WHO ARE YOU GONNA BELIEVE -- A DISTRAUGHT WOMAN OR A TOP EXPERT ON FLAMETHROWERS? (updated)

A woman named Beverly Young Nelson has accused Roy Moore of sexually assaulting her when she was sixteen and he was a regular customer at the restaurant where she worked. Nelson announced this yesterday at a news conference with her lawyer, Gloria Allred. As evidence that she knew Moore, she displayed a high school yearbook with an inscription from Moore.

The Trumpist blog Gateway Pundit has declared the inscription a fraud, based on the expert observations of ... um, a flamethrower expert.

GP's Joshua Caplan writes:

Known for his insightful take on politics, journalist and author Thomas Wictor believes Judge Roy Moore’s signature in Gloria Allred accuser Beverly Young Nelson’s yearbook is a forgery.



The sevens in 1977 to the right of “Christmas,” are very different from the sevens in the date (12-22-77) above “Old Hickory House.”

“Look at the two versions of the number “7,” tweeted Wictor.

“”12-22-77” and “Olde Hickory House” were written by a different person,” he added.

Do you see a noticeable difference between the two sets of 7's? I don't, but that must be because I'm blinded by FAKE NEWS!!!

Next, Wictor points out “the “R” and “y” in “Roy,”” are not written the same way.

The inflection of the “Y” is more pronounced in Moore’ signature as Chief Justice. The “R” is noticeably longer in the signature of Chief Justice, as well....

I have a voter registration card I signed in 1991. There's a copy of my 1991 signature in the big book at my precinct whenever I vote. When I sign that book, does my signature look similar decades later? Yes. Does it match exactly? No. I'm a human being. My writing stays the same, but there are slight variations. Certain bits of muscle memory have altered over the years.

What else?

In addition, Wictor points out the restaurant where Nelson alleges the incident took place was “forged,” incorrectly.

“”Old Hickory House” in Gadsden was never called “Olde Hickory House.” The person who forged the signature got the name wrong,” claims Wictor.

You remember that famous punk rock club on the Bowery in the 1970s? Everyone called it "CBGB's" -- even though there was never an apostrophe or an s in the name.



Did people think it was called the "Olde" Hickory House? Get some investigative journalists on this, stat!

Anything else?

The “forged,” signature also ends with “D.A.”

There’s one problem…

Moore was a Deputy District Attorney (DDA) at this time.

If there's one thing we know about Roy Moore, it's that he likes himself. He likes himself a lot. How likely would he be to upgrade his title in an autograph? I think quite likely.

Now, who is Thomas Wictor, besides being a guy who's allegedly "known for his insightful take on politics"?

His Amazon page tells us this:

Thomas Wictor was born in Caripito, Venezuela, and has lived in Texas, the Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, Oregon, Japan, and California. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Lewis and Clark College and has worked as a stevedore, library archivist, conversational English teacher, editor of the world's first online newspaper, voiceover actor, delivery driver, process server, field representative for a document-retrieval service, and music journalist.

I don't see any relevant qualifications, but go on.

He is the author of seven books and is the planet's only expert on World War I flamethrowers....

Oh, an expert on World War I flamethrowers! Why didn't you tell me that in the first place? I would never have doubted his ability to perform expert handwriting analysis on a signature he's seen only on the Internet!

Wictor is the author of German Flamethrower Pioneers of World War I and Flamethrower Troops of World War I: The Central and Allied Powers. For all I know, they're excellent books. He also wrote Hallucinabulia: The Dream Diary of an Unintended Solitarian, which is ... um, some sort of memoir.

None of it qualifies as expertise.

Now, could Beverly Young Nelson be making this up? It's conceivable. But I need more than Flamethrower Guy is offering me.

But give Gateway Pundit this much: the headline of this story (IT'S A FAKE!) was trending on Twitter this morning. GP's Jim Hoft may be the Stupidest Man on the Internet, as so many people say, but he regularly manages to inject this stuff into the narrative, which seems evil, but not stupid at all.

****

UPDATE: In comments, djchefron directs my attention to this, shared by Roy Moore's wife, Kayla:



An AL.com reporter says: nope.

City directory confirms Ole Hickory House stood at 305 East Meighan Blvd in Gadsden in 1977. Site now has Rally’s. pic.twitter.com/5SG707uwJp

— WilliamThornton (@billineastala) November 14, 2017

And, please note that the listing identifies it as the Olde Hickory House.