Expert Says Astor’s Signature Was Forged
By Serge F. Kovaleski
New York Times… Expert Says Astor’s Signature Was Forged
Detwiler, a forensic document specialist, testified that Nichols’ signatures on checks and documents related to two loans against his life insurance policies were fraudulent. “They’re definitively not genuine,” Detwiler told the court...
By Serge F. Kovaleski
“One of the most divisive questions in the legal dispute over Brooke Astor’s care and fortune has been whether someone forged her signature on a set of changes to her will…. The expert, Gus R. Lesnevich, a forensic handwriting examiner who was hired by Mrs. Astor’s court-appointed lawyer, said in his report that Mrs. Astor ‘could not have written the questioned ‘Brooke Russell Astor’ signature dated March 3, 2004, due to the deterioration of her ability to write her name.'”