Evidence Fabrication

[Bob McAuley]

Nebraska IAI conference April 8 & 9 will be the very first public talk by Pat Werthiem on the evidence fabrication in the Inge Lotz murder case. Great chance for anyone in the mid-west to learn about this case.
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[Pat A. Wertheim]

Thanks, Bob. Yes, the Nebraska Division IAI Conference will be the first public presentation about the fabricated evidence in the Inge Lotz murder. I'm sure most readers of this forum are familiar with that case through the discussions about Fred van der Vyver, Inge's boyfriend, who was framed for her murder using multiple forms of fabricated evidence.

An unrelated type of false evidence is FORGED fingerprints. In framing Fred, a latent print lift from a drinking glass was mislabeled by police and was wrongly presented as having come from a crucial piece of evidence from the scene of the murder. That is evidence fabrication.

Forgery of a fingerprint means placing a reproduction of the fingerprint on a surface itself, a surface never actually touched by a person, so that the forged print actually exists on the surface. Fingerprint forgery has been a plot device in numerous movies and novels and short stories, starting with Arthur Conan Doyle' story, "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder," which he wrote about Sherlock Holmes in 1893 -- only one year after Galton's book Finger Prints was published. But in the history of fingerprints, only one actual case of a forged fingerprint has been documented and published -- the case of Nedelkoff, the safe burglar. In 1946, in Sopia (then Czechoslovakia), Nedelkoff set himself up as a fortune teller. When a Czech peasant would come in to have his fortune told, Nedelkoff would press his hand into a soft clay tablet, then tell the fortune from the impression in the clay. After the session was over and everyone had left, Nedelkoff would pour "liquid rubber" into the clay impression to make a little rubber stamp of the peasant's fingerprints. Nedelkoff used these little homemade rubber stamps to leave forged fingerprints on the safes he burglarized. That was FORGERY, not fabrication.

That was the only known case of true fingerprint forgery -- UNTIL NOW. I have been fortunate to have been invited to examine fingerprints on a painting which, if genuine, would be valued in many tens of millions of dollars. I have determined the fingerprints are forged. At the request of my client, I cannot say more about the case yet this week, but the client has advised me my report will be filed in the next week or ten days, and I can talk openly about the case when Nebraska Division has its conference. This will be only the second known case of true fingerprint forgery known in the history of fingerprints. You may be hearing about it at other conferences later, but Nebraska will be first public presentation, April 8 & 9.

BE THERE !!! --- Learn about the evidence FABRICATION by police in the Inge Lotz murder and about fingerprint FORGERY in this newly discovered case. --- DON'T MISS IT !!!

[Pat A. Wertheim]

Oh . . My . . Gosh !!!

The fingerprint forgery case I am investigating, as I mentioned, involves fingerprints planted on the back side of a painting. The forged fingerprints were planted by use of a little rubber stamp made by someone apparently attempting somehow to profit from the sale of the painting (amazingly, not the owner). But I learned that an appraiser has valued the painting (assuming that it is genuine, based on the fingerprints) at $100,000,000.

Yes, you read that right. One hundred million dollars. The implications of forgery, if undetected and accepted in the art world, are staggering. I will post more as I am able, but plan on attending the Nebraska conference to "Hear All About It!"

[Ann Horsman]

What artist supposedly did the painting in question?

[Jeremy Johnson]

The Mickelberg case in Australia in the 1980's quite likely involved a forged fingerprint made on the rear of a bank check, using a cast of Mickelberg's finger. Unfortunately despite an admission of evidence fabrication by one of the police officers involved the question as to how the print got on the check was never resolved to my knowledge. That officer committed suicide prior to his trial for perjury and the other officer involved was murdered by a biker gang in an unrelated incident.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/ ... 19650.html

[Pat A. Wertheim]

While the Mickelberg case has been widely touted as a forged fingerprint by the Mickelbers and their defense attorneys, there is no documentation showing conclusively that the fingerprint was forged.

The Mickelberg case arose from forged checks being used to buy gold from the Australian mint. The checks were processed in ninhydrin and no incriminating latent prints were developed. One partial print of no value for comparison was noted and photographed, which later became the focus of the alleged forgery. This latent print was one of the first actual case latents to be subjected to chemical and filtered light enhancement. The inventors of the Polilight had been experimenting with zinc choride following ninhydrin, then supercooling and ALS exam. The check had already been processed with ninhydrin, so after some time had passed, a decision was made to try this new technique on the check. It was treated with zinc chloride, submerged in liquid nitrogen, and photographed using the Polilight to fluoresce the fingerprint. The previous "no value" print developed enough additional detail with these enhancement techniques to make it identifiable. It was subsequently identified to Raymond Mickelberg. If I am not mistaken, the original partial was well documented prior to the Mickelbergs arrest and the supposed seizure of some casts he had made of his hands and fingers. But the enhanced fingerprint was not identified until after the police had seized those casts, if indeed they actually seized the casts.

Because the identification had not been made until after Raymond Mickelberg's arrest, he claimed the latent print had been forged by police using the casts he had made of his hands. The defense hired George Bonebrake and Bob Olsen to examine the latent print. Mr. Bonebrake and Mr. Olsen were sent photographs of the fingerprint. I believe Mr. Bonebrake pronounced the fingerprint suspicious and Mr. Olsen pronounced it an outright forgery. They were totally unaware of ninhydrin/zinc chloride treatment followed by filtered light examination and the photographs they were sent bore no resemblence to anything they had ever seen in their careers. When Mr. Bonebrake and Mr. Olsen were shown the ninhydrin/zinc chloride/ALS technique, they withdrew their reports of suspicion and forgery, but the die had been cast and the charge of forgery has stuck with the case ever since.

The key was that the original photograph of the fingerprint developed with ninhydrin was taken BEFORE the seizure of Raymond Mickelberg's casts. As I understand it from the reading I have done and the presentations I have seen, the enhanced print identified to Mr. Mickelberg could clearly be seen to be the same print that had been developed prior to Mickelberg's arrest. The additonal details visualized through enhancement allowed the identification, but the print was well documented before the seizure of Mickelberg's casts. That would mean it could not have been forged.

Unfortunately, so much has been written and published about this case that the truth will probably never be known for sure. There were so many charges, counter charges, and sensationalized press reports that it is hard to separate fact from fiction. Perhaps some of our Aussie friends have more knowledge and can add their comments. Les?

As for Ann's question, I can say that the painting in question has been claimed to be a Jackson Pollock. It is about 4 feet by 8 feet. A Pollock of established provenance about the same size sold a few years ago for $140 million dollars. I will provide a link to my report in the case as soon as it is published by the client.

[Bob McAuley]

Pat:

Is the Horton painting the one you've been working on ?
article about this follow link:
http://www.canada.com:80/montrealgazett ... 520ddea9d9

Bob McAuley

[Pat A. Wertheim]

Hi Bob

I have not seen the Horton painting, so no, that is not the painting I have been working with. But there is such a large amount of money involved, I guess the art world is rife with forgery and allegations of forgery. For Mr. Biro to have authenticated a couple of paintings by fingerprints, as cited in the article you linked, is interesting, indeed. For an art group to dispute one of his findings is curious.

I'll tell you more as soon as my client has acted on my report and, if it is posted on the internet, I will link it here. The client assures me it will be public before the Nebraska conference and I can talk about it there.

[josher89]

Pat, I am unfortunately going to be out of town during the NE-IAI conference (I work in Omaha) as I will be in Florida on vacation. I say unfortunate as I will won't be missing this weather over southern Florida's, but I will miss both of your talks at the conference. What are my options of getting the information you present other than having someone I work with swipe a copy for me? I would love to see video of the presentation or even hear any audio. Do you have plans for recording it somehow? If not, would you be against it? I can try and swing some people I work with to make it happen. What a conference to miss!

[Pat A. Wertheim]

Hi Josh

The last I heard, a documentary film producer is planning on making a documentary on the forgery case and I believe there will be a small crew at NEIAI to film that presentation. We haven't talked about making the film available to NEIAI members, but I think we might work something out. I hadn't thought about it until you asked, but I don't see why they wouldn't go along with that in some way. I will ask if they can burn the presentation to DVD for NEIAI. I'll let you know what they say.

On the fabrication case, a researcher and author who has written non-fiction books about police work is already well into writing a book about the Inge Lotz murder and the fabricated evidence. He may also be producing a documentary film on the case, but not at NEIAI. It will probably be a year or more before anything is released, but eventually it will be available.

I'm sure you will be hearing a lot more about both of these cases in the next year or two. Sorry we'll miss you at the conference. Enjoy the beaches in Florida!

[josher89]

Thanks for the info about the documentary. I just got back from Arizona after attending Ashbaugh's class on Ridgeology and he had nothing but good things to say about you, especially regarding the McKie fiasco across the pond. I told him that you would be presenting at our conference and he said to not miss it! Alas, I will definately keep my eyes peeled for any information about these cases and will continue to check here (clpex.com) for updates on both.

[Pat A. Wertheim]

The film people have agreed to furnish NEIAI with a DVD of the presentation on the forged fingerprint. NEIAI can copy it and distribute it as they wish.

[mgirard]

Glad some real forensic analysis is finally being done. It sounds like Paul Biro has shady connections and a vested interest in the outcome of these paintings authenticity.

http://www2.fineartregistry.com/forum/v ... a3687e2ecb

[Pat A. Wertheim]

Interesting discussion you linked there. I was unaware of that chat board. Yes, that is the case I will be talking about in Nebraska next week.

I think I will be able to give you some amazing insight into what's going on.

[Pat A. Wertheim]

A Pollock on which forged fingeprints were used for authentification has been sold this week. I have not been able to learn the selling price, but the appraisal was up to $100,000,000. Yes, you read that right -- one hundred million dollars! My full report on the forged fingerprints should be made public with a press release this weekend or Monday. Global Fine Art Registry, LLC, a company whose purpose is to ensure authenticity of works of art, has agreed to publish my full 22 page report and provide sufficient copies for attendees at the NEIAI conference next week to take as handouts. It is my understanding they are having them printed with embedded photos in color and professionally bound at Kinkos just for this conference. The company will also make DVDs available with higher resolution images of all of the evidence, an Adobe Photoshop presentation prepared by Kasey supporting the conclusion of fingerprint forgery, and some video clips made during the examination of the painting. It is my understanding they will sell these DVDs for $10 and donate half the proceeds back to NEIAI. They will also make a DVD of my presentation at the conference and give a copy to NEIAI to copy and distribute as they wish.

Of course, I will be doing a presentation also on the fabrication of evidence by the South African Police in the Inge Lotz murder case. It involves the fabrication of fingerprint evidence, footwear evidence, and wound evidence. That case is particularly shocking because the police ignored a confession of a drug addict that contained an accurate sketch of the victim's apartment and details of the crime scene never made public, which seems to assure the confession was truthful and accurate. Nonetheless, the police discarded the confession and proceeded to trial with the fabricated evidence against the victim's boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver, who was unquestionably in a meeting with a number of coworkers an hour's drive away at the exact moment of the murder. While Mr. van der Vyver was found innocent by the court, the police still maintain the correctness of their evidence and the victim's family have sued Mr. van der Vyver in civil court for damages for causing the death of Inge. This case threatens to drag out the way the Shirley McKie case in Scotland has.

The fingerprint forgery case has come about since the South Africa case and NEIAI conference will be the first public discussion of it. While fingerprint fabrication by police is, unfortunately, not all that rare, true fingerprint forgery (the "planting" of a fingerprint on a surface itself) is extremely rare. This new case on the alleged Pollock painting may well be only the second true documented case in the history of fingerprints. I discount the Mickelberg case in Australia for reasons I gave in an earlier post, and the only other documented case I could find in my research was that of Nedelkoff, a safe burglar in Sophia, then Czechoslovakia, in 1946. Despite the fact that fingerprint forgery is a common plot device in movies and crime novels, it is virtually nonexistant in real life.

If you can make it to NEIAI this week, I promise you will find both of these cases fascinating.