posed by anonymous writings in criminal investigations, and how best to address those problems from the crime scene to the courtroom. As Foster writes, “‘Attribution’ (the scientific investigation of authorship) and ‘textual transmission’ (the study of sources and influences on a piece of writing) have been well-established fields of scholarly research for at least 200 years.” Yet, “[i]f linguistic and textual scholars have had a less obvious or less universal impact on the investigation and prosecution of criminal activity, poor communication may be to blame.”

Single copies of Policing Anonymity are available at no charge by writing or e-mailing the Police Foundation, 1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2636, pfinfo@policefoundation.org. International requests require prepaid postage. This monograph, like all others in the Ideas in American Policing series, is available on the foundation’s Web site, www.policefoundation.org (Publications/Electronic Library).

The Police Foundation is a private, independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and improvement in policing through its research, technical assistance, and communications programs. Established in 1970, the foundation has conducted seminal research in police behavior, policy, and procedure, and works to transfer to local agencies the best new information about practices for dealing effectively with a range of important police operational and administrative concerns. Motivating all of the foundation’s efforts is the goal of efficient, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation.