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How to date women – 1943
In 1943 the world was on fire. The campus, too, burned with change — while a little booklet taught students the genteel manners of courtship.
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READ THIS! It's the Greatest Column Ever Written in the History of the World!!
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We pay taxes to study worms?
Our tax dollars fund much of the medical research in this country. Should we require that research to focus exclusively on finding life - saving drugs?
TALKING ABOUT MOVIES »
40 years of violence and revolution
40 years of violence and revolution
The golden age of 1960s and early '70s cinema launched an era of bloody, cynical, and nihilistic moviemaking that's still with us today.
Faculty at Work
David Potter: Do as the Romans did?
Classics Professor David Potter teaches students about sports in ancient Rome, and how to think like a historian.
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Birds, bats, bugs and engineers 
The world's fastest, most agile and powerful aircraft look puny compared to the abilities of hummingbirds and pigeons. U-M researchers are unlocking the deepest secrets of flight.
alumni profile
Michelle Dresbold: What's hidden in your handwriting?
February 12, 2008
Michelle Dresbold is a handwriting expert, and author of "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting"
Who was Jack the Ripper? How does Osama bin Laden make a threat every time he signs his name?
What about that person you started dating last month? Who is he or she really? For that matter, who are you?
Michelle Dresbold says she knows, or can find out. All she needs is a handwriting sample.
Dresbold is a professional handwriting analyst and the author of "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting." Trained by the Secret Service, she helps police track down killers, testifies in court cases, and offers advice (and some fun and games) to readers of her syndicated newspaper column and her Web site, michelledresbold.com.
According to Dresbold, handwriting could better be described as "brainwriting," because the movements of hand on page are a direct, pre-conscious expression of personality. Every time we write a note or sign our names, says Dresbold, we lay our true selves bare.
Skeptical? Dresbold would reply that graphology's history goes back 400 years; over the last century, it's been tested to the point that it's trusted by law enforcement officials at the highest level. Some handwriting analysis is admissible as evidence in court. And Dresbold herself has a long series of successes to back her up.
In her first criminal case, she helped Pittsburgh police investigators identify and convict a murderer. She had been analyzing handwriting for some time, and had developed a reputation for uncanny accuracy.
The police learned of her work and one day called her in for help. A woman had been murdered, her body found after the discovery of a note that told searchers to "look in the basement." Dresbold's analysis of the note led to the arrest and conviction of the killer.
The Pittsburgh cops used her for other cases and eventually recommended her for a course run by the US Secret Service. She performed so well that the Secret Service invited her back for intensive, higher-level study open to only a handful of handwriting analysts.
Dresbold's career was launched, but she had never really intended to go into this field. "My goal," she says, "was to be a famous artist."
At the University of Michigan she'd majored in art with a minor in psychology. Only after graduating and moving to Pittsburgh did she enroll in a handwriting analysis class on a whim. She enjoyed it so much that she "got obsessed with it. I would read books, and compare what I learned to the handwriting of my friends and family. I would interpret for them and get feedback; I asked them to be very honest about whether I was accurate, so I could get better. I'd go to lectures to learn the [handwriting] traits of sexual abuse victims, suicidal people…" She studied further under an expert in the handwriting of suicides.
Dresbold continues to testify in court cases, but she's also branched out into other activities, including a busy speaking schedule — including appearances on television shows like NBC's Today Show, CBS's Early Show, and Fox's The O'Reilly Factor — and her newspaper column.
Her book, due out in paperback in June, 2008, offers readers a guide to how she does it, plus her analysis of some notorious criminals' writing.
Close analysis of the way letters and words are formed led Dresbold to identify American Francis Tumblety as Jack the Ripper. [image from "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting"]
Dresbold observes that there are different types of handwriting analysis, and she performs all three. Handwriting identification compares two handwriting samples to determine whether they were written by the same person. Admissible as evidence in court, this is the tool Dresbold used to identify an American named Francis Tumblety as Jack the Ripper (see illustration, above right).
Then there's threat analysis, used to assess the writer of threatening letters.
Finally, personality profiling is a set of technical tools through which Dresbold says she can "tell virtually anything about a person. What's holding them back, whether they're successful, their sexual preferences." She adds, "That's the fun part."
Some elements of handwriting analysis seem fairly obvious. Large, forward leaning letters indicate a confident, sociable writer. Lines of text that rise on the page imply optimism, while a writer whose words tilt down the page is likely depressed.
One fundamental principle is that writing is divisible into three zones. The middle zone is especially seen in letters like a, c, m, n, o, and s—those with no top or bottom stems. The middle zone, says the theory, has to do with the here and now. "Most adolescent girls are dominant middle-zone writers," thinking only about the here and now, writing primarily in the middle zone, with short letter stems, says Dresbold. An example is the handwriting of Paris Hilton [image from michelledresbold.com]:
The upper zone includes the loops and lines of b, d, f, l, t and so on. These are supposed to relate to the intellect and to aspirations. Large upper loops, says Dresbold, can indicate intelligence, ego, and dreams of success.
In the one known letter by Jack the Ripper, the "lower zone" loops are enormous and sharp, flowing into the lines below. Dresbold says this indicates a man with out-of-control sexuality. [image from "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting"]
Finally, the lower zone—the downward loops of g, j, f, p, y and others—are said to correlate to an individual's basic drives for survival and sex. Well-formed lower loops, she says, reveal a healthy sexuality and work ethic. When Dresbold is performing a threat analysis, she'll often look to these lower-zone letters: huge loops or long, stabbing lines indicate to her a person with insatiable and possible violent sexuality.
This is just a glimpse of what Dresbold examines: details like a cluttered or tidy hand, vertical or slanted letters, spacing between words, and countless other traits may reveal the truth.
But she also reads the "big picture." Dresbold says her education in art, art history, and psychology helps her pick up the gestalt of a handwriting sample. She observes that many writers include, especially in their signatures, symbols of themselves.
Consider the handwriting of some infamous killers.
See if you can guess whose signature is partially reproduced below. Note in particular the swirling lines in it, and observe what symbols might be embedded here. Spend some time getting a feel for it.
You might not be surprised to learn that this is the signature of Charles Manson. Dresbold points out that the signature itself is unreadable, though one thing that is clear is a swastika—just like the one Manson carved into his own forehead. And what are those dots around the "swastika"? Bullet holes? Hypnotizing eyes? Finally, at the very top of the signature, Dresbold sees a knife hovering above it all.
Or take this signature, which is not in English, but which Dresbold says is symbolically readable nonetheless: 
Embedded in this signature, Dresbold sees a rifle:
A hand grenade, with the pin pulled:
A bomb: 
And a dead, bleeding body:
It's the signature of Osama bin Laden.
Some readers will no doubt remain skeptical, but at the very least the subject is fascinating and fun.
For her part, Dresbold remains confident in her subject and ability, saying that she doesn't know of a single instance where she's "read" handwriting incorrectly. So what does Dresbold's signature say about her? She laughs. "I see a brilliant artist. I'm interpreting, so I can say what I want."
is editor of Michigan Today. His signature reveals a charming, intelligent and dazzlingly handsome man.