A mysterious signature

[Matteo]

A few months ago my wife gave me a copy of The Mind of Adolf Hitler by Walter C. Langer that she'd found while browsing in a second hand book shop. It is (essentially) the report he compiled of his psychological analysis of Hitler in 1943 based on contemporary reports, interviews with informants and research which he completed for the US Office for Strategic Services. It's a fascinating book - albeit one let down slightly by the (obvious) drawback of no actual face to face interviews with the subject and that certain "facts" about Hitler at the time are now known to be incorrect. He did, however, correctly predict Hitler would commit suicide.

The version I have is a first edition paperback from 1973 published in the US by Signet. As you can see below, it contains a foreword by his brother, William L. Langer and an afterword, written for the book's publication, by Robert G. L. Waite a psychoanalytical historian.

Anyway, unbeknownst to my wife when she bought the book (it certainly was not sold as such) it contains a signature on the title page - it was only discovered when I opened it up.

And this is where you Chroners come in. Whose signature is it?

- It could be the owner, but I would submit that signing a book you own is unusual (you would most likely print your name, legibly) and it's also odd that it's dated.

- The fact that it's signed and dated with a location (and only one year after publication) suggests the signature is someone connected to the book. However, the signature looks nothing like the author, the brother, or Robert Waite. It's also not a French publication, but the US edition.

To me, the first name looks like James or Jason. The second something "ello"?

It's a little mystery that I'd like solved so I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

While I couldn't find a name, I do have a couple of observations/thoughts to offer. Hopefully they can help:

- The first name could also be 'Juan' or 'Jean', the Spanish and French equivalents of John. The last letter of the first name really looks like an 'n'. So you could also be looking for a South American, Spanish or French man, connected to the book in some way, who knows or knew English (enough to be willing to sign an American book and write the date using the English/American format).
- It appears the capital letter of the surname is that thin, tilted V shape moving back through the first name and above the last name. It looks like a pointed C at first glance, but based on the direction of writing (the letter starts at the end of the first name and moves up and to the left, then to the right horizontally) I would suggest this letter is actually a T. So you could be looking for a J/uan-ean/ T/urall-urell-unall-unell/o. 'Juan Turello' is apparently quite a common name in South America, for example.
- I couldn't find allusions to a major literary event held in Paris matching this date, nor to famous American authors/journalists living in Paris (whose name could have matched the signature). The main event in Paris at the time would have been the 1974 French presidential election, which started 2 days after the book was signed. Assuming the person who signed the book was a prominent Parisian figure (Jean Something), it's good to keep in mind that many candidates and other politicians at the time were WWII veterans, although I couldn't find a name matching the signature. Additionally, it could also have been a journalist reporting on the election. Or someone completely unrelated to the whole thing!
- Another thing to keep in mind, if only just to be thorough in your search: While the location really does look like 'Paris', it could also be 'Tunis' (Tunisia) or 'Turis' (known as 'Torís' to its locals, a small town in Spain) or some other town/city.

I hope you find the name you're looking for.

 

[Vertigo]

A couple of other observations. That might not be Paris. It could be the name of the person the dedication is to; Denis Possibly. Also you have commented that it is an American edition and I would add that the date is also the English spelling of May not the French Mai, and that the date order is American rather than English; month, day, year (although I accept that that particular distinction is far from universal).

 

[tinkerdan]

I think that the only hope would be to find signatures from the three parties--good luck with that.
Some people have signatures that are very clear and many have clear first letters in both the first name and the last name. This person clearly has no clarity and reminds me of my own signature.

My money would be on Robert G. L. Waite.
As far as Paris-- if the person who signed also put the date down then consider that the signature slants forward while if the letter before the date were P or T it would be slanting backwards. Not improbable for someone to slant both ways--however less likely.

As to the date the two Langer are from the United States and Waite is Canadian with education in United States. So wherever they are at the time they would probably put the dates in that order.

The wild slash at the top would indicate an attempt to cross Ts (Possibly all T's present a future while rising up from the end of the first half of the signature) while the one at the bottom seems more a flair for underlining the signature.

 

[Matteo]

Some interesting comments. Thanks CC and Vertigo.

I still see it as Paris - but take the point about "mai" (should have spotted that since I live in Belgium) although the 7 is written in the French way, and I regularly see the 9 written that way also, but then 1 is usually written with a diagonal line at the top - sometimes so much so it looks like an inverted "v". And you're right about the US date order.

I can also see that the first name could Jean or similar. The surname is more difficult as arguably there is no upper case first letter - though that long horizontal line must be something and so "T" is a good idea.

CC, I like your idea about a major political figure around that time. Need to look into that.

Another thought I had is that possibly it's a professor signing the book for one of his students but then (if it is "Paris" it would be odd to be studying an English language book - though not impossible).

Have managed to find out that the paperback was published 14 August 1973 so not that long before May 1974 but still looking at event around the time in Paris.

 

[Matteo]

Thanks Tinkerdan (sorry - our comments crossed). The writing is definitely in the same pen (biro/ball point) so done at the same time. The French and Belgians are taught to write in a very standard way (in cursive at least) so I see how the style of the date could differ from a signature - and now that I think of it, the "4" is very FR/BE with the right vertical line not crossing through the horizontal.

I just can't make Robert Waite fitting that signature. Seems an odd book for someone to sign without any connection to the material though - unlike, for example, a film star simply signing his name on a novel as it was the only thing to hand.

 

[Vertigo]

It may, of course, just be a signed gift given to a friend, known to be interested in the topic, when they met in Paris.

 

[tinkerdan]

The way the 9 is written is very odd and distinct.

For all we know; instead of a signature, that could say 'Thanks for all the fish'.

 

[Matteo]

Possibly - though I always write "For [xxx] blah, blah, blah, from/love, etc. Matteo!" rather than just sign (and I wouldn't sign my name as a signature - just write it.

 

[Matteo]

The way the 9 is written is very odd and distinct.

For all we know; instead of a signature, that could say 'Thanks for all the fish'.

Not really; in France/Belgium the nine is written with the bottom "hook" and I have also seen it with the funny loop at the top. That's why I'm leaning toward a FR/BE person signing - US date format notwithstanding.

 

[tinkerdan]

it's not just a bottom hook: it's backwards and looks more indicative of the Devanagari
9 - Wikipedia

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have to decipher signatures for reports. I can attest they normally bear no resemblance to the real name...

 

[Bick]

It would be worth an awful lot if in fact the signature is by the final person connected to the book that you have not yet considered: Adolf Hitler himself. In hiding for years, he may have thought it amusing to sign a copy of the book and furtively slip it into a pile of books at a Paris singing, while disguised as a helpful shop assistant. Well known for his illegible signature and his strange backward nines, I may be onto something. Get it down Christies for a valuation.

 

[Dave]

While written with the same pen, that doesn't necessarily mean they were written by the same hand. I can't add anything else to the above (and I've spent a lot of time trying to decipher handwriting in old documents.) I think it looks like Juan Turanello, and it could never be Langer or Waite.

The other possibility is that the 9 is really an 8. The writer was sent, with a copy, in a time machine to try to stop the birth of Adolf Hitler in 1889, but he overshot the mark back to 1874. That's why he writes the note, "Genius, May 3. 1874" to the inventor of the time machine who screwed up so badly.

 

[Matteo]

It's driving me crazy.

- I can't buy that it's the owner because it's such a dramatic/illegible signature.
- I'm sure the first word is "Paris".
- The date format is US, rather than European.
- But the "7" (and to a lesser degree the "9") is European style - or at least FR/BE.
- Presumably there is some connection to the book - because it's an odd book for a famous person to sign - but I can't make "Langer" or "Waite" fit no matter how bad their signature could be; that first letter is certainly a "J".

I've been trying various versions of the surname, and "Hitler", with 1974 but have drawn a blank.

 

[Vladd67]

I read the first part as Genius. May 3. 1974 and took it as a comment on the book by the signatory. I did wonder if it said James Waller who is a Holocaust and Genocide Professor at Keene Sate College But he looks too young to be commenting on a book in 74.

 

[Matteo]

Good thinking (and could be his signature) but you're right; I just checked and he was born in 1955 (got his BS in 83).

 

[Matteo]

Arrggghhh...

Could it be James O'Donnell (the "o" or "a" after the double L is just a squiggle)?

James P. O'Donnell - Wikipedia

 

[Vladd67]

Good thinking (and could be his signature) but you're right; I just checked and he was born in 1955 (got his BS in 83).

Well in 74 he would be 19, could have had it as a student?

 

[Matteo]

I'm starting to like James O'Donnell as a candidate. According to Wikipedia:

In 1969, O'Donnell met Albert Speer, who had just published his memoirs (he wrote an article on Speer for Life, published in 1970). At this point, O'Donnell realized that many of the aforementioned witnesses had long since been released by the Soviets. He began to track them down.

Over the next six years, O'Donnell narrowed his list of witnesses to about 50, and embarked on a project to collate their stories. He usually had these witnesses read his work to verify its authenticity. The book was the result.

Something is not quite right there as the book was published (in German) in 1975 - so that would put it in the same year he finished his research. That's unlikely so I would suggest "five years" not six. Was he in France during this time? And was the book finished and publicised in May 1974?

From his NY Times obit April 19 1990:
[...] He was an Army captain in Germany when World War II ended in Europe. He then joined Newsweek magazine, with instructions to write about the Berlin bunker where Hitler died. He gained entry to the bunker by giving a pack of cigarettes to a Russian sentry and found voluminous files on the final days of the Third Reich.

Later he became chief of Newsweek's Berlin bureau, a foreign correspondent for The New York Daily News and a Paris-based editor for the Saturday Evening Post. He returned to the United States in 1981.

Mr. O'Donnell was a graduate of Harvard University.

He is survived by his wife, Antonia Howard of Theoule, France, and two sisters, Sally Batchelder of Wakefield, Mass., and Patricia Keady of Melrose, Mass.

And from another (UPI):
O'Donnell, who covered the Nuremberg war crime trials and the Berlin Airlift for Newsweek, later served as Paris correspondent for the New York Daily News and from 1950 to 1960 as a European editor for the Saturday Evening Post.

Fluent in German and French, O'Donnell met many of the major political figures in the 20th century and wrote about the struggles of postwar Europe, including a memorable 1953 article on German unification.

So it seems he was in France (at least until 1960) - it's not clear where he was until 1981 - and had a French wife.
And from Welt am Sontag (reviewing the book):
What really happened at the end of April 1945 in the Berlin Reich Chancellery? With the book "The Catacomb - The End in the Reich Chancellery" a work that gives many answers is now accessible again. Thirty years after the collapse of the Third Reich, the two journalists James P. O'Donnel from the USA and Uwe Bahnsen from Hamburg made the search for clues and presented with their book a sensational report on the last act of the German tragedy in the bunker labyrinth.

In interview protocols and interviews from 1972 to 1974, the authors made eyewitnesses of the last days of Hitler's dictatorship speak, which had been silent until then. From this, Bahn for many years working for Die Welt and the Welt am Sonntag, and the now deceased O'Donnel mounted a shattering, sometimes confusing, but always fascinating picture of one of the most formative historical moments of the past century [Google translated]

Looks good?