edholme was convinced that gerald mason signed the ymca register with the alias george d. wilson. nearly five decades after the crime, mason was arrested and charged with murder. when we introduced ourselves and told him we were homicide investigators, he was a little bit irritated and it was almost like you re here for that? that happened so long ago. i can t believe you re here bothering me with that, you know, 45, 46 years later. feel it. get gas-x. it relieves bloating in minutes. plus that uncomfortable pressure. no wonder it s the #1 gas relief brand.
mason was married, had children and grandchildren. he owned a number of gas stations, and had not been arrested for any other crimes in the years since the murders. now we ve got a real suspect. but we were still a little bit apprehensive. okay. it s a fingerprint. it s an old fingerprint. what else do we have? one of the robbery victims, bob dewar, was brought in for a photographic lineup. but couldn t identify mason as the man who stole the car. so police needed to look further. they needed something more. and what more was me. the man who bought the murder weapon in 1956 and rented a room at a ymca in shreveport, louisiana, had printed his name on the register. paul edholme, a forensic document examiner, was asked to compare gerald mason s handwriting to the signature of george wilson on the ymca
register. almost immediately, edholme noticed that some letters seemed to jump off the page. first was the capital g, because we had g in george and g in gerald. and as far as the height relationship, as far as the width of the letter, as far as the slant, the amount of strokes it took to form the letter, each one of those was consistent, and that was very important. there were other similarities in the letter d and s, o, n. and there was something more. what i noted in mr. mason s handwriting was from 1957, at that time he was 23 years old, until 1999, his handwriting did not change one iota. it was exactly the same.
and grandchildren. he owned a number of gas stations, and had not been arrested for any other crimes in the years since the murders. now we ve got a real suspect. but we were still a little bit apprehensive. okay. it s a fingerprint. it s an old fingerprint. what else do we have? one of the robbery victims, bob dewar, was brought in for a photographic lineup. but couldn t identify mason as the man who stole the car. so police needed to look further. they needed something more. and what more was me. the man who bought the murder weapon in 1956 and rented a room at a ymca in shreveport, louisiana, had printed his name on the register. paul edholme, a forensic document examiner, was asked to compare gerald mason s handwriting to the signature of george wilson on the ymca register. almost immediately, edholme
noticed that some letters seemed to jump off the page. first was the capital g, because we had g in george and g in gerald. and as far as the height relationship, as far as the width of the letter, as far as the slant, the amount of strokes it took to form the letter, each one of those was consistent, and that was very important. there were other similarities in the letter d and s, o, n. and there was something more. what i noted in mr. mason s handwriting was from 1957, at that time he was 23 years old, until 1999, his handwriting did not change one iota. it was exactly the same. edholme was convinced that gerald mason signed the ymca register with the alias george d. wilson.