Friday, July 03, 2009

Maybe a Distinctive Style Isn't Such a Good Thing

Dear Garry. I've decided to end it all: The full stop that trapped a killer | Mail Online: "A veteran of more than 300 investigations into crimes ranging from extortion to murder, Olsson is one of the leading experts in a still emerging field known as 'forensic linguistics'.

His skill lies in identifying a suspect's 'linguistic fingerprint' - the distinctive use of language which makes each of us unique, whether we are writing letters, emails or mobile phone texts.

Thanks to Olsson and his colleaues and their work, police no longer have to depend on a crooked 'c' or a missing 'm' on a suspect's typewriter to establish whether they have written an incriminating document.

Even in today's high-tech culture, when villains use seemingly identical computers and mobiles in pursuit of their crimes, these modern-day Sherlock Holmeses can still track them down - simply through their choice of words, spacing and punctuation."

3 comments:

Dave Zeltserman said...

Bill, I'd be safe from Ollson. He'd put my crimes on Jim Thompson...

Anonymous said...

Nero Wolfe showed how linguisitc fingerprinting is done 50 years ago in Plot It Yourself.

Art Scott

Unknown said...

Stout was always ahead of his time.