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Deborah Jeane Palfrey Suicide Note Forged?
I was rather shocked the Tarpon Springs Police immediately determined Ms. Palfrey's death to be a suicide. Twice, in recorded interviews on The Alex Jones Show, Ms. Palfrey said she would not commit suicide. Link. In fact, she told Alex Jones off the air that if you find me dead it will be murder, not suicide. The manager of her condo who spoke with her days before her death was certain she was not contemplating suicide given their discussion about taking care of the condo fee while in prison. Link. Furthermore, Ms. Palfrey's phone records ensnared a US Senator, several high ranking officials of the Bush Administration, and, it was rumored, Vice President Dick Cheney was also a client. Granted, this is not conclusive evidence of a murder but it sure does raise the eyebrow! One would think the police would hold off on commenting upon whether or not the death was a suicide or murder until after the autopsy and analysis of the alleged suicide note by a handwriting expert? Are we just going to accept this note at face value? Given the high profile nature of the case, isn't it worth investing a few thousand dollars to have an expert analyze the suicide note against samples of Ms. Palfrey's handwriting?
Inconsistencies between two pages of alleged suicide note
A news outlet (ABC) has been so kind as to post a PDF of the alleged suicide note on their website. Disclaimer: I'm not a handwriting expert but the following is what my eyes tell me. I've cropped out the signature from page 1 (top) and page 2 (bottom) placing them next to each other for easy comparison.
In my opinion, there are serious discrepancies between these two signatures. The easy one in the pronounced upward slope of the first name (Deborah) in Signature 1 while it is almost flat in Signature 2. Let's move on to the initial "D" of the signature.
 
The "D" of the first signature (on the left) starts with a strong, near vertical downward stroke from the upper left of the letter, downward, then a big clockwise arc finishing with a wide sweep underneath the letter continuing completely through the body of the letter and up and out to the left. Now let's compare this to the "D" from Signature 2. It starts not at the upper left but the bottom middle. From bottom middle, it arcs up to the right (counter clockwise), then back down in a verticle, nearly straigh line, finishing with an upward verticle line to the point where Signature 1 started. It is capped by a little curly sqiggle missing from Signature 1. Let me say it again, these two letters were drawn in opposite directions. Further, unless this is a bad copy posted by the news organization, the big sweep underneath the letter then out and up to the left is missing from Signature 2.
On to the next group of three letters in both signatures. Surprisingly, it gets worse.
 
In Signature 1, the first character does not open in a loop but the second character does open slightly in a loop. In Signature 2, the pattern is reversed--the first character is open in a loop but the second character is closed. The third character of the two signatures is completely different in at least three different respects. I won't even bother with a detailed commentary, it should be readily apparent.
Let's skip to the second name in the signature, Palfrey. Again, they aren't even close.
 
The opening strokes on both signatures of the name Palfrey are similar (but not identical)--a downward clockwise sweep forms something of a "j". In Signature 1, the next stroke is a counter clockwise arc starting at the "j" then crossing to form a "P". The counter clockwise arc continues all the way past the horizontal level from which it started, then reverses in a strong downward, vertical stroke and, then again reverses in a strong upward, vertical stroke (i.e., there are three near vertical lines formed in close proximity to one another in the middle part of the word).
Now for Signature 2. There is no counter clockwise arc turning the "j" into a "P". In fact, the symbol formed looks very much like a "M" as opposed to the intended "Paf". The second stroke in Signature 2 does not cross the "j" symbol as in Signature 1. Instead of an arc, it is a near straight diagonal line from top left to bottom right. Then the stroke reverses with another diagonal line going from bottom left to top right. It finishes this letter with one more relatively straight, vertical line going down. Again, Signature 2 omits a portion of the stroke found in Signature 1 (the counter clockwise arc). The three vertical lines are bunched in a tight, pronounced fashion on Signature 1. They are spread out and turned at an angle in Signature 2 forming an "M".
These are differences I noticed after a few minutes of analysis. To my eyes, they are open and obvious. There are many more inconsistencies between page 1 and page 2 of the alleged suicide note. If I have more time in the coming days, I detail those as well.
Bottom line. A team of handwriting experts needs to review the two pages of the suicide note. First analyze the two documents for internal consistency against each other (i.e., were they written by the same hand)? Second, compare both documents against known recent handwriting samples from Ms. Palfrey. I have to believe Ms. Palfrey took notes during her trial and that some of these notes were given to her attorney.
JJR
5-5-2008
(Commentary)
 
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