Mr. Cole.

writing habit is revealed mostly by capital letters so you might have him using printed forms for capitals, but cursive forms for most other letters.

Representative Ford.

Can you tell the difference between a right-handed and a left-handed person by either cursive or capital letters?

Mr. Cole.

No, sir; not definitely. Left-handed writers tend to write more vertically, and for that particular left-hand writer Who holds his hand above the writing line, this gives a reversal of the pressure on what would ordinarily be regarded as upstrokes and downstrokes, and when you see that reversal this is an indication of left-hand writing. But it is only when you have that special circumstance that you get that signal about it.

Representative Ford.

Is there anything in any of the writings that you have analyzed of Lee Harvey Oswald of an indication that he was left-handed?

Mr. Cole.

Well, I wouldn't say that I could make a determination of whether he was left-handed or right-handed.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Mr. Cole, in your expert work do you draw a distinction be tween a spurious and a forged document?

Mr. Cole.

Well, I think of the word "forgery" as having that legal connotation of malice or intent. The production of a false writing with an intention to deceive or defraud somebody else. Spurious writing means a false writing.

Mr. Eisenberg.

That is, a writing produced by one hand calculated to look as if it had been produced by another?

Mr. Cole.

Well, not necessarily, that situation that you just discussed would involve simulation of the person's, another person's writing. But the word "spurious" could refer to a false writing, the writing of the name of one person by another who had no particular right to do it. But, of course, if the element of an intent to defraud is not there, I suppose in a legal sense it is not forgery.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Now, what are the elements which you look for to see whether a person, A, has attempted to reproduce the handwriting of another person, B, with intent to deceive or otherwise?

Mr. Cole.

Two categories of differences. One, defects of line quality, by which is meant tremor, waver, patching, retouching, and noncontinuous lines, pen lifts in awkward and unusual places. And the other class of differences is details of the forms of letters, by which I mean that when the person attempting to simulate another writing concentrates upon the reproduction of one detail, he is likely not to see other details. He may, for example, be able to imitate the gross form of a letter but he may get proportions wrong or letter connections wrong.

Mr. Eisenberg.

What is the probability that person A could imitate the handwriting of person B without leaving a telltale trace in one of these two categories?

Mr. Cole.

I think it is only a very remote possibility. But I would add to that the need for having a fairly extensive specimen of writing. Of course the possibility of a successful simulation is better with smaller specimens of writing.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Now, did you find any evidence in either category that a person had attempted to simulate the writing of the author of the standards in this case in producing either 773 or any of the other questioned documents which you examined?

Mr. Cole.

No; I did not find such indications.

Mr. Eisenberg.

And you feel, did you say, there would be only a remote probability that in the absence of such indication such a simulation could exist?

Mr. Cole.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Eisenberg.

When you say remote, could you put this in terms of figures?

Mr. Cole.

I would say there is no reasonable possibility of it, and I will put it this way: That from my study of these documents, there is no particular element or elements of the handwriting that I can point to and say this could be evidence of simulation.

Mr. Eisenberg.

You mentioned before that you need to have a sufficient amount of writing to make that type of determination. Do you feel that the questioned documents provided a sufficient amount of writing for that?

Mr. Cole.

They do.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Is that individually or collectively?

Mr. Cole.

Individually.