CRIMINAL MIND > FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

Beverly Hills Cop

Forging His Way

Paul Edholm became a forgery detective in 1981, and as a forgery specialist he often sought the services of handwriting experts. When Paul saw how beneficial the tool was to his job, he told himself, "I need to learn this." So, for the next seven years he did what he called "on the job training" with a handwriting expert on his department.

The Secret Service runs specialized training for handwriting analysis. Paul, thoroughly engrossed now in analyzing handwriting, asked his boss if he could get his name put into a pool of law enforcement officers that were annually certified by the Secret Service. It was a select group. Not everyone was offered the opportunity.

When Paul arrived at the El Segundo PD, the detectives waiting to greet him gave him the documents they had for the 1957 cold case. The two investigators working the case asked Paul if he wanted to go to lunch. Maybe talk a little bit about the case. Get acquainted. And then come back and get to work.

"Well," Paul said. "You guys go right on ahead. I've already had lunch." Paul was eager to dig in and get to work. He loved the idea of being involved in such a personal case. Anytime a cop is killed, not to mention two, the investigation takes on a different feel. One of their own. The code of the blue. Although Paul had no personal connection to the case, two "brothers" had been viciously, cold-heartedly murdered. A young girl, innocent and harmless, had her youth stolen from her by a monster.

If Paul could do anything to help, he was all for it.

1999 South Carolina DMV Registration Card

The first thing he did was pull out the documents and conduct a quick comparison of the handwriting from the detectives working the case in 1959 to a South Carolina DMV eye test form dated 1999 they believed the suspect had filed. Under a warrant, the El Segundo PD had obtained the suspect's motor vehicle records, which included several examples of his handwriting.

1957 YMCA Registration Card

After looking at the documents and comparing them by eye, Paul sat back and thought, This is their guy. He did it.

Now, though, he would have to tie the guy to both documents through science, not some slipshod hypothetical, quick analysis. It was going to take time. Paul would have to study the case, learn how the documents were connected and how the El Segundo PD obtained them.

Integrity.

"I've obtained the photo static copy, which is a reverse—black background and white letters," Paul told me. "I wanted to get it reversed. So I brought it back to my office."

When the detectives came back from lunch, Paul said, "I've got a good handle on this, but I want to take it all back to my office ... I want to do some measurements, some overlays, and other things so I can come to a professional opinion."

With that, Paul got in his car and drove back to his home office.