The Mussolini Diary Forgeries

Abstract

I have chosen this particular case from my experience not so much because it presents any novel, sophisticated or complex scientific method of forensic interest, but because i t shows strikingly how a relatively minor and unimportant personal experience can lead to the rapid solution of a major problem. About 2 years ago a partnership was formed between a subsidiary of the Thomson Organisation and another Company, whose main business was to handle a number of diaries and notebooks said to have been written by Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator. On the face of i t these were extremely important documents, because it was known that Mussolini did keep a diary throughout the years of his rise and fall, and there are some crucial points in Italian history on which the diaries could shed a badly-needed light.