Introduction Part 1 1.The barrel killer 2. The bicycle murder 3. Heroin smuggling into a prison 4.Did the Da Vinci Code plagiarise the works of other authors? 5. The Diary that told all 6. The man with the baseball bat 7. Reputable barrister or manipulative Svengali? Part II 8. Murder or suicide? 9. What happened to Jenny 10. A case of medical disinformation 11. Strategies for code: a prisoner's dilemma 12. A genocide in Rwanda 13. Death threats in the Tropics 14. Fitted up by a 'professional': falsely accused 15. On death row Part III 16. Betrayed by a full stop 17. A bland paedophile 18. Prosecutor memo leads to abuse of process ruling 19. Letters from Anonymous 20. Return to sender 21. Was it Ernie or Ronnie? 22. The witness stated...but did he? 23. People trafficking and the language of trauma Glossary Bibliography Index
Fascinating reading for anyone interested in true crime, modern, cutting-edge criminology and also where language meets the law. Now in paperback!
Since 1996, John Olsson has operated a world-renowned forensic linguistics consultancy and training service at www.thetext.co.uk. He is an Adjunct Professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, USA, where he teaches forensic linguistics online. He is also Visiting Professor of Forensic Linguistics at the International University of Novi Pazar in Serbia where he runs an annual summer school in Forensic Linguistics, and is a board member of the Language and Law Centre at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where he is also a visiting Professor.
What emerges most strikingly in this book is the creative aspect of
language and the broad nature of the field of linguistics.
*Times Literary Supplement*
[Olsson provides] a quite readable and indeed insightful glimpse
into the technical practicalities of the duties and tasks of a
foreign linguist.
*International Journal of Semiotic Law*
Anyone with the slightest interest in language will find this book
fascinating.
*David Crystal is Honorary Professor at Bangor University, UK, and
is a past Honorary President of the International Association of
Forensic Phonetics.*
Wordcrime provides a fascinating insight into a rarely seen and
still largely unknown science, and its many narratives describing
how forensic linguistics is helping solve crime extend the book's
appeal to a wider audience beyond law enforcement. The evidence is
well presented and the explanations are easy to follow. The range
of cases examined offer a real feel for the discipline's scope,
application and usefulness as a crime detection technique.
Investigators willing to understand and get to grips with the
methods described in the book will find them extremely useful in
their examination of suspected fraud involving documents, and any
case where discovering the author of a particular
document/email/text is an important part of its solution.
*Commercial Crime International*
John Olsson, 57, who lives in a secluded spot near Welshpool,
Powys, is a world-leading expert in forensic linguistics. When
author Lew Perdue claimed Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code had been
plagiarised from his own work Daughter of God, Mr Olsson was
enlisted as an expert witness for the case. Mr Olsson said: "I
studied both books and found 74 points in common between them, 68
of which were in sequence. I also found a common mistake in both; a
parchment was incorrectly called a vellum. I could not find any
other example of this mistake. "However I was blocked from giving
evidence and the judge threw our case out, saying the similarities
were purely generic." However, he has had more success in dealing
with serious criminal cases - he is one of only three experts in
forensic linguistics in the UK whom police call upon for help. His
expertise is called upon when the authorship of a text message is
in question.
*Western Mail*
Once upon a time, the only way to tell that a suicide note had been
faked was by matching its faded e's and crooked g's to the keys on
the murderer's typewriter. Not any more. You might think that these
days you could just text ‘goodbye cruel world' to everyone in your
victim's phone book before chucking their mobile off the balcony
after them - a perfect crime, so long as you didn't forget to wear
your rubber gloves. Except that John Olsson, ‘the world's only
full-time forensic linguist', could well, even then, be able to
bust you.
*London Review of Books*
The name John Olsson may not be familiar to you, but his work as a
forensic linguist has been crucial in putting murderers behind
bars.
*Luton and Dunstable Express*
Olsson is an engaging storyteller
*Literary Review*
[Olsson's] book is an intriguing glimpse of a discipline whose
existence, and indeed necessity, few of us can ever have guessed
at.
*Waterstone's Reviews*
[Olsson provides] an insightful glimpse into the technical
practicalities of the duties and tasks of a forensic linguist.
*International Journal for the Semiotics of Law*
Worth a read. I recommend this book for those who think that
Midsomer Murders could do with a bit more phonetic analysis.
*Lingoblog*
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