Mass, Spree, and Serial Killers February 14, 2019

Copyright © 2019                               John F. Oyler 

February 14, 2019

Mass, Spree and Serial Killers

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society presented the first program meeting of the new year on the last Sunday afternoon of the month, as is their seasonal custom. This program featured Valerie Weil, C. G., discussing “Mass, Spree, and Serial Killers (Evil is as Evil Does, Behavior in Handwriting)”.

Ms. Weil is an interesting person; C. G. stands for Certified Graphologist. Her certification is from the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation (AHAF), an organization she serves as Education Chairman. AHAF includes about two hundred individuals interested in Graphology,“the study of personality in handwriting as it relates to aptitude, attitude, integrity, intelligence, and more”. 

AHAF graphology certification requires candidates to pass two rigorous examinations in a five-month period. To qualify for the tests the candidate must have completed “12 units of college studies, which include courses in psychology, and two years of independent study in the handwriting sciences or with a recognized course or instructor.” Current AHAF President Sheila Lowe provides an online course for $350 which is “recognized”.

The “Campaign for Cursive” is a major AHAF initiative, one that Ms. Weil supports enthusiastically. It is a passionate effort to reverse the abandonment of teaching cursive writing in public schools, a policy contained in the Common Core adopted as part of the “No Child Left Behind” legislation enacted by Congress in 2001. The logic behind the abandonment was that computer keyboard entry skills had become more important that writing cursively.

Advocates of cursive writing, however, point to a significant body of research that supports their opposition to this practice. One argument involves the advantages of developing basic motor skills by the physiological process of neural development in the student’s brain. Another study suggests that “handwriting builds a sense of writer identity and self-efficacy.” Regardless of the practical value of the skill learned, it certainly appears that the mental rigor of cursive writing is superior to the mechanical, reflexive action of keyboard entry, as far as developing intellectual capability is concerned.

It is difficult for me to take sides in this dispute. I was one of the few students in our eighth-grade class whose handwriting was so bad that I did not earn a Peterson Penmanship certificate. My ineptitude and my general interest in engineering combined to convert me to relying on printing (lettering) whenever possible. The “Campaign for Cursive” folks consider this to be at least as bad as keyboard entry; for it they have coined the demeaning term “ball-and-stick” printing. Perhaps that will explain some of my numerous psychological problems. 

The speaker’s presentation began with an overview of handwriting analysis, focusing on the correlation between penmanship and behavior. Young children learn discipline and the expected rules of society when they learn to write. Instinctively we each develop our own individual style, based on our own behavioral preferences.

She emphasized that predicting behavior tendencies from handwriting samples did not necessarily predict actual behavior. An interesting example of this was a comparison of two samples she showed. The one on the left indicated“a dynamic personality that does not like to be wrong or told what to do.”  In contrast the one on the right was ”an intelligent handwriting, full of emotional loops that hold onto feelings.” The former was Donald Trump; the latter, serial killer Ted Bundy.

She then introduced a number of “red flags” apparent to handwriting analysts that indicate the probability of non-normal behavior. First is temper or anger, illustrated by heavy pressure, underscoring, and emphasized punctuation. Uncontrolled emotions are shown by an unstable baseline and inconsistent letter slant. Both of these were easy to understand; “warped or twisted thinking” was more difficult. It was shown by letters created backwards and by twisted formations.

A variable baseline suggests unstable reality. Separating words by excessive spaces indicates antisocial behavior. A postcard Charles Manson wrote filling the space was shown as an example of “no boundaries”, complete disregard for any sense of social order. Resentment and retribution show up in ambiguous letter shapes and retraced lower zone ovals.

Somehow, after the first several logical examples I felt the list of red flags deteriorated rapidly into “grasping at straws”. However, I am not a certified graphologist.

The speaker then subdivided homicides by victim quantity, in accordance with FBI vernacular. More than three related homicides qualifies as “mass murder”. “Spree murders” are defined as several separate incidents occurring in a short time, without a cooling off period. They are typically committed out of anger/rage or retaliation. The FBI defines serial killing as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events.”

She then discussed myths about serial killers, giving examples that demonstrated the incorrectness of each myth. She proved that serial killers are not “all dysfunctional loners”, “only motivated by sex”, “insane or are evil geniuses”, unable to “stop killing”, “operating interstate”, eager “to get caught”, “all white males”, or “an American phenomenon”. Her arguments were conclusive unless one believes “the exception proves the rule”.

Ms. Weil then focused on the handwriting of serial killer Ted Bundy. It includes “barbed harpoon shaped lead-ins” (deep resentment), “over-connectedness” (need to be in control), “mis-applied heavy pressure” (displaced energy), and “shark-tooth formations in some letters” (extreme dishonesty). According to her “these are all signs of his capacity for evil”. This was corroborated by a list of anti-social statements attributed to Bundy. 

She concluded her presentation with the popular parlor game “Draw a Pig”. Each person in the audience was given a blank sheet of paper and instructed to draw a pig. She then explained the significance of the location of the pig on the paper, the direction the pig was looking, the amount of detail in the drawing, the size of the pig’s ears, and the length of its tail, so we could self analyze ourselves.

I turned out to be a realist, a friendly traditionalist, analytical but cautious, secure but stubborn, a mediocre listener, and reasonably intelligent, in addition to being a lousy cartoonist. I leave it to my readers to evaluate the effectiveness of this analysis.

Ms. Weil is an entertaining speaker, obvious sincere about the scientific basis of the technology that she practices and her support of teaching cursive writing in elementary school.

The next BAHS program meeting is scheduled for 1:30 pm, Sunday, February 24, 2019 in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department. Dr. John Aupperle will discuss 

John McCain’s 1998 book, “The Faith of My Fathers” and the premise that “ Values of country, duty, and honor affect the historical development of our country”.