| 1.67.6 | 1.74.0 | 88.1 | 19.0 | 16.0 | 14.5 | 6.0 | 26.1 | 11.8 | 8.9 | 45.4 | ||||||||||
| HGT | OA | TR | HL | HW | CW | RE | LF | LMF | LLF | FA |
These abbreviations signify, in the order shown, that this criminal’s height is one meter, sixty-seven centimeters and six millimeters; outer arms one meter, seventy-four centimeters; trunk eighty-eight centimeters and one millimeter; head length nineteen centimeters; head width, sixteen centimeters; cheek width fourteen centimeters and five millimeters; right ear six centimeters; left foot twenty-six centimeters and one millimeter; left middle finger eleven centimeters and eight millimeters; left little finger eight centimeters and nine millimeters; forearm forty-five centimeters and four millimeters. The foregoing abbreviations have been adopted for convenience upon the backs of criminal photographs and where space usually is limited.
[CHAPTER IV]
FORGERIES
Although not generally known it is a fact that banks, business concerns, and the public in general probably suffer a greater loss through the operations of forgers and bogus check operators than through any other form of crimes perpetrated against them. There are confined today in the penal institutions of this country, thousands of persons convicted and found guilty of these offenses, and yet I would venture to state that not over forty per cent of this class of criminal is ever apprehended.
There is hardly a morning anywhere but what one may pick up a newspaper and read an account of how some clever forger succeeded in victimizing a bank, hotel or merchant. With this large number of forgers at large and free to operate when, and practically wherever they please, we have additional proof that there are today by no means sufficient trained detectives to run them down. The methods most commonly practiced by forgers, both professional and amateur, are quite well known, yet I believe it will be well for me to dwell at some length on the subject.
In a general way I might state that the methods of all forgers are much the same; at any rate such has been my experience with this class of criminal. Their aim in most cases, before presenting for payment a check to which a signature has been forged, or an endorsement, is to ascertain if the firm or person against whom the check is to be drawn has deposits sufficient to cover the check. After satisfying himself on this point the forger proceeds to fill in the check and to affix thereto a signature or an endorsement purported to be genuine.
After having selected the person whose signature or endorsement is to be forged, the forger must next be familiar with the handwriting of that person. It is comparatively an easy matter for anyone so inclined to secure an original, facsimile or tracing of the average business or professional man’s signature. After providing himself thus the forger sets about writing a check that will be so near like the genuine that it will not be likely to be questioned when presented at the bank. The forger usually makes it a point to present his check at a time when the cashier or paying teller is busiest, and when the forgery will most likely pass unnoticed.