WASHINGTON, 20 October — Handwriting analysts have determined that the person who addressed the envelopes containing the anthrax to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw is dangerously depressed and determined.
The two analysts independently came to similar conclusions. "The writer is very tired and... at the breaking point emotionally," graphologist Glenda Ross of Olympia, Washington told the Washington Times. "The writer is too violent and unable to listen" but feels he is doing the right thing.
In separate analysis for the Washington Times, Ross and Margaret Webb of Reading, England, each settled on the world "determination" and "depression" to characterize the writer of the letters.
They both said the downhill writing and the identical wavering block letters, notably the E’s and the B’s, show that the same person addressed both envelopes.
"Many men who wear a uniform write with all capital letters," Webb, education officer of the British Institute of Graphologists, told the Times. This habit, she said, can indicate a person feels "self-important, dominating, self-focused and independent."
"The writer is... a physical kind that would strike out with a physical blow rather than an intellectual debate," said Ross, a 40-year veteran in her profession.
Only the number "one" in the zip code makes one wonder if the person is a foreigner, said Ross.
"The overall impression is that the writer has lived a long time in America. The numeral 1 is the only indication on the envelope that it could be written by someone from another country, as the American numeral 1 is just a straight line." This number 1 uses serifs.
She told the Times that the writer could be either an elderly American or a longtime foreign resident.
"This type of formation of the number also is found in the older generation of American writers, age 70 and up, but the rest of the writing does not have any other indication that the letter is not written by an American," said Ross.
Both handwriting analysts said they could decipher much more if they had access to the original writing, rather than the FBI photographs, which would show how much pressure was put on the pen by the writer.
The only discrepancy between the two analysts was over the writer’s "intelligence."
"As this writing is slow and not of a very high form standard, it may have been written by a person with limited intelligence," said Webb.
But Ross told the Times that she believes the writer may be intelligent but does not have a "well-rounded education."
Anthrax-laced letters strikingly similar
Anthrax-laced letters sent to the US Senate majority leader and the offices of NBC television contained strikingly similar language, ABC television reported yesterday.
"09-11-01. This is next. Take penacilin (sic) now. Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is Great," read the letter addressed to NBC news anchorman Tom Brokaw.
The letter to Sen. Tom Daschle read: "09-11-01. You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is Great."
At NBC, an assistant to Brokaw, 38-year-old Erin O’Connor, developed cutaneous anthrax after opening the letter, dated Sept. 11.
The seven-month-old baby of an ABC News employee also contracted anthrax.
Thirty-one people on Capitol Hill, including 23 Daschle staffers, have tested positive for exposure to the dangerous bacteria, after the letter postmarked Oct. 8 was opened there on Monday.
Investigators were working yesterday to recreate the route traveled by a mail carrier in Trenton, New Jersey, who may handled the letters, ABC reported.
The fact that both letters used an American English style for the date, with the month preceding the day, could indicate that the anthrax deliveries are acts of domestic terrorism, US media reported.
Female NJ letter carrier has skin anthrax
Meanwhile, two employees at a New Jersey mail facility are being tested for anthrax exposure after the disease infected a worker at a post office that sends mail through the facility.
New Jersey officials said Thursday that a female letter carrier at the West Trenton post office has the skin form of the disease. She may have handled anthrax-contaminated letters sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in New York and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington, authorities say. The two people being tested work at the regional facility in Hamilton, N.J., where authorities first tracked the tainted mail, were both working on days when the mail would have been processed. Test results are pending.
