Thursday, July 01, 2010

Forensic Linguistics

In the case of Theodore Kaczynski, who was eventually convicted of being the "Unabomber," family members recognized his writing style from the published 35,000-word Industrial Society and Its Future (commonly called the "Unabomber Manifesto"), and notified the authorities. FBI agents searching Kaczynski's hut found hundreds of documents written by Kaczynski, but not published anywhere. An analysis produced by FBI Supervisory Special Agent James R. Fitzgerald identified numerous lexical items and phrases common to the two documents. Some were more distinctive than others, but the prosecution (assisted by Vassar Professor of English Donald Foster) successfully argued that even the more common words and phrases being used by Kaczynski became distinctive when used in combination with each other.

I wonder what Agent Fitzgerald and Professor Foster would say about my writings, particularly my book Significant Moments?

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