The Second Career: Forensic Handwriting Analysis
In 1969, Bessie Blount was fifty-five years old. She had spent more than two decades working as a physical therapist and inventor, had built devices that European governments used while American institutions declined them, and had established herself as someone who could not be stopped by institutional rejection.
She began a second career.
The transition to forensic science grew from an observation she had made while working as a physical therapist. She had noticed that her patients’ handwriting changed as their physical condition changed. As they recovered, their handwriting reflected that recovery. As they declined, their handwriting showed decline. The connection between a person’s physical and mental state and the specific characteristics of their handwriting was, to her observation, real and measurable.
This was the entry point into graphology — the study of handwriting — and eventually into forensic document examination.
She joined the American Association of Handwriting Analysts. She wrote about medical graphology — the intersection of handwriting analysis and health assessment. She spoke at conventions. She attracted attention within the forensic science community.
By 1969, she had developed enough expertise and reputation to begin working with law enforcement. She conducted forensic science research for police departments in New Jersey and Virginia. She was eventually designated as chief document examiner for the police laboratories in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia.
Her work included examining handwritten documents for evidence of forgery, fraud, and embezzlement. She examined pre-Civil War documents and slave papers — historical materials that raised specific questions about authentication and provenance. This work connected her technical expertise in handwriting analysis to a historical dimension that was personally and politically significant.
In 1977, when Bessie Blount was sixty-three years old, she received an invitation that recognized the level of expertise she had developed.
Scotland Yard called.