Product Description

Have you ever looked at someone and thought:

He looks honest.

She seems friendly.

He doesn't look like a serial killer.

Are you always right?

Looks can be deceiving, but handwriting never lies. Handwriting profiling is an amazingly accurate tool for assessing how people think, feel, and act. In fact, handwriting profiling is so accurate that the FBI, the CIA, and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad use it to build detailed psychological profiles of some of the world's most dangerous individuals. And thousands of major corporations use handwriting profiling to help them make the right hiring decisions.

Handwriting expert Michelle Dresbold -- the only civilian to be invited to the United States Secret Service's Advanced Document Examination training program -- draws on her extensive experience helping law enforcement agencies around the country on cases involving kidnapping, arson, forgery, murder, embezzlement, and stalking to take us inside the mysterious world of crossed t's and dotted i's.

In Sex, Lies, and Handwriting, Dresbold explains how a single sentence can provide insight into a person's background, psychology, and behavior. Throughout the book, Dresbold explores the handwriting of sly politicians, convicted criminals, notorious killers, suspected cheats, and ordinary people who've written to Dresbold's "The Handwriting Doctor" column for help. She shows you how to identify the signs of a dirty rotten scoundrel and a lying, cheating, backstabbing lover. And she introduces you to some of the most dangerous traits in handwriting, including weapon-shaped letters, "shark's teeth," "club strokes," and "felon's claws." (When you see these traits in someone's script, she says, "it's time to stop reading and start running!")

Dresbold also explains how criminals are tracked through handwritten clues and what spouses, friends, or employees might be hiding in their script.

Finally, Dresbold re-examines the handwriting evidence in several notorious unsolved cases. She uncovers fascinating clues that reveal the secret side of Lizzie Borden, acquitted of the ax murder of her parents in 1893's "trial of the century." Dresbold also reveals astonishing details about the author of the JonBenÉt Ramsey ransom note, and she presents startling new evidence that exposes the real Jack the Ripper (contrary to popular theories, he wasn't a prince or a painter after all).

Sex, Lies, and Handwriting will have you paying a bit more attention to your -- and everyone else's -- penmanship.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50188 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743288101
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Michelle Dresbold, a graduate of the United States Secret Service's Advanced Document Examination training program, is considered one of the top experts in the nation on handwriting identification, personality profiling, and threat analysis. She consults to private attorneys, police departments, and prosecutors throughout the United States. Dresbold writes a syndicated column, "The Handwriting Doctor." She is also an accomplished artist. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

For more information visit www.michelledresbold.com

James Kwalwasser is the cocreator and editor of "The Handwriting Doctor" syndicated column. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
When I first got a call from Commander Ronald Freeman, my heart started pounding. "Oh, no," I thought, "I knew I should have paid those darn parking tickets!" But Freeman didn't even mention the tickets. He said that he had heard through the grapevine that I could "read" people, and asked me to come in for a chat.

At division headquarters, Commander Freeman had a stack of old case files involving handwriting piled on his desk. For hours, he showed me suicide notes, confessions, threatening letters, and other writing, and asked me questions like: "Is this person male or female? How old? Is the writer violent? Suicidal? Honest or dishonest? Straight or gay? Sane or insane? Smart or stupid? Healthy or sick? Go-getter or lazy bum?" After every answer, he smiled. Although he never said so, this was a test.

I must have passed, because a few days later, I got my first assignment: To profile an UNSUB (police lingo for unidentified subject) from a bank robbery note.

"This is a stick up," the note said. "Put $50's, $20's, $10's in bag."

After scanning the note for a few minutes, I turned to the detective in charge of the case. "You're not gonna find this guy's prints in your files, because he probably never committed a crime before. He's not a hardcore criminal. Under normal circumstances, he'd never rob a bank. But he's feeling really desperate." The detective nodded his head politely, but I could tell that he was skeptical.

A few days later, the bank robber was in police custody. As I had predicted, he was not a hardened criminal. In fact, he had no previous arrest record. He was a 52-year-old bus driver who tearfully confessed that he needed money to pay for his son's liver transplant. "Without the operation my son will die," he said.

One day, a woman walking her dog on Aylesboro Avenue in Pittsburgh found a mysterious note on the sidewalk. Printed in purple crayon were the words: Ples rascu me. Thinking it could be a desperate plea for help, the woman brought the note to a police station.

The detectives wondered if the note was a hoax. It appeared to be the writing of a child, but was it? And did the writer really need to be rescued?

"It's not the writing of an adult pretending to be a child," I told the lead detective. "It was written by a girl between the ages of five and seven. And I see absolutely no signs of stress or danger in the handwriting, so the writer is definitely not a kidnap victim." Then I added, "It's signed Kealsey."

But who was Kealsey? And why did Kealsey write the note? We turned to the news media, hoping that someone might recognize the handwriting, or something in the note, that could help us unravel the mystery.

That night when I turned on the six o'clock news, a reporter was interviewing another handwriting analyst who proclaimed that he could tell from the handwriting that the note's author was in "grave danger."

"What if I'm wrong?" I thought.

The next morning, a man and his daughter walked into the police station. They had seen a photograph of the note in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 6-year-old daughter, Kealsey, timidly stated that she had written the message to her teddy bear. Her father explained that Kealsey often played detective with her teddy. Somehow the note must have blown out the window and landed on the sidewalk.

Copyright © 2006 by Michelle Dresbold and James Kwalwasser

Customer Reviews

Fascinating--and fun!
This is a cleverly constructed, highly entertaining book that teaches us what our handwriting style reveals about ourselves and others, including many notables from Jack the Ripper to Elvis Presley to whoever wrote the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note. It is an easy read that has made it around our office quickly and led to some fun-filled discissions about each other's handwritten notes. In a way it reminds us of the popular science we know about body language, although handwriting seems to tell us so much more. Dresbold is an "expert" on this subject who, characteristic of the best of those who are tops in their field, can present it in a way that is understandable and enjoyable for a wide audience. Highly recommended.

Great book!!
This is a fascinating book, and well researched. Michelle Dresbold has written a great book on handwriting analysis that's interesting as well as entertaining. I especially enjoyed the examples of handwriting and the different personality characteristic that were listed. If you're the type of person who's curious about human psychology, you'll find this book intriguing.

3 1/2 STARS- Just barely falling short of 4 stars!
If you're new to handwriting analysis this may be too much all at once. Otherwise for advanced or intermediate analysts, this is an interesting read. It was nice to see a HW book that listed some of the nastier traits that many "G" rated beginner HW books omit. I really enjoyed the analysis of the Ramsey ranson note (and will never look at that case the same way again). While the Jack the Ripper analysis was entretaining, I would like to have seen the Lusk letter compared to other samples of Tumblety's handwriting, and preferable ones closer to the date of the whitechapel murders. There are samples still in existance at the Manx Museum.

I will give this book three and one half stars out of a possible five, falling just short of four stars, for some extra frills that could have been edited out and for not enough information given on forgeries. This is still an excellent book that I would recommend to serious HW analysts... I will be keeping it in my personal reference library!