Mr. Eisenberg. What is your position, Mr. Cole?
Mr. Cole. I am employed as examiner of questioned documents with the U.S. Treasury Department.
Mr. Eisenberg. Can you state your specific duties in this position?
Mr. Cole. I am required to examine any document in which the Treasury Department is interested when a question arises about the genuineness of the document or the identity of any of its parts. A good deal of this work includes the identification of handwriting.
Mr. Eisenberg. From what sources is work referred to your laboratory, Mr. Cole?
Mr. Cole. From the several divisions of the Office of the Treasury of the United States, and from the various Bureaus of the Treasury Department, including the enforcement agencies: Secret Service, narcotics, customs, internal revenue service.
Mr. Eisenberg. Mr. Cole, can you tell us how you prepared yourself to carry on this work of questioned documents examination?
Mr. Cole. I served an apprenticeship of 6 years under Mr. Burt Farrar from 1929 to 1935. Mr. Farrar at that time was the document examiner for the Treasury Department, and at the time of my association with him he had had over 40 years of experience in the work.
Under Mr. Farrar's tutelage I studied the leading textbooks on the subject of questioned documents, which includes handwriting identification, and I received from him cases for practice examination of progressively increasing difficulty, made these examinations, prepared reports for his review, and also during this period I had assignments to other Government laboratories, those of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Government Printing Office, and I had close association with other technical workers in the government service.
I succeeded Mr. Farrar in 1935, and I have had daily practical contact with questioned problems from 1929 to the present date.